Verse Lens · Concise explanation
1 Samuel 16:4 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 4. 4And Samuel did that which the LORD spake, and came to Beth-lehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said, Comest thou peaceably?
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Shows Bethlehem's elders tremble and ask whether Samuel comes peacefully.
Read It With
- 1 Samuel 16:1–16:5
1 Samuel 16:1–16:5 supplies the necessary frame for verse 16:4. Here the narrator shows Bethlehem's elders tremble and ask whether Samuel comes peacefully, within this larger movement: The LORD directs Samuel beyond mourning toward Jesse, Samuel fears Saul's violence, and a sacrificial visit brings him to a frightened Bethlehem.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The unit “Samuel goes to Bethlehem under royal danger” needs this line's precise work: it shows Bethlehem's elders tremble and ask whether Samuel comes peacefully. The verse remains one part of the scene rather than its complete claim.
What Remains True
Shows Bethlehem's elders tremble and ask whether Samuel comes peacefully. Within 1 Samuel 16:1–16:5, this contribution supports the unit's enduring claim: This unit calls for truthfulness about what happened, humility about what remains uncertain, and refusal of the misuse it names: The mission does not make deception, secret succession, or fear in an authoritarian setting universally virtuous, and grief is not treated as moral failure.
How It Can Shape Life
- Shows Bethlehem's elders tremble and ask whether Samuel comes peacefully. The proportionate response is therefore the one traced from the complete unit: Meet grief like the pain visible in “Samuel goes to Bethlehem under royal danger” with patient listening, practical care, truthful prayer, and access to appropriate support; do not promise the same outcome or explain suffering by blame. The mission does not make deception, secret succession, or fear in an authoritarian setting universally virtuous, and grief is not treated as moral failure.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 1 Samuel 16:1–16:5 — Samuel goes to Bethlehem under royal dangerSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: 1 Samuel 16:1–16:5, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Samuel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology, with the two KJV-Hebrew versification shifts stated rather than silently offset.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Sam.xml, OSIS 16:1–16:5; KJV 20:42 spans Hebrew 20:42–21:1, KJV 21:1–15 maps to Hebrew 21:2–16, KJV 23:29 maps to Hebrew 24:1, and KJV 24:1–22 maps to Hebrew 24:2–23
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: 1 Samuel
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Only the translator notes actually printed for these verses, used for lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, and older-English controls.
Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Notes, 1 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 504–543, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 16:1–16:5
Open source ↗