I SAMUEL 13:14: "A MAN AFTER HIS OWN HEART"

This is a verse that I have always misunderstood up to about a year ago and it always bothered me.

“The LORD has sought out a man [namely David] after his own heart.” That is a literal 

rendering of the Hebrew. Now in English, that particular idiom means a man who thinks the same way as 

another person does; so I always assumed that the Hebrew meaning was the same. That gave me a 

problem because David certainly isn't described as one who acts or thinks like God does. 

 

But there are actually two different understandings of what this idiomatic phrase means:

 

1. “The one chosen by the LORD” (NRSV Study Bible, TEV, NICOT, AB) As Kyle McCarter says, 

“This has nothing to do with any great fondness of Yahweh for David or any special quality of David.”

 

2. “A man who will obey God and do what is in God's heart” (Living Bible, Joyce Baldwin)

But even according to this understanding, “the expression does not seem to be used with reference to a 

person's private or personal moral conduct; rather, it appears to be connected with the official duties of 

the office and the promotion of the worship and service of God from that office.” (Walter Kaiser, 

Toward An Old Testament Ethics, pp. 274-275) This last meaning is the one brought out by Paul in 

Acts 13:22, who adds “who will carry out all my wishes” (NRSV)