The Book of Joshua marks a new beginning, to the story of Israel in Canaan. Yet the story continues straight on without a break. Deuteronomy had looked forward to the Israelites occupying Canaan

21.15 Everyone Was Doing What Was All right in His Own Eyes

But they didn’t find for them [all] in this way. 15 As the company felt sorry for Benjamin because Yahweh had made a breach in Israel’s clans, 16 the elders of the assembly said, ‘What can we do for wives for those who are left, because the women have been annihilated from Benjamin?’ 17 They said, ‘An escape possession for Benjamin—a clan will not be wiped out from Israel! 18 But we ourselves can’t give them wives from among our daughters’ (because the Israelites had sworn, ‘Cursed is the person who gives a wife to Benjamin’).

19 So they said, ‘Here, from time to time it’s Yahweh’s festival at Shiloh’ (which is north of Bet-el, east of the causeway going up from Bet-el to Shekem and south of Lebonah). 20 They ordered the Benjaminites, ‘Go and make an ambush in the vineyards 21 and look. There, if the daughters of Shiloh go out to join in the dances, you go out of the vineyards. Each of you capture a wife for himself from the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the region of Benjamin. 22 When their fathers or their brothers come to argue with us, we’ll say to them, ‘Be gracious to us over them, because we didn’t each get his wife in the battle, because you yourselves didn’t give them to them at a time when you would be liable’.

23 The Benjaminites did so and carried off wives in accordance with their number from the dancers whom they seized. Then they went and returned to their domain, and built up the towns and lived in them.

24 The Israelites went off from there at that time, each to his clan and to his kin-group. They left from there each to his domain.

25 At that time there was no king in Israel. Each person would do what was all right in his own eyes.

Samuel Book One

In the English Bible, First Samuel follows on from Ruth. That story ends by telling us about a line of people descended from Ruth and Boaz, the last of whom is David, and 1 Samuel is another take on David’s backstory—on the process that led to David’s becoming king. To complement that point, in the Hebrew Bible First Samuel directly follows Judges. Judges ends with a rueful comment on how people have been doing what was all right in their own eyes because there was no king in Israel. The implication is that Israel needed someone to exercise ongoing authority and get people to take Yahweh seriously. A king may be able to do so.

It’s the first of two books named after Samuel. He did not write them; he dies half way through 1 Samuel. But he is a huge figure in 1 Samuel, one of the three big men in the book. The account of his birth is a powerful story of a woman’s boldness in coming before God with the pain in her life and in challenging God to do something about it, and of this woman’s courage in then giving up the son who is the answer to her prayers, so that he can be Yahweh’s servant.

Samuel is the last of the ‘judges’, the leaders of Israel who dominate the Book of Judges, people who act effectively and with great authority though without the official position of someone like a king. Samuel is also the first great prophet. It’s no coincidence that Yahweh produces him at the same time as kings emerge in Israel. One of the chief responsibilities of a prophet is to be the king’s conscience, to challenge him about what he ought to be doing—and more often about what he ought not to be doing. Samuel is responsible for designating and anointing Saul, the second of the three huge figures, and then for pronouncing Yahweh’s decommissioning of him. He is then responsible for designating and anointing David. He even reappears at the end of the book, coming back from the dead to meet with Saul on the eve of Saul’s last battle.

The background to Samuel’s anointing of Saul is the people’s desire to have a king like other peoples. This desire fits with that comment at the end of Judges, yet the people are going back on a distinctive aspect of their life, the principle that Yahweh is their king, though humanly-speaking it’s hard to imagine how they could have gone on as a people without some form of central government to replace the decentralized system whereby no organization holds the clans together. Although asking for a king implies rejecting Yahweh as king, Yahweh accedes to their request and nominates the king. First Samuel 8—12 expounds all sides of Samuel’s and Yahweh’s attitude to kingship, which one may infer applies to other forms of leadership. There are advantages and disadvantages to having a leader. It costs people, in varying ways.

Yahweh’s mixed feelings about Israel having kings is the background to Saul’s having successes but then experiencingYahweh’s rejection for failures that may not seem very culpable. He is a tragic figure, a man drafted to do a job that Yahweh didn’t really want done and that he himself didn’t really want, but who becomes attached to the job even as he is making mistakes that lead to his rejection. Eventually Yahweh sends a ‘bad spirit’ to Saul—not an evil spirit (the Old Testament doesn’t talk about those) but a depressed and angry spirit, a bad temper.

