Bible Strands
1 Samuel 16:5
“In peace,” he replied. “I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Samuel answers the trembling Bethlehem elders who question his arrival, then addresses Jesse and his sons to prepare for a religious assembly. He instructs them to consecrate themselves before participating in the sacrifice.
The words — The Hebrew שָׁל֗וֹם (shalom) answers the elders' fear with "peace," while הִֽתְקַדְּשׁ֔וּ (hitqaddeshu) commands the group to "consecrate yourselves" before the ritual.
The thread — The command to prepare for a divine encounter mirrors Moses' instruction in Exodus 19:10, Joshua's warning in Joshua 3:5, and Leviticus 20:7's call for ritual holiness.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to recognize that approaching sacred space demands active preparation, not passive attendance. It establishes a direct link between ritual cleansing and the willingness to participate in God's presence.
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 he said, Peaceably: I am come to sacrifice unto the Lord: sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice.
Cross-references
- Exodus 19:10 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. They must wash their clothes
- Leviticus 20:7 Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, because I am the LORD your God.
- Joshua 3:5 Then Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”
- Exodus 19:14 When Moses came down from the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes.
- Joshua 7:13 Get up and consecrate the people, saying, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Among you, O Israel, there are things devoted to destruction. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.
- 1 Corinthians 11:28 Each one must examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.
- Numbers 11:8 The people walked around and gathered it, ground it on a handmill or crushed it in a mortar, then boiled it in a cooking pot or shaped it into cakes. It tasted like pastry baked with fine oil.
- 2 Chronicles 30:17 Since there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves, the Levites were in charge of slaughtering the Passover lambs for every unclean person to consecrate the lambs to the LORD.
- Job 1:5 And when the days of feasting were over, Job would send for his children to purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.
- Psalms 26:2 Test me, O LORD, and try me; examine my heart and mind.