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Book of Judges

::For other people with the name Samuel see Sam
In the Old Testament, Samuel or Shmu'el
(שְׁמוּא
ֵל "Name/Heard of Elohim|God",
Standard Hebrew Šəmuʼel, Tiberian
Hebrew Šəmûʼēl) is a leader
of History of ancient Israel and Judah|ancient
Israel. His story is told in the Bible in the
Books of Samuel.

==Birth and early years==
The peculiar circumstances connected with his
birth are recorded in 1 Samuel 1:20. Hannah, one
of the two wives of Elkanah, who came up to Shiloh
to worship before the Lord, earnestly prayed to
God that she might become the mother of a son. Her
prayer was graciously granted; and after the child
was weaned she brought him to Shiloh
(Biblical)|Shiloh and consecrated him to the Lord
as a perpetual Nazarite (1:23-2:11). 

Here his bodily wants and training were attended
to by the women who served in the Tabernacle,
while Eli (Judges)|Eli cared for his religious
education. Thus, probably, twelve years of his
life passed away. "The child Samuel grew on, and
was in favour both with the Lord, and also with
men" (2:26; comp. Luke 2:52). It was a time of
great and growing degeneracy in Israel (Judg.
21:19-21; 1 Sam. 2:12-17, 22).

==Philistines==
The Philistines, who of late had greatly increased
in number and in power, were practically masters
of the country, and kept the people in subjection
(1 Sam. 10:5; 13:3). At this time new
communications from God began to be made to the
pious child. A mysterious voice came to him in the
night season, calling him by name, and, instructed
by Eli, he answered, "Speak, Lord; for thy servant
heareth." 

==Fame and his influence==
The message that came from the Lord was one of woe
and ruin to Eli and his profligate sons. Samuel
told it all to Eli, whose only answer to the
terrible denunciations (1 Sam. 3:11-18) was, "It
is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good",
the passive submission of a weak character, not,
in his case, the expression of the highest trust
and faith.

The Lord revealed himself now in diverse manners
to Samuel, and his fame and his influence
increased throughout the land as of one divinely
called to the prophetical office. The Philistine
yoke was heavy, and the people, groaning under the
wide-spread oppression, suddenly rose in revolt,
and "went out against the Philistines to battle."
A fierce and disastrous battle was fought at
Aphek, near Eben-Ezer (1 Sam. 4:1, 2). The
Israelites were defeated, leaving 4,000 dead "in
the field".

==Ark of the covenant==
The chiefs of the people thought to repair this
great disaster by carrying with them the Ark of
the Covenant as the symbol of Jehovah's presence.
They accordingly, without consulting Samuel,
fetched it out of Shiloh to the camp near Aphek.
At the sight of the Ark among them the people
"shouted with a great shout, so that the earth
rang again." 

==Second battle==
A second battle was fought, and again the
Philistines defeated the Israelites, stormed their
camp, slew 30,000 men, and took the Ark of the
Covenant. The news of this fatal battle quickly
arrived in Shiloh; and so soon as the aged Eli
heard that the Ark of God was taken, he fell
backward from his seat at the entrance of the
sanctuary, breaking his neck and dying. 

The Tabernacle with its furniture was probably, by
the advice of Samuel, now about twenty years of
age, removed from Shiloh to some place of safety,
and finally to Nob, where it remained many years
(21:1). The Philistines followed up their
advantage, and marched upon Shiloh, which they
plundered and destroyed (compare Jer. 7:12; Ps.
78:59).

Some modern scholars consider that Deuteronomy
chapter 32 may have been written by Samuel himself
in response to the theological implications of the
disastrous defeatee.

==Twenty years after ==
This was a great epoch in the history of Israel.
For twenty years after this fatal battle at Aphek
the whole land lay under the oppression of the
Philistines. During all these dreary years Samuel
was a spiritual power in the land. From Ramah, his
native place, where he resided, his influence went
forth on every side among the people. With
unwearied zeal he went up and down from place to
place, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting the
people, endeavouring to awaken in them a sense of
their sinfulness, and to lead them to repentance. 

