1The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have seen among his sons one for me as king."2Samuel said, "How shall I go? If Saul hears, he will kill me." The LORD said, "Take a heifer of cattle in your hand and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.'3Call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will cause you to know what you shall do; you shall anoint for me the one whom I tell you."4Samuel did what the LORD had spoken. He came to Bethlehem, and the elders of the city trembled to meet him and said, "Does your coming bring peace?"5He said, "It brings peace; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice." He consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.6When they came he saw Eliab and said, "Surely this is the LORD's anointed."7The LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on his lofty height, for I have rejected him. For it is not as man sees; man sees with the eyes, but the LORD sees with the heart."8Jesse called Abinadab and brought him before Samuel, and he said, "The LORD has not chosen this one either."9Jesse brought Shammah forward, and he said, "The LORD has not chosen this one either."10Jesse brought his seven sons before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, "The LORD has not chosen these."11Samuel said to Jesse, "Are the young men finished?" He said, "There remains still the youngest, and behold, he is pasturing the flock." Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and take him, for we will not turn aside until he comes here."12He sent and brought him. He was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and good in sight. The LORD said, "Arise, anoint him, for this is he."13Samuel took the horn of the oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. The spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day and upward. Samuel arose and went to Ramah.