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Samuel Anoints David
1 Samuel 16:1–13 — Samuel Anoints David. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
1Now the LORD said to Samuel, “How long are you going to mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have selected from his sons a king for Myself.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
Yah·weh way·yō·mer ’el- šə·mū·’êl ‘aḏ- mā·ṯay ’at·tāh miṯ·’ab·bêl ’el- šā·’ūl wa·’ă·nî mə·’as·tîw mim·mə·lōḵ ‘al- yiś·rā·’êl qar·nə·ḵā mal·lê še·men wə·lêḵ ’eš·lā·ḥă·ḵā ’el- yi·šay bêṯ- hal·laḥ·mî kî- rā·’î·ṯî bə·ḇā·nāw me·leḵ lî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said YHWH to Samuel: “Until-when art-thou mourning-thyself over Saul, and-I have-spurned-him from-reigning over Israel? Fill thy-horn oil, and-go: I-am-sending-thee to Jesse the-Beth-lechemite, for I-have-seen among-his-sons for-Me a-king.”
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how long wilt thou mourn for Saul? he does not blame him for mourning, but for mourning so long;
But the true cure for overmuch sorrow is work, and, for vain regrets after vanished good, the welcome to the new good which God ever sends to fill the empty place.Maclaren's whole exposition insists that the choice of David was purely God's; this line is his pastoral application of that point, not a claim about the text's grammar.
I have provided me a king — This phrase is very emphatical, and implies the difference between this and the former king. Saul was a king of the people’s providing; he was the product of their sinful desires; but this is a king of my own providing, to fulfil all my will, and to serve my glory.
It was Bethlehem, the cradle of the great ancestor, that was selected in the counsels of the Most High as the birthplace of Jesus Christ.
2“How can I go?” Samuel asked. “Saul will hear of it and kill me!” The LORD answered, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’
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’êḵ ’ê·lêḵ šə·mū·’êl way·yō·mer šā·’ūl wə·šā·ma‘ wa·hă·rå̄·ḡå̄·nīs Yah·weh way·yō·mer tiq·qaḥ ‘eḡ·laṯ bā·qār bə·yā·ḏe·ḵā wə·’ā·mar·tā bā·ṯî liz·bō·aḥ Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said Samuel: “How shall-I-go? and-will-hear Saul, and-he-will-kill-me.” And-said YHWH: “A-heifer-of the-herd thou-shalt-take in-thy-hand, and-thou-shalt-say: ‘To-sacrifice to-YHWH I-have-come.’”
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There was no dissimulation or falsehood in this, since God really wished His prophet to find safety under the pretext of the sacrifice. A sacrifice was therefore really offered, and the prophet was protected thereby, so that he was not exposed to any danger until the time of full revelation arrivedK&D is quoting Calvin here, not speaking in his own voice; the citation is his.
But secrecy and concealment are not the same as duplicity and falsehood. Concealment of a good purpose, for a good purpose, is clearly justifiable.
The question has been asked, Was there in this any duplicity? In answer we may ask another question: Is it always necessary, or even right, to tell in all cases the whole truth?Pulpit answers his own question over several sentences; the sharpness is in the question, so the excerpt stops there.
3Then invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you are to do. You are to anoint for Me the one I indicate.”
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wə·qā·rā·ṯā lə·yi·šay baz·zā·ḇaḥ wə·’ā·nō·ḵî ’ō·w·ḏî·‘ă·ḵā ’êṯ ’ă·šer- ta·‘ă·śeh ū·mā·šaḥ·tā lî ’êṯ ’ă·šer- ’ō·mar ’ê·le·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-thou-shalt-call for-Jesse into-the-sacrifice, and-I, I-will-make-known-to-thee what thou-shalt-do; and-thou-shalt-anoint for-Me whom I-shall-say to-thee.”
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All these official personages, the priest, the prophet, and peculiarly the king, were types of the great expected Deliverer,
call Jesse to the sacrifice—that is, the social feast that followed the peace offering. Samuel, being the offerer, had a right to invite any guest he pleased.
Whom I name, i.e. whom I shall describe, as it were, by name.
4So Samuel did what the LORD had said and went to Bethlehem. When the elders of the town met him, they trembled and asked, “Do you come in peace?”
