Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse, and said, “Send me David your son, who is with the sheep.”
Parallel translations
- KJV Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David thy son, which is with the sheep.
- BSB So Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.”
- NKJV Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse, and said, “Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.”
- NASB So Saul sent messengers to Jesse to say, “Send me your son David, who is with the flock.”
- NLT So Saul sent messengers to Jesse to say, “Send me your son David, the shepherd.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Saul sends messengers to Jesse requesting David, who is with the sheep. David is called from shepherding into the king's service.
Overview
Saul's summons draws David from the fields, again highlighting his humble role as a shepherd before his rise. The request fulfills the servant's recommendation and advances God's plan to bring David near the throne. The shepherd is being prepared to become the shepherd-king of Israel.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- 1 Sam 17:15Now David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.
- 1 Sam 16:11Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your children here?” He said, “There remains yet the youngest. Behold, he is keeping the sheep.” Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down until he comes here.”
- Ps 78:70–72He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;
- Matt 4:18–22Walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers: Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.
- Exod 3:1–10Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to God’s mountain, to Horeb.
- Amos 7:14–15Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore figs;
- 1 Kgs 19:19So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. Elijah went over to him, and put his mantle on him.
- Ps 113:8that he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people.
- Amos 1:1The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
- 1 Sam 17:33–34Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.”
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Christ at the center
The rise of the anointed king after Israel's failed first choice points to the true Anointed One (Messiah means 'anointed'), the shepherd-king after God's own heart from Bethlehem.
How 1 Samuel 16:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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