Samuel

Samuel stands at the seam between the era of the judges and the rise of the monarchy. Born to a barren woman who had begged Yahweh for a son, he is dedicated at Shiloh as a child, called by name in the night, and grows up under Eli to become Israel's last judge, its first nation-wide prophet after Moses, and the kingmaker who anoints both Saul and David. He is remembered in later Scripture as "judge and priest," "a prophet," and "a faithful seer" who "established the kingdom" and "anointed princes over the people" (Sir 46:13, 15). Centuries later he is still listed beside Moses as one of Yahweh's foremost intercessors (Jer 15:1; Ps 99:6) and beside Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah and David among the heroes of faith (Heb 11:32).

Birth and Dedication at Shiloh

The narrative opens with Hannah's vow at Shiloh. Provoked year after year by her rival, she wept at the temple, refused to eat, and prayed in bitterness of soul. She "vowed a vow, and said, O Yahweh of hosts, if you will indeed look at the affliction of your slave, and remember me, and not forget your slave, but will give to your slave a man-child, then I will give him to Yahweh all the days of his life, and no razor will come upon his head" (1 Sam 1:11). Eli, watching only her lips move, mistook her for drunk; when she explained that she had "poured out my soul before Yahweh," he sent her away with a blessing. Yahweh remembered her, "and it came to pass, when the time came about, that Hannah became pregnant, and gave birth to a son; and she named him Samuel, [saying,] Because I have asked him of Yahweh" (1 Sam 1:20).

Once the child was weaned she made good on the vow. She took him up to Shiloh with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of meal, and a bottle of wine, presented him to Eli, and said, "I prayed for this lad; and Yahweh has given me my petition which I asked of him: therefore I also have granted him to Yahweh; as long as he lives he is granted to Yahweh" (1 Sam 1:27-28). Hannah's prayer of thanksgiving follows — a song of reversals whose central stanza runs: "He raises up the poor out of the dust, He lifts up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes, And inherit the throne of glory: For the pillars of the earth are Yahweh's, And he has set the world on them" (1 Sam 2:8). It opens earlier with her exultation that her "horn is exalted in Yahweh," asserts that "Yahweh is a God of knowledge, And by him actions are weighed," and declares that "Yahweh kills, and makes alive: He brings down to Sheol, and brings up" (1 Sam 2:1-7). The closing lines aim past the immediate occasion: "Yahweh - He will shatter the ones who contend against him… and he will give strength to his king, And exalt the horn of his anointed" (1 Sam 2:10).

Calling at Shiloh

Samuel grew up in the sanctuary while Eli's sons profaned it. The text sets the contrast bluntly: "the sin of the young men was very great before Yahweh; for they despised the offering of Yahweh" (1 Sam 2:17), but "Samuel ministered before Yahweh, being a lad, girded with a linen ephod" (1 Sam 2:18). His mother brought him a new little robe each year; Yahweh visited Hannah with three more sons and two daughters (1 Sam 2:21); "And the lad Samuel grew on, and increased in favor both with Yahweh, and also with men" (1 Sam 2:26).

The call narrative is written for a generation in which prophecy had gone quiet: "the word of Yahweh was precious in those days; there was no frequent vision" (1 Sam 3:1). Three times in the night Samuel hears his name, runs to Eli, and is sent back to bed. On the fourth, instructed by Eli, he answers in place. In UPDV cadence the formula reads not "Speak, for thy servant heareth" but: "Speak, Yahweh; for your slave hears" (1 Sam 3:9), and again, "Speak; for your slave hears" (1 Sam 3:10). What Yahweh says is a verdict on Eli's house: "Look, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of everyone who hears it will tingle" (1 Sam 3:11), the iniquity of his sons would not be purged "with sacrifice nor offering forever." Samuel told Eli everything; Eli accepted the word.