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šə·mū·’êl ’êṯ way·ya·‘aś ’ă·šer Yah·weh dib·ber way·yā·ḇō bêṯ lā·ḥem ziq·nê hā·‘îr liq·rā·ṯōw way·ye·ḥer·ḏū way·yō·mer bō·w·’e·ḵā šā·lōm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-did Samuel what YHWH had-spoken, and-he-came to-Beth-lechem; and-trembled the-elders-of the-city to-meet-him, and-one-said: “Peace thy-coming?”
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The elders of Bethlehem trembled at Samuel's coming. It becomes us to stand in awe of God's messengers, and to tremble at his word.
and the birthplace of Him of Whom David was a type, it is, next to Jerusalem itself, the most sacred spot on earth.Cambridge is writing devotionally about Bethlehem's later fame; the claim is about the town's place in redemptive history, not about anything this verse states.
The anxious inquiry of the elders presupposes that even in the time of Saul the prophet Samuel was frequently in the habit of coming unexpectedly to one place and another, for the purpose of reproving and punishing wrong-doing and sin.
5“In peace,” he replied. “I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
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šā·lō·wm way·yō·mer bā·ṯî liz·bō·aḥ Yah·weh hiṯ·qad·də·šū ū·ḇā·ṯem ’it·tî baz·zā·ḇaḥ way·qad·dêš ’eṯ- yi·šay wə·’eṯ- bā·nāw way·yiq·rā lā·hem laz·zā·ḇaḥ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-said: “Peace. To-sacrifice to-YHWH I-have-come. Sanctify-yourselves and-come with-me into-the-sacrifice.” And-he-sanctified Jesse and-his-sons, and-he-called them to-the-sacrifice.
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Which he could say with truth, it being one end of his coming, though not the only one for which he came, and which he was not obliged to tell:
By the usual ceremonial purifications, such as washing the body and clothes, the outward symbols of spiritual preparation.
For where there are two ends of any action, a person may, without any injury to truth, declare the one and conceal the other.Benson is defending Samuel against a charge of deceit, and builds the defence on an analogy with Moses before Pharaoh; the principle is his, and is contested by others in later ethics.
6When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and said, “Surely here before the LORD is His anointed.”
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way·hî bə·ḇō·w·’ām way·yar ’eṯ- ’ĕ·lî·’āḇ way·yō·mer ’aḵ ne·ḡeḏ Yah·weh mə·šî·ḥōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-it-was, in-their-coming, that-he-saw Eliab, and-he-said: “Surely before YHWH is-His-anointed.”
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But the day was gone when kings were chosen because they were head and shoulders taller than the rest.Cambridge is quoting Stanley's Lectures, not writing in his own words; the attribution belongs to Stanley by way of Cambridge.
Here Samuel, in consequence of taking his impressions from the external appearance, falls into the same error as formerly
wherein yet he was greatly mistaken, as other prophets sometimes were, when they hastily spake their own thoughts, before they had consulted God in the case,
Thinking that Eliab had been appointed by God to be made king.
7But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him; the LORD does not see as man does. For man sees the outward appearance, but the LORD sees the heart.”
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Yah·weh way·yō·mer ’el- šə·mū·’êl ’al- tab·bêṭ ’el- mar·’ê·hū wə·’el- gə·ḇō·ah qō·w·mā·ṯōw kî mə·’as·tî·hū kî lō ’ă·šer hā·’ā·ḏām yir·’eh kî hā·’ā·ḏām yir·’eh la·‘ê·na·yim Yah·weh yir·’eh lal·lê·ḇāḇ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said YHWH to Samuel: “Look-not to his-appearance and-to the-height-of his-stature, for I-have-spurned-him; for not as-that-which man sees: for the-man looks to-the-eyes, and-YHWH looks to-the-heart.”
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We can tell how men look, but God can tell what they are. He judges of men by the heart.
man only sees what is without, but the Lord sees what is within; only the outward visible form of the body is seen by man, but the inward qualifications and endowments of the mind are seen by the Lord
The eyes, as contrasted with the heart, are figuratively employed to denote the outward form.
8Then Jesse called Abinadab and presented him to Samuel, who said, “The LORD has not chosen this one either.”
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yi·šay ’el- way·yiq·rā ’ă·ḇî·nā·ḏāḇ way·ya·‘ă·ḇi·rê·hū lip̄·nê šə·mū·’êl way·yō·mer Yah·weh lō- ḇā·ḥar bā·zeh gam-
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-called Jesse to-Abinadab and-made-him-pass-over before Samuel; and-he-said: “Also-in-this-one has-not-chosen YHWH.”
