1. Then Yahweh said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn about Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel! Fill up your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have chosen a king for myself among his sons.”
2. But Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears, he will kill me.” Yahweh said, “You must take a heifer from the herd with you, and you must say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to Yahweh.’
3. You will invite Jesse to the sacrifice and I will make known to you what you must do. You will anoint for me the one whom I tell you.”
4. So Samuel did what Yahweh said. He came to Bethlehem, and the elders of the city came trembling to meet him. They said, “Have you come in peace?”
5. He said, “I come in peace. I have come to sacrifice to Yahweh. Sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” So he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
6. When they came, he saw Eliab and said, “Surely his anointed one is before Yahweh!”
7. But Yahweh said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For God does not see what man sees, for a man looks on the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks on the heart.”
8. Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel, and he said, “This one also Yahweh has not chosen.”
9. So Jesse made Shammah pass before Samuel, but he said, “Yahweh also has not chosen this one.”
10. And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to Jesse, “Yahweh has not chosen any of these.”