Bible Timeline · About 1100 to 1010 BC
Samuel: The Last Judge and the Prophet Who Anointed Kings
Samuel was born after his mother Hannah begged God for a son, and he grew up serving at the tabernacle in Shiloh. God called him as a boy, and he became Israel's last judge and a great prophet. When the people demanded a king, Samuel anointed Saul and later David.
Read it in the Bible: 1 Samuel 1:1-3:21 1 Samuel 4:1-7:17 1 Samuel 8:1-22 1 Samuel 12:23 Luke 1:46-55 Acts 3:24
Samuel was the last judge of Israel and one of its greatest prophets. He was born in answer to his mother Hannah's tearful prayer, grew up at the tabernacle in Shiloh, and heard God call his name when he was still a boy. As a man he led Israel back to God, and when the people demanded a king, he anointed Israel's first two kings, Saul and David. His life ran from about 1100 to just before 1010 BC. Samuel is the bridge between the chaos of the judges and the age of the kings.
Who Was Hannah?
Samuel's father, Elkanah, had two wives. Peninnah had children. Hannah had none, and Peninnah made sure she felt it, year after year. Every year the family went up to worship at the tabernacle in Shiloh, and every year Hannah ended up in tears.
In her bitter distress, Hannah prayed to Yahweh and wept with many tears. And she made a vow, saying, “O Yahweh of Hosts, if only You will look upon the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, not forgetting Your maidservant but giving her a son, then I will dedicate him to Yahweh all the days of his life, and no razor shall ever touch his head.” 1 Samuel 1:10 to 11
She prayed so hard that her lips moved but no sound came out. Eli the priest thought she was drunk, 1 Samuel 1:13. Once she explained, Eli blessed her. A lesson for church greeters everywhere. The person who looks a little off might be praying the most honest prayer in the building.
So in the course of time, Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I have asked for him from Yahweh.” 1 Samuel 1:20
The name Samuel sounds like the Hebrew for heard by God, or name of God. Hannah kept her promise. When he was weaned, likely around age three, she brought him to Shiloh and gave him to Yahweh's service.
What Was Hannah's Prayer?
Hannah's song in 1 Samuel 2 is a celebration of a God who turns the world upside down.
He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them among princes and bestows on them a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are Yahweh’s, and upon them He has set the world. 1 Samuel 2:8
It ends by praying for God's king, His anointed, 1 Samuel 2:10, before Israel even had a king. In Hebrew that word is mashiach, Messiah. About a thousand years later, a young woman named Mary sang a song that echoes Hannah's almost line for line, Luke 1:46 to 55.
How Did God Call Samuel?
Samuel grew up serving under Eli. But Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests who stole from the sacrifices and abused their position, and Eli did little to stop them. It was a dry season spiritually.
And the boy Samuel ministered to Yahweh before Eli. Now in those days the word of Yahweh was rare, and visions were scarce. 1 Samuel 3:1
One night Samuel heard someone call his name. He ran to Eli, who said he had not called. It happened three times before Eli realized God was calling the boy. He told Samuel how to answer.
Then Yahweh came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel answered, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.” 1 Samuel 3:10
God's first message to him was hard. Judgment was coming on Eli's house. Samuel was afraid to tell Eli, but he told him everything. From then on, God was with Samuel.
And Samuel grew, and Yahweh was with him, and He let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground. So all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of Yahweh. 1 Samuel 3:19 to 20
What Happened to the Ark of the Covenant?
Israel lost a battle to the Philistines and had an idea. Bring the ark into battle like a lucky charm. It did not work. The Philistines captured the ark and killed Hophni and Phinehas, 1 Samuel 4. When old Eli heard, he fell backward and died. His daughter in law named her newborn son Ichabod, meaning the glory has departed.
But the ark was not a trophy the Philistines could keep. They set it in the temple of their god Dagon. The next morning Dagon was face down before it, and the morning after that his head and hands were broken off. Plagues followed the ark from city to city, and the Philistines sent it back on a cart pulled by two cows, 1 Samuel 5 to 6.
Samuel as Judge: What Is Ebenezer?
Twenty years later, Samuel called the nation to real repentance.
Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to Yahweh with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and Ashtoreths among you, prepare your hearts for Yahweh, and serve Him only. And He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” 1 Samuel 7:3
They did, and when the Philistines attacked at Mizpah, God thundered against them and Israel won. Samuel set up a stone to remember it.
Afterward, Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far Yahweh has helped us.” 1 Samuel 7:12
That is where the old hymn line comes from, here I raise my Ebenezer. Samuel judged Israel the rest of his life, riding a yearly circuit to Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpah and living at Ramah, 1 Samuel 7:15 to 17.
Why Did Israel Want a King?
When Samuel grew old, he made his sons judges, but they took bribes. So the elders came to him with a request.
“Look,” they said, “you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king to judge us like all the other nations.” 1 Samuel 8:5
Samuel took it personally. God told him not to.
And Yahweh said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king. 1 Samuel 8:7
Samuel warned them that a king would take their sons for his army, their daughters for his kitchens, and a tenth of their crops. They still said, We must have a king. God gave them what they asked for. Samuel anointed Saul, 1 Samuel 10, and later, when Saul failed, he anointed a shepherd boy named David, 1 Samuel 16. Asking for a king was not wrong in itself. Moses had expected one, Deuteronomy 17:14 to 20. The problem was why they wanted one, to be like everyone else and to trust a man instead of God.
When Did Samuel Die?
Samuel died before Saul, while David was still on the run, 1 Samuel 25:1. All Israel mourned him and buried him at his home in Ramah. Later a desperate Saul went to a medium at Endor to call him up, and the message was judgment, 1 Samuel 28. Samuel's life covers about 1100 to 1010 BC, the years of 1 Samuel. Jewish tradition says Samuel wrote much of the book, with Nathan and Gad finishing it, 1 Chronicles 29:29.
How Samuel Points to Jesus
Samuel was prophet, judge and something like a priest all at once, the only person in his day who filled all three roles. He never stopped praying for a people who had rejected his leadership.
As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against Yahweh by ceasing to pray for you. And I will continue to teach you the good and right way. 1 Samuel 12:23
Luke describes the boy Jesus in almost the same words used for the boy Samuel.
And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. Luke 2:52
Peter said all the prophets from Samuel on pointed to the days of Jesus, Acts 3:24. Samuel anointed David, and from David's line came the true Anointed One, the Messiah Hannah sang about. And the simple prayer of a boy in the dark is still the best way to start any day with God. Speak, for Your servant is listening.
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Questions People Ask
Who was Samuel in the Bible?
Samuel was the last judge of Israel and a major prophet who lived about 1100 to 1010 BC. He was born in answer to his mother Hannah's prayer, led Israel back to God, and anointed both Saul and David as king.
Who was Samuel's mother?
Hannah, the wife of Elkanah. She had no children and prayed at Shiloh for a son, promising to give him to Yahweh's service, 1 Samuel 1. Her prayer of praise in 1 Samuel 2 is echoed by Mary's song in Luke 1.
What does speak, for Your servant is listening mean?
It is what the boy Samuel said when God called him at night, 1 Samuel 3:10. Eli the priest taught him to answer that way. It expresses a heart ready to hear and obey God.
What does Ebenezer mean?
Ebenezer means stone of help. Samuel set up a stone by that name after God gave Israel victory over the Philistines, saying thus far Yahweh has helped us, 1 Samuel 7:12.
Why did Israel ask for a king?
Samuel was old and his sons were corrupt judges, so the elders asked for a king to lead them like all the other nations, 1 Samuel 8:5. God told Samuel the people were really rejecting Him as their king, but He let them have one.