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1. The Contents and Design of the (First) Book of Samuel.-In the reign of King Rehoboam,* the son of Solomon-at the instance, probably, of the chief of the then flourishing prophetic schools-a learned son of the prophets, one (his name is not recorded) who in later days would have been termed a scribe, undertook to compose, from materials preserved in these schools, a general history of the events connected with the chosen people for some 120-130 years prior to the accession of the great Solomon, whose memory was still fresh in Israel.

It was well, surely, that the renowned centres of Hebrew education should possess a connected story of that marvellous century which had witnessed so mighty a change in the people. In its first years, Israel, without culture, almost without religion, seemed fast degenerating into a loose aggregation of Bedouin tribes, perpetually harassed by the neighbouring races, especially by a growing and powerful nation-the Philistines-who were constantly recruited from countries beyond the seas.

The last years of the same century witnessed a different state of things. Israel, having completely vanquished the neighbouring races, had developed into a great and united nation. Its tribes were no longer confined to the narrow limits of Canaan; its influence was acknowledged over a great extent of the continent of South-western Asia. It had become, strange to relate, one of the great world-kingdoms, and under David and Solomon scarcely acknowledged a rival power in the East. The internal life of the people had undergone no less a change. Arts and literature were cultivated; great prosperity and a comparatively high state of culture and learning were to be found in the dominion ruled by the famous Solomon. An elaborate system of government had been established, and a powerful standing army, of which the twelve tribes formed the nucleus, gave a seeming stability to the marvellous structure of Hebrew power. On one of the old sacred hills, in the centre of the land originally conquered by the tribes, on a spot hallowed among the race by pri meval tradition, the great king had built a temple to their God—the unseen Protector of the people-a building of magnificence and grandeur never surpassed,

The earlier date-that of the reign of Rehoboam-is adopted by Thenius, Keil, Erdmann in Lange, Commentary.

The Dean of Canterbury (Dr. Payne Smith), for reasons suggested in his Introduction to the First Book of Samuel, in the Pulpit Commentary, puts the date a little later-somewhere in the time of Jehoshaphat.

The Rabbinical view is that Jeremiah was the author. Grotius adopts this view.

Stähelin suggests Hezekiah's reign as the period of this composition.

Haevernich prefers the early years of Solomon.

Ewald places the first production as late as the second half of the Babylonian exile, but assumes that this was only a partial revision of a much earlier history.

probably never equalled, in any land, though some 3,000 years have passed over the world since the dedication morning.

What strange chain of events had led up to this marvellous change in the condition of the Hebrew people? The sacred" scribe "begins his story of these "events" about 170 years before the death of Solomon, with a picture of the life of the people in the days of the aged Eli, high priest and judge of Israel.

1. THE DAYS OF ELI.-The introduction is abrupt. It says nothing of the early history of the old priestly judge, who, however, in his youth and vigorous manhood, must have been a distinguished hero and administrator; for his high post, which he retained to the end of his days, was not inherited by him, but won: Eli belonged only to the younger branch of the house of Aaron, and therefore the transfer to him of the highpriestly and judicial office, of which the historian tells us nothing, must have been the result of his own merit.

In his old age, as represented in this book, he appears as a benevolent, kindly man, but utterly incapable of controlling the wild passions of the people. His own sons, themselves priests, are represented as being covetous and utterly lawless; and a terrible picture of the shame and degradation of the people is painted for us in the brief, but vivid, recital of the doings at Shiloh in the old age of Eli, the high priest-in Shiloh, the chief religious centre of the race.

But though the people, as a whole, were deeply tainted, even in the highest ranks, with all the vices most hateful to the pure religion of their God, yet there were some families in Israel pious, simple, honest folk. Of these the writer gives us a specimen in the account of the house of Elkanah, and especially in the carefully drawn picture of the inner life of his wife, Hannah, the mother of Samuel.

At this time Israel was still contending for bare existence with the neighbouring nations and tribes; its very life and existence as a people (as has been related in another compilation, called the "Judges") had long been threatened. One of these neighbouring peoplesthe warlike Philistines-as it grew in power, directed its energies especially to the conquest of the Hebrew race, whom they seem to have hated with a fierce and jealous hatred.

