David

(beloved) (1 Sam. 16:13) — was the youngest son of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah, great-grandson of the pious Boaz and Ruth. He was born, in the opinion of most historians, in the year 1085 B.C., in the city of Bethlehem. The Lord rejected Saul for his disobedience and defiance of the word of God, and in his place chose as king over Israel one of the sons of Jesse, and commanded Samuel to go to Bethlehem to anoint the chosen one to the throne of Israel. The seven elder sons of Jesse, presented to Samuel, were not God’s chosen ones.

The chosen one proved to be the youngest son — this was David, who, among his brothers, was anointed by Samuel to the kingdom. He was then only 19 years old, and he tended his father’s flocks of sheep in the fields. He was of very handsome appearance, had fair hair, and, like his nephew Asahel, was distinguished by swiftness of foot and strength of muscle (Ps. 18 [17]:33–35 [as given]). His account to Saul of how he slew the lion or the bear that sometimes attacked the sheep (1 Sam. 17:34–36), the shepherd’s staff in his hand and the bag on his shoulder, with which he never parted in the carrying out of his shepherd’s duties (v. 40), and especially the numerous references to pastoral life which we find in the book of Psalms (22 [21]:1–6; 78 [77]:70, 72) — all this speaks directly in favor of the fact that David spent the greater part of his youth