1 Samuel 16:4
Ver. 4. And Samuel did that which the Lord spake,.... He filled a horn of oil, and took an heifer with him:
and came to Bethlehem; where Jesse and his family lived, which, according to Bunting {y}, was sixteen miles from Ramah; though it could hardly be so much, since Ramah was six miles from Jerusalem on one side, as Bethlehem lay six miles from it on the other {z};
and the elders of the town trembled at his coming; for he being now an old man, and seldom went abroad, they concluded it must be something very extraordinary that brought him thither; and they might fear that as he was a prophet of the Lord, that he was come to reprove them, or denounce some judgment upon them for their sins. The Targum is,
"the elders of the city gathered together to meet him;''
out of respect and in honour to him, and to the same sense Jarchi's note is,
"they hasted to go out to meet him'';