The third huge figure is David, who is designated by Yahweh as Saul’s successor and who shows himself to be someone who always trusts in Yahweh and is a courageous fighter, a faithful subject, a magnetic personality, an energetic campaigner, a ruthless commander, a shrewd compromiser, and a magnanimous victor. Although anointed by Samuel in Yahweh’s name, before becoming king he has to wait until Yahweh has finished with Saul; he is also a man who is prepared to wait rather than trying to force things. Eventually Saul and his son Jonathan (David’s best friend) meet their death in battle, which opens up the future for David.

1.1 The Pain of Childlessness

1 There was a man from Twin Heights in Tsophim, from the highland of Ephrayim, whose name was Elqanah ben Yeroham, son of Elihu son of Tohu son of Tsuph, an Ephrayimite. 2 He had two wives; the name of one was Hannah, the name of the second was Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

3 That man used to go up from his town from year to year to bow low and to sacrifice for Yahweh Armies at Shiloh. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Pinhas, were priests for Yahweh there.

4 A day came when Elqanah sacrificed, and he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and her daughters. 5 To Hannah he would give a portion for two people because he loved Hannah, whereas Yahweh had closed up her womb, 6 and her rival would provoke her greatly to make her fret because Yahweh had closed up her womb. 7 So he would do, year after year. As often as she went up to Yahweh’s house, she would provoke her in this way, and she would cry and not eat. 8 Elqanah, her husband, said to her, ‘Hannah, why do you cry, why don’t you eat, why does your heart feel bad? Aren’t I better for you than ten sons?’

9 Hannah got up after the eating in Shiloh and after the drinking. Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of Yahweh’s palace. 10 She was bitter in spirit but she made a plea to Yahweh and cried and cried, 11 and she made a pledge. She said, ‘Yahweh Armies, if you actually look at your handmaid’s humbling and you’re mindful of me, and you don’t put your handmaid out of mind but give your handmaid a male offspring, I’ll give him to Yahweh all the days of his life. No razor will go up on his head’.

1.12 A Face Transformed

12 Because she was doing much pleading before Yahweh, and Eli was watching her mouth, 13 and Hannah was speaking in her heart (only her lips were quivering, but her voice did not make itself heard), Eli thought she was drunk. 14 Eli said to her, ‘How long will you behave like a drunk? Put your wine away from you’. 15 Hannah answered, ‘No, sir, I’m a tough-spirited woman and I haven’t drunk wine or liquor. I’ve poured myself out before Yahweh. 16 Don’t make your handmaid into a scoundrelous woman, because it was out of the dimensions of my tetchiness and my provocation that I’ve spoken until now’. 17 Eli answered, ‘Go, things will be well. The God of Israel: he will give the thing that you’ve asked of him’. 18 She said, ‘May your maidservant find grace in your eyes’.

The woman went on her way and ate, and her face was no longer [the same]. 19 They started early in the morning, bowed low before Yahweh, and went back and came to their home in The Height. Elqanah had sex with his wife Hannah and Yahweh was mindful of her, 20 and at the end of the year Hannah had got pregnant. She gave birth to a son and named him Samuel [Shemu’el], because ‘I asked [sha’al] for him from Yahweh’.

21 The man, Elqanah, went up with his entire household to offer Yahweh the yearly sacrifice and his pledge, 22 but Hannah didn’t go up, because (she said to her husband) ‘When the boy is weaned I’ll bring him. We’ll see Yahweh’s face, and he’ll live there permanently’. 23 Elqanah her husband said to her, ‘Do what’s good in your eyes; stay till you’ve weaned him. Only, may Yahweh implement his word’. So the woman stayed and nursed her son until she’d weaned him. 24 She took him up with her when she had weaned him, with a three-year-old bull, a barrel of flour, and a skin of wine, and brought him to Yahweh’s house at Shiloh. He was a boy. 25 They slaughtered the bull and brought the boy to Eli.

1.26 On Giving Up Your Son

26 She said, ‘Pardon me, sir, as surely as you live, sir, I’m the woman who stood with you here to make my plea to Yahweh. 27 It was for this boy that I made my plea, and Yahweh gave me what I asked of him. 28 I myself am also giving him to Yahweh; for all the days that he lives he’s given to Yahweh’. He bowed low there to Yahweh, 2 and Hannah made her plea:

My heart has exulted in Yahweh,

my horn has lifted high through Yahweh.

