Bible Strands
1 Samuel 9:3
One day the donkeys of Saul’s father Kish wandered off, and Kish said to his son Saul, “Take one of the servants and go look for the donkeys.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Kish addresses his son Saul when the family donkeys wander off, ordering him to take a servant and search for them. This command follows the narrative’s description of Saul’s physical prominence among the Israelites.
The words — The Hebrew וַתּאבֶדְנָה (vatta’avenah) literally renders “and they were lost,” marking the inciting event. The term הָאֲתֹנֹת (ha’etōnōt) specifies “the she-asses,” identifying the exact livestock that triggered the search.
The thread — The loss of donkeys appears in Judges 5:10 and Judges 10:4 as markers of travel and status, while 1 Samuel 10:2 later notes Saul’s route to Zelzah on Benjamin’s border. These passages frame the search as a routine pastoral task that unexpectedly intersects with a larger narrative arc.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to observe how a mundane household problem initiates a sequence of events. It demands attention to the narrative mechanics that place Saul on a path without explicit divine intervention stated at this moment.
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
And the asses of Kish Saul’s father were lost. And Kish said to Saul his son, Take now one of the servants with thee, and arise, go seek the asses.
Cross-references
- Judges 5:10 You who ride white donkeys, who sit on saddle blankets, and you who travel the road, ponder
- Judges 10:4 He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys. And they had thirty towns in the land of Gilead, which to this day are called Havvoth-jair.
- 1 Samuel 10:2 When you leave me today, you will find two men at Rachel’s tomb in Zelzah on the border of Benjamin. They will say to you, ‘The donkeys you seek have been found, and now your father has stopped worrying about the donkeys and started worrying about you, asking, “What should I do about my son?”’