Samuel

Israeli religious leader

• Born: c. 1090 b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Ramathaim-Zophim (or Ramah), Israel
• Died: c. 1020 b.c.e.
• Place of death: Ramah, Israel

Though famed as a priest and prophet, Samuel is chiefly remembered as the instrument by which the monarchy was established in Israel.

Early Life

When Samuel (SAM-yew-ehl) was born, the twelve tribes of Israel had conquered and settled the greater part of the Promised Land but had as yet no unified government. The tribes occasionally united against a common enemy and submitted their disputes to judges, but leaders such as Gideon and Jephthah achieved victory in battle without establishing any office or administration.

Samuel’s birth followed a pattern common in the Old Testament. He was the son of Elkanah, who had two wives. One, Hannah, was barren; though she had the love of her husband, she was mocked for her barrenness by his other wife. When the family went to sacrifice at Shiloh, Hannah vowed that if the Lord gave her a boy child, she would dedicate the child to divine service for “all the days of his life.” Thus, her son, Samuel, after he had been weaned, became servant to Eli, the priest at Shiloh.

One night Samuel thought that he heard Eli calling; after the third time, Eli realized that the Lord was calling to the boy. Samuel learned that God’s favor was withdrawn from the house of Eli because of the misconduct of Eli’s sons. Shortly thereafter, these sons were killed in battle against the Philistines, and Eli died. The ark of the covenant was captured, but it was soon restored when it occasioned plagues among the Philistines. Samuel was now the priest and was also recognized as a prophet who received direct revelations from God, as Eli had not.

Life’s Work

Twenty years later, Samuel decided that aggressive action was needed against the Philistines, a people from overseas who had settled on the coast of Palestine. The Philistines were a constant threat to Israel because they were technologically more advanced, especially in the use of iron. In order to regain divine favor, Samuel persuaded the Israelites to abandon their worship of “strange gods” (the Baalim and Ashtoreth, Canaanite fertility gods). When the Israelites gathered at Mizpeh, and the Philistines attacked them, Samuel sacrificed, and

as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the Lord thundered with a great thunder that day on the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel.

Several cities were recovered from the Philistines, and Samuel returned to his priestly and judicial duties, traveling “from year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places; and his return was to Ramah; for there was his house” (1 Sam. 7).

In the Book of Judges, there are several examples of leaders, such as Gideon, who might have established a monarchy, but they either refused or behaved so badly that the Israelites repudiated them. Samuel seems almost to have been thought of as a king, but he could not have been accepted as one because his sons, like Eli’s, were unworthy: They “turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.” At this point, Samuel became less a judge or military leader and more a kingmaker, one who as prophet communicated the Lord’s intentions to make or unmake a particular monarch. (The narrative of 1 Samuel shows certain inconsistencies that are thought to be the result of combining two accounts, one friendly and one hostile to the idea of a monarchy. Note that the idea of monarchy implies not only authority in war and peace but also succession, the orderly passing of rule from father to son.)

“When Samuel was old,” the elders of Israel asked him to give them a king “to judge us like all the nations,” to “go out before us, and fight our battles.” Samuel consulted the Lord, who answered, “They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” Nevertheless, he directed Samuel, after listing all the forms of oppression that a king might inflict, to give them a king.

Thus Samuel became involved in the tragic career of Saul. The younger son of a Benjaminite named Kish and a “choice young man and a goodly,” Saul had been sent with a servant to find some lost asses. They were ready to abandon the search when the servant suggested that they consult a man of God, a seer in the city of Zulph, who might advise them about the asses for a present of one-fourth of a shekel of silver. They went to the seer, who was Samuel. Having been forewarned by the Lord, Samuel entertained Saul cordially and anointed him. This anointing did not imply that Saul would immediately become king. Instead, he was sent home. On the way, he met a company of ecstatic prophets and prophesied with them (perhaps an alternative account is again being presented). Samuel called the people to Mizpeh and, by a drawing of lots, again chose Saul king. Saul did not begin his reign but went home to Gibeah; he could not even collect taxes, for the sons of Belial “despised him and brought him no presents.”

The crisis came when the Ammonites besieged Jabesh-gilead. Saul behaved like a king at last: “And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the coasts of Israel by messengers, saying, Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen” (1 Sam. 11:7).

According to the phrase “after Saul and after Samuel,” Samuel was still a power in Israel when Saul “slew the Ammonites until the heat of the day.” Samuel’s response to this victory was twofold. First, he conducted a formal coronation ceremony for Saul. Second, Samuel gave a formal abdication speech, stressing his function as judge: “Whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe?” Samuel further reminded the people of all that the Lord had done for them since He delivered them from Egypt. Emphasizing his point by calling down thunder and rain in the midst of harvest, he concluded grimly, “But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.”

