1 Samuel
Israel desires a king: the transition from the judges to the monarchy through Samuel, Saul, and the rise of David.
First Samuel is a book of transition. It opens in the last days of the judges, with a corrupt priesthood at Shiloh and the ark of God captured by the Philistines. It closes with the death of Israel’s first king on Mount Gilboa. Between these points stand three men: Samuel, the last judge and first of the prophets; Saul, the king the people asked for; and David, the man after God’s own heart.
The pivot is chapter 8, when the elders ask Samuel for “a king to judge us like all the nations.” God told Samuel, “they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them” (8:7). Israel moved from a theocracy, ruled directly by God through judges and the Law, to a monarchy. God granted the request, but the first king’s failure showed that a king like the nations could not meet Israel’s need.
Saul began with every advantage and lost everything through self-will and disobedience. David, anointed while still a shepherd boy, spent years as a fugitive, learning faith in caves and wilderness strongholds. First Samuel shows how God removes one kind of leader and forms another.
Writer: Samuel, completed by Nathan and Gad
Written: Samuel’s records, completed by Nathan and Gad after his death, about 1056–1015 BC.
Name: God has heard; associated with Hannah’s answered prayer
Title and authorship
The book is named for Samuel, whose name is explained by Hannah: “Because I have asked him of the LORD” (1:20). It suggests “heard of God” or “asked of God.” First and Second Samuel were one book in the Hebrew Bible; the Septuagint divided them and called them the First and Second Books of Kingdoms, which the Latin Bible followed as First and Second Kings.
No author is named. Samuel wrote the earlier portion, and 1 Chronicles 29:29 refers to “the book of Samuel the seer,” “the book of Nathan the prophet,” and “the book of Gad the seer,” from which the history was compiled after Samuel’s death (25:1).
Historical background
Shiloh, Ramah, Mizpeh, Gibeah, the wilderness of Judah, and the Philistine cities, from the birth of Samuel about 1171 BC to the death of Saul about 1056 BC, a period of about 115 years.
Israel under the monarchy, learning why Saul’s house fell and why David’s house was chosen.
Shiloh and the ark
Shiloh, about twenty miles north of Jerusalem, housed the tabernacle from Joshua’s day. After the ark was captured at Aphek, Shiloh was evidently destroyed (Jeremiah 7:12). The ark afflicted the Philistine cities and returned to Beth-shemesh and then to Kirjath-jearim, where it remained until David brought it to Jerusalem.
Saul’s kingdom
Saul was a Benjamite from Gibeah, “from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people” (9:2). His kingdom was more a tribal confederation under a war leader than a centralized state. Acts 13:21 gives his reign as forty years.
The Philistine threat
The Philistines controlled iron working and stationed garrisons in Israel’s hill country (13:3, 19–22). Their champion Goliath of Gath stood about nine and a half feet tall. Saul died fighting them at Gilboa, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan.
Key passages
1 Samuel 8:5
“Make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” Israel wanted a human representative in place of the invisible King.
1 Samuel 13:14
Saul’s kingdom would not continue; the LORD had sought a man after His own heart.
1 Samuel 15:22
“To obey is better than sacrifice.” Religious activity cannot substitute for obedience.
Outline
1–7 · Samuel and the word of the Lord
Hannah’s answered prayer, Samuel’s call, the ark narratives, and national renewal establish his ministry.
8–15 · Saul’s rise and rejection
Israel receives a king; Saul’s repeated disobedience reveals his unfitness.
16–31 · David’s preparation and Saul’s decline
David is anointed, serves and suffers, while Saul turns increasingly toward jealousy, fear, and ruin.
Original language
מֶלֶךְ (melek, H4428) — “king”
The key word of the book. Israel asked for a melek “like all the nations” (8:5, 20). Deuteronomy 17:14–20 had anticipated the request and set conditions the king must meet.
מָשִׁיחַ (mashiach, H4899) — “anointed”
The first use of “his anointed” for a king is in Hannah’s song (2:10), before Israel had a king. David repeatedly refused to touch “the LORD’s anointed.” Transliterated into Greek it becomes Messias; translated, Christos.
