What does “Saul reigned one year” mean?
One year had passed since Saul was made king, and in his second year he chose his army; the KJV reads sense where modern versions print a blank.
The Passages
1 Samuel 13:1
Acts 13:21
The Difficulty
The KJV reads, “Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years over Israel, Saul chose him three thousand men” (1 Samuel 13:1–2). Paul says Saul reigned “by the space of forty years” (Acts 13:21). Modern versions say the Hebrew is damaged here: some print “Saul was … years old when he began to reign; and he reigned … and two years” with gaps (RSV), others fill in numbers of their own (“thirty years old … forty-two years,” NIV).
The Answer
The Hebrew reads literally “a son of a year was Saul in his reigning, and two years he reigned over Israel.” The KJV gives the sense: Saul had reigned one year, from his anointing and the renewing of the kingdom at Gilgal (1 Samuel 11:14–15), when the events of chapter 12 took place; and when he had reigned two years he chose his standing army and the war with the Philistines began. It doesn’t give the length of his whole reign, so it doesn’t conflict with Acts 13:21.
Gill gives this as Ben Gersom’s sense, “best of all,” and says “the words are well enough rendered by us, ‘Saul reigned one year’.” The text needs no repair; the gaps in modern versions come from reading it as a formula for the king’s age and reign that has lost its numbers.
Sources
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The sense Ben Gersom gives is best of all, that one year had passed from the time of his being anointed, to the time of the renewal of the kingdom at Gilgal; and when he had reigned two years over Israel, then he did what follows, chose 3000 men.
Checked against: Internet Archive scan of the first edition, 2026-10-23
