(17) And Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me. (18) Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him.
It is somewhat singular that David should have been so well known at court by Saul's servants, for it appears by the after history of David, (1 Samuel 17:55, etc.) that Saul did not know him. But probably, the account of Jesse's son having killed a lion, and a bear which took a lamb from his flock. (see 1 Samuel 17:34-35), might have been related in Saul's palace among the servants. And if so, this accounts also, for the servants speaking of him as a mighty valiant man: for David at this time could not have been more than from 20 to 25 years of age. And as David began to reign when he was thirty years old, Saul's reign continued five years at least after this event: or if David was but 20 when he was anointed, it must have been ten years. See 2 Samuel 5:4.