His labours were so far successful that "all the
house of Israel lamented after the Lord." Samuel
summoned the people to Mizpah, one of the loftiest
hills in central Israel, where they fasted and
prayed, and prepared themselves there, under his
direction, for a great war against the
Philistines, who now marched their whole force
toward Mizpeh, in order to crush the Israelites
once for all. At the intercession of Samuel, God
interposed on behalf of Israel. Samuel himself was
their leader and the only occasion in which he
acted as a leader in war. The Philistines were
utterly routed. They fled in terror before the
army of Israel, and a great slaughter ensued.

==End to Philistine oppression==
This battle, fought probably about 1095 BC, put an
end to the forty years of Philistine oppression.
In memory of this great deliverance, and in token
of gratitude for the help granted, Samuel set up a
great stone in the battlefield, and called it
Ebenezer, saying, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped
us" (1 Sam. 7:1-12). This was the spot where,
twenty years before, the Israelites had suffered a
great defeat, when the Ark of God was taken.

This victory over the Philistines was followed by
a long period of peace for Israel (1 Sam. 7:13,
14), during which Samuel exercised the functions
of Judge, going "from year to year in circuit"
from his home in Ramah to Bethel, thence to Gilgal
(not that in the Jordan valley, but that which lay
to the west of Ebal and Gerizim), and returning by
Mizpeh to Ramah. 

==Jewish commonwealth==
He established regular services at Shiloh, where
he built an altar; and at Ramah he gathered a
company of young men around him and established a
school of the prophets. The schools of the
prophets, thus originated, and afterwards
established also at Gibeah, Bethel, Gilgal, and
Jericho, exercised an important influence on the
national character and history of the people in
maintaining pure religion in the midst of growing
corruption. They continued to the end of the
Jewish commonwealth.

Many years now passed, during which Samuel
exercised the functions of his judicial office,
being the friend and counsellor of the people in
all matters of private and public interest. He was
a great statesman as well as a reformer, and all
regarded him with veneration as the "seer," the
prophet of the Lord. At the close of this period,
when he was now an old man, the elders of Israel
came to him at Ramah (1 Sam. 8:4, 5, 19-22).

==Samuel's sons==
Samuel had made his sons judges in Beersheba, but
they were corrupt and self-serving. The elders,
anticipating danger to Israel from these misusers
of Samuel's authority, and being threatened with
invasion from the Ammonites, demanded that a king
should be set over them. This request was very
displeasing to Samuel. He remonstrated with them,
and warned them of the consequences of such a step
(again, see 1 Sam. 8). At length, however,
referring the matter to God, he acceded to their
desires, and anointed Saul the King|Saul to be
their king (11:15). Before retiring from public
life he convened an assembly of the people at
Gilgal (ch. 12), and there solemnly addressed them
with reference to his own relation to them as
judge and prophet.

The remainder of his life he spent in retirement
at Ramah, only occasionally and in special
circumstances appearing again in public (1 Sam.
13, 15) with communications from God to King Saul.
While mourning over the many evils which now fell
upon the nation, he is suddenly summoned (ch. 16)
to go to Bethlehem and anoint David, the son of
Jesse, as king over Israel instead of Saul.

==Death and afterwards==
After this little is known of him till the time of
his death (Iyar 28), which took place at Ramah
when he was probably about eighty years of age.
"And all Israel gathered themselves together, and
lamented him, and buried him in his house at
Ramah" (25:1), not in the house itself, but in the
court or garden of his house. (Comp. 2 Kings
21:18; 2 Chr. 33:20; 1 Kings 2:34; John 19:41.)
Samuel's devotion to God, and the special favour
with which God regarded him, are referred to in
Jer. 15:1 and Ps. 99:6.

==See also==
* Books of Samuel.
* List of names referring to El

Initial text from Easton's Bible Dictionary, 1897
– Please update as needed

{| align="center" cellpadding="2" border="2"
|-
| width="30%" align="center" | Preceded by:
Eli
(Judges)|Eli
| width="40%" align="center" | Books of
Samuel|Last Judge of Israel
| width="30%" align="center" | Succeeded
by:
Saul the King|King Saul
|}