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9Next Jesse presented Shammah, but Samuel said, “The LORD has not chosen this one either.”
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yi·šay way·ya·‘ă·ḇêr šam·māh way·yō·mer Yah·weh lō- ḇā·ḥar bā·zeh gam-
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-made-pass-over Jesse Shammah; and-he-said: “Also-in-this-one has-not-chosen YHWH.”
Where the English smooths the original
and he said, neither hath the Lord chosen this; which he knew in the same way as before.
Shammah, called also Shimeah , 2 Samuel 13:3 , and Shimna 1 Chronicles 2:13Poole's cross-references are to the parallel name-forms in the later histories; the spellings differ between his text and modern editions.
10Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel told him, “The LORD has not chosen any of these.”
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yi·šay šiḇ·‘aṯ bā·nāw way·ya·‘ă·ḇêr lip̄·nê šə·mū·’êl šə·mū·’êl ’el- way·yō·mer yi·šay Yah·weh lō- ḇā·ḥar bā·’êl·leh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-made-pass-over Jesse seven-of his-sons before Samuel; and-said Samuel to Jesse: “Has-not-chosen YHWH in-these.”
Where the English smooths the original
These seven, with David, the youngest, make eight. In 1Chronicles 2:13-15 only seven of the family are recorded: one apparently of that bright band of youths died young.
Not all at once, but seven in all, one after another, in order, David being the eighth.
including the three who had already passed. It appears that Jesse had eight sons;
11And Samuel asked him, “Are these all the sons you have?” “There is still the youngest,” Jesse replied, “but he is tending the sheep.” “Send for him,” Samuel replied. “For we will not sit down to eat until he arrives.”
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šə·mū·’êl ’el- way·yō·mer yi·šay hă·ṯam·mū han·nə·‘ā·rîm ‘ō·wḏ šā·’ar haq·qā·ṭān way·yō·mer wə·hin·nêh rō·‘eh baṣ·ṣōn šil·ḥāh wə·qā·ḥen·nū šə·mū·’êl ’el- way·yō·mer yi·šay kî lō- nā·sōḇ ‘aḏ- bō·’ōw p̄ōh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said Samuel to Jesse: “Are-they-finished, the-lads?” And-he-said: “Yet-remains the-little-one, and-behold, he-is-tending among-the-flock.” And-said Samuel to Jesse: “Send and-take-him, for we-will-not sit-around until his-coming here.”
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Jesse having evidently no idea of David's wisdom and bravery, spoke of him as the most unfit. God, in His providence, so ordered it, that the appointment of David might the more clearly appear to be a divine purpose, and not the design either of Samuel or Jesse.
Are here all thy children? The word literally is lads, na'arim. The elder sons must have been nearly or quite grown up, but David was probably a mere boy, and as such had not been thought worthy of an invitation, but had been left with the servants keeping the sheep.
And God does not favour our children according to our fond partiality, but often most honours and blesses those who have been least regarded.
literally, we will not turn round to sit at the table.Barnes's entry here is a bare lexical gloss; the brief supplies it with the feed's own punctuation marks around it.
12So Jesse sent for his youngest son and brought him in. He was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the LORD said, “Rise and anoint him, for he is the one.”
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way·yiš·laḥ way·ḇî·’ê·hū wə·hū ’aḏ·mō·w·nî yə·p̄êh ‘ê·na·yim ‘im- wə·ṭō·wḇ rō·ʾī p̄ Yah·weh way·yō·mer qūm mə·šā·ḥê·hū kî- hū zeh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-sent and-brought-him-in; and-he was-ruddy, with beauty-of eyes and-good-of appearance. And-said YHWH: “Rise, anoint-him, for this is-he.”
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The word denotes the red hair and fair skin which are regarded as a mark of beauty in southern countries, where the hair and complexion are generally dark.
he carried sweetness as well as majesty in his face; in this he was a type of Christ, Sol 5:10.Gill's typological move rests on Song of Solomon 5:10, where the beloved is called white and ruddy; it is a figural reading, not a claim about this verse's grammar.
He was ruddy; which may be referred either to the colour of his hair; or rather, to the complexion of his face. Goodly to look to; of a comely but masculine and majestic aspect.
13So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. Then Samuel set out and went to Ramah.
