How many brothers did King David have?

The list contains ten generations, and these may be divided into two groups of five. The first five names — Pherez to Nahshon — are connected mainly with Israel when in Egypt and in the wilderness; the second — Salmon to David — with Israel in the land up to the time when monarchy was established under God's chosen king. The pedigree shows the distinct line of constitutional royalty promised to the nation. The names given in it are not always those of the eldest in the family. David himself, for instance, was the seventh son of Jesse (1 Chron. 2:15). The line of descent from Pherez was decreed to end with the Messiah, and it was therefore continuously under the superintendence of Jehovah. Elimelech's name does not appear in the list, but that of Boaz, the son of Salmon. This selection shows the religious value attached to the marriage of Ruth and the redemption of the inheritance, of which perhaps the happy couple themselves were entirely unaware.

Some historical items connected with the names in this list may be noted. Pherez (Perez), the son of Judah and Tamar is always given precedence over his twin-brother Zarah or Zerah, so that he possessed the right of primogeniture. The family of Pherez (Num. 26:20) held highest rank in the tribe of Judah in David's reign (1 Chron. 27:3), and seems to have been distinguished by its fertility and virility. This rapid increase of the family explains the allusion to "the house of Pherez" by the people at the marriage of Boaz (4:12). The list in Ruth begins with Pherez, and not with his father, Judah, who died prior to the time of the Exodus, which was the beginning of national life for the children of Israel. Hezron was the firstborn of Pherez. Ram is sometimes called Aram (Matt. 1:3). Amminadab was the father of Elisheba, who became the wife of Aaron, brother of Moses, and first of the hereditary high-priests of Israel (Ex. 6:23). Nahshon (Naason) was brother-in-law of Aaron (Ex. 6:23), and prince or head of the tribe of Judah (Num. 1:7; Num. 2:3; 1 Chron. 2:10). Salmon (Salma), son of Nahshon, married Rahab the harlot, and was the father of Boaz (Matt. 1:5). Salmon was probably one of the two men whom Joshua sent to Jericho and the neighbourhood secretly, and who lodged in Rahab's house (Joshua ii). Obed has been already noticed. Jesse the Bethlehemite (1 Sam. 16:1, 18; 1 Sam. 17:58) had eight sons (1 Sam. 16:10-11; 1 Sam. 17:12). Jesse is described as "that Ephrathite of Bethlehem-Judah," and "was old in the days of Saul; advanced in years among men" (1 Sam. 17:12). He was a wealthy man, but his great distinction in the nation seems to have been that he was the father of David, his youngest son, who rose to the throne of Israel, having been chosen by Jehovah to be the ruler of His people.

David was the eighth son of Jesse. When Samuel saw the first seven he had to realise that none of them was God’s choice as king over Israel. It was only when he asked whether there was another son that Jesse told him about David, the youngest. The number eight speaks of a new start or the introduction of a new order of things. When the Lord Jesus entered into this scene everything changed. There was the first man made of dust who spoilt everything. There is the second man from heaven who will restore everything (1 Cor. 15:45–47). Sin entered this world by the first man and Adam became the head of the human race, all of whom are sinners. By contrast, Christ is the head of all those who accept Him in faith (Rom. 5:15-21).

With what care and precision the sons of Jesse are given, named and numbered in their order: evidently to tell us that David is the seventh. He alone fills the mind of the inspired writer. The six are numbered only that David might appear the seventh, for with that is bound up the purpose of God; so that "David the seventh" has a meaning far beyond the mere numerical order that he was the seventh; and indeed, as a fact, David was the eighth son, not the seventh. Before God he was both; but in His book God is giving us His thoughts, and not here enumerating natural events.

Turn to 1 Sam. 16:10, et seqq. "Again Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. And Samuel said unto Jesse, The Lord hath not chosen these. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him; for we will not sit down till he come hither." And this one, unthought of and, in a manner, cast out from the family — for whom Samuel must pointedly ask when all the others were present — this lad keeping the sheep must be sent for, and lo! the neglected one is the chosen one. "And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he." Not one of the previous seven are chosen: the youngest therefore must have been the eighth. Again we read (1 Sam. 17:12) "And he had eight sons."

