The first anointing of a king in Israel is done with a small flask, at dawn, with no witness. Oil had been poured on priests (Exodus 29:7) and, in the Law, on the tabernacle; now it is poured on a ruler, and the word anointed — Hannah's word in 2:10 — begins its long career. Captain over his inheritance: Israel is the LORD's possession (Deuteronomy 32:9); the king is steward, not owner.

The Hebrew text of this verse is shorter than the ancient Greek version, which adds a clause about Saul ruling the LORD's people and saving them from their enemies, with a note that this is the sign. The KJV follows the Hebrew. The difference is a matter of manuscripts, not of doctrine; both forms make the same point — the LORD, not Samuel, has done the anointing.

The third sign is the one that matters: not information about asses or gifts of bread, but the Spirit coming upon Saul as He had come upon the judges — Othniel, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson. Turned into another man is a strong phrase; verse 9 will say God gave him another heart. The king Israel asked for is given more than a crown; he is given an equipping he did not ask for.

The Spirit's coming in these books is for office and task, and it can depart (16:14). The text does not describe a change of nature in the later sense; it describes God fitting a shy farmer's son for leadership. What Saul does with the fitting is the story of the next twenty chapters.

Another heart — given, not earned, and given the moment he turned to go. Saul did nothing to acquire it; he simply left the prophet and found himself different. Grace in Scripture frequently arrives on the road, between the call and the task.

All those signs came to pass that day — the narrator confirms in one clause what Samuel promised in seven verses (vv. 2-8). The reader is meant to feel the reliability of the word before the king has done anything. Whatever happens to Saul later, the LORD's word through Samuel did not fail.

The neighbours are astonished: the farmer's boy they knew is ecstatic among the prophets. Their question — Is Saul also among the prophets? — became a proverb (v. 12), and the book brings it back in a darker scene (19:24), when Saul lies stripped and prophesying while hunting David. The same words, two meanings: a surprising grace, and a surprising fall.

But who is their father? (v. 12) — a puzzling reply, usually taken to mean that prophecy comes not by descent but by God's gift, so that a son of Kish may receive it as freely as anyone. The company of prophets with their instruments (v. 5) is the first we hear of such groups; the text does not explain their origin, and neither should we.

The lot has been cast tribe by tribe, family by family, as it was for Achan (Joshua 7:16-18) — there to expose a sinner, here to disclose a king — and the chosen man is missing. The LORD, who selected him by lot, now locates him by oracle: among the stuff, the baggage. A king found hiding among the luggage is a very Israelite beginning.

Why he hid, the text does not say. Readers have taken it as humility, as fear, or as reluctance to accept a calling he already knew of (9:27-10:1). All three can be true of one man in one morning. What is clear is that God's choice does not wait on Saul's readiness; they ran and fetched him (v. 23).

Whom the LORD hath chosen — set beside your king which ye shall have chosen (8:18). Both statements stand; the people wanted a king and the LORD selected one, and the book will never let either side off the hook. None like him refers, in context, to his height (v. 23); the LORD looks elsewhere (16:7), but He gives Israel first what Israel's eyes were asking for.

God save the king is the KJV's English idiom; the Hebrew is usually rendered let the king live. It is the first royal acclamation in Scripture, and it will be heard again at coronations (1 Kings 1:39). Israel shouts here as it shouted when the ark came into the camp (4:5); the chapter leaves the reader to wonder whether the shout is faith or noise.

The manner of the kingdom is not the same as the manner of the king in 8:11. That was a warning about what kings take; this is a charter laid before the LORD — the terms on which Israel's king is to rule under God. Many connect it with Deuteronomy 17:14-20, where the king was to keep a copy of the Law and read it all his days. Israel's monarchy is constituted in writing before it is a day old.

A book laid up before the LORD puts the king under the word rather than over it. Saul does not get to define the kingdom he has just received. Whatever the document contained, the book of Samuel measures every king by whether he obeyed what was written.

Children of Belial — the same phrase used of Eli's sons (2:12). Worthless men ask a reasonable-sounding question, how shall this man save us?, and answer it by withholding the gifts that signalled loyalty. Chapter 11 will answer them with Jabesh-gilead, and Saul will answer them with mercy (11:13).

He held his peace is, by every account, Saul at his best — silent under contempt, like one who as a sheep before her shearers is dumb. Some ancient manuscripts, including a Dead Sea Scroll of Samuel, read the last clause differently, as a time note (about a month later) introducing the Nahash story; the KJV follows the common Hebrew text. Either reading leaves Saul unavenged and unanswered, waiting for a deed.