1 Samuel 16:9
“Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by. He said, “Yahweh has not chosen this one, either.””
What does 1 Samuel 16:9 mean?
Jesse is parading his sons before the prophet Samuel, who has come to anoint the next king of Israel. One by one, the impressive older sons pass by, and Samuel keeps saying no, each time a little more clearly. By the time Shammah comes forward, Samuel has already rejected several sons, so his response is blunt: "not this one either." What makes this moment significant is what it reveals about how we judge people. Jesse is presenting his most obvious candidates, the ones who probably look the part of a king. Samuel, speaking for God, is seeing something different, something that outward appearance cannot show. This sets up the beautiful payoff when David, the youngest and least considered son, is called in from the fields and turns out to be God's choice all along.