If, then, the seven are refused and the eighth chosen according to Samuel, why here in Chronicles is he numbered the seventh? Some have supposed that one of Jesse's sons died, and therefore David would be the seventh. Is this supposition satisfactory? Be that as it may, is there not a truth intimated in Samuel which is not necessary for the Holy Spirit's purpose in giving us the books of Chronicles? We know that "eight" is right in Samuel, and "seventh" in Chronicles: as divine in one as in the other; and each in perfect accordance with the truth God is there communicating. The numbers seven and eight have a symbolic significance in Scripture as well as a natural. Seven is clearly connected with rest in creation, and eight with rest in resurrection power and glory. David, being in Samuel the eighth, points to the true David who will restore all, and reign over Israel Himself as the risen Man. For rest in creation was impossible after sin came in. Eight signifies the intervention of God in grace when all is lost; so the coming kingdom, though it is for the earth, must have a link with resurrection, that it may be stable. That connecting link is the glorious risen Man as 1 King. Man — Israel — could never have entered into the kingdom but for that grace, nor could the earth ever know its blessedness. The glory and the dominion will be centred in the risen Man, the eighth.

Ques.—In 1 Sam.17:12-14 we find David was the eighth son, but in 1 Chron2:15, he is the seventh: why is this?

Ans.—Keil supposes that one of Jesse's sons may have died without posterity, and so be omitted from the list in the latter place. I have nothing better to offer.

He was the youngest of eight sons of Jesse, and it was his duty to feed his father’s sheep. And David in his youth was a very brave and good shepherd boy. Did he love his father’s sheep? Ah! better than this, he loved the Lord.

Just as He prepared many other godly leaders among His earthly people, Israel, so God in His infinite wisdom and love trained David in quiet obscurity as a shepherd. The youngest of Jesse's eight sons, David was not deemed important enough to call to the sacrifice when the prophet Samuel came to Bethlehem. The first time he is mentioned, his father said of him, "Behold, he is feeding the sheep" (1 Sam. 16:11). When Jesse sent him to take food to his older brothers in the army, "David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took his charge and went, as Jesse had commanded him" (1 Sam. 17:20). And how touchingly he describes a shepherd's care in Psalm 23!

Samuel, by the Spirit of prophecy (1 Sam. 16), goes down to Bethlehem, to select from among the sons of Jesse one who should be king in the room of Saul. He causes them to pass before him. Seven come in. Samuel asks, Is there not another? Yes, a lad keeping the sheep. "Send and fetch him." David comes, and is designated by the Spirit of prophecy as the anointed of Jehovah. All that is great in Jesse's eyes is suffered to pass unnoticed; the seven were personable men, but it is the lad keeping the sheep, the eighth, the weak one, that is preferred and taken up!

From that time the Spirit of God departs from Saul, and an evil spirit falls upon him. David is brought into his company as one who could play upon the harp. Here we find him of no importance, so that afterwards, when he had killed the giant Goliath, on Saul's inquiring of Abner, "whose son is this youth?" Abner says, "I cannot tell." His brethren too ask him, "with whom he has left the few sheep in the wilderness."

In verse 12 David is introduced again, with the reminder of whose son he was and his being the last of eight sons. The number 8 symbolizes a new beginning, just as the new covenant has set aside the old now that Christ has come. The three eldest sons of Jesse were in Saul's army, while David had returned home from Saul's service to shepherd his father's sheep. How long he was at home we are not told, but the giant continued to deliver his challenge to Israel every morning for forty days (v.16), before David returned to visit his brothers in army.

Now that David is about to be brought to the front on God's part, Satan stirs up the enemy. "When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid. Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Beth-lehem-judah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons: and the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul. And the three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed Saul to the battle: and the names of his three sons that went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. And David was the youngest: and the three eldest followed Saul. But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem." He was again in the plain path of humble daily duty. No road is really so good as this, and none where God's honour will be more found when His time comes. It was there that God anointed him for the throne; it was thence that God called him to the court of Saul; and it was now from the same tending of his father's flock that God wrought so as to bring him into the great field of action where the question had to be decided between the Philistines and the living God.

Seven sons passed before Samuel, none of them chosen. David was the eighth. This number is connected with resurrection and glory. It was a national life of glory, a quasi-resurrection when David came to the throne. When the true David comes to reign there will be a moral resurrection and a new national life for all Israel. Their dry bones shall be brought together again, and the breath of Jehovah shall make them a great army. But this glory is not yet. As night before day, so suffering before the glory. David was not in much honour in his father's house; the chosen one of God was unthought of by his father, who had to be questioned before he remembered the youth away keeping the sheep. Who would have thought of him?