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?”