From this point Samuel is identified as a prophet to all Israel: "And Samuel grew, and [the Speech of] Yahweh was with him, and did not let any of his words fall to the ground" (1 Sam 3:19). "And Yahweh appeared again in Shiloh; for Yahweh revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of Yahweh" (1 Sam 3:21). "And the word of Samuel came to all Israel" (1 Sam 4:1).

Judge over Israel

Samuel's judgeship is introduced in the aftermath of the Philistine wars. He summoned Israel to Mizpah — "Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray for you⁺ to Yahweh" (1 Sam 7:5) — interceded with a nursing lamb, and Yahweh "thundered with a great thunder" against the Philistines so that they were routed. A later eulogy sums up the same scene: "when his enemies pressed him on every side, He called upon the Yahweh, the Mighty One, With the offering of a nursing lamb… And Yahweh thundered from heaven; With a mighty crash his voice was heard, And he subdued the strong places of the enemy, And destroyed all the princes of the Philistines" (Sir 46:16-18). The Philistines stayed beaten back: "the hand of Yahweh was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel" (1 Sam 7:13).

His circuit is described in plain terms. "And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went from year to year in circuit to Beth-el and Gilgal, and Mizpah; and he judged Israel in all those places" (1 Sam 7:15-16). His later record at Yahweh's tabernacle service shows him organizing duties that outlasted him; "two hundred and twelve" porters in the thresholds "were reckoned by genealogy in their villages, whom David and Samuel the seer appointed in their office of trust" (1 Chron 9:22), and dedicated treasures from his hand are listed alongside Saul's, Abner's, and Joab's (1 Chron 26:28). Centuries on, the chronicler can measure Josiah's Passover by saying "there was no Passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet" (2 Chron 35:18).

Anointing Saul

Samuel's old age, and the failure of his sons to walk in his ways, set up the demand for a king. "And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel" (1 Sam 8:1). The elders' request — "Give us a king to judge us" (1 Sam 8:6) — displeased him; he prayed; Yahweh told him that the rejection was not of him but of Yahweh as their king. After warning them about how a king would treat them, Samuel was told, "Listen to their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said to the men of Israel, Go⁺ every man to his city" (1 Sam 8:22).

Saul appears as a young man hunting his father's lost donkeys. Coming up to the city to find the seer, "as they came inside the city, look, Samuel came out toward them, to go up to the high place" (1 Sam 9:14). The next morning Samuel acted. "Then Samuel took the vial of oil, and poured it on his head, and kissed him, and said, Is it not that Yahweh has anointed you to be leader over his inheritance?" (1 Sam 10:1). At Mizpah, when Saul was chosen by lot, "Samuel said to all the people, Do you⁺ see him whom Yahweh has chosen, that there is none like him among all the people? And all the people shouted, and said, [Long] live the king" (1 Sam 10:24). The praise-poem generalizes: "By the word of God he established the kingdom, And anointed princes over the people" (Sir 46:13).

At Gilgal, Samuel laid down the office of judge by calling the people themselves to witness. "Here I am: witness against me before Yahweh, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or of whose hand have I taken a ransom to blind my eyes with it? And I will restore it you⁺" (1 Sam 12:3). The verdict was unanimous: "You haven't defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither have you taken anything of any man's hand" (1 Sam 12:4). Then he pressed the prosecution back on them: "Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call to Yahweh, that he may send thunder and rain; and you⁺ will know and see that your⁺ wickedness is great, which you⁺ have done in the sight of Yahweh, in asking for yourselves a king" (1 Sam 12:17). The same eulogy echoes this integrity claim: "From whom have I taken a bribe, or a pair of shoes? And no man accused him" (Sir 46:19).

Rejection of Saul

Saul's reign breaks twice on Samuel. At Gilgal, when Saul presumed to offer the burnt-offering himself rather than wait, Samuel arrived and confronted him: "What have you done?" (1 Sam 13:11). The verdict was final: "You have done foolishly; you haven't kept [the Speech of] Yahweh your God, which he commanded you: for now Yahweh would have established your kingdom on Israel forever" (1 Sam 13:13). "But now your kingdom will not continue: Yahweh has sought himself a man after his own heart, and Yahweh has appointed him to be leader over his people" (1 Sam 13:14).

