Samuel anoints David to be king
1The Lord said to Samuel: ‘Do not continue to cry and mourn for Saul. I have decided that he will no longer be king over Israel. You must fill your horn with olive oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse, a man in the town of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.’
2But Samuel said: ‘I can not go. If they tell Saul about this, he will kill me.’ Then the Lord said: ‘Take a calf with you and say you came to sacrifice to the Lord. 3Then you must invite Jesse to the sacrifice. I will tell you what you must do. You must anoint the person whom I will show you.’
4Samuel did what the Lord said. When he came into Bethlehem, the elders from the town came to meet him. They were afraid and they asked: ‘Do you bring peace to us?’ 5He said: ‘Yes, I come in peace. I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. You must purify yourselves and come with me to sacrifice.’
Samuel then purified Jesse and his sons and he invited them to go with him to sacrifice. 6When they got there, Samuel saw Eliab and he thought: ‘Yes, this is the anointed one who stands here before the Lord.’ 7But the Lord said to Samuel: ‘Do not look at his face or at how big he is, because he is not the one that I want. The Lord does not look at the things that people look at. People look at what a person's face and body looks like, but the Lord looks at the heart.’
8Then Jesse called Abinadab and said he must walk past Samuel, but Samuel said: ‘The Lord has also not chosen him.’ 9Jesse then said Shammah must walk past Samuel, but Samuel said: ‘The Lord has also not chosen him.’
10Jesse told his 7 sons to walk past Samuel, but Samuel said to Jesse: ‘The Lord has not chosen one of them.’ 11Then Samuel asked Jesse: ‘Do you have other sons?’ Jesse said: ‘Yes, there is one more son. He is the youngest, but he is looking after the sheep and goats.’ Samuel said to Jesse: ‘Tell him to come here because we will not begin eating before he is here.’
12Jesse called David to come. David looked very healthy and he had beautiful eyes and a good-looking face. The Lord said to Samuel: ‘Get up and anoint him, because he is the right one.’ 13Samuel took the horn with olive oil and he anointed David, and his brothers saw it. The Spirit of the Lord came into David on that day. Then Samuel went back to Ramah.
David plays music for Saul with the lyre
14The Spirit of the Lord went away from Saul and the Lord caused an evil_spirit to come into Saul and make him suffer. 15His servants said to him: ‘We see that an evil_spirit that comes from God is making you suffer. 16Your_Majesty, if you say we can, we will find someone who can play music for you with the lyre. When the evil_spirit comes into you, that person must play music on the lyre, then you will feel better.’
17Saul said to his servants: ‘Yes, find someone who can play a lyre well and bring him to me.’
18One of the officials said: ‘I saw a son of Jesse from Bethlehem who can play music with the lyre. He is brave and he can fight and speak well. He is good-looking and the Lord is with him.’
19Then Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said: ‘Send your son David to me, your son who is with the sheep and goats.’
20Jesse took bread and a skin-bag of wine and he put it on a donkey and he sent it with a young goat to Saul. 21David came to Saul and he started to work for him. Saul liked David a lot and Saul made him his weapon-carrier. 22Saul sent a message to Jesse and asked him: ‘May David please stay with me and work for me, because I like him very much?’
23Every time the evil_spirit that God had sent came into Saul, David took the lyre and played music. Then Saul became calm and he felt better and the evil_spirit went away from him.
