Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 16

How long wilt thou mourn for Saul? — The constant references to the influence Saul acquired, and the love and admiration he attracted, are a striking feature in this most ancient Book of Samuel, where the fall and ruin of the first Hebrew king are so pathetically related.

Though it tells us how Saul was tried and found utterly wanting, still the record, which dwells on the evil qualities that ruined his great life, never loses an opportunity of telling how men like Samuel and David mourned for Saul, and how heroes like Jonathan loved the king who might have been so great. The ordinary reader of the story, but for these touches of feeling, would be tempted to condemn with far too sweeping a condemnation the unhappy Saul, whose sun, as far as the world was concerned, set amidst clouds and thick darkness.

Is it too much to think that for Saul the punishment ended here? That the bitter suffering caused by the solemn anger of his prophet friend, the gloomy last years of unhappiness and distrust, and the shame and defeat of the last campaign, purged from his noble soul the scars left by self-will and disobedience? The Divine Voice, so well-known to the seer, at length roused him from his mourning inactivity. Though that instrument, prepared with so much care, was broken, the work of God for which this instrument was created must be done. If Saul had failed, another must be looked for and trained to fill the place of the deposed, disobedient king.

Fill thine horn with oil. — Hebrew, the oil; probably, as Stanley suggests, the consecrated oil preserved in the Tabernacle at Nob. (On the use to be made of this “sacred oil,” see Note on 1 Samuel 16:3).

Jesse the Beth-lehemite. — From this day forward the village of Bethlehem obtained a strange notoriety in the annals of the world. David loved the village, where his father, most probably, was the sheik, or head man. “The future king never forgot the flavour,” as Stanley graphically reminds us, “of the water of the well of Bethlehem” (1 Chronicles 11:17). 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.

This Jesse was evidently a man of some wealth. Islamic tradition speaks of him as one who, in addition to his farming pursuits, was famous for his skill in making haircloth and sackcloth.

He will kill me. —The unhappy mental malady of Saul must have made rapid progress. The jealous king was indeed changed from the Saul who, even in his self-willed rebellion against the Lord, was careful to pay honour to Samuel. But now the aged prophet felt that if he crossed the king’s path in any way, even in carrying out the commands of the invisible King of Israel, his life would be forfeited to the fierce anger of Saul.

Take an heifer with you. —And the Divine voice instructed Samuel how he should proceed. There was to be as yet no public anointing of the successor to Saul; only the future king must be sought out, and quietly, but solemnly, set apart for service before the Lord, and then watched over and carefully trained for his high office.

And you shall anoint. From very early times the ceremony of anointing for important offices was customary among the Hebrews. In the first instance, all the priests were anointed (Exodus 40:15; Numbers 3:3), but afterwards anointing seems to have been reserved especially for the high priest (Exodus 29:29). Prophets also seem occasionally to have been anointed to their holy office. Anointing, however, was the principal ceremony in the inauguration of the Hebrew kings.

It belonged in such a special manner to the royal functions that the favourite designation for the king in Israel was “the Lord’s anointed.” In the case of David, the ceremony of anointing was performed three times:

1. On this occasion by Samuel, when the boy was set apart for the service of the Lord.
2. When appointed king over Judah at Hebron (2 Samuel 2:4).
3. When chosen as monarch over all Israel (2 Samuel 5:3).

All these official personages, the priest, the prophet, and peculiarly the king, were types of the great expected Deliverer, ever known as the “Messiah,” “the Christ,” “the Anointed One.”

Wordsworth curiously considers these three successive unctions of David figurative of the successive unctions of Christ: conceived by the Holy Ghost in the Virgin’s womb; then anointed publicly at his baptism; and finally, set at God’s right hand as King of the Universal Church in the heavenly Jerusalem.

Trembled at his coming. —The appearance of the aged seer, with the heifer and the long horn of holy oil, at first terrified the villagers of the quiet, secluded Bethlehem. The name and appearance of the old seer were well known in all the coasts of Israel. Why had he come so suddenly among them? Had their still remote township then been the scene of some unknown and grave crime? What was happening in Israel, which brought Samuel the seer to little Bethlehem?

Peaceably: I am come to sacrifice. —The answer at once reassured the villagers. He had simply come to perform the usual rite of sacrifice among them. The reasons for his coming were unknown, but his mission was one of blessing alone. There was nothing unusual in his sanctifying Jesse and his sons. This was evidently the principal family in the place, and the village sheik and his sons would be the fittest persons to assist in preparing for, and then carrying out, the sacrificial rites.