Saul lived for one year and then became king, and when he had reigned for two years over Israel,
One short line of dating opens a dark turn in Israel's story: it counts Saul's reign, and the crisis that will undo him follows at once. It is also one of the hardest verses in the Old Testament to read, and commentators differ over both its wording and its numbers.
A Verse With a Gap
Translations of this verse do not agree on the numbers. One commentator states the problem directly:
Leslie M. GrantHebrew scholars think one of two things. Either something is missing from verse 1 in the Hebrew manuscripts, or the whole verse was not in the text at first.
Reading It as a Royal Formula
Not everyone finds the verse troubling. These writers use an older translation. It reads "Saul reigned one year." The ESV has "Saul lived for one year and then became king." One writer takes this as the normal way the books of Kings date a reign, and works out Saul's age from his family:
J. N. DarbyI cannot see what the difficulty in this verse is. The Hebrew says Saul "was the son of a year in his reign" (see the margin), "and he reigned two years over Israel, and Saul chose," and so on. "Saul reigned" is the very phrase used in Kings, along with "and … was … years old when he began to reign." If that is the sense here, then his age has been left out, because in Kings the phrase that goes with it is "He reigned (two) years." Saul must have been between thirty and forty, because his son Jonathan had command of troops. A younger son was forty when Saul died.
A New Division Begins
The verse marks a turning point in the book:
H. L. RossierSamuel's work as judge having come to its close, the first verse of our chapter begins a new subject.
The Clock Started Earlier
Saul had received his orders long before this. One writer links the two years of this verse back to that earlier command:
H. L. RossierThe signs are complete. Now Saul receives a new direction for action, because signs are not everything. The Word is also needed. He is told to go down to Gilgal and wait seven days, until Samuel comes to show him what to do. Later on we shall see the result of this order, when, after two years, the king decides to go down to Gilgal (1 Sam. 13:1).
A Short Reign Before the First Crisis
One writer marks how short that settled time was:
William KellyThen comes the first clear crisis in Saul's history. (1 Samuel 13) "Saul reigned one year." It was not long.
Quiet Is Its Own Test
The verse leaves an impression of calm. One writer describes what Israel looked like then:
Samuel RidoutAfter the scene at Gilgal, which we have looked at, there was an apparent season of quiet. The first verse of chapter 13 suggests it. All Israel have gone back to their various homes, except 3,000 men chosen as the personal guard around Saul.
The same writer explains why the coming trial searched Saul more deeply than his earlier war with the Ammonites, the people east of the Jordan:
Samuel RidoutWe come now to what shows the character of the new king in a far more searching way than the matter of the children of Ammon could. There are two reasons. The enemy, the Philistines, were nearer at hand, and they had held Israel longer and more completely than the enemy on the east. Saul was also to be tested in his dependence on God, and patient waiting brings out the deep unbelief of the heart faster than activity does.
Why These Chapters Matter
The section this verse opens is not simply about a bad king. One writer names what Saul stands for:
H. L. RossierAt the start of this new division of the book, one thing is important to notice. Saul does not stand for the flesh planning to oppose the work of God. He stands much more for the flesh trying to do that work — the flesh brought into a position of testimony. This makes Saul infinitely more responsible, and his activity more guilty, than if he had come on the scene as an enemy of God and of His anointed. The Christian world today, which we are part of, holds the same position, and so the teaching of these chapters carries serious weight now.
Summary
- Broken text. The numbers in this verse are incomplete in the Hebrew. Some say Saul's age has dropped out of a normal royal dating formula. Others question the verse itself.
- Fresh start. The line closes Samuel's years of judging and opens a new division of the book, in which the king stands alone in view.
- Ticking clock. The years counted here run from the order to wait at Gilgal to the day Saul goes down. The order was old before he broke it.
- Short peace. One verse measures the reign, and the first crisis follows at once. The quiet was not safety. It was the setting of the test.
- The real test. Waiting, not fighting, exposes the heart. The danger is not open war against God. It is the flesh trying to do God's work.