In the old age of Eli, each year the Philistine encroachments seem to have grown more intolerable; each year the people seem to have been less capable of offering to these encroachments any effectual resistance. The patriot scribe who compiled our history, with stern grief, very shortly recounts a terrible sequence of national disasters-the utter defeat of his people; the loss of their prized and sacred symbol, the Ark of the covenant; the death of Eli, the high priest and judge, caused by shame and grief.

The nation had now reached its lowest pitch of degra dation. It appeared as though nothing could now save Israel from being wiped out from among nations: for even worse, we know, happened to the "chosen race than our historian tells us in this Book of Samuel. He recounts enough, surely, in his sorrowful narrative, for us to picture Israel's deep distress-her armies beaten, her strong places taken, her people little better than trodden-down subjects of the idolatrous Philistines-but here he pauses; he refrains from dwelling on the sacking of Shiloh, on the destruction of the sanctuary, on the awful scenes which evidently followed the taking of the Ark in battle, and the death, through shame, of the aged Eli. It was a horror too great for the patriot scribe to dwell on. But Asaph, the psalmist, darkly speaks of this dread period in his mournful poem, where it speaks so eloquently of the time" when God greatly abhorred His Israel, so that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh." The psalmist draws with a few masterly strokes a vivid picture of the utter desolation of the land-a prey to fire and sword:

"He was wroth,

And greatly abhorred Israel:

So that He rejected the tabernacle in Shiloh-
The tent (which) He pitched among men.
And He gave His strength into captivity,

And His beauty into the adversary's hand.

Yea, He gave over His people to the sword,
And was wroth with His inheritance.
Their young men the fire devoured,

And their maidens were not praised in the marriage song. Their priests fell by the sword,

And their widows made no lamentation."-Ps. lxxviii.

The memory of the awful disaster seems never to have been lost in Israel. Far on in the history of the chosen people the prophet Jeremiah refers to this terrible judgment, which inaugurates in so stern a manner the public career of Samuel: "For go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I made my name to dwell at the first, and see what I have done to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel" (Jer. vii. 12. See also verse 14 and chap. xxvi. 6 of the same prophet).

2. THE DAYS OF SAMUEL.-The prophet-scribe proceeds then to give an account of the times which immediately succeed the catastrophe of Shiloh and the death of Eli. In the period of the deepest degradation of the people (again to use Asaph's words in Ps. lxxviii.), "the Lord awakened as one out of sleep," and gave them Samuel. To the divinely-guided labours of this prophet-judge-no doubt, after Moses, the greatest of the sons of Israel1-was owing all the matchless prosperity which the people enjoyed in the latter part of David's life, and during the reign of his son Solomon. Our historian-educated, no doubt, in one of Samuel's prophet schools-gives us some account of the Restorer's early days. Brought up by the high priest Eli, under the shadow of the sanctuary at Shiloh, the child Samuel was early trained to love the glorious national traditions of the past, and to share in the yet more glorious national hopes for the future. He was too-living as he did at Shiloh-a sorrowful witness of the moral degradation of the lives of the foremost men of the land. Their fatal example in Shiloh was but too faithfully copied in all the coasts of Israel. He shared, too, in the terrible disaster which overwhelmed high priest and sanctuary, and which threatened the total ruin of his nation. From that sad day Samuel, the pupil of Eli, became the foremost man among the scattered and disorganised tribes. For long years he laboured with all his great powers, ever helped with the consciousness that the Glorious Arm of the Holy One who loved Israel was beside him. For long years he laboured to

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restore the dying life of the people, by infusing into it the old trust in the Eternal Friend-by restoring throughout the harassed land a respect for morality, and a reverence for the religion of their fathers. And to a certain extent Samuel was successful. steady, ardent faith held together in their darkest hours the shattered remnant of the race, at a time when total absorption among the Philistines and the neighbouring tribes seemed imminent. But as he worked and prayed, slowly,* against his own wishes and pre-conceptions, the conviction forced itself upon him that the whole existing system had become hopelessly unsound, and the community would only be saved by a totally new organisation.

