Bible Strands
1 Samuel 9:4
So Saul passed through the hill country of Ephraim and then through the land of Shalishah, but they did not find the donkeys. He and the servant went through the region of Shaalim, but they were not there. Then they went through the land of Benjamin, and still they did not find them.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Saul and his servant are conducting a fruitless search for Kish’s lost donkeys after Kish dispatched the mission. They traverse multiple districts without success before the servant urges a return to prevent Kish’s worry from shifting from livestock to their own safety.
The words — וַ/יַּעֲבֹ֧ר (va/i.ya.'a.Vor) means “and he passed,” marking repeated movement, while מָצָ֑אוּ (ma.Tza.'u) means “they found,” used negatively here to record the search’s failure.
The thread — The place name Shalisha reappears in 2 Kings 4:42 as Baal-shalishah, anchoring the region in later prophetic narratives. The geographic progression through Ephraim, Shalisha, Shaalim, and Benjamin follows tribal boundaries without repeating the territorial patterns of Genesis 33:18 or Joshua 24:33.
Why it lands — The text records a mundane search that yields no results, establishing the geographical and emotional stakes before the narrative shifts. It asks the reader to recognize that the search for what is lost often requires traversing familiar ground before divine intervention redirects the course.
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 he passed through mount Ephraim, and passed through the land of Shalisha, but they found them not: then they passed through the land of Shalim, and there they were not: and he passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they found them not.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 4:42 Now a man from Baal-shalishah came to the man of God with a sack of twenty loaves of barley bread from the first ripe grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” said Elisha.
- Joshua 24:33 Eleazar son of Aaron also died, and they buried him at Gibeah, which had been given to his son Phinehas in the hill country of Ephraim.
- Genesis 33:18 After Jacob had come from Paddan-aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he camped just outside the city.
- Judges 17:1 Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim
- Judges 19:1 Now in those days, when there was no king in Israel, a Levite who lived in the remote hill country of Ephraim took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.
- John 3:23 Now John was also baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because the water was plentiful there, and people kept coming to be baptized.