A common misinterpretation treats this verse in isolation as emphasizing the superiority or prominence of firstborn sons in God's service, ignoring the broader story where God rejects Eliab despite his physical stature and selects David, the overlooked youngest, to illustrate that divine favor transcends human expectations of birth order or appearance; others might erroneously assume it lists all of Jesse's sons or implies David's absence meant disinterest in the family, overlooking its role as mere contextual setup for his heroic emergence.
I Samuel 17:13
King James Version (1769)
13 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 unto him Abinadab, and the third Shammah.
This verse introduces Jesse's three eldest sons, Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah, who joined Saul's army in the battle against the Philistines, providing essential family background in the David and Goliath narrative and underscoring the contrast between the older brothers' frontline service and David's pastoral role, which sets the stage for God's unexpected choice of the youngest son as future king.