Prophet samuel biography

The Prophet Samuel was a Levite from the descendants of Kohath. 

In the Bible, his story began with a barren woman, Hannah, asking for a child from God. According to the Bible, "the Lord remembered her," and she became pregnant soon after. Hannah named the baby Samuel, which in Hebrew means "the Lord hears" or "the name of God." After weaning him, Hannah gave him to Eli, the high priest, to present to God at Shiloh.

As he grew up, Samuel ministered to God with the priest Eli at the tabernacle. God's favor was upon Samuel because he was a faithful young man. Because of his faith, while Samuel was sleeping one night, the Lord spoke to him, but Samuel mistakenly thought the voice came from Eli. Samuel heard the voice of God three times before realizing it was God speaking to him.

This covenant with God began Samuel’s journey as a prophet of the Lord. 

As Samuel's wisdom increased, he eventually became the last judge and a prophet. Samuel rose to become a judge after a Philistine victory over the Israelites at Mizpah, as he rallied the nation to fight the Philistines. As he settled disputes in various cities, he established his home in Ramah.

Samuel had two sons, Joel and Abijah, who were delegated to become judges after him. When his sons grew up, both became corrupt, so the people demanded that a king be appointed. God guided Samuel in anointing the first king of Israel, a handsome Benjaminite named Saul.

As he proclaimed his farewell, Samuel encouraged the people to abandon idols and serve the one true God. They were warned that if they and King Saul disobeyed, they'd be swept away by God. 

However, in a battle with the Amalekites, Saul disobeyed God, sparing the evil king's livestock despite Samuel's instructions to destroy everything. It was because of this grievance that God chose another king instead of Saul. 

In Bethlehem, Samuel anointed th

Biblical prophet and seer

This article is about the prophet described in the Books of Samuel. For other persons named Samuel, see Samuel (name). For other uses, see Samuel (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Samael.

Samuel is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition from Saul to David. He is venerated as a prophet in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In addition to his role in the Bible, Samuel is mentioned in Jewish rabbinical literature, in the Christian New Testament, and in the second chapter of the Quran (although the text does not mention him by name). He is also treated in the fifth through seventh books of Antiquities of the Jews, written by the Jewish scholar Josephus in the first century. He is first called "the Seer" in 1 Samuel 9:9.

Biblical account

Family

Samuel's mother was Hannah and his father was Elkanah. Elkanah lived at Ramathaim in the district of Zuph. His genealogy is also found in a pedigree of the Kohathites (1 Chronicles 6:3–15) and in that of Heman the Ezrahite, apparently his grandson (1 Chronicles 6:18–33).

According to the genealogical tables in Chronicles, Elkanah was a Levite—a fact not mentioned in the books of Samuel. The fact that Elkanah, a Levite, was denominated an Ephraimite is analogous to the designation of a Levite belonging to Judah (Judges 17:7, for example).

According to 1 Samuel 1:1–28, Elkanah had two wives, Peninnah and Hannah. Peninnah had children; Hannah did not. Nonetheless, Elkanah favored Hannah. Jealous, Peninnah reproached Hannah for her lack of children, causing Hannah much heartache. Elkanah was a devout man and would periodically take his family on pilgrimage to the holy site of Shiloh.

On one occasion, Hannah went to the sanctuary and praye

SAMUEL (Heb. שְׁמוּאֵל), Israelite judge and prophet who lived in the 11 century b.c.e. His name is very close to that of the ancient Babylonian royal ancestor of Hammurapi, Sūmû-la-il, and similar in form to other *Amorite names such as Sūmû-Abum, Sūmû-Samas, and others (halot, 1438). Standing at the close of one era and the beginning of another, Samuel was instrumental in the painful, but necessary, transition from a loose confederation of Hebrew tribes to a centralized monarchy. He played a part in events which eventually saw his people completely freed from subjection to the Philistines and from the threat of the utter loss of national life.

The Biblical Account

The record of Samuel's career in i Samuel 1–16, which is intricately interwoven with that of Saul, the first king, involves many baffling questions. It tells a story about the birth of a "child of prayer" to Hannah and Elkanah in an Ephraimite home in Ramathaim-Zophim (1:1) or Ramah (1:19). His mother dedicated him to a Nazirite life in the important sanctuary of Shiloh (1:11, 28; 2:11; 3:1). Here the aged priest *Eli, whose sons were lewd and impious good-for-nothings, officiated (2:12–17, 22–25). A rare divine revelation came to the boy in the night, involving terrible judgment on the house of Eli; and this was the beginning of a career that marked Samuel as a "prophet of yhwh" (3:20). Chapters 4–6 recount the shattering defeat of the Hebrews by the well-equipped Philistines; worst of all, the ark of yhwh was captured, the immediate house of Eli wiped out, and, probably (Jer. 7:12, 14), the vital Shiloh sanctuary was permanently razed.

Samuel is next depicted as a "judge" (i Sam. 7), first in the sense of a charismatic deliverer in a battle of miraculous proportions (verse 13 seems to be highly idealized) and then as an arbiter of disputes, traveling over a considerable area covering Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah, and Ramah (7:16–17). Samuel was married and had two sons, Joel and Abijah,

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