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šə·mū·’êl ’eṯ- way·yiq·qaḥ qe·ren haš·še·men way·yim·šaḥ ’ō·ṯōw bə·qe·reḇ ’e·ḥāw rū·aḥ- Yah·weh wat·tiṣ·laḥ ’el- dā·wiḏ ha·hū mê·hay·yō·wm wā·mā·‘ə·lāh šə·mū·’êl way·yā·qām way·yê·leḵ hā·rā·mā·ṯāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-took Samuel the-horn-of the-oil, and-anointed-him in-the-midst-of his-brothers; and-rushed the-Spirit-of YHWH upon David from-that day and-upward. And-rose Samuel and-went to-Ramah.
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The effect of this descent of the Spirit of the Lord upon David was that the shepherd boy grew up into a hero, a statesman, a scholar, and a wise, far-sighted king.
But the words may be otherwise translated out of the Hebrew, that he anointed him out of the midst of his brethren , i.e. he selected him from amongst the rest of his brethren to be kingPoole is offering an alternative rendering of the preposition, not a correction of the text; Cambridge flatly rejects it, and both readings are preserved in the apparatus.
Samuel gave unto David that which Saul had not received - long and careful training; and David profited by it,
The exact phrase used of the Judges and Saul.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit opens on a participle, not an event: Samuel is מִתְאַבֵּל, keeping himself in mourning over Saul. Gill guards the grief carefully, saying God “does not blame him for mourning, but for mourning so long”; K&D reads the sorrow as partly political, a fear that Israel would suffer for Saul's rejection; Maclaren, most severely, calls it wrong because it showed “that he had not yet reconciled himself to God's purpose, though his conduct obeyed.” Ellicott, alone among them, turns the grief into evidence of Saul's real greatness, noting how the book “never loses an opportunity of telling how men like Samuel and David mourned for Saul.” ⚙ All four are reading the same Hitpael, and the stem supports all four: it makes mourning a thing done to oneself and kept up.
The cure is an errand with a filled horn. Gill marks what the English cannot: a horn, not the phial used for Saul, “denoting the abundance of gifts bestowed on David, and the firmness and duration of his kingdom.” And the ground of the errand is a perfect verb, רָאִיתִי, “I have seen among his sons a king for Myself.” Benson calls this phrasing “very emphatical,” the difference between a king of the people's providing and a king of God's; JFB says the same, adding that the choice falls to the tribe with the early promise of Genesis 49:10. ⚙ The seeing is already finished before the journey begins. Samuel is sent not to discover a king but to catch up with a decision.
Samuel's objection is a murder verb: וַהֲרָגָנִי, hârag, to smite with deadly intent. Gill and JFB both call the fear a weakness of faith; K&D, more sympathetic, infers from 1 Samuel 16:14 that Saul was already given to the evil spirit, so “the very worst might be dreaded from his madness,” and notes that the Lord does not rebuke the fear but answers it with a procedure. Whether the procedure is honest is the question every commentator here feels bound to answer, and they answer it together: Barnes, that “concealment of a good purpose, for a good purpose, is clearly justifiable”; Pulpit, by asking whether it is ever right to tell in all cases the whole truth; Benson, by the analogy of Moses before Pharaoh; K&D, by quoting Calvin that the sacrifice really was offered and “the prophet was protected thereby.” ⚙ The Hebrew supports them at one point that the English hides: בָּאתִי לִזְבֹּחַ is a perfect, a statement of accomplished fact, and vv. 5 and 13 confirm that the feast actually took place.
At Bethlehem the elders חָרַד, shudder with terror. The verb is violent, and the reason is unstated: Geneva and Poole suspect guilty consciences, Barnes and JFB political fear of Saul, K&D a habit of judicial visits. Samuel's answer is one word, שָׁלוֹם, and Henry hears the gospel in it: “he gave full assurance that he came peaceably, for he came to sacrifice, and he brought his offering with him.” ⚙ Then the grammar turns: the town is told to sanctify itself (Hitpael), while Jesse and his sons are sanctified by Samuel (Piel). Poole says this “argues a singular care and agency of Samuel in their sanctification”; Cambridge takes it as the private interview at which the anointing occurred. The distinction is carried entirely by a change of verbal stem.
Samuel sees Eliab and says אַךְ, “surely.” Cambridge, quoting Stanley, puts the judgment in one line: “the day was gone when kings were chosen because they were head and shoulders taller than the rest.” JFB is blunter, that Samuel “falls into the same error as formerly,” the error of 1 Samuel 10:24. Poole allows that prophets may speak “their own thoughts, before they had consulted God in the case,” and Henry marvels at it: strange that the man once disappointed in Saul should judge the next by the same rule.
