Yahweh said to Samuel, How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from being king over Israel? fill your horn with oil, and go: I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite; for I have provided me a king among his sons.
"The shepherd/flock image is a kind of Leitmotif for David from this point on. . . . The book’s last story shows David deeply concerned for the flock [2 Samuel 24:17]." [Note: S. D. Walters, "The Light and the Dark," in Ascribe to the Lord: Biblical and Other Studies in Memory of Peter C. Craigie, p. 574, n. 17.] 