My mouth has opened wide at my enemies,

because I have rejoiced in your deliverance.

2 There’s no sacred one like Yahweh,

because there’s no one apart from you,

there’s no crag like our God.

3 Don’t do much speaking of lofty, lofty speech,

nor should outspoken speech come out of your mouth.

Because Yahweh is a God who knows;

by him actions are weighed.

4 The bows of strong men are broken,

but people who were falling have belted on forcefulness.

5 People who were full have hired themselves out for bread,

but the hungry left off from being hungry.

While the infertile woman has given birth to seven,

the woman with many children is withered.

6 Yahweh is one who puts to death and brings to life,

sends down to She’ol and brings up.

7 Yahweh is one who makes poor and makes wealthy,

puts down, also lifts up.

8 He is one who raises the poor from the dirt,

lifts up the needy from the rubbish tip,

To sit with important people;

he gives them a seat of splendour as their domain.

Because earth’s pillars belong to Yahweh;

he set the world upon them.

9 He keeps the feet of the people who are loyal to him,

but the faithless go silent into the darkness.

Because it’s not by energy that a person prevails;

10 Yahweh – people who argue with him shatter.

The One on High thunder in the heavens;

Yahweh judges the ends of the earth.

He gives vigour to his king,

lifts up the horn of his anointed one.

2.11 Ministers Who Indulge Themselves

11 Elqanah went home to The Height, while the boy was ministering to Yahweh in the presence of Eli the priest. 12 Now Eli’s sons were scoundrels; they didn’t acknowledge Yahweh. 13 The priests’ rule with the people was: when each person was offering a sacrifice, the priest’s boy would come while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand. 14 He would thrust it into the pan or the kettle or the cauldron or the pot; all that the fork brought up, the priest would take with it. In this way they would act with all Israel who came there to Shiloh. 15 Further, before they turned the fat into smoke, the priest’s boy would come and say to the individual making the sacrifice, ‘Give over some meat for roasting for the priest; he won’t take boiled meat from you, only raw’. 16 Should the individual said to him, ‘They should actually turn the fat into smoke now, then take for yourself whatever your appetite longs for’, he would say ‘No, but you’re to give it over now, or I’m taking it by force’.

17 The boys’ wrongdoing in Yahweh’s presence was very great, because the men disdained Yahweh’s offering.

18 So Samuel was ministering in the presence of Yahweh, a boy wrapped round in a linen chasuble. 19 His mother would make a little coat for him and bring it up for him from year to year when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. 20 Eli would bless Elqanah and his wife and say, ‘May Yahweh give you offspring from this woman in place of the one she asked for from Yahweh,’ and they would go to their place. 21 Because Yahweh attended to Hannah, she got pregnant and she gave birth to three sons and two daughters, but the boy Samuel grew up with Yahweh.

2.22 Why Do you Kick at My Sacrifices?

22 When Eli was very old, he heard of all that his sons were doing to all Israel and how they were sleeping with the women who fulfilled duties at the entrance of the appointment tent. 23 He said to them, ‘Why do you do such actions as these that I am hearing of, bad actions of yours, from all these people? 24 Don’t, my sons, because the report is not good that I’m hearing Yahweh’s people passing on. 25 If an individual does wrong against an individual, God may plead for him, but if an individual does wrong against Yahweh, who will make a plea for him?’ But they wouldn’t listen to their father’s voice because Yahweh wanted to put them to death. 26 But the boy Samuel was continuing to grow and seem good both with Yahweh and with people.

27 A supernatural man came to Eli and said to him: ‘Yahweh has said this: “Did I clearly reveal myself to your father’s household when rhey were in Egypt, belonging to Pharaoh’s household? 28 I choose him out of all Israel’s clans as a priest for me, to go up on my altar, to burn incense, to carry a chasuble before me, and I gave your father’s household all the Israelites’ gift offerings. 29 Why do you kick at my sacrifice and at my offering which I ordered, at my abode? You’ve honoured your sons more than me in fattening yourselves on the first of every offering of Israel as my people.

2.30 A Trustworthy Priest

30 Therefore (a declaration of Yahweh the God of Israel), I did say that your household and your father’s household would go about before me permanently, but now (Yahweh’s declaration), far be it for me, because the people who honour me I honour, but the people who despise me will become slight.

