e, go, and seek
the asses. And when they had passed through Mount Ephraim,

9:4. And through the land of Salisa, and had not found them, they passed
also through the land of Salim, and they were not there: and through the
land of Jemini, and found them not.

9:5. And when they were come to the land of Suph, Saul said to the
servant that was with him: Come, let us return, lest perhaps my father
forget the asses, and be concerned for us.

9:6. And he said to him: Behold there is a man of God in this city, a
famous man: all that he saith, cometh certainly to pass. Now, therefore,
let us go thither, perhaps he may tell us of our way, for which we are
come.

9:7. And Saul said to his servant: Behold we will go: but what shall we
carry to the man of God? the bread is spent in our bags: and we have no
present to make to the man of God, nor any thing at all.

9:8. The servant answered Saul again, and said: Behold there is found in
my hand the fourth part of a sicle of silver, let us give it to the man
of God, that he may tell us our way.

9:9. Now in time past in Israel, when a man went to consult God, he
spoke thus: Come, let us go to the seer. For he that is now called a
prophet, in time past was called a seer.

Seer... Because of his seeing by divine light hidden things and things
to come.

9:10. And Saul said to his servant: Thy word is very good, come let us
go. And they went into the city, where the man of God was.

9:11. And when they went up the ascent to the city, they found maids
coming out to draw water, and they said to them: Is the seer here?

9:12. They answered and said to them: He is: behold he is before you,
make haste now: for he came to day into the city, for there is a
sacrifice of the people to day in the high place.

A sacrifice... The law did not allow of sacrifices in any other place,
but at the tabernacle, or temple, in which the ark of the covenant was
kept; but Samuel, by divine dispensation, offered sacrifices in other
places. For which dispensation this reason may be alleged, that the
house of God in Silo, having lost the ark, was now cast off; as a figure
of the reprobation of the Jews, Ps. 77.60, 67. And in Cariathiarim where
the ark was, there was neither tabernacle, nor altar.-Ibid. The high
place... Excelsum. The excelsa, or high places, so often mentioned in
scripture, were places of worship, in which were altars for sacrifice.
These were sometimes employed in the service of the t