The correction uses two verbs of sight. Samuel is told not to נָבַט, not to scan, the appearance and the height; then the sentence shifts to רָאָה, the seeing that God and man each do. The objects are body parts: man looks to the eyes, YHWH looks to the heart. K&D's note is the exact one: “The eyes, as contrasted with the heart, are figuratively employed to denote the outward form.” Cambridge points to 1 Chronicles 28:9, Luke 16:15 and Acts 1:24 as the canon's own commentary. ⚙ It is worth saying plainly that the clause is defective in Hebrew, “for not as-that-which man sees,” with no verb for God; Cambridge notes the words are supplied from the Septuagint. The best-loved half-verse in the chapter rests, in English, on a Greek reconstruction.
Then בָּחַר, the verb of election, enters three times and every time in the negative. ⚙ Election is disclosed here first as refusal: not this one, not this one either, not any of these. K&D and Benson both conclude from the exchange that Jesse had been told the errand; the text never says so.
Samuel asks whether the נְעָרִים are complete, the “lads,” as Pulpit notes the word literally means. The answer names David by no name at all: הַקָּטָן, the little one, the youngest, and he is with the sheep. JFB draws the intended conclusion: Jesse “having evidently no idea of David's wisdom and bravery, spoke of him as the most unfit,” and God so ordered it “that the appointment of David might the more clearly appear to be a divine purpose.” Poole says the same in his own words. Ellicott imagines the household: the boy held of little account, small beside his tall brothers, and “in a moment Samuel saw that in the ruddy shepherd boy” he beheld the future king. Barnes gives the idiom of the refusal to begin the meal its literal force: “we will not turn round to sit at the table.” ⚙ The feast waits on an uninvited child; the sanctified household stands still.
What is then said of David is, by the plain irony of the chapter, a description of his looks: אַדְמוֹנִי, ruddy, beautiful of eyes, good of appearance. Cambridge explains the word as “the red hair and fair skin which are regarded as a mark of beauty in southern countries”; K&D agrees and reasons that beauty was one of the outward distinctions of a king. Poole adds “a comely but masculine and majestic aspect,” Gill hears in it a type of Christ from Song of Solomon 5:10. ⚙ The narrator is not contradicting v. 7. He is showing that the outward is not evil, only insufficient: God, having judged by the heart, then gives a face to the king He chose.
The anointing is public and its meaning is not. Cambridge, K&D, Pulpit and Poole all conclude from Eliab's contempt at 1 Samuel 17:28 that the brothers did not know what they had watched; Poole even offers the alternative rendering, that Samuel anointed him “out of the midst of his brethren,” selecting him rather than performing the rite in their sight. Then the one verb that is not about seeing: וַתִּצְלַח, from tsâlach, to push forward, rush. Barnes notes it is “the exact phrase used of the Judges and Saul.” Henry insists the sign was not empty, “a Divine power went with that instituted sign”; Ellicott traces the effect out into a life, the shepherd boy grown into “a hero, a statesman, a scholar, and a wise, far-sighted king.” And Samuel goes home to Ramah, the whole revolution having consisted of a meal, a horn of oil, and a boy sent back to the sheep.
⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested by Scripture. The chapter is built on one root, râʼâh, to see. God has seen a king (v. 1) before Samuel sets out; Samuel sees Eliab (v. 6) and is wrong; God explains that man sees to the eyes and the LORD sees to the heart (v. 7); and then, having taught the lesson, the narrator tells us exactly what David looked like (v. 12). That last move is not a lapse. It is the safeguard against the pious misuse of v. 7, which would make ugliness a credential and beauty a suspicion. The verse does not say that God ignores the outward; it says the outward is not the standard. What God rejects is not Eliab's height but Samuel's method.
Two further things the text does, quietly. First, election appears three times in the negative (bâchar, vv. 8, 9, 10) before it is ever spoken positively; the choosing of one is experienced from the inside as the passing over of many, and the prophet holding the horn does not know the name until the last boy walks in. Second, the whole transfer of a kingdom happens under the cover of a village peace offering, and the sources are unanimous that the sacrifice was real. ⚙ I would put it this way: God does not smuggle His purposes past the world by lying, but by doing something genuinely good in plain sight and not explaining it. The meal was not a pretext with a sacrifice attached; it was a sacrifice with a purpose withheld. Where I may be wrong: the commentators are defending Samuel against a charge of deceit, and I have followed them; a reader who finds the concealment troubling is reading the same verses I am.
