Samuel

Samuel (Heb. Shemû'el, i.e., most probably, 'name of God'), the last of the judges (Acts, xiii. 20), the first of the prophets (Acts, iii. 24), and next to Moses the greatest personality in the early history of Israel as a nation (Jer. xv. 1; Ps. xcix. 6), was, according to the narrative in 1 Sam. i.-iii., an Ephraimitic, native of Ramathaim or Ramah in Mount Ephraim (probably the Arimathea of the New Testament, the modern Er-Ram, about five miles north of Jerusalem). As a child he was dedicated by his mother to the priesthood (not to the Nazirite, Num. vi. 1-21, as is sometimes supposed), and, clothed in priestly ephod and robe (1 Sam. ii. 18, 19), he became a temple attendant under Eli the high-priest at Shiloh, having his sleeping-place within the sacred building 'where the ark of God was.' Later tradition represented him as a Levite (1 Chron. vi. 27, 28, 33, 34). While still a child he received the prophetic gift and foretold the fall of Eli and his house, a prediction soon fulfilled in the national disaster at Ebenezer. The story of Samuel contained in 1 Sam. vii.-xvi. combines two widely different accounts of the rest of his career. According to one of these, Israel lay for twenty years under the Philistine yoke; at the end of this period a national convocation was summoned to Mizpah by Samuel, who, for a still longer time, had been known and recognised from Dan to Beersheba as a prophet of the Lord. While prophet and people were engaged in religious exercises the Philistines came upon them, but only to sustain a decisive repulse which drove them within their own borders, where they remained during all the days of Samuel. The prophet thenceforward enjoyed a profoundly peaceful and prosperous rule as judge over all Israel, till his advancing years compelled him to associate his sons with him in the government. Dissatisfaction with their ways gave the elders of Israel a pretext for coming to Samuel and asking him to give them a king such as every other nation had. Although clearly seeing the folly of this and well aware that it was equivalent to a rejection of Jehovah, he, after some remonstrance, granted their prayer (1 Sam. viii.) and held a national convocation at Mizpah (x. 17-27), at which Saul, son of Kish, was chosen by lot to the sovereignty over Israel. Saul's exploit against the Ammonites shortly afterwards led to another convocation at Gilgal, where the kingdom was 'renewed' (xi. 14) in what was, presumably, one of the last acts of the public life of Samuel. The other account, which is also the older, gives a wholly different impression of the prophet's career. He comes before us as a 'man of God,' a man 'held in honour,' and a seer whose every word 'cometh surely to pass,' but occupying a position hardly so prominent as that of judge of all Israel. Saul is divinely made known to him as the instrument chosen by God in His mercy to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines, under whose oppression they are (and long have been) groaning. The seer secretly anoints the young Benjamite and gives him certain signs, with the injunction, 'let it be, when these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion serve thee, for God is with thee' (ix. 1-x. 16). The 'occasion' arose about a month afterwards (x. 27; R. V. marg.), when the 'spirit of God came mightily upon Saul,' and his magnificent relief of Jabesh-Gilead resulted in his being immediately afterwards chosen and recognised as king. The accounts of Samuel's conduct during Saul's reign are also discrepant, and neither version of Saul's rejection by Samuel appears in the oldest narrative, which is also silent about the anointing of David.