1 Samuel
Two kings, one prophet, and a very long argument about who is really in charge.
Who wrote it: Anonymous. Tradition connects it to Samuel, Nathan and Gad, though Samuel dies in chapter 25. First and Second Samuel were originally one book, and most scholars see them as part of the longer history from Joshua to Kings, drawing on early court records and stories and edited into final form during or after the exile.
What it is
It opens with a woman who cannot have children praying so hard in the sanctuary that the priest thinks she is drunk. Hannah gets her son, Samuel, and gives him back to God. He grows up in the temple, hears God call his name in the night, and becomes the last of the judges and the first of the prophets. He is also the man who, against his own advice, gives Israel a king.
The people want a king so they can be like other nations. God tells Samuel to give them one, and to warn them what it will cost. Saul is tall, handsome, and hiding among the luggage when they come to crown him. He starts well. Then he panics under pressure, offers a sacrifice he was not supposed to offer, keeps plunder he was told to destroy, and Samuel tells him the kingdom is being torn away. Saul spends the rest of the book unravelling, jealous, paranoid and haunted, still king in name and losing everything else.
Meanwhile Samuel anoints a shepherd boy in Bethlehem, the youngest of eight, who was not even invited to the lineup. David kills Goliath, becomes a national hero, marries Saul's daughter, and becomes best friends with Saul's son Jonathan, who should have been his rival. Saul tries to kill him, repeatedly, and David flees. The second half of the book is David on the run in caves and foreign towns, twice with the chance to kill Saul and twice refusing. The book ends with Saul dead on a mountain, by his own hand, and David not yet king.
What to look for: the contrast the book keeps drawing between how things look and what God sees. Saul looks like a king. Hannah looks drunk. David looks like a kid. The line 'the LORD looks at the heart' is the book's center, and it cuts both ways: it is why David is chosen and, in the next book, why his own failures cannot be hidden.
Verses worth keeping
The LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak; for your servant hears.”
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsThe LORD came and stood there and called like the other times: 'Samuel! Samuel!' And Samuel said, 'Speak. Your servant is listening.'
A boy who has never heard God before, coached by an old priest who has stopped listening. The first message Samuel gets is bad news for Eli.
- 1 Samuel 8:7WEB
The LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they tell you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me as the king over them.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsThe LORD said to Samuel, 'Listen to what the people are saying to you. It isn't you they've rejected. They've rejected me as their king.'
God lets them have the king they asked for. Getting what you want is sometimes the judgment.
Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the LORD’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsSamuel said, 'Does the LORD enjoy burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as he enjoys being obeyed? Look, obeying is better than sacrifice, and listening beats the fat of rams.'
Saul kept the best animals to sacrifice and called it worship. Samuel calls it what it was.
But the LORD said to Samuel, “Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for I don’t see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsBut the LORD said to Samuel, 'Don't look at his face or how tall he is, because I've rejected him. I don't see the way people see. People look at the outside, but the LORD looks at the heart.'
Samuel, who anointed the tall handsome king last time, is about to make the same mistake with David's oldest brother.
and that all this assembly may know that the LORD doesn’t save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.”
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsAnd everyone here will know that the LORD doesn't save with sword and spear. The battle belongs to the LORD, and he'll hand you over to us.
David to Goliath, in front of both armies. He is not claiming to be strong. He is claiming to be on the right side.
Read 1 Samuel
The full text, every chapter, from the World English Bible, a modern public-domain translation. Pick a chapter below. The highlighted verses are the place to start if you have never read it.
1 Samuel 16
1The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided a king for myself among his sons.”
2Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” The LORD said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’
3Call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. You shall anoint to me him whom I name to you.”
4Samuel did that which the LORD spoke, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?”
5He said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” He sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice. 6When they had come, he looked at Eliab, and said, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is before him.”
7But the LORD said to Samuel, “Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for I don’t see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
8Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, “The LORD has not chosen this one, either.” 9Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by. He said, “The LORD has not chosen this one, either.” 10Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. Samuel said to Jesse, “The LORD has not chosen these.” 11Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your children here?” He said, “There remains yet the youngest. Behold, he is keeping the sheep.” Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down until he comes here.”
12He sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with a handsome face and good appearance. The LORD said, “Arise! Anoint him, for this is he.”
13Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the middle of his brothers. Then the LORD’s Spirit came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up and went to Ramah. 14Now the LORD’s Spirit departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him. 15Saul’s servants said to him, “See now, an evil spirit from God troubles you. 16Let our lord now command your servants who are in front of you to seek out a man who is a skillful player on the harp. Then when the evil spirit from God is on you, he will play with his hand, and you will be well.”
17Saul said to his servants, “Provide me now a man who can play well, and bring him to me.”
18Then one of the young men answered and said, “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is skillful in playing, a mighty man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a handsome person; and the LORD is with him.”
19Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse, and said, “Send me David your son, who is with the sheep.”
20Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a container of wine, and a young goat, and sent them by David his son to Saul. 21David came to Saul and stood before him. He loved him greatly; and he became his armor bearer. 22Saul sent to Jesse, saying, “Please let David stand before me, for he has found favor in my sight.” 23When the spirit from God was on Saul, David took the harp and played with his hand; so Saul was refreshed and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.
Questions about 1 Samuel
Why did God reject Saul but stick with David, when David did worse things later?
It is a fair question and the text invites it. Saul's failures in chapters 13 and 15 look small next to what David does in 2 Samuel 11. The difference the book draws is not in the size of the sin but in what happened next. Saul, caught, explains, blames the people, and asks Samuel to honor him in front of the elders. David, caught, says 'I have sinned against the LORD' and stops talking. Saul's pattern is self-protection; David's, at his worst, is still to turn back. That is what 'a man after God's own heart' seems to mean here: not sinless, but not hiding. Whether that feels sufficient is a question the book leaves with you.
God ordered Saul to destroy the Amalekites, including children. How is that okay?
Chapter 15 records the command and it is as stark as it reads. The text gives its reason, an old attack on Israel in the wilderness, and Saul is judged for keeping the king and the best animals. Everything said about the conquest in Joshua applies here too: this is presented as a specific judgment in a specific time, the language of total destruction was ancient war rhetoric, and Amalekites keep appearing in later books, so it was not literally total. None of that makes the command easy, and the honest position is to say so. It is not a pattern for anyone to follow, and the same Bible ends with a command to love your enemies.
What is going on with the witch of Endor? Did Samuel really come back?
In chapter 28 Saul, desperate and cut off from God, disguises himself and asks a medium to summon the dead Samuel. The text reports that a figure appears, the medium screams, and Samuel speaks and tells Saul he will die tomorrow. It is one of the strangest scenes in the Bible. Readers have proposed that it was genuinely Samuel, allowed by God for this one message; that it was a deception; or that the narrator is telling it from Saul's point of view. The text simply says Samuel spoke. What is not ambiguous is the point: Saul has ended up in the exact place the law forbade, because he could find no other way to hear anything.