Reply To: A compliment (or, r”l, an insult) vs a mere statement of fact?

Joseph: The navi (Shmuel I, 9:2) lists Shaul HaMelech’s height among his enviable traits that merited him the malchus, though one could argue that the navi is merely being metaphorical using terms of appearance to connote praiseworthy middos. That’s not to say that both attributions didn’t apply. It just raises the question of why employ a metaphor at all?