The line below is a machine sentence, not Scripture.
The horn was filled before the boy was found.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The adjective אַדְמוֹנִי (ʼadmônîy, H132) used of David in v. 12 is one of the rarest descriptive words in the Hebrew Bible: the Verifier finds it in three verses in all, and its other main occurrence is Genesis 25:25, where Esau comes out of the womb red. Cambridge and K&D both explain the word here as red hair with a fair skin, a mark of beauty in southern lands where hair is generally black; the Vulgate's rufus, which Pulpit cites, reads it the same way. ⚙ The shared lexeme is verbal and real, but the two uses run opposite: in Genesis it is the first sign of a firstborn who will lose the blessing, and here it is the look of a youngest son who gains it. This is an observation about vocabulary and reversal, not a claim that either text quotes the other.
Genesis 25:25
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H132 ʼadmônîy, a rare word occurring in only 3 verses. Rarity confirms the verbal link; no quotation or citation is claimed in either direction.
“The Bethlehemite,” בֵּית־הַלַּחְמִי (H1022), is not the place-name Bêyth Lechem (H1035) used in v. 4 but the gentilic formed from it, and the Verifier finds it in four verses in the whole Hebrew Bible: here in v. 1, at 1 Samuel 16:18 where a servant of Saul describes “a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite” who can play, at 1 Samuel 17:58 where David tells Saul to his face whose son he is, and at 2 Samuel 21:19. ⚙ The rare form works as a thread: the same four-word identification that God gives Samuel in secret is the one David later gives Saul aloud. Ellicott's note on Bethlehem's “strange notoriety in the annals of the world” from this day forward is the historical version of the same observation.
1 Samuel 16:18 · 1 Samuel 17:58 · 2 Samuel 21:19
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H1022 Bêyth hal-Lachmîy, rare (in 4 vv), at 1 Samuel 16:18 (0.43), 1 Samuel 17:58 (0.44) and 2 Samuel 21:19 (0.25). A rare shared gentilic, not a quotation.
In v. 7 Samuel is told אַל־תַּבֵּט, do not scan, using nâbaṭ (H5027), and the objects of the forbidden look are marʼeh (appearance, H4758) and stature. The Verifier's strongest non-name candidate, 1 Samuel 17:42, carries all three of the same lexemes: Goliath looked (nâbaṭ), saw a naʻar (H5288, the same word Samuel uses of Jesse's boys in v. 11), and despised him for his ruddy good appearance (marʼeh). ⚙ The giant makes the prophet's mistake and draws the opposite conclusion from it, which is why this reads as a deliberate compositional echo rather than coincidence. The lexemes are common enough that I tier this structurally, not verbally: the weight is in the clustering of three, not in the rarity of any one.
1 Samuel 17:42 · 1 Samuel 17:13
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H5027 nâbaṭ (in 67 vv), H4758 marʼeh (in 82 vv), H5288 naʻar (in 221 vv) at 1 Samuel 17:42 (0.39). All three are common words; the link is the cluster and the shared motif of judging by sight, not a quotation.
David is “good of רֹאִי” in v. 12, a noun (H7210) the Verifier finds in only five verses. Two of them are Job's (Job 7:8, Job 33:21), one is Nahum 3:6, and one is Genesis 16:13, where Hagar names the LORD El-roi and says she has seen the God who sees her. ⚙ The link is genuinely verbal by rarity, and I want to under-claim what it means: in v. 12 the noun is about a boy's looks, in Genesis 16:13 it is about God's regard for a discarded woman, and the two senses are related only through the shared root râʼâh. That is a resonance a careful reader may enjoy; it is not an argument, and nothing in the sourced commentary makes it.
Genesis 16:13 · Job 33:21 · Nahum 3:6
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H7210 rŏʼîy, rare (in 5 vv), at Genesis 16:13, Job 7:8, Job 33:21 and Nahum 3:6 (all 0.20). Rare shared lexeme only; the senses diverge and no quotation is claimed.
