1 Samuel 16:21

21 David came to Saul and stood before him. Saul liked him immediately and made him his right-hand man.

1 Samuel 16:21 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 16:21

And David came to Saul, and stood before him
As a servant, and ministered to him in the way, and for the purpose for which he was sent:

and he loved him greatly;
being a comely person, and a well behaved youth, and especially as he was serviceable to him with his music, in driving away melancholy from him:

and he became his armourbearer;
that is, he appointed him to this office, though we never read that he exercised it; nor did he go with Saul in this capacity to the battle related in the following chapter: it may be literally rendered: "and he was to him a bearer of vessels", or "instruments" ^F17; and Abarbinel thinks this is to be understood not of instruments of war, but of instruments of music to play with; which he brought in and bare before him when he went in to the king.

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FOOTNOTES:

F17 (Mylk avn wl yhyw) "et fuit ei ferens vasa", Montanus; "ferens instrumenta", Piscator.

1 Samuel 16:21 In-Context

19 So Saul sent messengers to Jesse requesting, "Send your son David to me, the one who tends the sheep."

20 Jesse took a donkey, loaded it with a couple of loaves of bread, a flask of wine, and a young goat, and sent his son David with it to Saul.

21 David came to Saul and stood before him. Saul liked him immediately and made him his right-hand man.

22 Saul sent word back to Jesse: "Thank you. David will stay here. He's just the one I was looking for. I'm very impressed by him."

23 After that, whenever the bad depression from God tormented Saul, David got out his harp and played. That would calm Saul down, and he would feel better as the moodiness lifted.