1 Samuel 16:19

19 Therefore Sha'ul sent messengers to Yishai, and said, Send me David your son, who is with the sheep.

1 Samuel 16:19 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 16:19

Wherefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse
For David; not choosing to take him without his leave, though Samuel suggests that kings would do so, ( 1 Samuel 8:11 )

and said, send me David, thy son, which is with the sheep;
he had learnt his name, and what was his employment; and which last he mentions not by way of contempt, it not being reckoned mean and despicable even in the sons of great personages, in those times and countries, to attend flocks and herds: so with the Arabs, as Philo ^F14 testifies, young men and maids of the most illustrious families fed cattle; and with the ancient Romans, the senator ^F15 fed his own sheep. Paris, son of Priamus, king of Troy, is said ^F16 to feed his father's oxen and sheep; and Saul himself had done the same; but to describe him particularly.

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FOOTNOTES:

F14 De Vita Mosis, l. 1. p. 610.
F15 "Pascebatque suas" Ovid. Fast. l. 1.
F16 Coluthi Raptus Helenae, v. 71, 101.

1 Samuel 16:19 In-Context

17 Sha'ul said to his servants, Provide me now a man who can play well, and bring him to me.

18 Then answered one of the young men, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Yishai the Beit-Hallachmite, who is skillful in playing, and a mighty man of valor, and a man of war, and prudent in speech, and a comely person; and the LORD is with him.

19 Therefore Sha'ul sent messengers to Yishai, and said, Send me David your son, who is with the sheep.

20 Yishai took a donkey [laden] with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David his son to Sha'ul.

21 David came to Sha'ul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armor bearer.