יִשַׁי (H3448) occurs in thirty-nine verses, and the Verifier finds it clustered around this scene: the genealogy at 1 Chronicles 2:13, the oracle that opens “the saying of the son of Jesse” at 2 Samuel 23:1, Saul's contemptuous “son of Jesse” at 1 Samuel 20:30, and the covenant word to David at 1 Chronicles 12:18, which also shares shâlôwm with vv. 4-5. ⚙ Across these the patronymic travels from a household detail to an insult in Saul's mouth to a formula of dignity in David's last words. Cambridge supplies the genealogy the name assumes: Jesse was grandson of Ruth the Moabitess, through the line of Boaz.
2 Samuel 23:1 · 1 Chronicles 2:13 · 1 Samuel 20:30 · 1 Chronicles 12:18
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H3448 Yishay (in 39 vv) at 1 Chronicles 2:13 (0.32), 2 Samuel 23:1 (0.21), 1 Samuel 20:30 (0.20), 1 Chronicles 12:18 (0.19, also sharing H7965 shâlôwm, in 209 vv). A recurring proper name, so the link is compositional rather than a quotation.
Cambridge cites 1 Chronicles 28:9, Luke 16:15 and Acts 1:24 as the thought of v. 7 developed elsewhere; David's own charge to Solomon says the LORD searches all hearts, Jesus tells the Pharisees that what is exalted among men is abomination before God, and the apostles pray to the “heart-knower” before casting lots for a twelfth man. ⚙ The Greek texts cannot share a Strong's number with this Hebrew verse, so no verbal tier is possible here and none is claimed; the link is a shared standard of judgment, and its warrant is Cambridge's citation plus the plain parallel of content. The Verifier offered no basis for these, because it computes Hebrew-to-Hebrew lexeme overlap only.
1 Chronicles 28:9 · Luke 16:15 · Acts 1:24
basis: No shared Strong's lexeme is possible across Hebrew and Greek, so no verbal tier is claimed. Basis: Cambridge's own cross-references at 1 Samuel 16:7 (1 Chronicles 28:9; Luke 16:15; Acts 1:24) plus the shared motif of God judging the heart against human appraisal.
Ellicott, following Stanley, says the horn held “the oil,” “probably the consecrated oil preserved in the Tabernacle at Nob.” Gill denies it flatly: it was common oil, and the supposition that this was the holy anointing oil “there is no reason to believe,” since the tabernacle was far off and that oil seems to have been for the priests. ⚙ Both are inferences; the Hebrew says only שֶׁמֶן, oil, with no article in v. 1 (the article appears in v. 13, “the horn of the oil,” which is anaphoric to v. 1 and settles nothing). The reader should know the sources disagree, and that the point bears on whether David's anointing was a priestly rite or a prophetic sign. Refs are given for the institution of the holy oil and for the sanctuary at Nob.
Exodus 30:31 · 1 Samuel 21:1
basis: Contested: Ellicott (citing Stanley) identifies the oil as the consecrated tabernacle oil at Nob; Gill expressly denies this. No Verifier lexeme basis links this verse to Exodus 30 or 1 Samuel 21; the refs are supplied for the institution and the site under dispute.
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
The verb מָשַׁח (H4886, to rub with oil) is commanded in v. 3, repeated as an imperative in v. 12, and performed in v. 13; its noun מָשִׁיחַ (H4899) is spoken over the wrong man in v. 6. Ellicott sets out the whole institution: priests, prophets and above all kings were anointed, so that “the favourite designation for the king in Israel was ‘the Lord's anointed,’” and all these “were types of the great expected Deliverer, ever known as the ‘Messiah,’ ‘the Christ,’ ‘the Anointed One.’” ⚙ The link here is not figural ingenuity; it is lexical. The word the New Testament translates as Christos is the word this chapter uses of David, and Psalm 2:2 already sets “His Anointed” alongside the LORD as the object of the nations' rage. This is the ancient and universally held reading.
Psalm 2:2 · Luke 4:18 · Acts 10:38
Verse 13 joins two things in one clause: oil poured by a prophet, and וַתִּצְלַח רוּחַ־יְהוָה, the Spirit of the LORD rushing on David from that day forward. Barnes notes it is “the exact phrase used of the Judges and Saul”; Henry insists the rite was not empty, since “a Divine power went with that instituted sign”; Ellicott calls this Spirit the good Spirit of God, formally opposed to the evil spirit that then leaves Saul's side of the story. ⚙ Isaiah 11:1-2 takes the same two elements, the shoot from the stump of Jesse (the same name, H3448, that this chapter repeats) and the Spirit of the LORD resting upon Him, and makes them the description of the Messiah; the Gospels report the Spirit descending on Jesus at His baptism, and Peter summarises it as God anointing Him with the Holy Spirit and power. The reading is ancient and widely held. ⚙ One honesty note: the Verifier's candidate list for this unit did not include Isaiah 11:1, so the connection here is by shared name and shared motif, not by a computed lexeme basis.
