1 Samuel 10:17

17 And Samuel calleth the people unto Jehovah to Mizpeh,

1 Samuel 10:17 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 10:17

And Samuel called the people together unto the Lord at
Mizpeh.
] Not that in Gilead, but in the tribe of Benjamin, where the people had been before convened on a certain occasion, ( 1 Samuel 7:5 ) and the people called together could not be every individual of the nation, but the heads and elders of the people, their representatives, and who were summoned by the orders of Samuel; perhaps by an herald making proclamation and cry of the same, as the word signifies; and these were gathered together to the Lord, to have the following affair transacted before him, and under his guidance and direction; the priest perhaps being here with the Urim and Thummim, as Kimchi thinks, and who also conjectures that the ark might be brought hither at this time, the symbol of the divine Presence; though wherever the church and people of God were gathered together in his name, in a solemn manner, there the Lord was.

1 Samuel 10:17 In-Context

15 And the uncle of Saul saith, `Declare, I pray thee, to me, what Samuel said to you?'

16 And Saul saith unto his uncle, `He certainly declared to us that the asses were found;' and of the matter of the kingdom he hath not declared to him that which Samuel said.

17 And Samuel calleth the people unto Jehovah to Mizpeh,

18 and saith unto the sons of Israel, `Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, I have brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I deliver you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all the kingdoms who are oppressing you;

19 and ye to-day have rejected your God, who [is] Himself your saviour out of all your evils and your distresses, and ye say, `Nay, but -- a king thou dost set over us; and now, station yourselves before Jehovah, by your tribes, and by your thousands.'