It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.
It repenteth me that I have set up Saul. Repentance is attributed in Scripture to the Divine Being when bad men give Him cause to alter His course and method, of procedure, and to treat them as if He did 'repent' of kindness shown. To the heart of a man like Samuel, who was above all envious considerations, and really attached to the king, so painful an announcement moved all his pity, and led him to pass a sleepless night of earnest intercession. Samuel though his kindly feelings were intensely pained by the rejection of Saul, was led afterward to excuse the necessity of this procedure, and to acquiesce in the wisdom of the divine arrangement (see this subject discussed by Josephus, 'Antiquities,' b. 6:, sec. 2; ch. 7:, sec. 2; ch. 12:, sec. 7; and 'Contra Apron,' b. 2:, sec. 30).