The historian, in simple, eloquent language, gives us the picture of Samuel's inward struggles here, and relates how the noble-minded statesman, always under Divine guidance, founded the monarchy, chose a king, and quietly yielded up the supreme power in the State. Nor was this all; in his long wanderings up and down among the people, during the years of his toil in the course of his vast labour of religious restoration, he had seen how deep was the ignorance of the children of Israel. In the troublous days of the judges the The arts, music, poetry, history, were unknown. chosen race cared for none of these things. In matters of religion a wild and gloomy superstition had taken the place of the pure and spiritual belief taught by Moses. To remedy this state of things, Samuel founded the schools of the prophets, in order that, by their agency, the mental condition of the people might be raised, and men trained to serve God in Church and State. In these schools the founder did not expect his students to receive the gift of inspiration. That, the most rare and precious of gifts, the great seer knew was to be obtained by no education or training, but was the gift of God alone, from whom it might come to a herdman, with only such learning as could be picked up in a village (Amos vii. 14, 15); he knew that it was never bestowed except for high purposes, and in cases where there was a special internal fitness on the part of the receiver. But the words prophet and prophecy have a wide meaning in Holy Scripture.

The instruction was essentially free, was open to all comers, and, when educated, the prophet might return to his farm, or to some occupation connected with city life. But he was from henceforth an educated man; and he had been taught too the nature of Jehovah: how He was to be worshipped, and what was the life which every member of a covenant nation ought to lead.

Thus Samuel's schools not only raised Israel to a higher mental level, but were the great means of maintaining the worship of Jehovah among the people. As such, we find future prophets earnest in maintaining them. But the prophetic order had in Samuel's mind another important function. It was to be a permanent public power alongside of the priesthood which already existed, and of the kingly office which he, Samuel, had inaugurated. It was intended especially to offer to the latter, when inclining to tyranny, a powerful opposition, founded on the Divine Word. Throughout the history of Israel we find the prophetical order not merely the preachers of a high and pure morality, and a lofty, spiritual religion, but

* Ewald, History of Israel, Book II., Section III., chap. iii. -Samuel. Dean Payne Smith, Introduction to the Book of Samuel (Pulpit Comm.). Dr. Erdmann in Lange, Introduction, Section IV.

we see in them "the tribunes of the people," the protectors of the oppressed subjects against the despotic monarch, the steady defenders of the down-trodden poor against the exacting and covetous rich.

In one sense, they filled the position which the priesthood ought to have occupied, had the representatives of that order done their duty, but who-as Samuel well knew, not only from the past sad history of the period of the judges, but from his own personal observation at Shiloh during the life-time of Eli-had been tried, and had been found miserably wanting.

This was the first part of the prophetic historian's work. Up to 1 Sam. vii. 14, the life and work of Samuel, the pupil of Eli, was his theme. Here a new period in the story of Israel begins. The king-the creation of Samuel-from henceforth fills the central position; on him now all eyes are turned. The judge of Israel-Samuel-with dignified composure quits the office he had so well filled, and makes room for the leader of the new Israel. In this place (chap. vii. 14—17) the historian summarily condenses all that had still to be said about Samuel, and in the succeeding chapters the great judge only fills the subordinate, but still im. portant, position which he may be said to have created -that of chief of the prophetic order.

