First and Second Samuel were originally one book in the Hebrew Bible. The Holman Concise Bible Commentary has a good introduction to these books and discusses how and when they became separated into two books and how they are referred to in different traditions. An early English translation in the Roman Catholic tradition that was produced at the end of the sixteenth century and revised a couple of centuries later to remove the archaic words is known as the Douay-Rheims translation. In this Bible 1 Samuel is known as 1 Kings and the book we know as 2 Kings is there called 4 Kings. A more recent English translation for Roman Catholics is known as the New American Bible and it uses the book names that we are familiar with, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, etc. The Greek version of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint (LXX) refers to these books as 1-4 Kingdoms. You may in your study of the Old Testament run across a commentary or an article referring to 1 Kings or 3 Kings or 2 Kingdoms and you will need to be aware of these differences if their reference just doesn’t make sense.

Here are links to the Bible Project summaries of 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel. These summaries are very good and well worth the few minutes to watch.

Samuel was the last judge and also served as a priest. He was the Kingmaker. This brought him concern as God told him to go to Bethlehem and anoint someone else as king. The account is found in 1 Sam 16. There are a couple of things that we can wonder about when we read this story. Samuel is afraid that Saul will be told of his activities and have him killed. The first thing in this section that seems strange in this account is the elders that go out to meet Samuel and do so trembling and ask if he is coming in peace. The HCBC doesn’t mention any reason for their fear however the CSB Study Bible may give us a clue as to why they feared seeing Samuel coming with a young cow. On 1 Sm. 16:2 it reads, “Samuel had told Saul that God had rejected his kingship and had chosen another to lead Israel. Consequently, Samuel’s travels would be of great interest to Saul. Samuel feared Saul would consider it treason if he anointed another man as king. A young cow might be sacrificed in a region where an unsolved murder had occurred (Dt 21:1–9). It is also possible that bringing a sacrifice to the Lord merely provided a pretext for Samuel to hide the primary purpose of his journey.”^[1] While the CSB Study Bible doesn’t explicitly give this as a possible reason for the fear of the elders, some full-length commentaries will suggest it. The second thing where differences of opinion exist in this chapter is found in 16:14 where an ‘evil’ spirit is sent from Yahweh to torment Saul. The HCBC does have good coverage of this controversy on pages 114 and 115.

In 1 Sm. 28 we read the strange story of Saul and the Medium of Endor. The HCBC refers to this person as the ‘Witch of Endor.’ One unusual feature of the CSB Study Bible are its word studies. On page 454 they have a word study on the Hebrew word translated ‘medium’ or ‘spirit in the CSB.’ The word is found 16 times in the Old Testament and 14 of these are usually translated as ‘medium’ in most of our English translations. The two exceptions are in 1 Sm. 28:8 and Isa. 29:4 where the translations will vary. One Hebrew dictionary gives the meaning of the word as ‘ghost’ or ‘one who consults a ghost.’ In Dt.18:11 we are told that one of the many sins practiced by the people in Canaan that would bring God’s judgment on them was consulting mediums and inquiring of the dead. Saul was right in attempting to rid the land of these practices but turned to them when he could get no answer from God.

Fortunately, we have God’s word and the Spirit to guide us in finding God’s will. Saul had been told God’s will but would not accept it. Do we sometimes know God’s word and will on a matter but also refuse to accept it?

^[1] Beyer, Bryan E. 2017. “1 Samuel.” In CSB Study Bible: Notes, edited by Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax, 434. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.