Bible Strands
1 Samuel 16:4
So Samuel did what the LORD had said and went to Bethlehem. When the elders of the town met him, they trembled and asked, “Do you come in peace?”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Samuel obeys the LORD’s command and travels to Bethlehem, where the town’s elders meet him in fear and ask if his arrival is peaceful.
The words — The phrase וַ/יַּ֣עַשׂ (va/i.Ya.'as) translates literally as “and he did,” marking Samuel’s immediate compliance with the divine directive.
The thread — The elders’ question “Do you come in peace?” appears in 1 Kings 2:13, 1 Samuel 21:1, and 2 Kings 9:22, where similar inquiries signal uncertainty about a visitor’s intentions.
Why it lands — The text records that obedience to God often provokes fear in those who lack divine context, requiring readers to confront their own tendency to judge sudden divine movements by human standards.
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
And Samuel did that which the Lord spake, and came to Beth–lehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said, Comest thou peaceably?
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 2:13 Now Adonijah son of Haggith went to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, and she asked, “Do you come in peace?” “Yes, in peace,” he replied.
- 1 Samuel 21:1 Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And when Ahimelech met David, he trembled and asked him, “Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?”
- 2 Kings 9:22 When Joram saw Jehu, he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?” “How can there be peace,” he replied, “as long as the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”
- 1 Chronicles 12:17 And David went out to meet them, saying, “If you have come to me in peace to help me, my heart will be united with you; but if you have come to betray me to my enemies when my hands are free of violence, may the God of our fathers see it and judge you.”
- Luke 5:8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees. “Go away from me, Lord,” he said, “for I am a sinful man.”
- 1 Kings 17:18 “O man of God,” said the woman to Elijah, “what have you done to me? Have you come to remind me of my iniquity and cause the death of my son?”
- Genesis 48:7 Now as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died along the way in the land of Canaan, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).
- 2 Samuel 6:9 That day David feared the LORD and asked, “How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?”
- Hosea 6:5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth, and My judgments go forth like lightning.
- Hosea 11:10 They will walk after the LORD; He will roar like a lion. When He roars, His children will come trembling from the west.