Matthew Poole and continuators on 1 Samuel 9:21

21 And Saul answered and said, Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel ? and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin ? wherefore then speakest thou so to me ?

For so indeed this was, having been all cut off except 600, Iudg. 20. which Blow they never recovered, and therefore they were scarce reckoned as an intire Tribe, but only as a Remnant or Fragment of a Tribe; and, being Ingrafted into Iudah, in the division between the Ten Tribes and the Two, they in some sort lost their Name, and they, together with Iudah, were accounted but one Tribe, as 1 King. 11. 32. &c.

i. e. One of the least, obscure and inconsiderable, in comparison of divers others. Whence it may seem that Saul's Family was not so Noble and Wealthy, as some imagine. See on v. 1.

Why dost thou feed me with vain hopes of the Kingdom?

Marginal references: Psal. 68. 27.; Heb. according to this word.