"How long wilt thou mourn for Saul?… fill thine horn with oil, and go… to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons." Samuel sees Eliab: "Surely the LORD's anointed is before him." "Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature… for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart."
Seven sons pass. "Are here all thy children?" "There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep." David comes, "ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance." "Arise, anoint him: for this is he." "The Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward."
"But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him." His servants seek "a cunning player on an harp." One says: "I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person." David comes; Saul loves him and makes him his armor-bearer. "When the evil spirit from God was upon Saul… David took an harp, and played… so Saul was refreshed."
The lyre
David's kinnor was a lyre, not a modern harp. Lyres appear on the Megiddo ivories, a 12th-century BC jug from Megiddo, and Egyptian paintings of Semitic travelers at Beni Hasan. Music as therapy appears also in Mesopotamian and Greek texts.
An evil spirit from the LORD
The Bible describes Saul's distress theologically: an evil spirit from God. Modern readers sometimes propose depression or other illness; a diagnosis cannot be made from an ancient text, and the narrative's meaning is spiritual and political.
David's introduction, twice
In chapter 16 Saul knows David well; in 17:55–58 Saul asks who David is. Harmonizers suggest Saul did not know David's family, or that 16:14–23 is out of chronological order. The shorter Greek of chapters 17–18 lacks 17:55–58, which removes the tension. See the investigation on the two editions.
The Case for the Biblical Account
Scripture's account
David anointed and brought to Saul's court (1 Samuel 16).
What evidence would we expect?
Bethlehem as a Judahite town; lyres; court musicians.
The discoveries
Lyres in Levantine and Egyptian art; Bethlehem in a bulla (8th–7th century BC).
Testing the discoveries
The cultural setting fits; David's anointing is known only from Samuel.
The strongest reconstruction
The beginning of the account of David's rise.
What remains possible
How chapters 16 and 17 were combined.
What the evidence shows
- Lyres were played in the Levant in this period.
- Saul suffered from a specific modern psychiatric condition.
- "The LORD looketh on the heart."
Continue the journey
Journey of a Passage1 Samuel 17–18: David and Goliath: the short and long editionsThe oldest Greek of 1 Samuel 17–18 lacks about 45% of the Hebrew, including David's arrival with food (17:12–31), Saul's question "whose son is this?" (17:55–18:5), Saul's first spear (18:10–11) and the Merab marriage (18:17–19).More from this lesson
Why this matters to the rest of Scripture
- Jesse son of Obed.
- "He chose David… from the sheepfolds."
- "With my holy oil have I anointed him."
- "Jesse begat David the king."