The second confrontation, after the Amalekite war, is the more searching. "I regretted [before my Speech] that I have set up Saul to be king" (1 Sam 15:11) — Samuel grieved the whole night before going to Saul. The trial in the field, with the lowing oxen and bleating sheep that Saul claimed had been spared "to sacrifice to Yahweh your God," produced one of Samuel's flintiest words: "Does Yahweh have as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in accepting [the Speech of] Yahweh? Look, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of fortune-telling, and stubbornness is as idolatry and talismans. Because you have rejected the word of Yahweh, he has also rejected you from being king" (1 Sam 15:22-23). Saul confessed, then begged Samuel only to honor him before the elders. Samuel turned to leave; Saul caught the skirt of his robe, and it tore. The torn robe became the sign: "Yahweh has rent the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and has given it to your fellow man, who is better than you" (1 Sam 15:28). And then a theological coda: "the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not man, that he should repent" (1 Sam 15:29).

Anointing David

Samuel was told to stop mourning. "How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go: I will send you to Jesse the Beth-lehemite; for I have provided myself a king among his sons" (1 Sam 16:1). At Bethlehem, after Jesse's older sons had passed before him and been refused — Yahweh "looks at the heart" — the youngest was sent for. "Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and the Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah" (1 Sam 16:13).

When David's life was already in danger from Saul, it was to Samuel that he ran. "Now David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth" (1 Sam 19:18) — there in the prophetic settlement Saul's messengers, and finally Saul himself, were caught up by the Spirit and prophesied. The Chronicler later cites Samuel as one of David's authorized historians: "the acts of David the king, first and last, look, they are written in the history of Samuel the seer, and in the history of Nathan the prophet, and in the history of Gad the seer" (1 Chron 29:29).

Death and Afterward

"And Samuel died; and all Israel gathered themselves together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah" (1 Sam 25:1) — the same notice is repeated when the Philistines' final invasion forces Saul to consult the medium at Endor: "Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away the spiritists and the wizards out of the land" (1 Sam 28:3). Saul, abandoned by Yahweh, came in disguise and told the woman, "Bring me up Samuel" (1 Sam 28:11). What rose answered for itself: "Why have you disquieted me, to bring me up?… Why then do you ask of me, seeing [the Speech of] Yahweh has departed from you, and has become your adversary? And Yahweh has done for himself, as he spoke by me: and Yahweh has rent the kingdom out of your hand, and given it to your fellow man, even to David" (1 Sam 28:15-17). The same oracle that tore the robe at Gilgal closed Saul's life: "tomorrow you and your sons will be with me" (1 Sam 28:19). The praise-poem picks up the same scene: "even after his death he was inquired of, And he declared to the king his fate; And he lifted his voice from the earth, To blot out the wickedness of the people" (Sir 46:20).

His sons did not inherit his standing — only their names survive in the Levite genealogies, where Samuel reappears as the grandfather of Heman the singer. "And the sons of Samuel: the firstborn [Joel], and the second Abijah" (1 Chron 6:28); among the Kohathite musicians is "Heman the singer, the son of Joel, the son of Samuel" (1 Chron 6:33). What does carry forward is the office. Psalm 99 names him in the same breath as the priestly intercessors: "Moses and Aaron among his priests, And Samuel among those who call on his name; They called on Yahweh, and he answered them" (Ps 99:6). Jeremiah's last word about him is the sharpest measure of that office — Yahweh tells the prophet that even those two intercessors would not now reverse the verdict: "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my soul would not be toward this people" (Jer 15:1). And the Letter to the Hebrews, listing the witnesses, places him with David and "the prophets" who through faith "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises" (Heb 11:32).