1st Samuel Chapter 10 verse 12 Holy Bible
And one of the same place answered and said, And who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets?
read chapter 10 in ASV
And one of the people of that place said in answer, And who is their father? So it became a common saying, Is even Saul among the prophets?
read chapter 10 in BBE
And a man of that place answered and said, But who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets?
read chapter 10 in DARBY
And one of the same place answered and said, But who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets?
read chapter 10 in KJV
And one of the same place answered and said, But who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets?
read chapter 10 in WBT
One of the same place answered, Who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets?
read chapter 10 in WEB
And a man thence answereth and saith, `And who `is' their father?' therefore it hath been for a simile, `Is Saul also among the prophets?'
read chapter 10 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 12. - One of the same place - i.e. Gibeah - answered and said, But who is their father? The Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate read, But who is his father? But this would be a foolish reply to the question, "What has happened to the son of Kish?" The meaning rather must be, You ask about the son of Kish; but what has birth to do with prophecy? None of these young men have inherited these gifts, and if Saul can take part in their prophesyings, why should he not? Kish, his father, is no worse than theirs. Is Saul also among the prophets? Under very different circumstances Saul once again took part in the exercises of these youthful prophets (1 Samuel 19:24), and evidently on both occasions with such skill and success as prove the readiness of his genius; and so struck were the people at the strange power which he thus evinced, that their expression of wonder became fixed in the national mind as a proverb. Saul was a man of great natural ability, and yet not the sort of person whom the people expected would be made king. He probably could neither read nor write, and from his extreme height was perhaps awkward and bashful; as he suffered afterwards from fits of insanity (1 Samuel 16:14), he may always have been flighty and wilful; and altogether, though possessed of marvellous gifts, was certainly the very opposite of Samuel's well trained and orderly scholars.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(12) Who is their father?--As an instance of the extreme surprise with which the association of Saul with the sons of the prophets was witnessed by the inhabitants of Gibeah--an association apparently very foreign to his old habits and to the manner of life of his family--a short dialogue between two of the citizens of Gibeah is here related: a conversation important, owing to the words uttered by the second citizen in reply to the amazed question, "What is this that is come unto the son of Kish?" The reply gives us some insight into the deep conviction entertained by the ordinary Israelite of the days of Samuel that the invisible God was ever present, working in the midst of His chosen people.The reply of the second citizen has been well explained by Von Bunsen:--"Is the son of Kish, then, a prophet?' asks the first citizen, surprised, apparently, that one so undistinguished, that one so unlikely to train up a "son of the prophets," should have a son associated in this peculiar and sudden manner with a chosen band of scholars and teachers. To this question the second citizen replied--no doubt, pointing to the honoured group from the prophet schools of Gibeah--"Do you wonder that the son of so rough and uncultivated a man as Kish should receive the Divine gift which we all love so well and admire so greatly? Who," pointing to the group singing on the hill-side, "who is their father?" They owe their power of persuasive speech, their gift of holy song, to no accident of birth. Surely Saul, like them, may have received the same power as a gift of the Eternal, not as a patrimony. Owing to this obvious meaning not having occurred to them, the LXX., "Vulgate, and Syriac Versions alter the original into, "Who is his (instead of their) father?" in other words, "Who is Saul? and who is his father, Kish?" But the Hebrew text and the English Version, as explained above, gives an admirable sense, and teaches besides a great spiritual lesson.
