The Bible Says Commentary on 1 Samuel

The book of 1 Samuel records the ministry of the last judge of Israel, Samuel. After the period of judges who helped Israel against foreign oppression, Israel demanded a king like other nations. Samuel then anointed and guided King Saul, until his disobedience is complete, at which time Samuel anoints David as king. The book records Samuel’s death and continues until Saul’s death. The book of 2 Samuel continues the story from David’s ascension after Saul’s death into the last years of King David’s reign.

Samuel’s death is recorded in 1 Samuel 25:1, yet 1 Samuel continues for six more chapters. It can be concluded that Samuel was not the sole compiler of the accounts of 1 and 2 Samuel. However, given the great amount of detail of Samuel’s birth account, presumably Samuel passed on this information to the main author.

Chronologically, the book of 1 Samuel occurs after the events of the book of Judges. The narrative of Ruth sits between these books, introducing the reader to the line of David descending from Judah’s son Perez. This then converges with the story of Samuel in 1 Samuel 16 at the anointing of David. Samuel acts a bridge, being the last judge of Israel to becoming the first of many prophets to Israel. He moves the story of Israel’s history from a time of no king, to anointing the king chosen by the people, to finally anointing the king chosen by God.

Dating the book of Samuel is challenging because the times of the judges were not sequential and probably overlapped. Also, no specific age is ever recorded for Samuel or his time judging Israel. A rough date can be back calculated using the reigns of the kings of Israel, Judah, and Assyrian kings corresponding to a solar eclipse occurring in 763 BC during the reign of Ashur Dan III. This produces an approximate date of 1000 BC for David’s reign. Noting that Samuel is old when anointing Saul and older still when anointing David (1 Samuel 8:1, 1 Samuel 12:2), and that the ark had been in Kiriath Jearim for 20 years starting when Samuel was a boy (1 Samuel 4:11, 7:2), Samuel’s birth was sometime after 1120 BC.