reigned two years
1 Samuel 13:1
13:1 reigned two years. Contrast Acts 13:21, which indicates that Saul reigned forty years. Actually the Hebrew text in this verse is somewhat uncertain, and the Septuagint omits it altogether. The Hebrew text as it now stands actually reads: “Saul was — years old when he began to reign, and he reigned — and two years over Israel.” Consequently various translators have used various ways of supplying the lost numbers. If it is rendered approximately as follows: “Saul was thirty five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and two years over Israel;” then the subsequent narratives, along with Acts 13:21, will be found to fit well together, and it is so interpreted by many modern scholars. The fact is, however, that the actual numbers are unknown, so the best chronological constraint for this period must come from Paul’s summary in Acts 13:21.