1 Samuel 16:1-10 ▼

1 And YHWH says to Samuel, “Until when are you mourning for Saul, and I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go, I send you to Jesse the Beth-Lehemite, for I have seen among his sons a king for Myself.”

2 And Samuel says, “How do I go? When Saul has heard, then he has slain me.” And YHWH says, “You take a heifer of the herd in your hand, and have said, I have come to sacrifice to YHWH;

3 and you have called for Jesse in the sacrifice, and I cause you to know that which you do, and you have anointed for Me him of whom I speak to you.”

4 And Samuel does that which YHWH has spoken, and comes to Beth-Lehem, and [the] elderly of the city tremble to meet him, and [one] says, “Is your coming peace?”

5 And he says, “Peace; I have come to sacrifice to YHWH, sanctify yourselves, and you have come in with me to the sacrifice”; and he sanctifies Jesse and his sons, and calls them to the sacrifice.

6 And it comes to pass, in their coming in, that he sees Eliab and says, “Surely His anointed [is] here before YHWH.”

7 And YHWH says to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance, and at the height of his stature, for I have rejected him; for [it is] not as man sees—for man looks at the eyes, and YHWH looks at the heart.”

8 And Jesse calls to Abinadab, and causes him to pass by before Samuel; and he says, “Indeed, YHWH has not fixed on this [one].”

9 And Jesse causes Shammah to pass by, and he says, “Indeed, YHWH has not fixed on this [one].”

10 And Jesse causes seven of his sons to pass by before Samuel, and Samuel says to Jesse, “YHWH has not fixed on these.”