Abstract <p> This paper solves the inverse elastic wave scattering problem using the direct sampling method. Based on the scattered field of the elastic wave, a new indicator function is introduced, and the theoretical analysis is carried out, which demonstrates the effectiveness of our method. In practice, the scattered data may contain noise, and a modified indicator function is developed; furthermore, the stability analysis is also implemented to confirm the robustness of the proposed approach. Numerical examples are provided to clarify the effectiveness and robustness of our method. </p>