Bible Strands
1 Samuel 11:14
Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingship there.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Samuel addresses the assembled Israelites immediately after Saul’s victory over the Ammonites and his subsequent order to spare the defeated. He directs the community to relocate to Gilgal to formalize their new leadership structure.
The words — The Hebrew u./ne.cha.Desh (we may renew) literally means to make new or restore, describing the reinstatement of Saul’s royal status. The text states this renewal will occur specifically at Gilgal, fulfilling the location specified in 1 Samuel 10:8.
The thread — The gathering at Gilgal echoes Samuel’s established circuit route in 1 Samuel 7:16 and directly precedes the public confirmation and peace offerings recorded in 1 Samuel 11:15. This location functions repeatedly in the narrative as the site where Israel’s leadership is ratified before the LORD.
Why it lands — The text requires the community to physically move to a designated place and publicly ratify Saul’s kingship through collective action. It demands that political authority be formally recognized within the established framework of Israel’s covenant worship.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then said Samuel to the people, Come, and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 10:8 And you shall go before me to Gilgal, and surely I will come to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings. Wait seven days until I come to you and show you what you are to do.”
- 1 Samuel 7:16 Every year he would go on a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, judging Israel in all these places.
- 1 Samuel 5:3 When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.
- 1 Samuel 10:24 Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see the one the LORD has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people.” And all the people shouted, “Long live the king!”
- 1 Chronicles 12:38 All these men of war, arrayed for battle, came to Hebron fully determined to make David king over all Israel. And all the rest of the Israelites were of one mind to make David king.