Bible study online

1 Samuel 9:1

King James Version (KJV)

“In our prayers we talk to God, in our Bible study God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.”
— D.L. Moody

1 Samuel 9:1

Verse 1 of 27

Scripture focus

Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name [was] Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power.

1 Samuel 9:1 — KJV

Commentary

Commentary on 1 Samuel 9:1

Theological / Devotional

Kish. According to Gesenius the word transliterated Kish is from qosh, “to lay lay a snare,” or “to set a trap” (see Isa. 29:21). A related Arabic word means “to be bent as a bow.” If Kish be taken to mean “bow,” then Kishi (1 Chron. 6:44) would mean “my bow” (see also the name Elkoshite in Nahum 1:1, from ’elkoshi, “God is my bow”). Sometimes the name was compounded with that of the Deity as Kushaiah, “the bow of God” (1 Chron. 15:17). The father of Kish was Abiel, “God is my father,” and his grandfather’s name was Zeror, “bound together.” The same root word is used in 1 Sam. 25:29-31, where Abigail pleads with David to forgive Nabal’s trespass against him.

Zeror’s father was Bechorath, from bekor, “first-born,” and his grandfather’s name as Aphiah, of uncertain meaning. Thus the ancestry of Saul is traced for more than a century.

Son of Abiel. See on ch. 14:50.

By SdaBc