1 Samuel 16:13 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Samuel 16:13
Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.
to rise (in various applications · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
went
יָלַךְyâlak
H3212
to walk (literally or figuratively)
Ramah
הָרָמָֽתָהha.ra.Ma.tah
H7414
Ramah · definite article + proper noun, a place name + directional suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Samuel 10:6 And the Spirit of the LORD will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.
Hebrews 1:9 Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellow…
John 3:34 For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
1 Samuel 10:1 Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said, Is it not because the LORD hath anointed thee to be c…
Numbers 27:18 And the LORD said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thine hand upon him;
Judges 11:29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead, and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh o…
1 Samuel 10:9-10 And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day.
Judges 3:10 And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel, and went out to war: and the LORD delivered Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesop…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 16:6-13
If the sons of Jesse were told that God would provide himself a king among them (as he had said, Sa1 16:1), we may well suppose they all made the best appearance they could, and each hoped he should be the man; but here we are told,
I. How all the elder sons, who stood fairest for the preferment, were passed by.
1. Eliab, the eldest, was privately presented first to Samuel, probably none being present but Jesse only, and Samuel thought he must needs be the man: Surely this is the Lord's anointed, Sa1 16:6. The prophets themselves, when they spoke from under the divine direction, were as liable to mistake as other men; as Nathan, Sa2 7:3. But God rectified the prophet's mistake by a secret wh…
Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him--This transaction must have been strictly private.
Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 16:13
The Spirit of the Lord came upon David - God qualified him to be governor of his people, by infusing such graces as wisdom, prudence, counsel, courage, liberality, and magnanimity.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 16:13
Then Samuel took the horn of oil,.... Out of his pocket, which he brought along with him by the direction of God:
and anointed him in the midst of his brethren; not in the presence of them, they sitting around, or standing by and seeing the ceremony performed; which is not consistent with the secrecy with which Samuel was directed to manage this affair, and which was necessary to observe, to keep it from the knowledge of Saul; and with Eliab's treatment of David afterwards, who would never have addressed him in the manner he did, had he known that he was anointed king, 1 Samuel 17:28 but the sense is, according to Kimchi and Abarbinel, that he was selected out of them, and separated from th…
Samuel arose and went to Ramah. Having completed the duty of anointing, Samuel returned home; for now, with the coming of the Lord who was foretold to come, the proclamations of the prophets were silenced. For the Law and the prophets prophesied until John (Matthew 11), from then on the kingdom of God is preached. But John himself, by the duty of his forerunning, said: "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3).
So clearly holy David was filled with heavenly inspiration, and not through human actions, the birth of twins, angels, visions, a dream, a cloud and a voice from heaven, or any other way of that kind. As the first book of Kings [Samuel] says of him: "And the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward." The Lord himself too says in the Gospel: "If David in the spirit calls him Lord, how do you say he is his son?" By these words we realize that the psalms were clearly expressions of prophecy through the holy Spirit.
So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him, etc. The prophet received the task of proclaiming the glory of the true king, and said: "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God has anointed you" (Psalm 44). He who was conceived of the Holy Spirit never ceased to have the fullness of that same Spirit from the hour of his conception. John received the duty of bearing witness to Christ; and when the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the midst of those he baptized, he saw and bore witness that this is the Son of God; and Jesus went forth in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Anoint — The practice of anointing with perfumed oil was common among the Hebrews. (1.) The act of anointing was significant of consecration to a holy or sacred use; hence the anointing of the high priest…
Bethlehem — House of bread. (1.) A city in the “hill country” of Judah. It was originally called Ephrath (Gen. 35:16, 19; 48:7; Ruth 4:11). It was also called Beth-lehem Ephratah (Micah 5:2), Beth-lehem-judah (1…
David — Beloved, the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, a citizen of Bethlehem. His father seems to have been a man in humble life. His mother’s name is not recorded. Some think she was the Nahash of 2 Sam.…
Horn — Trumpets were at first horns perforated at the tip, used for various purposes (Josh. 6:4, 5). Flasks or vessels were made of horn (1 Sam. 16:1, 13; 1 Kings 1:39). But the word is used also…
King — Is in Scripture very generally used to denote one invested with authority, whether extensive or limited. There were thirty-one kings in Canaan (Josh. 12:9, 24), whom Joshua subdued. Adonibezek…
Ramah — (a hill). This is the name of several places in the holy land.
Anointing · .David — .David
Anointing Of The Holy Spirit · Typified — Typified
Christ, The King · Typified: David — Typified: David
Church And State · .Withdraws support and anoints a succes — .Withdraws support and anoints a succes
David · .Anointed king, while a youth, by the prophet Samuel, and inspired — .Anointed king, while a youth, by the prophet Samuel, and inspired
Jesse
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Samuel 16:1-13
Anointing of David. - Sa1 16:1. The words in which God summoned Samuel to proceed to the anointing of another king, "How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, whom I have rejected, that he may not be king over Israel?" show that the prophet had not yet been able to reconcile himself to the hidden ways of the Lord; that he was still afraid that the people and kingdom of God would suffer from the rejection of Saul; and that he continued to mourn for Saul, not merely from his own personal attachment to the fallen king, but also, or perhaps still more, from anxiety for the welfare of Israel. He was now to put an end to this mourning, and to fill his horn with oil and go to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for t…
The Spirit of the Lord came . . . upon David, as was consistently evident (e.g., 16:23; 17:48-54; 18:5, 12-16). The Spirit of the Lord had also come upon Saul (10:10) but had left him because of disobedience (16:14). • Ramah: Samuel’s hometown (1:1).
Rashi on 1 Samuel 16:13
And a spirit of Adonoy passed over. A spirit of strength.7Targum renders ‘a spirit of prophecy.’
Judah, The Tribe Of · After Saul’s rebellion appointed to furnish kings to Israel — After Saul’s rebellion appointed to furnish kings to Israel
King · .David and the Davidic dynasty — .David and the Davidic dynasty
Kings · Ceremonies at inauguration of: Anointing — Ceremonies at inauguration of: Anointing
Oil · Used for anointing kings — Used for anointing kings
Ramah · .Home of Samuel — .Home of Samuel
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
