1 Samuel 16:6

After Saul disobeyed the LORD’s command concerning the Amalekites, God rejected him as king (1 Samuel 15). Samuel grieved for Saul, and the LORD told him to stop mourning and go to Bethlehem, where he would anoint one of the sons of Jesse (1 Samuel 16:1). Saul still reigned, so the errand was dangerous, and Samuel came with a sacrifice and called Jesse and his sons to it. Bethlehem was a small and quiet town then, though it would become famous as David’s town and, centuries later, as the birthplace of the Messiah.

As the sons arrive, Samuel “looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the LORD’S anointed is before him.” The verb for “looked”, râʼâh, is the ordinary word for seeing, and it covers both looking with the eyes and perceiving. Here it is a first look and a quick verdict on the man standing in front of him. “Surely” translates the Hebrew ʼak, and it shows how confident Samuel was.

The phrase “the LORD’S anointed” is mâshîyach Yᵉhôvâh. Mâshîyach comes from the verb “to anoint” and names someone consecrated for an office, usually a king or a priest, by having oil poured on him. It is the word behind our English “Messiah”, and in 1 Samuel it names the king whom God has chosen. Yᵉhôvâh is God’s personal, covenant name, the name of the eternal God who keeps his promises, which the KJV prints as “the LORD”. So Samuel believed that God himself had set Eliab apart to be king in Saul’s place.

The LORD corrects Samuel before he can act: “Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him.” “Countenance” is marʼeh, a person’s appearance, what the eye can see, here Eliab’s face and bearing. “Stature” is qôwmâh, which simply means height, a noun from the root qûwm, “to rise”. God names the two things Samuel had noticed and tells him to set them aside. “I have refused him” shows that God had already decided about Eliab, from a full knowledge of him that Samuel lacked.

Then comes the reason, and it applies to everyone, Eliab included: “for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” In the KJV the words “the LORD seeth” are printed in italics, because the translators supplied them to make plain what the Hebrew implies. The Hebrew behind “outward appearance” speaks of the eyes. People judge by what the eye can take in: looks, height, clothing, rank and the face a person shows in public.

The heart, lêbâb, is the whole inner person in Hebrew: the mind, the will, the conscience, the character, the intentions and the motives. When the LORD looks on the heart, he sees what a person truly is and how that person stands toward him. The English words “look” and “see” run all through this verse and set two kinds of sight side by side. Samuel, a prophet of long standing, needed the lesson as much as anyone, because human sight stops at the surface and God’s sight reaches what is hidden.

Scripture says this of God again and again. “The LORD pondereth the hearts” (Proverbs 21:2). “The righteous God trieth the hearts and reins” (Psalm 7:9). Through Jeremiah the LORD says that he searches the heart (Jeremiah 17:10). Peter speaks of the inner beauty that God values (1 Peter 3:3–4), and Jesus teaches that when we give and pray, the approval that matters is the Father’s, who sees in secret (Matthew 6:1–6).

Jesse then “called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel.” The verb ʻâbar means to cross over and is used very widely of passing along. Here it describes a formal presentation, with each son brought forward in turn to stand before the prophet. Jesse goes in order of birth, Abinadab second and Shammah third. Over each Samuel says, “Neither hath the LORD chosen this.” The Hebrew has “this one also” (gam-zeh), which ties every refusal back to Eliab’s.

“Chosen” is bâchar, a verb whose root sense is to try, and so to select or appoint. God’s choice was already made, and Samuel’s task was to find the one God had picked. “And he said” in verse 9 is ʼâmar, the common verb for saying, telling or commanding. The weight of Samuel’s words lies in what he says, which is the LORD’s verdict passed on by his prophet.

Jesse went on presenting his sons after Eliab because the LORD’s word about Eliab had come to Samuel alone. From where Jesse stood, he was simply bringing his sons forward one after another, hoping that one of them would be the king.

“Again, Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel.” The word for sons, bên, simply means son. With seven presented, Jesse has brought every son at hand, the full number of those anyone would have expected, and seven often stands for completeness in Scripture. Samuel’s verdict covers them all: “The LORD hath not chosen these.” The refusals build suspense toward God’s choice, and they show Samuel waiting for the LORD’s word over every son and going by it.

Samuel asks, “Are here all thy children?” He knows that the one the LORD has chosen must be somewhere, since God sent him to the sons of Jesse. Jesse answers, “There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep.” He mentions David last and almost in passing, and the family had plainly left him out of the gathering.

“The youngest” is qâṭân, which means small, young or insignificant, always in comparison with others. David was the youngest of the brothers and the one with the least standing among them. In families of that time the youngest son was often given the solitary, menial work, and shepherding was such work, with long hours away from home and danger from wild animals and thieves. Shepherds stood low in the eyes of society. That is why David was in the field while his brothers stood before the prophet.

