1 Samuel 16


1 Samuel 16 is the sixteenth chapter of the First Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or the first part of the Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, with additions by the prophets Gad and Nathan, but modern scholars view it as a composition of a number of independent texts of various ages from c. 630–540 BCE. This chapter contains the anointing of David by Samuel and David's early service for Saul. This is within a section comprising 1 Samuel 16 to 2 Samuel 5 which records the rise of David as the king of Israel.

Text

This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 23 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, Aleppo Codex, and Codex Leningradensis. Fragments containing parts of this chapter in Hebrew were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls including 4Q52 with extant verses 1–11.
Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint include Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus.

Places

  • Bethlehem
  • Gibeah
  • Ramah

    Analysis

The section comprising 1 Samuel 16 to 2 Samuel 5 is known as the "History of David's Rise",
with David as the central character, within which 1 Samuel 16:1 to 2 Samuel 1:27 form an independent unit with a central theme of "the decline of Saul and the rise of David". The part emphasizes that David is God's chosen king, but Saul was still king and David was careful not to take over the kingdom from God's anointed, even it is shown throughout that David was under blessing, while Saul was under curse. The narrative stresses that David did not come to power by killing Saul's family, and that Saul and his son Jonathan knew that David was the chosen successor; Jonathan even assisted David by his own virtual abdication, while Saul tried to oppress David due to jealousy.

Samuel Anoints David as King of Israel (16:1–13)

The narrative of David's anointing bears some similarities to Saul's own election to the kingship:
  • YHWH alone chooses a king, so both Saul and David did not come to the throne by chance or force.
  • Saul was from the smallest clan of the smallest tribe of Israel, whereas David was the youngest of Jesse's sons.
  • David was not present for examination and had to be brought from the fields, whereas Saul had to be brought from among the baggage.
Despite the similarities, this narrative the major difference introduced by is that Saul was rejected but David chosen, explicitly shown in verse 13 with the 'transfer of YHWH's spirit from Saul to David and the abandonment of Saul to a malevolent spirit'.

Verse 1

  • "Horn with oil": The anointing oil was placed in an animal horn as container, in contrary to the "flask of oil" used to anoint Saul in 1 Samuel 9. The use of oil for anointing was found in some reports from ancient Near East, but the anointing from a "horn of oil" was found uniquely in ancient Syria-Palestine, such as a depiction in an Egyptian tomb of a Syria-Palestinian envoy carrying a horn of oil, and an Ugaritic text referring to the anointing of king Amuru's daughter by pouring oil from a horn on her head.
  • "Provided": literally "seen" in Hebrew.

    Verse 2

After Saul's rejection, Samuel was fear of Saul's reprisal, so he had to have a pretence of going to Bethlehem to anoint Saul's replacement.
  • "With you": Hebrew: "in your hand."

    Verse 7

Although David was handsome, it is emphasized that God does not look on the 'outward appearance', as it was precisely for that reason that Eliab, who was as tall as Saul, was rejected.

David in Saul's service (16:10–35)

Not long after David was anointed and endowed with YHWH's spirit, Saul became unwell, which turned out to be an opportunity for David to enter the court. David was brought in because of his skill in playing music, but inside the court he had palace training that would be useful for his future. Apparently David's military prowess also attracted the attention of Saul, whose policy was to enlist all capable men in his fight against the Philistines, so David additionally was appointed as Saul's armor-bearer. Furthermore, David was said to have good intellectual judgement, was a man of presence, and on top of those, 'YHWH is with him'. Verse 21 even states that 'Saul loved him', which later turned to a love-hate relationship between the two. An important statement in verse 23: Saul was entirely in David's hands, and David took that responsibility seriously.

Verse 14

  • "Evil spirit": The Hebrew word translated “evil” here may refer to the character of the spirit or to its effect upon Saul. If the former, it could be translated as "demonic spirit", but if the latter, another translation option might be “a mischief-making spirit”. An evil spirit of the God was sent to sow discord between Abimelech and the people of Shechem ; here the evil spirit would lead to discord between Saul and David.

    Verse 18

  • "Prudent in speech": in Hebrew literally "discerning of word".
  • "A handsome person": in Hebrew literally "a man of form".

    Commentaries on Samuel

General

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