And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.
How long wilt thou mourn, for Saul? Samuel's grief on account of Saul's rejection, accompanied, doubtless, by earnest prayers for his restitution, showed the amiable feelings of the man; but they were at variance with his public duty as a prophet. The declared purpose of God to transfer the kingdom of Israel into other hands than Saul's was not an angry menace, but a fixed and immutable decree; so that Samuel ought to have sooner submitted to the peremptory manifestation of the divine will. But to leave him no longer room to doubt of its being unalterable, he was sent on a private mission to anoint a successor to Saul (see the note at 1 Samuel 10:1). The immediate designation of a king was of the greatest importance for the interest of the nation, in the event of Saul's death, which at this time was dreaded: it would establish David's title, and comfort the minds of Samuel and other good men with a right settlement, whatever contingency might happen.
Fill thine horn with oil. Horns were anciently used for holding liquors, which were sometimes drunk out of them. They were hung up on the walls of rooms or the poles of tents (Isaiah 22:24).
I will send thee to Jesse the Beth-lehemite. The genealogy of Jesse is traced (Ruth 4:18-21) to Boaz. But the object was merely to prove that he was a link in the Messianic chain of descent; and it is left quite unknown whether Jesse was the oldest of Obed and Boaz's family, the heir of that wealthy proprietor, or a younger son. That he was a comparatively poor man has been inferred from his having a small flock, under the care of one shepherd only, his youngest son. At the same time, he seems to have been a man of note in the village, esteemed for his piety and general worth of character (cf. Isaiah 11:1).
I have provided me a king. The language is remarkable, and intimates a difference between this and the former king. Saul was the people's choice-the fruit of their wayward and sinful desires for their own honour and aggrandizement; the next was to be of God's nomination, who would consult the divine glory, and selected from that tribe to which the pre-eminence had been early promised (Genesis 49:10).