Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
FOR MAN SEETH THOSE THINGS THAT APPEAR, BUT THE LORD BEHOLDETH THE HEART.—In Hebrew, man seeth (and by seeing judgeth) according to the eyes (according to the appearance of the outward eyes), but God seeth (and by seeing judgeth) according to the heart. Wherefore men are often deceived. “The eyes and the countenance often lie,” and indicate a wise or upright mind which is foolish and wicked. But the heart, that is, the mind and will, cannot lie and deceive; because it cannot feign itself other than it really is. God, therefore, is Cardiognostes, that is, inspector of the heart, nay Lord and possessor. The sense is, as if He said: God sees that the heart of David is better than the heart of Eliab; though the countenance and form of Eliab be better and grander than the countenance and form of David: for this reason He will assign the kingdom not to Eliab but to David. Hence the Septuagint render, for man will see into the face, but God into the heart, namely the hidden and inmost things of the heart. And the Chaldee, because the sons of men see with their eyes, and before the Lord the thoughts of the heart are manifest.
10. AND ISAI BROUGHT HIS SEVEN SONS.—Isai, or Jesse (for these two names among the Hebrews are one and the same), had therefore in all eight sons. For David, who was absent, was the eighth. You will say: In 1 Paralipomenon chap. 2, with David only seven sons of Isai or Jesse are numbered. I answer, that there not all are numbered, but one is passed over for a cause unknown to us, perhaps because the eighth was begotten of a concubine or secondary wife; as in chap. 14, verse 49, the sons of Saul are numbered three, and a fourth is omitted, namely Isboseth, of whom in 2 Kings chap. 2.
Otherwise Lyranus, Cajetan and Dionysius; for they say that the name of the third son was Nathan, or Jonathan; and that he is omitted because he was an adopted, not a natural son. But of this adoption of his we read nothing anywhere. Hence it is clear that Samuel revealed to Isai the counsel of God about choosing one of his sons as king, and anointing him. For Isai therefore brought all his sons in order of birth to Samuel, that he might see which of them God would choose.
11. THERE REMAINETH YET A YOUNG ONE.—See here how different are the judgments of God and of men. For Isai esteemed David, as a youth and the least, and therefore feeding sheep, as of small account, and not worthy of Samuel’s sight: whence he did not bring him; but God preferred him to all his brethren, and made him king. Whence St. Ambrose, sermon 18 on Psalm 118: “He was feeding his father’s sheep, sent off to a mean service, he was not presented to the priest (Samuel), as unworthy to be anointed for the kingdom.”
A YOUNG ONE.—Hence also more from chapter 17, verses 33, 42, 56, many think that David, when he was anointed king, was a boy in age, nay a little boy, as St. Chrysostom says on Psalm 1; so also Josephus, Serarius and others.
On the contrary the Hebrews in Seder Olam chap. 13 think that David at this time was 29 years old, because they think that Saul reigned and lived only two years: at whose death David succeeded him at once, being thirty years old, as is said …
The middle opinion is truer, namely that David, when he was anointed, was about twenty years old. For this age is fit for the kingdom and midway between boyhood and manhood. It is proved first, because David in verse 18 is called “very valiant, fit for war, and prudent in his words.” It was easy for him, therefore, to be twenty years old. Secondly, because, as I said in the preceding chapter, Saul by disobedience in sparing Agag in the seventh year of his reign was deprived by Samuel; and presently in the following year, namely the eighth of Saul, Samuel anointed David in place of him now rejected; and Saul after this reigned ten years more: for in all he reigned 18 years. Wherefore since after ten years Saul died, and David, succeeding him in the kingdom, was then thirty years old; we must say that in this year, in which he was first secretly anointed, he was 20 years old. So Abulensis, Dionysius, Salianus and others. Add that Saul in verse 21 made David his armourbearer; and armourbearers are wont to be young men, not boys.
You will say: How then is David here called a young one? I answer, because in respect of all his brethren he was a young one, that is, the least by birth, and therefore a shepherd. Whence for “young one” the Hebrew is katan, that is, little, as the Chaldee renders it. Hence the Septuagint render, the younger, that is, the youngest of the brethren. So Benjamin is called a young one, that is, the youngest by birth of the sons of Jacob, Genesis chap. 43, verse 20, though he had then already begotten ten sons, as is plain from Genesis chap. 46, verse 21.
AND KEEPETH THE SHEEP.—So of old the Patriarchs and Princes were husbandmen and shepherds of sheep, and from sheep learned to feed and rule men. Such were Adam, Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses. Such also were the Romans, of whom Ovid, book 1 of the Fasti:
“The Praetor, his plough laid aside, gave laws to the peoples, and the Senator himself fed his own sheep;”
See what is said on chap. 11, verse 5.
