The Chosen Son Is Still Out with the Sheep

Saul was anointed from a pak, a small flask (10:1); David will be anointed from a horn, as Solomon later is (1 Kings 1:39), and Hannah had sung of God exalting “the horn of his anointed” (2:10). “I have provided me” is literally “I have seen for myself”, and seeing is what this chapter is about.

The road from Ramah to Bethlehem runs south past Gibeah of Saul, so Samuel’s fear has a map. A heifer suits a peace offering, whose meat was shared in a meal by those invited, which is why the family will “sit down” in verse 11. The sacrifice is real; only its second purpose is unspoken.

“Him whom I name unto thee” is literally “whom I say to you”. Samuel is sent with oil and without a name. The instruction is given in stages: go, invite, and then “I will shew thee”, which leaves the choosing wholly in God’s hands.

Bethlehem was not on Samuel’s yearly circuit of Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah and Ramah (7:16), so a surprise visit from the man who had just hewn Agag in pieces could alarm anyone. “Comest thou peaceably?” is literally “Is it shalom, your coming?”

To “sanctify yourselves” meant washing and clean garments before approaching God, as at Sinai (Exodus 19:10, 14). Samuel sanctifies Jesse and his sons himself, which gives him a reason to look at each one closely before the meal.

The first half of the sentence is Samuel thinking aloud: “Surely” is ’akh, a word of confident assertion. “The LORD’s anointed” is the phrase David will later refuse to lift a hand against when he has Saul at his mercy (24:6; 26:9).

“Refused” is ma’as, the verb used for Saul’s rejection in 15:23 and in verse 1. “Outward appearance” is literally “the eyes”, what lies before the eyes, while the LORD looks “to the heart”. The contrast is between two ways of seeing, not between two kinds of face.

Abinadab shares his name with the man whose house kept the ark at Kiriath-jearim (7:1) and with one of Saul’s sons (31:2). “Chosen” is the word used when Samuel presented Saul: “See ye him whom the LORD hath chosen” (10:24).

Shammah is called Shimea in 1 Chronicles 2:13 and Shimeah in 2 Samuel 13:3, where his son Jonadab turns up as the crafty adviser to Amnon. His refusal is recorded in the same words as his brother’s, and the flat repetition does the work.

The Hebrew says Jesse made seven of his sons pass, and 17:12 confirms that Jesse had eight. Seven is the number of completeness, and the full set fails. 1 Chronicles 2:13–15 lists only seven sons, with David as the seventh, a difference the text leaves unreconciled.

“The youngest” is haqqatan, “the little one”, the word Samuel used of Saul’s once modest self-estimate (15:17). “Keepeth the sheep” gives David his first job description; a later psalm makes the shepherd the king (Psalm 78:70–71). “Sit down” is literally to gather round for the meal.

“Ruddy” is admoni, the rare word used of Esau at birth (Genesis 25:25). “Beautiful countenance” is literally “beautiful of eyes”, placed right after verse 7 said that man looks on the eyes. The book allows David’s looks to be noted without letting them be the reason.

The anointing takes place “in the midst of his brethren”, yet in the next chapter Eliab treats David with open contempt (17:28), so what the brothers understood is left unclear. “From that day forward” sets David’s Spirit apart from the sudden seizures that came on Saul.

The first clause of the verse undoes 10:6; the Spirit that came on Saul at Gibeah now leaves him. “Troubled” is ba’at, to terrify, the verb Job uses when he says God terrifies him through visions (Job 7:14).

The courtiers speak plainly to the king about what they have seen. In the Hebrew “evil” can mean harmful or distressing rather than wicked. The Book of Judges uses the same expression when God sends an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem (Judges 9:23).

“Cunning” is the 1611 sense of skilled or knowing. The kinnor was a lyre, small enough to carry, not a large concert harp. A kinnor was among the instruments of the prophets Saul met on the day the Spirit first came on him (10:5), so music had been present at the start.

“Provide me” is literally “see for me”, the same words God used in verse 1: “I have provided me a king”. Saul unknowingly echoes God’s phrase, and both searches are about to find the same young man.

The servant says “I have seen”, the chapter’s verb once more. “Prudent in matters” means discerning in speech, and “a comely person” is literally “a man of form”, the phrase for Joseph’s good looks (Genesis 39:6). “The LORD is with him” becomes a refrain about David (18:12, 14, 28).

The servant never mentioned sheep, yet Saul asks for David “which is with the sheep”. The book does not explain how Saul knew. The detail places him, without his knowing it, in line with the anointing scene, where David was fetched from the flock.

“An ass laden with bread” may also be read as a homer of bread, a dry measure; the two words share the same consonants in Hebrew. Bread, a skin of wine and a kid are the same three gifts that men carried when they met the newly anointed Saul (10:3–4).

To “stand before” someone was the phrase for serving at court. Saul “loved him greatly”, the first of many in the book who love David: Jonathan (18:1), Michal (18:20), all Israel and Judah (18:16). David becomes an armourbearer, the post held by Jonathan’s companion at Michmash.

“Found favour in my sight” is literally “in my eyes”, eyes again. The request turns a visit into a permanent post. Saul has to ask Jesse’s permission, a courtesy that shows the young monarchy still worked through households and fathers.

“Refreshed” is rawach, to have room to breathe, a word built from the same root as ruach, “spirit”. When the troubling spirit leaves, Saul gets his breath back. The verse describes a pattern, “when” rather than once, and the relief is repeated each time.