31 Here, a time is coming when I shall cut off your arm and the arm of your father’s household, so that there will be no one as an elder in your household. 32 You will look at the pressure that comes on [my] abode, despite all the good that is done to Israel, and there will be no one as an elder in your household for the entire time. 33 While I shall not cut off every individual of yours from my altar, so as to consume your eyes and make your spirit grieve, the entire abundance of your household: people will die. 34 This will be the sign for you that will come on your two sons, on Hophi and Pinhas: the two of them will die on one day.

35 I shall set up for myself a trustworthy priest. He will act in accordance with what is my mind and in my spirit. I shall build a trustworthy household for him and he will go about before my anointed one for all time. 36 Anyone who is left of your household will come to bow low to him for a payment in silver and a loaf of bread. He will say, “Assign me to one of the priestly duties so I can eat a bit of bread”’.

Map for Samuel goes about here

3.1 A Summons, Not a Call

3 The boy, Samuel, was ministering to Yahweh in the presence of Eli. Yahweh’s word was rare at that time; there was no vision spreading about. 2 On a day when Eli was lying down in his place (his eyes had started to fail; he couldn’t see) 3 but God’s lamp had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in Yahweh’s palace where God’s chest was, 4 Yahweh called to Samuel.

He said, ‘I’m here’, 5 and ran to Eli and said, ‘I’m here, because you called to me’. He said, ‘I didn’t call. Go back, lie down’. He went and lay down. 6 Yahweh called yet again, ‘Samuel’, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, ‘I’m here, because you called to me’. He said, ‘I didn’t call, son, go back, lie down’. 7 Now Samuel hadn’t yet acknowledged Yahweh; Yahweh’s word hadn’t yet revealed itself to him.

8 Yahweh again called Samuel, a third time, and he got up, went to Eli, and said, ‘I’m here, because you called to me’. Eli perceived that Yahweh was calling to the boy. 9 Eli said to Samuel, ‘Go, lie down, and if he calls to you, you’re to say, ‘Speak, Yahweh, because your servant is listening”’. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

10 Yahweh came and took his stand and called as at the other times, ‘Samuel, Samuel’. Samuel said, ‘Speak, because your servant is listening’.

3.11 The Message No One Would Want to Give

11 Yahweh said to Samuel, ‘Here, I’m going to do a thing in Israel such that everyone who hears it – both his ears will tingle. 12 That day I shall implement regarding Eli everything I spoke concerning his household, beginning and finishing it. 13 I told him that I’m going to exercise authority over his household permanently for the waywardness that he knew about, that his sons were slighting [me] for themselves and he didn’t stop them. 14 Therefore I swear concerning Eli’s household: if the waywardness of Eli’s household finds expiation by sacrifice or by offering, permanently….’

15 Samuel lay down until the morning, then opened the doors of Yahweh’s house. But Samuel was afraid of telling Eli the vision. 16 Eli called Samuel: ‘Samuel, my son’. He said, ‘I’m here’. 17 He said, ‘What was the thing that he spoke to you? Don’t hide any of it from me, please. May God do so to you, and may he do more, if you hide from me anything of all that he said to you’. 18 Samuel told him all the things and didn’t hide it from him. He said, ‘He is Yahweh. He will do what is good in his eyes’.

19 Samuel grew up, and as Yahweh was with him, he didn’t allow any of his words to fall to the ground. 20 All Israel from Dan as far as Be’er Sheba acknowledged that Samuel was trustworthy as a prophet belonging to Yahweh. 21 Yahweh again appeared at Shiloh, in that Yahweh revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh with Yahweh’s word, 4 and Samuel’s word came to all Israel.

4.1b Get the Covenant Chest

1b Israel went out to meet the Philistines in battle, and camped at Help Stone, while the Philistines camped at Apheq. 2 The Philistines lined up to meet Israel and the battle spread, and Israel took a beating before the Philistines. They struck down some 4000 men in their line in the fields.

3 The company came to the camp and Israel’s elders said, ‘Why did Yahweh defeat us today before the Philistines? Let’s get Yahweh’s pact chest from Shiloh for ourselves, so he will come among us and deliver us from our enemies’ fist’. 4 So the company sent to Shiloh and carried from there the pact chest of Yahweh Armies, who sits above the sphinxes. Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Pinhas, were with God’s pact chest there.

