1 Sam 16:1 “And the Lord said to Samuel: ‘How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him?’” According to the Hebrew text it reads: “And I have abhorred him from reigning over Israel.” God does not rebuke Samuel as though he were sinning by persisting in grief against the divine decree; rather, He reveals that a limit must be set to such sorrow, because Saul’s rejection from the kingdom has been definitively determined.
“Fill your horn with oil and come; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” The one who is to be substituted as king and anointed by Samuel himself is most fittingly revealed to him after Saul’s rejection, in order to console him.
1 Sam 16:2 “And Samuel said: ‘How shall I go?’” These are the words of one who fears, and they are to be read as an interrogative, consulting God about the danger of death that threatens him from such obedience. “For Saul will hear of it and kill me.” And the Lord said: “You shall take a heifer in your hand and say: ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’” God teaches Samuel to conceal the principal cause of his journey and to manifest only a secondary intention. From this we learn that it is not sinful in itself to conceal something in a way similar to what people often do without sin.
1 Sam 16:3 “And you shall invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I show you.” Samuel did what the Lord had spoken and came to Bethlehem, and the elders were astonished. According to the Hebrew it says: “And the elders of the city trembled at his coming.” An inward trembling is signified because of Samuel’s unexpected arrival; they feared lest perhaps he were fleeing from the face of King Saul and that the city might be caught between Samuel on one side and Saul pressing in on the other.
1 Sam 16:4-5 They said: “Is your coming peaceful?” And he said: “Peaceful; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.” He invites the elders of the city who had come out to meet him to rejoice and to attend the sacrifice, even though, strictly speaking, he was not permitted to sacrifice—yet he does so. “And come with me.” According to the Hebrew it reads: “And you shall come with me to the sacrifice.” Samuel was not a priest but a Levite, and without dispensation he could not sacrifice by exercising the priestly office—yet nothing about such a dispensation is written in the text.
“And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and called them to the sacrifice.” Special mention is made of Jesse because Samuel had principally come on account of his sons; therefore not only Jesse, as an elder, but also his sons are said to have been sanctified by Samuel—undoubtedly purified according to the rite of the Law, as were others invited to be present at the sacrifice.
1 Sam 16:6 “And when they entered”—according to the Hebrew: “And it came to pass, when they were coming”—this clearly refers to the sons of Jesse. From the way the narrative unfolds, it appears that Jesse brought his sons one by one to Samuel. The order of events suggests that first Jesse entered the hall where Samuel was with his firstborn. When, by divine revelation, Samuel learned that this was not the future king, Jesse called another son, and so on, introducing them successively. The text implies that Samuel arranged matters in this way, for the father did not present all of them together, though once they had entered they did not leave singly but remained there, as is clear from David’s anointing “in the midst of his brothers.”
“When he saw Eliab, he said: ‘Is the Lord’s anointed before Him?’” According to the Hebrew: “Surely before the Lord is His anointed.” These are words spoken in God’s presence and inquiring of Him, yet inclining toward an affirmative judgment, proposing that this must be the one whom God has anointed. As a sign of this inclination, God responds that one must not look upon his appearance or the height of his stature—features that had inclined Samuel to suspect that he was chosen king.
1 Sam 16:7 “And the Lord said to Samuel: ‘Do not look upon his appearance…’” It should be read: “upon his appearance and upon the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for I do not judge according to the sight of man. For man sees what appears to the eyes, but God looks upon the heart.”
1 Sam 16:8-9 Jesse called Abinadab and brought him before Samuel, and he said: “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Then Jesse brought Shammah, and he said: “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” From this the gradual progress of divine revelation concerning the new king is clear. First, it had been revealed to Samuel that God would transfer the kingdom to a better man than Saul; then that this man would be one of the sons of Jesse the Bethlehemite; but it was not revealed which of Jesse’s sons it would be. Finally, it was revealed that the man was David.
1 Sam 16:10 Jesse therefore brought his seven sons before Samuel. A question arises concerning the number of Jesse’s sons, because in 1 Chronicles 2 only seven sons of Jesse are counted, including David. It is commonly answered that here and in the following chapter eight sons are reckoned, but that one—Jonathan, an adopted son—is counted among the sons of Jesse here, whereas in Chronicles only the natural sons are enumerated.
“And Samuel said to Jesse: ‘The Lord has not chosen these.’” From this it appears that Samuel had secretly communicated to Jesse the divine revelation made to him—that one of his sons was chosen by God; otherwise he would not have said: “The Lord has not chosen these.”
1 Sam 16:11 Then Samuel said to Jesse: “Are all the young men here?” And he said: “There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is tending the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse: “Send and bring him; for we will not sit down to eat until he comes.” According to the Hebrew it reads: “We will not sit around,” that is, we will not take our places in the customary Israelite fashion of reclining in a circle for the meal—a manner in which those dining together would then eat.
1 Sam 16:12 He sent and brought him. Now he was ruddy and of beautiful appearance and handsome face. According to the Hebrew: “He was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and goodly appearance.” He is especially commended for the beauty of his eyes.
1 Sam 16:12 cont. 1 Sam 16:13 And the Lord said: “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. Samuel spoke no words while anointing David, as he had done when anointing Saul. Thus the two anointings differ in two respects: first, in Saul’s case he poured the oil upon his head, whereas David was simply anointed; second, there he declared that God had chosen Saul as leader, but here he uttered no word. He feared to make known for what purpose that anointing was done in the presence of so many persons, lest it reach Saul’s ears. Therefore David’s brothers, although present at the anointing, did not know for what purpose he was anointed; perhaps it was not even disclosed to his father that he was anointed king, but only that he was chosen by God. They could easily have thought that he was anointed as one chosen by God for a prophet or for some other sacred office.
“And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David.” According to the Hebrew: “And the Spirit of the Lord prospered upon David from that day forward.” The interior gift of divine impulse is called the Spirit of the Lord, having prosperous success in David from that day onward.
CONTINUE
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