Saul’s reign started auspiciously; he and his son Jonathan were victorious in their campaigns against the Philistines and other enemies of Israel. However, there were two occasions when Saul acted in ways that caused him to forfeit divine favor. Saul had mobilized the people to meet a Philistine invasion and expected Samuel to meet him and offer sacrifices. When, after seven days, Samuel had not appeared, Saul, seeing his army melting away, offered the sacrifice himself. Immediately thereafter, Samuel arrived and told Saul that because of his disobedience to the Lord, his kingdom, which otherwise would have been established forever, would not continue but would be given to another, a man after the Lord’s own heart. Nevertheless, afterward, Samuel ordered Saul, in the name of the Lord, to attack the Amalekites, who had interfered with the Israelites during the Exodus, and massacre them, “both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.” Saul defeated the Amalekites, but he spared their king, Agag, and kept the best of the sheep and oxen for later sacrifice. This, to Samuel, was another sin of disobedience; the Lord, he said, repented having made Saul king. “And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul.”

The Lord had one more duty for Samuel to perform before his death; he was to go to Bethlehem and anoint David as Saul’s successor. Saul, meanwhile, was troubled by an evil spirit sent from the Lord; the modern reader may recognize symptoms of paranoia and depression. The remainder of 1 Samuel has little to do with Samuel; it primarily concerns David’s rise and Saul’s decline. It is recorded simply that Samuel died; “all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah.”

Significance

Whether Samuel is considered a prophet or a judge, the Bible portrays him playing a variety of roles in Israel. He was, first, a priest, presiding over a shrine and offering sacrifices there; on special occasions, such as war, he may have offered sacrifices elsewhere. His powers as a prophet varied greatly; he was apparently not insulted at the idea of finding lost cattle for a small sum in silver. He also claimed, however, to receive divine communications regarding the public welfare: In this he resembled the classic prophets, such as Jeremiah and Isaiah. Samuel enforced the lesson that national prosperity meant obedience not merely to general moral principles but also to direct instruction from the Lord, as communicated through His prophets. One form of prophecy Samuel seems not to have practiced: He was not one of the ecstatic prophets who performed in bands and in whose performances Saul twice joined. Samuel also occasionally performed secular functions. At least once, he commanded the armies of Israel, and his function as a judge should not be forgotten.

Samuel’s influence did not end with his death. The modern reader does not automatically side with Samuel but asks whether Saul’s premature sacrifice was such a fatal piece of disobedience and whether it was necessary to carry out such a ruthless sacrifice of the Amalekites. In part, the Bible answers these doubts: After Samuel’s death, Saul’s depression deepened, and his jealousy and persecution of David must have weakened him politically. When the Philistines gathered their army once more, Saul “was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled.” Unable to gain divine guidance, Saul, who had driven the witches and wizards from the land, in his desperation sought out a woman who had a familiar spirit and asked her to call up Samuel. Samuel appeared, an old man covered with a mantle, and pronounced a grim sentence: “The Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me.” Thus it happened, but the author or last editor of 1 Samuel must have had compassion for Saul; he recorded that the men of Jabesh-gilead recovered Saul’s body from the Philistines and gave it honorable burial.

Bibliography

Alter, Robert, and Frank Kermode, eds. The Literary Guide to the Bible. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987. Contains an essay on 1 and 2 Samuel by Joseph Rosenberg that emphasizes Samuel’s role in the establishment of the monarchy. See also Gerald Hammond’s “English Translations of the Bible,” which justifies the continued use of the King James Version.

Blenkinsopp, Joseph. A History of Prophecy in Israel. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996. Places Samuel in the context of Old Testament prophecy and in the context of other Near Eastern cultures.

Bright, John. A History of Israel. 4th ed. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000. A thorough, nontheological treatment of the history of Israel. Includes anecdotal commentary on life in ancient times.

Bruce, F. F. Israel and the Nations: The History of Israel from the Exodus to the Fall of the Second Temple. Carlisle, Cumbria, England: Paternoster Press, 1997. A comprehensive historical analysis of the kings of Israel, beginning with Saul and David and continuing through the Davidic line.

Kuntz, J. Kenneth. The People of Ancient Israel: An Introduction to Old Testament Literature, History, and Thought. New York: Harper and Row, 1974. Useful for the historical context and for chronology. Includes extensive bibliographies.

Sternberg, Meir. The Poetics of Biblical Narrative: Ideological Literature and the Drama of Reading. Macon, Ga.: Mercer, 1989. The final chapter contains an interesting study of the literary strategies used to handle the downfall of Saul.