Chapter Sixteen

The secret anointing of David for the Hebrew kingship. David’s approach to Saul’s court.

1 Samuel 16:1. And the Lord said to Samuel: How long will you grieve over Saul, whom I have rejected from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have chosen myself a king from among his sons. Jesse of Bethlehem in Judea was the grandson of Boaz, who married a Moabite (see the book of Ruth), a direct descendant of Nahshon, the prince of the tribe of Judah in the time of Moses (Num 1:7; 1 Chr 2:10).

1 Samuel 16:2. And Samuel said: How can I go? Saul will hear of it and kill me. The Lord said: Take a heifer with you and say, “I have come to sacrifice to the Lord”; Samuel’s fear is understandable: on the one hand, he feared the premature and violent end not only of his own life, but also of his public prophetic work; on the other hand, the sad consequences that might follow from Saul’s mad deed. The violent death of the prophet Samuel might have provoked an outburst of popular indignation against the one who was the immediate cause of this death, and produced ruinous anarchy in the Hebrew state. The words of the Lord: “Take a heifer in your hand” and so on — this is not a teaching of untruth, but an indication of genuinely necessary action: the great event of the sacred anointing for the kingship of God’s chosen one could not have been marked without a religious ceremony (cf. 1 Sam 9:15-27). “And the prophet indeed performed the sacrifice (1 Sam 16:5). Therefore it was said to him that, concealing the main purpose for a time, he should point out (to those who might question his coming to the city) the secondary matter” (Theodoret, Commentary on 1 Samuel, question 36).

1 Samuel 16:4. And Samuel did as the Lord had said. When he came to Bethlehem, the elders of the city went out to meet him with trembling and said: Is your coming peaceful? “Is your coming peaceful?” “Either because unexpected visits of the prophet were usually occasioned by extraordinary events of a disturbing character, or because the tense state, the fateful struggle between prophetic and royal power, was felt by all who followed the course of events and feared grave upheavals and unrest, the elders of the city hastened to go out to meet the prophet and with trembling asked: ‘Are you coming to us in peace?’” (Ia. Bogorodsky, “Hebrew Kings”, p. 64).

1 Samuel 16:6. And when they came, he, seeing Eliab, said: Surely the Lord’s anointed is here before him! “The prophet did not know the one chosen by God, because he was not God, but a man. To know all things is proper to God; for the prophet it is enough to know what God reveals (and to the extent that God reveals it). On the other hand, the prophet’s ignorance revealed God’s determination. If the prophet had gone straight to David, there might have been suspicion that he had acted from some prejudice. But since he approached the first, and the second, and the third — up to the seventh, they knew that the one who rejected the first ones and chose the last one is God. Even with such a choice, the brothers harbored hatred when they saw David in the camp (1 Sam 17:28), what would they not have done if the choosing had been done in another way?” (Theodoret, Commentary on 1 Samuel, question 37.)

1 Samuel 16:13. And Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward; and Samuel arose and went to Ramah. “The secret anointing conferred no external privileges on David, which would have been impossible under the existing king; but it gave him an inner conviction of his right to the throne after Saul, elevated his spirit, helped him to bear patiently and meekly the undeserved persecution of enemies, and encouraged him to deeds worthy of the future king of the Hebrews. ‘And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward’: in the eyes of the multitude he remained an ordinary mortal, but he himself with his entire moral being felt how high and intensely resounded the strings of his soul, what animation and soaring his thought and feeling had gained, stirred up by the new great task of his life placed before him by God himself (Ia. Bogorodsky, “Hebrew Kings”, p. 65–66). The Spirit of the Lord’s favor, gracious gifts, and help came upon David. But Saul, having consciously and stubbornly resisted the beneficial influence of God’s Spirit upon him, was allowed to experience the attack of dark and evil forces.

1 Samuel 16:14. And the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. “And an evil spirit” (by God’s permission) “from the Lord troubled him.” “Despite outward prosperity, Saul’s spirit (under the influence of dark forces) was not at peace: the thirst for power, like many other passions, could not be satisfied by anything; as it was satisfied it grew; there was felt a need to display power where it had not yet been displayed, and in greater measure than before. To this was added the memory of the prophet’s terrible words (1 Sam 15:23-26), which nothing could silence and which like a sword hung over Saul’s crowned head. And so, little by little, he began to experience a general sense of discontent and anxiety. Then this feeling began to turn into irritation, and the equilibrium of his meager spiritual powers was disturbed. He began to suffer from fits of true mental illness, during which he was not only incapable of serious matters, but positively dangerous to those around him” (Ia. Bogorodsky, “Hebrew Kings”, p. 72–73).

1 Samuel 16:16. Let our lord now command his servants who are in your attendance to seek out a man who is skilled in playing the harp, and when the evil spirit from God comes upon you, he will play with his hand and you will feel better. By expressing a mood, music could sometimes also evoke the desired mood. The beneficial effect of soothing musical melodies on the troubled and sick spirit of a human being was known from deep antiquity.

1 Samuel 16:18. Then one of his servants answered: I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, skilled in playing, a mighty man and a warrior, sensible in speech and handsome in appearance, and the Lord is with him. “And the Lord is with him,” that is, he is successful in everything.

1 Samuel 16:20. And Jesse took a donkey with bread and a skin of wine and a young goat, and sent them with David his son to Saul. The bread and wine were meant to express respectful greeting to Saul on behalf of the house of Jesse.

1 Samuel 16:23. And whenever the spirit from God came upon Saul, David would take the harp and play it with his hand, and Saul would feel relief and it would be well with him, and the evil spirit would depart from him. “The spirit (evil by God’s permission) from God” (cf. 1 Sam 16:14). See the note at the end of 1 Sam 16:13 and to 1 Sam 16:14 verse.