Right Words

1 Sam. 17:12, “Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem 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.”

This verse is not saying that Jesse was old at the time at the time of Goliath death, but that, compared to the men of his generation, he had lived a longer life than most. “The days of Saul” unlocks the sense of the verse. In the days of Saul, Israel was shaking off the yoke of the Philistines and continually at war (1 Sam. 14:47-48). Likely most men of that generation died in their youth or their prime, as during the American Civil War and WWI, making Jesse seem old compared to his countrymen.