Now therefore thus shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, even from following the sheep, that thou shouldest be ruler over my people Israel:
Thus saith the Lord ... I took thee from the sheep-cote х min (H4480) hanaaweh (H5116)]. The flocks of nomad people are commonly kept in the open country, without being put within folds. In other circumstances they are driven into uncovered enclosures raised in various parts of their pastoral range. These are the 'sheep-cotes'-a rude structure of mud walls, generally in the form of a round tower of rude construction, high-walled, but open at the top, in which sheep are often enclosed at night to protect them from wild beasts. The meaning is: I elevated you to the throne from a humble condition solely by an act of divine grace, and not from any antecedent merits of your own (see the note at 1 Samuel 16:11), and enabled you to acquire renown equal or superior to any other monarch. Your reign will be ever afterward regarded as the best and brightest era in the history of Israel, because it will secure to the nation a settled inheritance of prosperity and peace, without any of the oppressions or disorders that afflicted them in early times.