What Does 1 Samuel 9:2 Mean?
And he had a son whose name was Saul, a chosen young man and good. There was not among the children of Israel a better man than he. From his shoulders upward he rose above all the people.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And he had a son, whose name was Saul, a choice young man, and a goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.THE KEY
Israel’s request for a king appears as a man whose name means “asked for,” and whose height makes the answer look self-evident.
THE MEANING
A request can take a human shape and appear to validate itself: the asked-for one stands taller than everyone around him. The verse gives that visible stature real force while showing how much a person’s height cannot tell you. You are left with the gap between the answer you can see and the meaning of what you asked for.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An answer’s impressive appearance does not prove that the request behind it was wise.
THE ROOT
שָׁאוּל
sha'ul
GROWS FROM
שאל
sha'al
To ask or request.
Saul’s name, שָׁאוּל (sha’ul, asked for), carries the root שאל (sha’al, ask or request). The name makes him a living trace of the people’s request, and the verse gives that request a visible form in a man whose height sets him apart.
ALSO GROWS
sha'al: To ask or request.
שָׁאַל
This is the root verb beneath Saul’s name, tying the person directly to the act of asking.
she'elah: A request or petition.
שְׁאֵלָה
This noun makes the connection plain: Saul’s name echoes the request that brings him into view.
בָּחוּר
bachur
GROWS FROM
בחר
bachar
To choose or select.
“a chosen young man” in this verse is bachur. The Hebrew noun בָּחוּר (bachur, young man) is formed from בחר (bachar, choose or select). Alongside the meaning carried in Saul’s name, it gives the description a quiet double resonance: he is the one asked for and the standout figure among the people.
ALSO GROWS
bachar: To choose or select.
בָּחַר
This root sits beneath the word for young man and lends Saul’s description a resonance of selection.
bachir: A chosen or selected one.
בָּחִיר
This related word makes the selection resonance audible as Saul is presented as exceptional among Israel’s men.
THE PATTERN
What is asked for can take visible form before its deeper character or cost is known.
And they said to him, Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now set over us a king to judge us like all the nations.And he gave them their request, but sent thinness into their living soul.You ask, and do not take, because you ask badly, so that you may use it up upon your pleasures.THE THREAD
And he gave them their request, but sent thinness into their living soul.The word “request” here comes from שאל (sha’al, ask or request), the same root carried in Saul’s name, שָׁאוּל (sha’ul, asked for). The name turns the people’s request into a person; this psalm holds open the possibility that receiving what is asked for does not itself bring wholeness.
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