3. THE DAYS OF SAUL.-The writer of our book now brings a new figure-King Saul-on the stage of his history; round this personage, for some seven chapters, the whole interest centres. Already a considerable change in the state of Israel has been effected during the quarter of a century of Samuel's work and influence. The people had been able to stem the tide of invasion during that period; they had more than held their own. A feeling of national unity had once more been created, and the tribes agreed to acknowledge the object of their loved prophet's choice as their king; and now, in the first records of the new state of things under a king, we see the result of Samuel's toil in the spirit of energy with which the people seconded the efforts of Saul to free the land from the enemy. The chronicle of the years that followed is the chronicle principally of wars-successful wars, on the whole. Israel is depicted as slowly rising into a new independent position. One by one the great predatory tribes of the border lands, crushed and defeated, are driven back into their native deserts; the old nations of Canaan, who had begun in good earnest during the troublous times of the judges to assert anew their independence, fell again into servitude; while the most dangerous of all-the warlike Philistines-had to contend no longer for supremacy, but for very existence. Under the first king the military education of the people was completed. It has been in almost all ages customary to condemn the royal hero who led Israel with such consummate skill and splendid valour during the restless years of those wars, necessary for the existence of Israel as a distinct people; but this is by no means the spirit of the writer of the book. He represents Saul as a great hero, better fitted than any of his contemporaries for the royal dignity-represents him as possessing warlike courage and skill, indomitable energy to push his conquests in all directions, a sense of honour ever watchful for the welfare of his people against their many and powerful foes, zeal and tenacity in carrying out his plans. He reiterates that, under his successful generalship, a really heroic school of great warriors arose the warriors who later formed and led the great conquering armies of David and Solomon; he dwells on his power of attracting noble

souls to himself; and with loving pen he lingers on that infinite charm which the name "anointed of Jehovah" carried with it in all succeeding centuries, and shows us how this strange and mighty kingly influence was first inspired by King Saul. The writer closes the "Saul" division in chap. xiv. 47-52, where, as before, in the case of Samuel (chap. vii. 14-17), so now here, in the case of King Saul, he brings together everything that remains to be said in general about the first king -his prowess, his wars, even his family and private matters. From this point forward another-David is chosen as the true central figure of the national history, round which all interest henceforth gathers. And here a tinge of sadness characterises the great national epic, for Saul, in spite of his great and heroic qualities, fell short of his true destiny; in spite of his skill and valour, he failed to satisfy the invisible Guardian of Israel. It is hard at this distance of time to trace the real causes which led to the fall, and to the final rejection of his house. He seems, however, to have sickened with that strange sickness which so often among men is the result of supreme power: the sickness of despotism-that terrible malady which has marred so many noble souls. Saul forgot altogether the Glorious Arm which originally lifted him up, and set him on his throne, and then fought for him, and strengthened him in all his ways. He ceased to hold communion with the Spirit of the Eternal God, and so the Spirit left him. The writer then begins the fourth division of his history, in which the central figure is no longer Saul, but the new choice of the Lord-the brave shepherd-boy, the loving friend of Saul and his noble son Jonathan, the gallant chief, the king of the future--David, the son of Jesse.* Throughout the remaining portion of our book (1 Samuel), the gradual ascent of David, through conflict and suffering, to the throne, along with the slow heartrending descent of Saul, till his sorrowful death in battle, is the writer's theme.

4. THE DAYS OF DAVID.-In this First Book of Samuel we have only the memoirs of some of the early days of the mighty king, the days of his hard and painful trials; but it was in these times that the foundation stories of that character, loved of God, were laid. It was in the long wanderings with the ever-increasing band of his devoted men, who followed him in his exile, that he first showed that firm and unshaken trust in the Lord, who had chosen him out of the sheepfolds to be His servant-that simple, pure striving never to be untrue to Him-those longing efforts to return to Him after error and transgression-the trust, the striving, and the efforts, which were the mainsprings of that chequered, but still glorious, golden-hued life. see, too, in the prophet-scribe's selection of passages out of the first period of David's career (in the First Book of Samuel), how deep and true was the enthusiasm which the young chieftain kindled in all those Jewish heroes who-driven from Saul's court by Saul's fatal mistakes-rallied round the hero, the friend, and pupil of Samuel. With rare power, by a few master-touches in the simple narrative, the scribe-writer shows us how the name of David became dearer and ever dearer to the people; and although the last chapter of our book ends with the account of the great military disaster which closed the reign of Saul, the reader feels no

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* Dr. Erdmann in Lange, Comm.: Introduction to the Book of Samuel, Section IV. +Ewald, History of Israel, