The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 294

he woul,l hnve been a faithful and loyal ser- the town, and with them Jesse ar,d his elder vant to the Inst. It was Saul really who sons, would be present by the prophet's invit- thrust the kingdom upon David. As regards ation. It is plain that such sacrifices were Samuel's fears; headstrong as Saul was, he not unusual, or Saul would have demanded a owed too much to the prophet to have put reason for Samuel's conduct. As the ark him to death; bnt he would have visited the remained so long in obscurity at Kirjath- act upon Jesse and his family with revengeful jearim, and the solemn services of the taber- violence, and Samuel would henceforward nll.cle were not restored until Saul at some have lost all freedom of action, even if he period of his reign removed it to Nob, were not cast into prison, or banished from possibly Samuel may have instituted this the land. God therefore commands him to practice of occasionally holtling sacrifices, take an heifer with him, and say, I am come to now at one place and now at another, to keep sacrifice to Jehovah. The question has been alive a sense of rrligion in the 11··,ttts of the asked, Was there in this any duplicity 1 In people; and probably on such occasions he answer we may ask another question: Is it taught them the great truths of the law, thus always necessary, or even right, to tell in all combining in his person the offices of prophet cases the whole truth ? If so, quarrels nnd and priest. Nevertheless, the elders of the ill-feeling would be multiplied to such an town trembled at his coming. :More literally, extent that social life would be unendurable. "went with trembling to meet him." Very All charitable, well-disposed persons suppress probably such visitations often took placo much, and keep a guard over their lips, lest because some crime had been committed into they should stir up strife and hatred. Now which Samuel wished to inquire, or because here there was to be no treason, no inciting the people had been negligent in some duty. to civil war. David, still a child, was to be And though conscious of no such fault, yet set apart for a high destiny, possibly without at the coming of one of such high rank their at the time fully knowing what the anointing minds foreboded evil. He quiets, however, meant, and certainly with the obligation to their fear~ and bids them sanctify them- take no step whatsoever towards winning selves ; i. e. they were to wash and purify the crown that was to descend upon his head. themselves, and abstain from everything un- This was his probation, and he bore the trial clean, and put on their festal garments (Exod. nobly. And what right would Samuel have xix. 10 ; and comp. 1 Sam. xxi. 5). It is had, not merely to compel David to be a added, He sanctified Jesse and his sons, i. e. traitor, but to place Jesse and his family in he took especial care that no legal impmity a position of danger and difficulty 1 To have on their part should stantl in the way of the anointed Davi,! publicly woultl have forced execution of his errand. Jesse to an open rupture with the king, and Vers. 6-10.-When they were come. I. e. he must have sought safety either by fighting to the house of Jesse, apparently in the in- for his life, or by breaking up his home, and terval between the sacrifice and the feast. fleeing into a foreign land. David in course The latter we learn in ver. 11 did not tako of time had thus to seek an asvlum for his place until nfter David had been sent for. parents (eh. xxii. 3, 4), but it was through no But many hours would elapse between the fault of his own, for he always remained sacrifice and the feast, as the victim had to true to his allegiauce. Even when David was be skinned and prepared for roasting, and being hunted for his life, he made no appeal to finally cooked. This interrnl was spent in Samuel's anointing, but it remaincrl, what it Jesse's house ; and when he saw there Eliab, was ever intended to be, n secret sign and the first-born, and observed his tall stature declaration to him of God's preordained pur- and handsome face, qualities which Samuel pose, but of one as to which he was to take had ad.mired in Saul, be said, i. e. in him- no step to bring about its fulfilment. It was self, felt sure, that the goodly youth was a pledge to David, e,nd nothing but misery Jehovah'a anointed (see on eh. ii. 10, 35; L would have resulted from its being prema- 1, &c.), but is warned that these external turely made known to those who had no ndvantagcs do not necessarily imply real right to know it. God ,naps up the flower, worth of heart; and as Jehovah looketh on which is in due time to open and bear fruit, the heart, his judgnient dcpcmls, not on within many a covering ; and to rend these appearances, but on reality. As Eliab is open prematurely is to destroy the flower and thus rejected, Jesse makes his other sons pass the fruit that is to spring from it. And so before the prophet. Next Abinadab, who has to have anointed David openly, :mcl to have the same name as a son of So.ul (eh. xxxi. 2); made him understand the meaning of the then Shammah, so called again in eh. xvii. act, would have been to destroy David and 13, but Shimeah in 2 Sam. xiii. 3, an,l frustrate the Divine purpose. Shimma in 1 Chron. ii. 13, where, however, Vers. 3-5. -Call Jeeee to the sacrifice. the Hebrew is exactlv the same as in 2 Sam. The word used is zebach, and means a sacrifice xiii. 3. After these· r t:r other sons follow, followe,l by a feast, at which o.ll the elders of of "'horn one apparently died young, as ouly  296 THE FlllST BOOK OF 8.\:\IUEL. [cH. XVI. 1-23,,