Bede : I heard that your shepherds are shearing, etc. And the Lord spoke these things through his apostles to the chiefs of the Jews, "I heard that your disciples are teaching the people, who used the same pastures of sacred Scripture as we did. We were never troublesome to them, but behaved quietly toward everyone, and moreover preached the gentle yoke of humility and the light burden: nor did anything ever perish from their teaching or deeds: they were with us at all times in the recognition of circumcision, that is, where they, like us, acknowledged spiritual circumcision in the highest words of divine eloquence. It must be understood here that something could have perished from the substance of those who had been in Carmel without David; that is, the superfluous reading in many ways, not profitable for the salvation of the soul, of those who, reading the Scriptures, did not know how to understand Christ in the Scriptures. Ask, he says, some of the innocent and knowingly humble among your people of whom the kingdom of heaven is; and they will tell you that the grace of the Gospel is not contrary to the letter of the law, but in both Testaments the just live by faith. — Commentary on Samuel