persecution also, chapter xxiv. xxvi., Saul alone is the sacred person, the anointed of Jehovah, not David.  A belief that David is chosen for high things by God is quite a different matter from an anointing which has already taken place in fact.  And if consequent and antecedent be inseparable, we must remember how, according to xv. 35, Samuel not only withdraws himself from Saul till his death, but also feels grieved for him till his death.  It is a harsh transition from xv. 35:  “Samuel came no more to see Saul till the day of his death, because he mourned over him,” to xvi. 1:  “and Jehovah spake to him, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him?” But it appears clearly that the appointment of the successor was connected with, and a consequence of, the deposition of the predecessor.

The anointing of David by Samuel is at the same time the set-off to the anointing of Saul by Samuel.  This is clearly seen on comparing x. 6, xi. 6, “and the Spirit of God leapt upon Saul,” with xvi. 13, 14, “and the Spirit of Jehovah leapt upon David, and it departed from Saul.”  In the former case the inspiration is a momentary foaming over, in the latter (the leaping notwithstanding) it is a permanent property; and this difference alone leaves no doubt as to where the original is to be looked for, and where the imitation.  Saul alone, according to the old tradition, was made king in a divine, i.e. an overpowering and ideal manner:  David was made king in a tedious human way, and after many intermediate stages.  Of Saul alone was it originally told that the sudden outbreak of the spirit with which he, unelected as he was, summoned the levy of Israel, placed himself at its head, defeated the Ammonites, and became king, was quietly prepared by an old seer, who pointed out to him his great calling, and filled him with confidence in himself by secretly anointing him in the name of Jehovah.  All that was known of David was how by his own energy he raised himself from a soldier to be the leader of a band, from that to be the vassal prince, under the Philistines, of Ziklag and Judah, and from a vassal prince to be the independent and powerful king of Israel.  He also was anointed, not, however, beforehand by God, but after his elevation, by the elders of Judah and Israel.  But this human origin and this inferiority in point of divine consecration to a predecessor whose kingdom, as it turned out, Jehovah had not made to stand, was found by a later age to be unworthy of him:  he must at least have received his anointing from Samuel as well as Saul.  And this was accordingly made good by the legend (xvi. 1-13).  It is a step further on this downward path that in the Judaistic version (x. 17 seq.) all mention is omitted of the anointing of Saul.