1 Samuel 16:4 (LSB)

Passage

So Samuel did what Yahweh said and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the city came trembling to meet him and said, “Do you come in peace?”

Nearby Context

1 Samuel 16:2 But Samuel said, “How can I go? Saul will hear of it and will kill me.” Then Yahweh said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to Yahweh.’

1 Samuel 16:3 And you shall invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will make you know what you shall do; and you shall anoint for Me the one whom I say to you.”

1 Samuel 16:4 So Samuel did what Yahweh said and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the city came trembling to meet him and said, “Do you come in peace?”

1 Samuel 16:5 And he said, “In peace; I have come to sacrifice to Yahweh. Set yourselves apart as holy and come with me to the sacrifice.” He also set apart Jesse and his sons as holy and invited them to the sacrifice.

1 Samuel 16:6 Now it happened, when they entered, he looked at Eliab and thought, “Surely the anointed of Yahweh is before Him.”

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "samuel", "yahweh", "said", "came", "bethlehem", "elders", and "city". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "samuel" and "yahweh", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 3's "And you shall invite Jesse to the..." into verse 5's "And he said In peace I have...", so "samuel" and "yahweh" belong inside that flow. In 1 Samuel context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "samuel" and "yahweh" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.