Bible Strands
1 Samuel 16:19
So Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Saul dispatches messengers to Jesse at the moment he seeks a musician to relieve his distress, requesting the shepherd boy David.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַיִּשְׁלַח (va-yishlach) denotes sending or dispatching, appearing twice here for Saul’s initial dispatch and his command to Jesse. The imperative שִׁלְחָהּ (shilcha) orders Jesse to send David directly to the king.
The thread — This request echoes the earlier identification of David as Jesse’s youngest tending sheep (1 Samuel 16:11) and anticipates his recurring duty of returning to the flock (1 Samuel 17:15; Psalm 78:70).
Why it lands — The text records a royal command that elevates a rural shepherd into the king’s service. This sequence requires the reader to observe how ordinary labor precedes public calling.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David thy son, which is with the sheep.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 16:11 And Samuel asked him, “Are these all the sons you have?” “There is still the youngest,” Jesse replied, “but he is tending the sheep.” “Send for him,” Samuel replied. “For we will not sit down to eat until he arrives.”
- 1 Samuel 17:15 but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep in Bethlehem.
- Psalms 78:70 He chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds;
- Exodus 3:1 Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
- 1 Samuel 17:33 But Saul replied, “You cannot go out against this Philistine to fight him. You are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”
- 1 Kings 19:19 So Elijah departed and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve teams of oxen, and he was with the twelfth team. Elijah passed by him and threw his cloak around him.
- Psalms 113:8 to seat them with nobles, with the princes of His people.
- Amos 1:1 These are the words of Amos, who was among the sheepherders of Tekoa—what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, in the days when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.
- Amos 7:14 “I was not a prophet,” Amos replied, “nor was I the son of a prophet; rather, I was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore-fig trees.
- Matthew 4:18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.