Then Saul said unto his servants that stood about him, Hear now, ye Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, and make you all captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds;
Saul said ... Hear now, ye Benjamites ... Saul had recently attacked the Beerothites, the inhabitants of Beeroth, anciently one of the cities of the Gibeonites, but afterward included within the territory of Benjamin, and having, either by the massacre or expulsion of the original occupiers, notwithstanding their solemnly-covenanted incorporation with Israel (Joshua 9:1-27), seized their possessions, he bestowed them on his family and favourites (cf. 2 Samuel 21:2). The appeal that he now made to the courtiers by whom he was surrounded was to stimulate the patriotism or jealousy of his own tribe, from which he insinuated it was the design of David to transfer the kingdom to another. This address seems to have been made on hearing of David's return with his 400 men to Judah. A dark suspicion had risen in the jealous mind of the king that Jonathan was privy to this movement, which he dreaded as a conspiracy against the crown.