אִיכָבוֹד (I-chabod, H350) — “Ichabod”
“Where is the glory?” or “no glory.” Phinehas’ widow named her son for the departure of the glory when the ark was captured (4:21–22).
רֹאֶה (ro’eh, H7203) — “seer”
An older title for the prophet: “he that is now called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer” (9:9). The note itself shows the editor wrote for a later generation.
Doctrinal study
Obedience better than sacrifice
Saul spared Agag and the best of the spoil, claiming it was for sacrifice. Samuel answered that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness as iniquity and idolatry (15:22–23). The sin of partial obedience cost Saul the kingdom; ironically, an Amalekite later claimed to have killed him (2 Samuel 1:8–10).
The heart that God sees
When Samuel looked at Eliab, God said, “man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (16:7). God’s choice of David, the youngest son keeping sheep, illustrates the principle that runs from Abel to the Son of David.
Saul and the woman at Endor
Saul consulted a medium, a practice forbidden by the Law (Leviticus 20:6; Deuteronomy 18:10–12). Samuel truly appeared, but the woman’s terror shows that God, not the witch, brought him up to pronounce judgment. Christ holds the keys of hell and of death (Revelation 1:18); spiritism cannot command the dead.
Commentary notes
Hannah, a woman of prayer
Hannah faced division in her home, misunderstanding from her husband and from Eli, and bitterness of soul. She took it to the LORD in prayer, gave her son back to God, and sang a song that first speaks of God’s king and His anointed (2:1–10). Mary’s Magnificat echoes her song (Luke 1:46–55).
Parental neglect
Eli’s sons made themselves vile, “and he restrained them not” (3:13). Samuel’s own sons later took bribes (8:3). A godly man’s failure to discipline his children brought judgment on his house and provided Israel with an excuse to demand a king.
Two confessions
Saul said, “I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders” (15:30). David said, “I have sinned against the LORD” (2 Samuel 12:13). One cared about his reputation; the other about his relationship with God.
Christ in the book
- David — the anointed shepherd-king, rejected and hunted before he reigned
- David and Goliath — the champion who wins the victory for the people
- Samuel — prophet, priest, and judge in one person
- Jonathan’s covenant — a love that surpasses all others and gives all to the anointed (18:3–4)
Applications
Historical
- The transition from the judges to the kings and prophets: the life of Samuel, the reign of Saul, and the anointing and early years of David.
- Samuel bridges the judges and the monarchy. The change in government does not relieve rulers or people of obedience to the Lord.
- David’s anointing precedes possession of the throne; his years of waiting are part of the formation of the king.
Doctrinal
- A nation that still wants a king like the nations will be susceptible to the Antichrist. Saul’s pursuit of David into the wilderness pictures the final days of the Tribulation, when the false king pursues God’s faithful remnant before his own destruction.
- The rejected and pursued David provides a pattern for studying the righteous king before his public reign.
- Saul’s persecution of David also supplies a prophetic picture of hostile rule opposing the Lord’s chosen servant and his people.
Devotional
- The book reveals the nature and will of God, the weakness of man, the unfailing purpose of God, the rewards of obedience, and the agony of disobedience. It shows the faithfulness of a man of God in the midst of apostasy and how God forms a leader in hidden places.
- Hannah brings bitterness to God in prayer and then keeps her vow. Her example joins dependence, surrender, and praise.
- Saul’s concern for public honor illustrates the danger of protecting reputation while refusing to acknowledge disobedience.
Answering the critics
Critics find contradictions in the double accounts—two introductions of David to Saul, two occasions of sparing Saul’s life, and two versions of Saul’s death—and treat the book as a clumsy merging of sources.
Scripture must be read believing what it says (1 Thessalonians 2:13). The accounts describe different occasions or different perspectives, and careful reading resolves them: David served Saul intermittently, and the Amalekite of 2 Samuel 1 lied to win favor. Multiple inspired recorders, like the four Gospels, strengthen rather than weaken the testimony.