“He keepeth the sheep” uses râʻâh, to tend a flock, to pasture, to shepherd, in a form that describes ongoing work. A shepherd leads his flock, feeds it, protects it and cares for it, often at risk to himself. That daily work trained courage, care and watchfulness, the very things a king over God’s people would need. Scripture later says that God took David from the sheepfolds to shepherd his people Israel (Psalm 78:70–72), and the shepherd-king becomes a picture that runs through the Old Testament to the Good Shepherd himself. David’s faithfulness in small, unseen work came before the greater calling.

“Send and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he come hither.” To sit down here is to sit at the meal of the sacrifice. Samuel holds everything until the one God has chosen is present, and the family’s oversight gives way to God’s purpose.

“And he sent, and brought him in.” Then the narrator describes David: “he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to.” “Ruddy”, ʼadmônîy, comes from the word for red and describes a reddish complexion, the healthy colour of youth. It is the same word used of Esau at his birth (Genesis 25:25). “Beautiful” is yâpheh, beautiful or fair, an appearance pleasing to the eye. “Goodly to look to” says the same again: David was good to look at.

Then the LORD speaks: “Arise, anoint him: for this is he.” The command is short and settles the matter. After “Neither hath the LORD chosen this” over son after son, the LORD now says “this is he”, in Hebrew kî zeh hûʼ. Samuel had said “Surely” over Eliab, and now the certainty comes from God.

“Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren.” The horn, qeren, is literally a horn, something that projects, and by extension a flask made from one. Saul had been anointed from a small flask (1 Samuel 10:1). A horn is larger and more durable, which fits the full and lasting anointing David received.

“Anointed” is mâshach, to smear or rub with oil, to apply a liquid by pouring or rubbing. The verb is used for many ordinary things, from oiling a shield to painting a house, and when it is used of a person set apart for an office it means to consecrate. Here it consecrates David as God’s chosen king. Mâshach is the root of mâshîyach, the word Samuel used over Eliab, and so of “Messiah”. The Greek word for the same title is christos, “Christ”, and both mean the Anointed One. Samuel’s words “the LORD’S anointed” come true by the end of the passage, in the youngest son.

The anointing takes place “in the midst of his brethren”. The brothers who had been passed over saw it, so God’s choice was made known to those closest to David. It was a private, family anointing, a prophetic act that marked David out for a throne Saul still held.

David’s anointing points to Jesus, whose very title, Messiah or Christ, names what Samuel did to David with the horn of oil. Jesus is the Son of David (Matthew 1:1), from the royal line God promised to David (2 Samuel 7), and he was born in Bethlehem, the town where David was anointed (Luke 2:4–7, Matthew 2:1–7), as Micah had foretold (Micah 5:2).

Jesus also came as God’s chosen King in a form people overlooked. He was laid in a manger and grew up in Nazareth, the town about which it was asked whether any good thing could come out of it (John 1:46). Isaiah had said there would be “no beauty that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2), and that he would be “despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). He “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant”, and humbled himself to death on a cross (Philippians 2:7–8). God has highly exalted him and given him the name above every name (Philippians 2:9). He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

The Spirit came upon David at his anointing, and the Spirit came upon Christ. At his baptism the Spirit of God descended on Jesus like a dove, and the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:16–17). The LORD said of David, “this is he”, and the Father says the same of his Son. Peter later told how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power (Acts 10:38), as Isaiah had foretold that the Spirit of the LORD would rest upon the Messiah (Isaiah 11:2). On the mount of transfiguration the Father’s voice marked him out again (Luke 9:35).

David was called from the sheep to shepherd Israel. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who gives his life for the sheep (John 10:11), and his sheep hear his voice, follow him and receive eternal life from him (John 10:27–28). David’s reign was earthly and it ended. Christ’s kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). It is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17), and “of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:33). He is King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16).

The God who looks on the heart came near in Christ. Jesus exposed those whose outward religion covered hearts full of corruption (Matthew 23:27–28), he called his disciples to a righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:20), and through him God keeps his promise to give his people a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26).

The God who sent Samuel to Bethlehem knew the son he had chosen before Samuel arrived, and he found him in the field. The youngest of the house, the one left with the sheep, was the one God had in view all along. That is good news for everyone others overlook, because God’s verdict rests on what he sees within, and he knows the heart completely. The same truth searches us, since what we do for show is open to him, and what is done for him in secret is seen by him.

The passage also shows that God equips the one he calls. David received the Spirit of the LORD on the day he was anointed, and that gift stayed with him through the long years before he took the throne. The Spirit came first and the crown came later. And all of it points to the King God has given us, David’s Son, who was overlooked, despised and rejected, and who now reigns. In him God gives his people what he looked for in David, a heart that belongs to him.