1Sa 13:1 | CPDV | STEP | When he began to reign, Saul was the son of one year, and he reigned over Israel for two years.

1 Samuel 13:1

The war between Saul and the Philistines. The distress of the Israelites. Saul offers sacrifice before the coming of Samuel: for which he is reproved.

1 When he began to reign, Saul was the son of ^{▼▼13:1 son of Usually, when the age of a person in the Old Testament is stated, the expression ‘son of …’ is not used. Instead, the age is simply stated plainly. The use of ‘son of …’ indicates a figure of speech, not a statement of the number of years from birth. The expression “son of …” is a common idiomatic expression in Hebrew. Examples: son of death, a dead body; son of perdition, one who is lost; sons of adulterers, these ‘sons’ are not the children of persons who have committed adultery, but rather it is the sons themselves who have committed adultery, behaving as if they are sons of adultery personified.(Conte)} one year, and he reigned over Israel for two years. ^{▼▼13:1 reigned ... two years Saul was appointed king by the people one year after he was anointed king by Samuel, that is, one year after the Spirit of the Lord came to him, so that he became a new man with a new heart, as explained in chapter ten. That is why Sacred Scripture says figuratively that Saul was the son of one year when his reign began. Then Saul reigned for two years after being appointed king by the people. The foolish claim that the correct numbers have been dropped from the text must be false. God’s providence does not permit even the least truth to drop out of Sacred Scripture, nor to become corrupted, nor the least falsehood to enter into Sacred Scripture. Also, from a human point of view, the Jewish scholars gave great weight to numbers and to their figurative meaning. This is reflected in numerous passages where numbers are used symbolically, and this continued even into the New Testament. For example, the 144,000 in the Book of Revelation is a symbolic number. So the Rabbis would not have lost two numbers, from one verse, pertaining to the first king of Israel. It could not have been lost from the written text, not only because of their scrupulosity, but also because the numbers would have been passed on verbally, in their instruction to each generation. Therefore, these numbers are correct.(Conte)
,} ^{▼▼13:1 Of one year: That is, he was good and like an innocent child, and for two years continued in that innocency.(Challoner)}