5 When Yahweh’s pact chest came into the camp, all Israel gave a great shout, and the earth resounded. 6 The Philistines heard the sound of the shout and said, ‘What’s this sound of a great shout in the Hebrews’ camp?’ They came to know that Yahweh’s chest had come into the camp.

7 The Philistines were afraid, because they said, ‘A god has come into the camp’, and they said, ‘Alas for us! Athing like this has not happened to us in previous days. 8 Alas for us! Who will rescue us from the hand of these august gods? These are the gods that struck down the Egyptians in total defeat in the wilderness. 9 Summon up your strength, be men, Philistines, so you don’t serve the Hebrews as they served you. Be men! Do battle!’

10 So the Philistines did battle and Israel took a beating. They fled, each one to his tents. The rout was very great, and from Israel 30,000 men on foot fell, 11 while God’s chest was taken, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Pinhas, died.

4.12 The Splendour is Gone

12 A Benjaminite man ran from the line and came to Shiloh that day, with his uniform torn and earth on his head. 13 He came, and there, Eli was sitting on a seat by the road, watching, because his heart was trembling for God’s chest. When the man came to tell of it in the town, the entire town cried out. 14 Eli heard the sound of the cry and said, ‘What’s this sound of an uproar?’ The man hurried and came, and told Eli.

15 Eli was a man of ninety-eight years. His eyes were set and he couldn’t see. 16 The man said to Eli, ‘I’m the one coming from the line. I myself fled from the line today’. He said, ‘What was the thing that happened, son?’ 17 The man bringing the news replied, ‘Israel fled before the Philistines. It was both a great disaster to the company, and also your two sons, Hophni and Pinhas are dead, and God’s chest was taken’. 18 When he made mention of God’s chest, he fell backward from on his seat by the side of the gateway. His neck broke and he died, because the man was old and heavy. He had exercised authority for Israel for forty years.

19 His daughter-in-law, Pinhas’s wife, was pregnant, soon to give birth. She heard the report about God’s chest being taken and her father-in-law and her husband being dead, and she bent down and gave birth, because her labour pains came over her. 20 At the time of her dying, the women standing by her spoke: ‘Don’t be afraid, because you’ve given birth to a son’. She didn’t answer. She didn’t give her mind to it.

21 She called the boy Ikabod (‘Where is the splendour?’), saying ‘The splendour has gone into exile from Israel’, in connection with God’s chest being taken, and with her father-in-law and with her husband. 22 She said, ‘The splendour has gone into exile from Israel, because God’s chest has been taken’.

5.1 You Can’t Mess with the Covenant Chest

5 When the Philistines took God’s chest, they brought it from Help Stone to Ashdod. 2 The Philistines took God’s chest and brought it to Dagon’s house and set it beside Dagon. 3 The Ashdodites started early next day and there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before Yahweh’s chest. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place.

4 They started early in the morning next day and there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before Yahweh’s chest, with Dagon’s head and both the palms of his hands cut off, on the threshold. Only [the body of] Dagon remained to him. 5 That’s why Dagon’s priests and all the people who come to Dagon’s house don’t tread on Dagon’s threshold in Ashdod, until this day.

6 Yahweh’s hand was heavy on the Ashdodites. He desolated them and struck them down with haemorrhoids, Ashdod and its territories. 7 The Ashdodites saw that it was so, and said, ‘The chest of Israel’s God is not to stay with us, because his hand has been tough with us and with Dagon our god’. 8 They sent and gathered all the Philistines’ lords to them and said, ‘What shall we do with the chest of Israel’s God?’ They said, ‘The chest of Israel’s God should get itself round to Gat’. So they took the chest of Israel’s God round. 9 After they had taken it round, Yahweh’s hand came against the town with a great turmoil. He struck the town’s people from young to old, and haemorrhoids broke out on them.

10 So they sent God’s chest off to Eqron. But when God’s chest came to Eqron, the Eqronites cried out, ‘They’ve brought the chest of Israel’s God round to me to put me and my people to death’. 11 So they sent off and gathered all the Philistines’ lords and said, ‘Send the chest of Israel’s God off so it goes back to its place. It will not put me and my people to death’, because there was a deathly turmoil in the entire town. God’s hand was very heavy there. 12 The men who didn’t die were struck down by the haemorrhoids. The town’s cry for help went up to the heavens.