SEND, AND FETCH HIM: FOR WE WILL NOT SIT DOWN TILL HE COME HITHER.—Hence it is plain that David was anointed before the meal, both because arduous matters are wont to be handled before the meal; and because zealous prophets, such as Samuel was, press the commands of God, and carry them out at once before other things; and because, as St. Gregory says: “In the observance of fasting the Sacraments of anointing are to be celebrated.” Whence it has been decreed also that only the fasting receive the sacred chrism in Confirmation.
12. NOW HE WAS RUDDY.—In Hebrew admoni, that is, reddish, sanguine, ruddy, as if he were another Adam, says Theodoret, and therefore a type and figure of Christ. For the ruddy are handsome and often of distinguished character. Whence Cedrenus writes that the Emperor Valentinian was held like David, because he was ruddy, with red hair and grey, beautiful eyes. For the ruddy colour approaches the tawny, such as the lion’s, who in strength surpasses all animals, and is their king. Aristotle adds in the Physiognomics, chap. 10: “Those whose colour is red are keen; since all things that are of the body, heated by motion, grow red.”
ARISE, ANOINT HIM: FOR THIS IS HE—whom I have chosen king, and wish to be anointed by thee. Moreover St. Athanasius in the Life of St. Anthony says that David was recognised by Samuel from the cheerfulness of his countenance, just as the same Anthony was recognised by all among a thousand Monks: “For if anyone who knew him not had desired to see him among a multitude of Monks, no one pointing him out, passing over the rest, he would run to Anthony, and recognise the purity of his soul from his countenance, and through the mirror of the body behold the grace of the holy mind. For always wearing a cheerful face, he plainly showed that he was thinking on heavenly things, as Scripture says: When the heart is glad the countenance flourishes, but in continual sorrow it is saddened,” says St. Athanasius. So Samuel, he says, recognised David: “For he had joyful eyes and teeth white as milk.”
Allegorically, David was a type of Christ, who was “ruddy,” says St. Gregory, “because wounded by the lance; ruddy, because red from the passion. Whence also by the prophet it is said to Him: Why is thy apparel red? For He appeared ruddy who coloured the whiteness of so great innocence with the redness of precious blood. He was also beautiful to behold, because by rising again He put on the beauty of immortality, and looked upon us mortals out of great charity.” The father and brethren of David knew that he was anointed king by Samuel. So Abulensis, though Cajetan denies it. David was anointed three times: first, here, privately; secondly, publicly, when he was made king of the tribe of Juda; thirdly, when he was made king of all the tribes, 2 Kings chaps. 2 and 5. In the Greek codices of the Psalter there is added Psalm 151, which treats of this anointing, where David sings of himself thus: “I was little among my brethren, and the youngest in my father’s house; I fed the sheep of my father, etc. He sent his angel, and took me from the sheep of my father, and anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were handsome and great; but the Lord was not well pleased in them.” Tropologically St. Gregory: “The horn of oil is taken,” he says, “that in that excellent liquid the master of the Church may be zealous to be a man of great mercy. The head of the king is anointed with oil, because he ought to shine upon the candlestick by the flame of the word. The horn receives oil, that by reproving he may purge, and by pitying draw by gentleness. The horn also receives, in the loftiness of his order, oil for the fomenting of virtue. But he is anointed from a full horn, that the virtue of the Pontiff may be shown to be full. For he has a full horn in his anointing, if he is perfect as well in the virtue of mercy as of charity and of the word; he is known also to have a full horn in his anointing whose whole power is dispensed through mercy.” And after several things: “He is anointed with oil in the midst of others, because he who is set as an example for others ought to have no part of himself obscure, that all may look upon him and take from him an example of light.” And a few words later: “Or he is anointed in the midst of his brethren, that anointed and in the middle he may always reckon himself to be. Let him therefore acknowledge his dignity, and exercise the power of his dignity, because he is anointed; let him see himself in the middle, and a man of common condition, that he may recognise as his equals those over whom he is eminent. In the midst of his brethren, then, he is anointed, that he may be both humble and exalted, exalted in rank, humble in estimation. In the midst likewise he is anointed, that he may not love himself with a private love, but in all that he is eminent seek the gains of others.” And here St. Gregory ends his moral exposition in the book of Kings. And below: “He was ruddy, therefore, in the world, beautiful in paradise, of comely face everlasting in heaven; and all this threefold beauty can be known in this present …