The Book of SamuelSample

The Background of Saul’s Hostility: 1 Samuel 16:1-23

Much like the transition from Eli’s family to Samuel in the first division of our book, these chapters present a number of contrasts between Saul and David that explain why David became king in Saul’s place. 

Our author’s account of God’s reversing curses and blessings during this transition in leadership divides into four main steps: the background of Saul’s hostility toward David in 16:1-23; the escalation of Saul’s hostility against David in 17:1-23:28; the de-escalation of Saul’s hostility in 23:29-27:12; and the aftermath of Saul’s hostility in 1 Samuel 28:1-2 Samuel 1:27.

The first step — the background of Saul’s hostility — reveals the spiritual forces at work behind everything that occurs in these chapters. In the first of two episodes, 16:1-13 deals with David and God’s Spirit. In this episode, God called Samuel to travel from his hometown in Ramah to Bethlehem where he started the process of making David the new king of Israel.

God blessed David by commanding Samuel to anoint him as king in a private ceremony. And when David was anointed, another remarkable blessing fell on him. In 16:13 we read that “the Spirit of the Lord” — ruach Yahweh in Hebrew — “rushed upon David from that day forward.” The author of Samuel made it clear that God’s Spirit was the source of the many good things David did “from that day forward.” Our author reinforced this outlook explicitly by highlighting the fact that the Lord was with David at certain crucial moments in 16:18 and 18:12, 14 and 28.

The second episode dealing with the background of Saul’s hostility sets up a striking contrast by reporting on Saul and an evil spirit in 16:14-23. These verses focus on the time when David came to serve Saul on a regular basis in Gibeah, Saul’s capital city. We can’t be sure precisely when these events occurred because Saul didn’t recognize David in the episode that follows. 

The opening, in 16:14, tells us two curses from God that fell on Saul at this time: “The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord” — or as the Hebrew may be translated, “evil spirit” — “tormented him.” Later in these chapters, our author explicitly mentioned the effects of these curses. The departure of the Holy Spirit made Saul fearful in 18:12. And the evil spirit drove Saul to madness in 18:10-19:9. As the author of Samuel also mentioned, Saul’s men brought David to Saul to help when the evil spirit tormented him. Saul’s men described David as a skillful musician, a brave warrior, and a prudent orator. But most importantly, they said that, unlike Saul, the Lord was with David. Our author confirmed this contrast between Saul and David at the end of this episode where he reported that the evil spirit tormenting Saul would leave when David played the lyre.