Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
Chapter 16. Synopsis of the Chapter
Samuel anoints David king, to succeed Saul at his death. Presently, verse 14, the Spirit of God passes from Saul to David, and an evil spirit vexes Saul, whom David drives out by playing the harp. Whence, verse 21, Saul loves him and makes him his armourbearer.
1. And the Lord said to Samuel: How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, whom I have rejected from reigning over Israel? Fill thy horn with oil, and come, that I may send thee to Isai the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons. 2. And Samuel said: How shall I go? for Saul will hear of it and will kill me. And the Lord said: Thou shalt take a calf of the herd in thy hand, and thou shalt say: I am come to sacrifice to the Lord. 3. And thou shalt call Isai to the sacrifice, and I will shew thee what thou shalt do: and thou shalt anoint whom I shall shew thee. 4. And Samuel did as the Lord had spoken: and he came to Bethlehem. And the ancients of the city were astonished at his coming, and said: Is thy coming hither peaceable? 5. And he said: It is peaceable: I am come to sacrifice to the Lord: be sanctified, and come with me, that I may sacrifice. And he sanctified Isai and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice. 6. And when they were come in, he saw Eliab, and said: Is the Lord’s anointed before him? 7. And the Lord said to Samuel: Look not on his countenance, nor on the height of his stature: because I have rejected him, nor do I judge according to the look of man: for man seeth those things that appear, but the Lord beholdeth the heart. 8. And Isai called Abinadab, and brought him before Samuel, who said: Neither hath the Lord chosen this. 9. And Isai brought Samma, of whom he said: This also the Lord hath not chosen. 10. And Isai brought his seven sons before Samuel: and Samuel said to Isai: The Lord hath not chosen any of these. 11. And Samuel said to Isai: Are here all thy sons? He answered: There remaineth yet a young one, who keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said to Isai: Send, and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he come hither. 12. He sent therefore, and brought him. Now he was ruddy, and beautiful to behold, and of a comely face. And the Lord said: Arise, and anoint him: for this is he. 13. Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day and thenceforward: and Samuel rose up, and went to Ramatha. 14. And the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. 15. And the servants of Saul said to him: Behold now an evil spirit from God troubleth thee. 16. Let our lord say to thy servants, who are before thee, to seek out a man skilful in playing on the harp, that when the evil spirit from the Lord is upon thee, he may play with his hand, and thou mayest bear it more easily.
17. And Saul said to his servants: Provide me then some one that can play well, and bring him to me. 18. And one of the servants answering, said: Behold I have seen the son of Isai the Bethlehemite, a skilful player, and a very valiant man, and fit for war, and prudent in his words, and a comely person: and the Lord is with him. 19. Saul therefore sent messengers to Isai, saying: Send me David thy son, who is in the pastures. 20. And Isai took an ass loaded with bread, and a vessel of wine, and a kid of the goats, and sent them by David his son to Saul. 21. And David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him exceedingly, and he became his armourbearer. 22. And Saul sent to Isai, saying: Let David stand before me, for he hath found favour in my sight. 23. Whensoever therefore the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul, David took his harp, and played with his hand, and Saul was refreshed, and was better, for the evil spirit departed from him.
1. HOW LONG WILT THOU MOURN FOR SAUL (and mourning pray for his restoration), WHOM I HAVE REJECTED (as disobedient, obstinate and impenitent) FROM REIGNING OVER ISRAEL?—“For why,” as St. Gregory says, “is a rejected person bewailed, when a better is put in his place?” Hear St. Chrysostom, homily 5 On Penance: “The blessed Samuel spent much time praying for Saul, and passed many nights sleepless for the salvation of the offender. But God, refusing the time (for the penance of a sinner does not agree with the prophet’s prayer), says to the prophet: How long wilt thou weep? “how long” shows the time, and the perseverance of the suppliant? And God rejected the time of the prophet’s supplication. For the penance of the king did not stand with the intervention of the just man.” And St. Bernard, sermon 49 on the Canticle: “Samuel,” he says, “mourned for Saul, who sought to kill him; his breast glowing with the fire of charity, the fat of piety melted within flowed out through his eyes.” Chrysostom adds that it was otherwise with David, who, rebuked by Nathan for adultery and homicide, repented in earnest, and therefore at once heard from him: “The Lord also hath taken away thy sin,” 2 Kings 12.
