1 Samuel

Author: Unknown

1 Samuel moves Israel from the judges to the monarchy, through Samuel, Saul, and the rise of David.

Outline

  1. Samuel and the ark (1–7)

    Hannah’s son becomes prophet and judge, and the ark is lost to the Philistines and returned.

  2. Saul is made king (8–15)

    Israel asks for a king, Saul is chosen, and he is rejected for sparing what God had devoted.

  3. David anointed and pursued (16–31)

    David is anointed, serves Saul, flees from him, and Saul dies on Gilboa.

Key verses

  • 1 Samuel 2:35

    A priest is promised who will walk before the Lord’s anointed, after Eli’s house fails.

  • 1 Samuel 8:7

    The Lord tells Samuel that the demand for a king is a rejection of the Lord’s own rule.

  • 1 Samuel 16:7

    The Lord tells Samuel that he looks on the heart, not on the appearance that impressed people.

1 Samuel begins in the hill country, not in a palace. Hannah is childless and provoked. She prays at Shiloh and vows the son she is asking for to the Lord. Samuel is born, and she brings him to Eli the priest. Her song in chapter 2 looks past her own house. It says the Lord brings low and lifts up, and that he will give strength to his king. There is no king yet. The song is already talking about one.

Eli’s sons treat the offerings with contempt. A man of God tells Eli that his house will be cut off and that God will raise up a faithful priest. Samuel, still a boy, hears the Lord call in the night. His first message is the judgment on Eli’s house. Israel then takes the ark into battle against the Philistines as if it were a charm. The ark is captured, Eli’s sons die, and Eli dies when he hears it. The Philistines set the ark in the temple of Dagon. Dagon falls, tumors break out, and they send the ark back. Samuel calls Israel to put away foreign gods. The Lord thunders against the Philistines at Mizpah. For a time Samuel judges Israel, and his word does not fall to the ground.

When Samuel is old, his sons take bribes. The elders ask for a king “like all the nations.” Samuel is displeased. The Lord says the people have not rejected Samuel; they have rejected the Lord from being king over them. Samuel warns them what a king will take: sons, daughters, fields, and a tenth. They still want a king. Saul, a Benjaminite looking for lost donkeys, is anointed in private and then chosen by lot. He fights the Ammonites, and the kingdom is renewed at Gilgal. The early chapters allow Saul to look like an answer.

The rejection comes in two steps. Saul offers the burnt offering himself when Samuel is late. Later, sent against Amalek, he spares the king and the best of the spoil and says the people kept them for sacrifice. Samuel answers that to obey is better than sacrifice. The Lord has torn the kingdom from Saul. Samuel grieves, and the Lord sends him to Bethlehem to anoint a son of Jesse. David, the youngest, is the one. The Spirit comes on David. An evil spirit troubles Saul. David is brought to court as a musician, then kills Goliath in the valley of Elah, and the women sing that Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands.

The rest of the book is Saul hunting David. Jonathan loves David and protects him. David spares Saul twice, in the cave and in the camp, and will not stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed. He also flees to the Philistines and lives by deception. Saul, desperate before the Philistine army, consults a medium at Endor. Samuel, called up, tells him that the Lord has become his enemy and that Israel will be given into Philistine hands. On Mount Gilboa Saul and Jonathan die. David is not in the battle. The book ends with the first king dead and the anointed shepherd not yet crowned.

Chapters