1 Samuel 9:11

And as they went up the hill to the city, they found young maidens going out to draw water, and said unto them, Is the seer here?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:11-17 The very maid-servants of the city could direct to the prophet. They had heard of the sacrifice, and could tell of the necessity for Samuel's presence. It is no small benefit to live in religious and holy places. And we should always be ready to help those who are seeking after God's prophets. Though God had, in displeasure, granted Israel's request for a king, yet he sends them a man to be captain over them, to save them out of the hand of the Philistines. He does it, listening graciously to their cry.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This is manifestly a gloss inserted in the older narrative by the later editor of the sacred text, to explain the use of the term in 1 Samuel 9:11, 1 Samuel 9:18-19. It is one among many instances which prove how the very letter of the contemporary narratives was preserved by those who in later times compiled the histories. We cannot say exactly when the term "seer" became obsolete. See the marginal references.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11-13. as they went up the hill—The modern village, Er-Rameh, lies on an eminence; and on their way they met a band of young maidens going out to the well, which, like all similar places in Palestine, was beyond the precincts of the town. From these damsels they learned that the day was devoted to a festival occasion, in honor of which Samuel had arrived in the city; that a sacrifice had been offered, which was done by prophets in extraordinary circumstances at a distance from the tabernacle, and that a feast was to follow—implying that it had been a peace offering; and that, according to the venerable practice of the Israelites, the man of God was expected to ask a special blessing on the food in a manner becoming the high occasion.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Going out, i.e. out of the city, and down to the bottom of the hill, where the fountain or river was.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And as they went up the hill to the city,.... For the city was built upon an hill, from whence it had the name of Ramah, which signifies high and lifted up:

they found young maidens going out to draw water: going out of the city, to a fountain which was at the bottom of the hill; and this was the usual business of maidens in those countries to fetch water for the service of the family; see Gill on Genesis 24:11; see Gill on Genesis 24:15; see Gill on Genesis 24:16. R. Akiba (e) makes this observation, that whenever a man meets maidens coming out of a city before he goes into it, it is a token of prosperity to him; and instances in the cases of Abraham's servant, of Jacob, and of Moses, and here of Saul, who was informed of a kingdom, and anointed for it, see Genesis 24:14 Exodus 2:16,

and said unto them, is the seer here? meaning, is he in the city? or is he at home? or is he in the country?

(e) In Pirke Eliezer, c. 36. fol. 39. 1. 2.

Geneva Study Bible

And as they went up the hill to the city, they found young maidens going out to draw water, and said unto them, Is the seer here?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11–14. Inquiry for the seer

11. as they went up] As they were ascending by the ascent to the city. The Hebrew has a peculiar construction, the repetition of which is characteristic of this chapter. Cp. 1 Samuel 9:5; 1 Samuel 9:14; 1 Samuel 9:17; 1 Samuel 9:27.

young maidens going out to draw water] Cp. Genesis 24:15; Genesis 29:9 ff.; Exodus 2:16; John 4:7. The well was in the lower ground outside the city wall.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 11, 12. - As they went up. Ramah was situated on a double hill, whence its name Ramathaim (1 Samuel 1:1). As, then, they go up the ascent - so the Hebrew, literally - they meet maidens on the way to the well, and ask them, Is the seer - the roeh - here? They answer, Yes; behold, he is before you. I.e. they are to go straightforward, and farther on in the town they will find him. He came today to the city. As Saul's servant knew that this city was Samuel's abode, the words must mean that he had just returned from visiting one of those places, probably, to which he was in the habit of going as judge. From 1 Samuel 16:2 we learn that Samuel went occasionally even to distant places to perform priestly duties. In the high place. Hebrew, Bamah. Samuel, we read, had built an altar at Ramah (1 Samuel 7:17), and probably the present sacrifice was to be offered upon it. Such altars, and the worship of the true God upon high places, were at this time recognised as right, and were, in fact, in accordance with, and were even the remains of, the old patriarchal religion. But gradually they were condemned, partly because of the glowing sanctity of the temple, but chiefly because of the tendency of religious rites celebrated in such places to degenerate into nature-worship, and orgies such as the heathen were in the habit of holding on the tops of mountains and hills. We thus find in the Bible an illustration of the principle that rites and ceremonies (as not being of the essentials of religion) may be changed, or even abolished, if they are abused, or lead on to evil consequences. 1 Samuel 9:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

As they were going up to the high place of the town, they met maidens coming out of the town to draw water; and on asking them whether the seer was there, they received this answer: "Yes; behold, he is before thee: make haste, now, for he has come into the town to-day; for the people have a sacrifice to-day upon the high place." Bamah (in the singular) does not mean the height or hill generally; but throughout it signifies the high place, as a place of sacrifice or prayer.