9:12 They answered. In the Hebrew, vv. 12, 13 convey excitement and animation as the girls urge Saul to hurry up to the city, where he will be just in time to meet Samuel.

high place. Although it was recognized that such high places (often sites of Canaanite worship) posed a clear danger to the purity of Israelite worship (e.g., Lev. 26:30; Num. 33:52; Deut. 12:2, 3; Jer. 2:20), it is apparent from passages such as this that worship of Yahweh was sometimes conducted there, especially during the early monarchy (10:5; 1 Kin. 3:2–4). Such worship may have been made necessary by the loss of the sanctuary at Shiloh (1:3 note). After the division of the kingdom, worship at “high places” was a serious problem both in the north (1 Kin. 12:31, 32; 13:32–34) and in the south (1 Kin. 14:22–24). Removal of the “high places” was a major goal of reform movements under southern kings like Hezekiah (2 Kin. 18:4) and Josiah (2 Kin. 23:5).