Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the LORD said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel.
Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel -
i.e, you were chief commander in the military expeditions against the Philistines, and proved thyself, by thy brilliant successes, to be well qualified to undertake the government and defense of the kingdom.
And the Lord said to thee (see the notes at 1 Samuel 16:11-13, where the divine appointment of David to the throne is recorded).
Thou shalt feed my people Israel, х tir`eh (H7462)] - Thou shalt shepherd, i:e., rule, them. [Septuagint, poimaneis.]
And thou shalt be a captain over Israel, х tihªyeh (H1961) lªnaagiyd (H5057)] - thou shalt be for a leader or a prince (see the notes at 1 Samuel 10:1). This is the first occasion in which the figurative application of a shepherd's office to that of a king occurs in Scripture. It is a phrase very common also in Homer, who frequently describes his royal heroes as 'shepherds of the people.' It evidently arose in times of pastoral and primitive simplicity, and was suggested by its natural fitness to express to men in a primordial state of society the idea of gentle rule and careful supervision. It is applied to the Saviour Himself, who is called the Shepherd, the chief Shepherd of Israel.-The purport of the ambassadors' address to David, then, was, that believing him to be in heart as well as by hereditary descent a Hebrew, coupled with the fact of his having been divinely designated to the kingdom-a fact which had directed all eyes in the nation to him-they had now come to convey to him information of the national choice, and to promise allegiance to his person and government.