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22 July 2022
Samuel is typically divided into 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, but don't pay enough to the division. I'll just use it when giving chapter numbers, for convenience.
The authorship of Samuel is part of the broader question of how the so-called Deuteronomistic History came came about.
There was a certain man named Elkanah, whose childless wife asked for and was given a son by God (1 Samuel 1), leading her to give a prayer-poem of thanksgiving. The son, Samuel, was raised by priest, whose sons were morally unfit to inherit his position leading Israel (2). God, dramatically, speaks to young Samuel about the end of Eli's line (3). Philistines, in battle capture the sacred ark, and Eli and his sons die (4). The ark brings plague upon Philistia (5), prompting the Philistines to return it (6). Under Samuel's leadership, Israel subdues the Philistines (7). Samuel's sons, like Eli's, are unworthy to succeed him, and Israel requests a king (8). Samuel anoints Saul, and Saul becomes king (9, 10).
Saul delivers Jabesh Gilead from foreign oppression, and becomes king (11). Samuel delivers a typically deuteronomistic speech (12). Saul becomes king, and quickly gets in trouble, both with Samuel and Philistia (13). Jonathan leads Israel in defeating the Philistines, but is nearly killed by Saul afterward (14). Saul, commanded to wipe out the Amalekites, wipes out all but one of them, and Yahweh becomes angry (15). Rejecting Saul, God chooses David as king, and -- ironically-- David begins working as a personal assistant to Saul, helping him through difficult emotional periods (16). David kills a Philistine giant, and after his victory is introduced to Saul (17).
Saul begins to see David and a rival, and cooks up a scheme to get him killed (18). Saul tries, and fails, to have David killed (19). David and Jonathan enter a covenant, and David leaves the royal court for his safety (20). David flees, with some unwitting assistance from the priests and Nob, and goes to Philistia, where he feigns madness (21). David lives in hiding, and Saul kills the priests of Nob (22). David saves a town from Philistines, and is then chased about by Saul (23). While dodging Saul's forces, David turns down a chance to kill his pursuer, and Saul, seeing David's decency, goes home (24).
David, leading a roving band of sketchy types, becomes enraged at an insult by a prominent man named Nabal, who winds up miraculously dead (25). As before David is pursued by Saul, passes up a chance at killing Saul, and Saul the sheepish Saul apologizes (26). David, not buying Saul's promises at this point, defects to the Philistines (27), even though his new Philistine overlord makes clear that this entails attacking Israelites. Saul visits a medium and raises the ghost of Samuel, who prophesies his impending death (28). On the eve of a battle against Israel, the Philistine commander sends David away (29). Amalekites, apparently not remembering that they have recently been exterminated to the last man, show up and abduct David and his associates' wives. David kills all but four hundred of them and recovers the women (30). The Philistine battle with Israel arrives, and Saul dies (31).
When David learns that Saul is dead, David kills the Amalekite who claimed to have done the deed, then memorializes Saul and Jonathan in poetry (2 Samuel 1). David is made king over Judah, and fights a civil war with the house of Saul (2). Saul's son's general Abner defects to David, but is murdered by David's general Joab (3). Saul's son, and David's rival, Ishbosheth, is killed (4). David becomes king of a united kingdom, seizes Jerusalem, and defeats Philistines (5). The sacred ark is brought to his new capital at Jerusalem (6). David wishes to build a temple for Yahweh, who declines the offer (7). David defeats various enemies (8). David shows kindness to Saul's relative Mephibosheth (9), and David defeats a coalition of Ammonites and Arameans (10).
David impregnates the wife of one his soldiers and has the man killed to cover up the deed (11), and is harshly rebuked by the prophet Nathan. God kills the resulting child (12). David's son Amnon rapes David's daughter Tamar, so David's son Absalom kills Amnon (13). After going into exile, Absalom returns and is reconciled to David (14). Absalom mounts a coup and David flees (15). Fleeing, David hears a report that Mephibosheth has betrayed him, and David is openly taunted by Shimei. Absalom acquires two advisors, but one is secretly in league with David (16). Absalom takes his bad advice and winds up killed, and David is restored to power (17, 18). David is very distressed about the death of his son, and returns to Jerusalem (19). Sheba ben Bikri launches a brief and ill-fated rebellion (20).
David kills seven of Saul's relatives, and his warriors kill various giants (21). Next is a poem of victory by David (22). David gives his last words, and the narrative gives a list of David's "thirty" mighty warriors (23). David conducts a census, which angers Yahweh, and in the aftermath David sacrifices on land bought from Araunah the Jebusite (24).
As with other pages migrated from biblicalambiguities.net, this page may contain material paraphrased or even outright copied without direct attribution from the KJV, RV, ASV, JPS (1917), WEB, NHEB, Kittel's BH, the pre-1923 volumes of the ICC series, or the commentaries on Genesis of Dillmann, Skinner, and Driver. More details on this policy can be found here: biblicalambiguities-general-disclaimer and biblicalambiguities-translation-disclaimer.
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