FOR I HAVE PROVIDED ME A KING AMONG HIS SONS,—that is, I have destined one of the sons of Isai to be created king, who shall succeed Saul. But why does He not designate or name him? The cause is given by St. Chrysostom on Psalm 50:
“Attend diligently,” he says. “He did not say to Samuel: Go and anoint David for me; but go, anoint for me one of the sons of Jesse. Namely lest the same should befall David that had before befallen Joseph; for as the brethren, when they understood that he would be king, laid snares for him, in the same way there was danger lest these also should perpetrate the same crime.” Theodoret also expressed the same, Question 37 on Kings: “For,” he says, “since even thus, the election being made, the brethren disclosed their envy, seeing their brother in the battle line, what would they not have done if it had not been done in this manner?”
4. THE ANCIENTS WERE ASTONISHED,—and at the same time frightened, because it was unusual for so great a Prophet and Judge to come alone; and because he was present unexpectedly, no warning having been given; whence they feared lest, fleeing the angry Saul, he might bring his anger down upon the Bethlehemites, as receivers of Samuel; or lest he should announce something sad. Tropologically St. Gregory: “Chosen Doctors,” he says, “ought scarcely ever to be seen in public, but to be frequent in secret, empty of civil business, full of spiritual.”
BE SANCTIFIED,—that is, prepare yourselves holily for the holy sacrifice; to which I invite you that you may be present at it: although Samuel called only Isai with his sons to the feast of the sacrifice, that he might secretly anoint one of his sons as king; whence follows:
5. AND HE SANCTIFIED ISAI AND HIS SONS, AND CALLED THEM TO THE SACRIFICE.—That is, he commanded them to be sanctified, or purified, by abstinence from the marriage bed, and by sprinkling of lustral water: that if they had contracted any legal irregularity, they might expiate it by this lustration. See what is said on Numbers 19. The Gentiles imitated the same, according to that: “Chaste things please the gods, come in pure garb.” And: “Until I have washed myself in living stream.”
Whence that law in Cicero, book 2 On the Laws: “Let them approach the gods chastely.” Hence St. Gregory gathers by an argument from the less to the greater, and says: “If they dare not be present at sacrifices unless sanctified, what is to be thought of those who sacrifice? for to sanctify is to purify. How pure, then, ought the Pontiffs to be, where the people invited to the sacrifice are not to be admitted unless sanctified? For the sanctification of the body is chastity; the sanctification of the mind, charity and humility.”
6. AND WHEN THEY WERE COME IN—to the feast prepared after the sacrifice of Samuel was ended, for not in the sacrifice, as being public before the ancients, but in the feast before Isai and his brethren, Samuel secretly anointed David king; lest Saul should understand the matter and plot the death of both, namely of Samuel as well as of David.
HE SAW ELIAB, AND SAID: IS THE LORD’S ANOINTED BEFORE HIM?—as if to say: Samuel set Eliab, the first-born of Isai, before him and presented him to the Lord, and asked Him: Is this, O Lord, he whom Thou hast chosen as king, that Thou mayest bid him be anointed by me; and so he himself become Christ, that is, the anointed of the Lord?
7. AND THE LORD SAID TO SAMUEL: LOOK NOT ON HIS COUNTENANCE (manly, tall and elegant), NOR ON THE HEIGHT OF HIS STATURE (as King Saul stood above the whole people from the shoulder upward), BECAUSE I HAVE REJECTED HIM.—In Hebrew meastihu, that is, I have reprobated him; the Septuagint, because I have despised him; the Chaldee, I have removed him, namely from the kingdom, as if to say: I have rejected Eliab, although first-born, handsome and tall, that he be not king. So St. Gregory, Abulensis, Hugh, Lyranus and Dionysius. Others, as if to say: I have rejected him, that is, my Christ, whom I wish to be anointed by thee as king; namely, I have made David rejected, that is, the youth and the least by birth among the sons of Isai.