Saul And David
At the time when the unhappy Saul was beginning to experience the first attacks of that madness which was to mark the end of his reign, a young shepherd of the southern tribe of Yahudah was looking after the family flock near Bethlehem. He was handsome, with a face that radiated sympathy, and he was intelligent. He had fine eyes, and hair of reddish-brown -unusual characteristics in a member of an eastern community. He was of middle height, but well proportioned. His body was lithe and athletic.
His father, one of the distinguished men of Bethlehem, was called Isai, which we usually call Jesse. The young shepherd's name was David.1
We have already seen how hard and exhausting was a shepherd's life, alone in the vast grass-covered plains. Day and night he had to defend his flock against both thieves and wild beasts. Later on David admitted that in his youth he had fought with bears and lions 2 and learnt how to use a sling against them. He had also learnt how to benefit from the long days of overwhelming heat when the flock took shelter together under a terebinth and he practiced on the zither. 3 Among the Hebrews, as generally throughout the East, the player was also a singer, and his instrument was principally used for the accompaniment. In addition, he was usually a poet, and the music formed a background to his poetical improvisations.
David was an extremely attractive young man, of pleasing appearance, and gifted as a poet and musician. These qualities were to prove useful to him.
1 Etymologists have suggested that the name David means 'beloved', but. some Scriptural scholars prefer to translate it by 'head' or 'leader'
2 1Sam 17: 34-37 The lion did not disappear from Palestine until the Middle Ages, at the time of the Crusades; it was the European nobility, keen hunters, who exterminated it. It was the bear, however, that was the real danger, at least when it felt that its young were threatened. The wolf and the leopard were also among the shepherd's traditional enemies. David does not mention them, the must have encountered them at one time or another.
3 Specialists in early instruments now agree that David, at first as a shepherd and then at Saul's court, played on the kinnor (1 Schmuel 16: 16) David's instrument may well have been the zither that appears in the famous fresco of Beni-Hassan, in which Asiatics are shown playing this species of harp. Briefly described, it had a sounding-board of about twenty inches by twelve, and hollow at the top. It had eight parallel strings, stretched horizontally, and plucked by the left hand, these provided the melody of the song. Three or four strings were stretched across the sounding board, and manipulated by the right hand which, with the aid of a plectrum of dark wood, played the accompaniment.
David, The Young Shepherd, Is Anointed
Schmuel was still living in Ramah, bemoaning the ills that must soon fall upon Saul and, through him, upon the people also. Then, one day on instructions from YAHWEH, he filled a ram's horn with oil and set out for Bethlehem. Saul kept a constant watch on his movements and Schmuel, to avoid arousing suspicion, took with him a heifer, saying publicly that he was going to offer a sacrifice to YAHWEH. On arriving at Bethlehem he at once approached its elders, who made no secret of their anxiety at having to receive the king's opponent. From among the elders present he picked out Jesse and invited him and his seven sons to take part in the set apart meal. Each of the young men was introduced to him in turn. He scrutinized them carefully and tried to penetrate their characters. But although he appreciated their physical and moral qualities he realized that it was not upon any of these that YAHWEH's choice had fallen. He asked Jesse whether he had no other sons, and received the answer that there was in fact one more 4 who at the moment was looking after the sheep. Schmuel fastened on this last hope and requested that he should be found immediately. He decided that they would not form the usual circle, (that is, sitting on the ground with the dish in the centre), until the young man arrived.
David came at last, and as soon as he saw him, Schmuel was convinced that this was YAHWEH's chosen one. He took the horn of oil and poured its contents upon the young man's head. After this anointing 5 the spirit of YAHWEH seized on David and stayed with him from that day on (1 Schmuel 16: 13). Without further delay, Schmuel went back to his home in Ramah.
4 It seems, however, that David really had only three brothers (1 Schmuel 17: 13-15). The eight brethren of 1 Schmuel 16: 10 is very probably an embellishment of the narrative.
5 We have already seen that Schmuel had personally anointed Saul while the latter was in search of his father's donkeys. The anointing of David in Bethlehem, on the other hand, had an essentially family setting. It seems that these were private anointings which should be distinguished from those royal anointings, carried out by a kohen or a prophet in the presence of the assembled people, as a solemn hallowing of the man chosen by YAHWEH. The two anointings, so far mentioned, of Saul and David, (without witnesses in the case of Saul: and within a narrow family circle in that of David) should be taken as symbolic, a sign of YAHWEH's choice. It was a hidden liturgical action that may well have long remained without any outward manifestation -as indeed happened in the two instances mentioned.
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