And the LORD said unto Samuel,
How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning 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.
Read Chapter 16
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
How long. It seems his tears were not soon dried up, as he lamented the fall of one whom he had formerly so much admired, and perceived what evils would ensue. (Salien)
He had hoped that the decree might have been revokable. But God now convinces him of the contrary, by ordering him to go and anoint a successor.
Horn. Such vessels were formerly very common, and were used to contain liquor, and instead of cups, 3 Kings i. 39. (Horace, ii. Sat. 2.) The ancient silver cups, at Athens, resembled horns. (Athen. xi. 7.) But the northern nations, particularly Denmark, used horns to drink, as the Georgians still do. The rims are ornamented with silver (Pliny, xi. 37.) (Chardin) (Calmet)
A fragile vile was not used, but a horn, to denote the duration and abundance of David's reign. (Rupert) (Menochius)
We have touched on these things as they pertain to the literal meaning; now let us see the election of our nobles as we look at the meaning beneath the literal one. When Samuel was told to fill the horn with oil, what else could it mean than this: he who is to be selected as a pastor in the holy church must not be someone clearly known as a transgressor but must be commended by wondrous praise as an example to others. The horn, you see, is the spear of an animal. But the authority and rebuke of even the highest bishop is nothing but his weapon. Indeed, they strike with their horn, whenever they lock horns with sinners as they issue their rebukes. They strike with their horn whenever they sharply confute sinners. The horn is filled with oil, then, whenever the loftiness of preachers does not have the harshness of threats but the allurements of grace. Or the horn is filled with oil when both the sublimity of the heights and the virtue of unction are given to a chosen pastor at the same t...
The Jews had before been directed to compose a sacred oil, with which those who were called to the priesthood or to the kingdom might be anointed. And as now the robe of purple is a sign of the assumption of royal dignity among the Romans, so with them the anointing with the holy oil conferred the title and power of king. But since the ancient Greeks used the word chriesthai to express the art of anointing, which they now express by anleiphesthai, as the verse of Homer shows, “But the attendants washed, and anointed them with oil”; on this account we call him Christ, that is, the Anointed, who in Hebrew is called the Messiah. - "Epitome of the Divine Institutes 4.7"
