Samuel

First Samuel covers the first part of the lifetime of the last biblical judge Samuel. It describes Samuel's birth, the annointing of Saul as the first king of Israel and Samuel's preparing to make David the new king.

Key people include Eli, Goliath, Hannah, Samuel, Saul, Jonathan, and David. First Samuel begins with the birth of Samuel whom is "lent" to God by his mother a Nazarite named Hannah after her prayers are answered to bear a child (1 Samuel 1). Samuel annoints Saul as the first king of Israel. The Israelites lose the Ark of the Covenant and some 30,000 men in a battle with the Philistines. The Ark is later returned in an oxcart pulled by two cows. As Saul proves an unworthy leader, God instructs Samuel instruct Saul he has been rejected and to prepare David to become the new king. Samuel anoints David as a young boy and David fells the Philistine giant Goliath in a faceoff between the Israelites and Philistines. Saul is overcome by jealousy and hatred and pursues David to keep the throne. However, later on Saul takes his own life after becoming wounded and losing on the battlefield. First Samuel is one of a series of books (along with Joshua, Judges, Second Samuel, First Kings and Second Kings) which covers the theological history of the Israelites and explains God's law under the guidance of the prophets.