Isaiah 11:1 · Isaiah 11:2 · Luke 3:22 · Acts 10:38
The elders shudder; Samuel answers with one word, שָׁלוֹם, and a reason: I have come to sacrifice. Henry builds the whole typology on that exchange: “When our Lord Jesus came into the world, though men had reason to fear that his errand was to condemn the world, yet he gave full assurance that he came peaceably, for he came to sacrifice, and he brought his offering with him; A body hast thou prepared me.” ⚙ Henry is quoting Hebrews 10:5, itself quoting Psalm 40:6, and the figure holds at the point of the Hebrew: the sacrifice at Bethlehem was not a pretext but an actual offering, which is why K&D, following Calvin, can say no falsehood occurred. The coming that terrifies and the coming that saves are the same coming.
Hebrews 10:5 · Psalm 40:6 · Luke 2:14
Seven sons are sanctified, dressed and paraded; the eighth is not invited, and Jesse names him only as הַקָּטָן, the little one, who is with the sheep. Henry draws the pastoral point that God “often most honours and blesses those who have been least regarded”; JFB and Poole both say the omission was providential, so that the choice would appear as God's work and not Jesse's or Samuel's. ⚙ Read figurally, the shape here is the shape of Psalm 118:22, the stone the builders rejected becoming the head of the corner, which Jesus applies to Himself; and of Bethlehem in Micah 5:2, too little to be among the clans of Judah. ⚙ I mark this novel as applied to this passage: the sourced commentators in this unit do draw the Bethlehem connection (Ellicott and Cambridge both name Christ's birthplace, and Poole cites Micah 5:2 for the town's obscurity), but the specific figure of the uninvited youngest as a type of the rejected stone is my own reading, and it should be tested rather than trusted.
Micah 5:2 · Psalm 118:22 · Matthew 21:42 · Luke 2:4
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
Text. BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbering. The interlinear word order supplied in the brief is display order aligned to the English, not Hebrew order: in v. 1, for instance, יְהוָה is listed before וַיֹּאמֶר, though the Hebrew reads “and-said YHWH.” Every literal line above has been rebuilt in Hebrew order from the surfaces given; note indices still follow the brief's numbering.
A real gap in v. 7. The Hebrew of the central clause has no verb for God: “for not as-that-which man sees.” Cambridge states that the words “the Lord seeth” are “rightly supplied in the Sept.” Readers should know that the familiar English half-verse is, at that point, filled out from the Greek.
What is uncertain in the sources. (1) The oil: Ellicott (citing Stanley) makes it the consecrated tabernacle oil; Gill expressly denies this. Flagged as a thread. (2) David's age: Josephus says ten, JFB reports most moderns at about fifteen, Benson supposes about twenty, and Gill records a rabbinic tradition of twenty-nine which he himself rejects. The text says nothing. (3) The number of sons: eight here with David, seven in 1 Chronicles 2:13-15; Ellicott, Barnes, Poole, Benson and Gill each offer a different guess (one died young, one was by a concubine, one was obscure). No source knows. (4) “In the midst of his brethren” (v. 13): Cambridge and Benson take it as a public act whose meaning was concealed; Gill and Poole prefer “out of the midst,” a selection followed by a private anointing, and Poole shows how the preposition bᵉ can carry that sense. Both readings are represented above and neither is asserted as settled.
Source feed. The commentary entries are supplied verbatim per verse, and some are duplicated or misaligned in the underlying feed: Barnes's note “Trembled” is repeated under vv. 4 through 9, and Henry's Concise entries cover blocks (16:1-5 and 16:6-13) rather than single verses, so the same paragraph appears at several verses. Where a Henry or Barnes excerpt is anchored above, it is anchored inside the entry the brief supplies for that verse. Maclaren's exposition and JFB's entry at v. 1 are capped in the brief; nothing has been quoted from beyond the supplied text.
Machine layer. Every paragraph or clause marked ⚙ is this tool's synthesis: fallible, unauthoritative, offered to be tested against Scripture. The pullquote is a machine sentence, not a verse. Where a thread's tier could have been pressed higher, it has been left lower on purpose.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)