1 Kings 9:2
And he had a son whose name was Saul, a choice and goodly man, and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he appeared above all the people.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et erat ei filius vocabulo Saul, electus et bonus : et non erat vir de filiis Israël melior illo : ab humero et sursum eminebat super omnem populum.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ τούτῳ υἱός, καὶ ὄνομα αὐτῷ Σαούλ, εὐμεγέθης, ἀνὴρ ἀγαθός, καὶ οὐκ ἦν ἐν υἱοῖς Ἰσραὴλ ἀγαθὸς ὑπὲρ αὐτόν, ὑπερωμίαν καὶ ἐπάνω ὑψηλὸς ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְלוֹ הָיָ֨ה בֵ֜ן וּשְׁמ֤וֹ שָׁאוּל֙ בָּח֣וּר וָט֔וֹב וְאֵ֥ין אִ֛ישׁ מִבְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל ט֣וֹב מִמֶּ֑נּוּ מִשִּׁכְמ֣וֹ וָמַ֔עְלָה גָּבֹ֖הַּ מִכָּל הָעָֽם
Haydock's commentary
Goodlier, better proportioned, more handsome, (Haydock) as the daughters of men are styled good, or fair, Genesis vi. 1. People seek for corporal advantages in those who command. The poets always represent their deities and heroes as taller than the rest of men. A king of Sparta was fined for marrying a little woman. (Aristotle, Polit. iv.) The Ethiopians give their highest offices to those who have the most engaging appearance. (Herodotus iii. 20.) (Calmet)
Little people may be elegant, but never majestic or perfectly beautiful. (Aristotle, Ethic. iv. 3.) (Menochius)
Choice, is taken in the same sense as goodly, and does not intimate that Saul was one of the elect. (Denis the Carthusian)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Tertullian The Five Books Against Marcion, Instances of God's Repentance, and Notably in the Case of the Ninevites, Accounted for and Vindicated
Furthermore, with respect to the repentance which occurs in His conduct, you interpret it with similar perverseness just as if it were with fickleness and improvidence that He repented, or on the recollection of some wrong-doing; because He actually said, “It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king,” very much as if He meant that His repentance savoured of an acknowledgment of some evil work or error. Well, this is not always implied. For there occurs even in good works a confession of repentance, as a reproach and condemnation of the man who has proved himself unthankful for a benefit. …