1 Samuel 17 · a question people ask
David had already served Saul (16:21-23). Why does Saul ask whose son he is (17:55-58)?
In chapter 16 one of the young men tells Saul of "a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite" (16:18), and Saul sends to Jesse, "Send me David your son, who is with the sheep" (16:19). "David came to Saul and stood before him. He loved him greatly; and he became his armor bearer" (16:21), and Saul sends to Jesse again, "Please let David stand before me, for he has found favor in my sight" (16:22). In chapter 17, "David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem" (17:15). Yet when David goes out against the Philistine, Saul asks the captain of his army, "Abner, whose son is this youth?", and Abner says, "As your soul lives, O king, I can’t tell" (17:55). The king says, "Inquire whose son the young man is!" (17:56), and when Abner brings David to him he asks, "Whose son are you, you young man?" (17:58). The chapter doesn't explain the question. Christians read it in two main ways. Both agree on what the text says: David is "the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite" (17:58), and from that day "Saul took him" (18:2).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Saul was asking about David's father
Those who read it this way note that the question each time is "whose son" (17:55, 17:56, 17:58), and that David answers with his father's name: "I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite" (17:58). Before the fight the men of Israel had told of the king's promise to the man who killed the Philistine: he "will make his father’s house tax-free in Israel" (17:25). And the next chapter says, "Saul took him that day, and wouldn’t let him go home to his father’s house any more" (18:2). They read Saul's question as about David's father and family.
1 Samuel 17:25 · 1 Samuel 17:55-58 · 1 Samuel 18:2
The book sets two accounts side by side
Those who read it this way note that chapter 17 brings David and his father in as if for the first time: "Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons" (17:12). They take 16:14-23 as telling how David came into Saul's service, and chapter 17 as telling how he came to fight the Philistine, each told whole. On this reading the book arranges the two by theme, and doesn't mean every event of chapter 17 to come after every event of 16:14-23. They note that chapter 17 itself ties David to his time with Saul: "David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem" (17:15).
1 Samuel 16:14-23 · 1 Samuel 17:12 · 1 Samuel 17:15
The verses
“Now David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.”
“When Saul saw David go out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the captain of the army, “Abner, whose son is this youth?” Abner said, “As your soul lives, O king, I can’t tell.” The king said, “Inquire whose son the young man is!” As David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, you young man?” David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.””
“Saul took him that day, and wouldn’t let him go home to his father’s house any more.”