Saul replied, “Am I not a Benjamite from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of Benjamin? So why would you say such a thing to me?”
Providence having at length brought Samuel and Saul together, we have here an account of what passed between them in the gate, at the feast, and in private. I. In the gate of the city; passing through that, Saul found him (Sa1 9:18), and, little thinking that he was Samuel himself, asked him the way to Samuel's house: Tell me where the seer's house is...
Commenting on 1 Samuel 9:18-27
And Saul answered and said, am not I a Benjamite,.... Or the son of Jemini, the name of one of his ancestors, see Sa1 9:1 or rather, as the Targum, a son of the tribe of Benjamin: of the smallest of the tribes of Israel?
And Saul answered and said, Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, &c.--By selecting a king from this least and nearly extinct tribe (Jdg 20:46-48), divine wisdom designed to remove all grounds of jealousy among the other tribes.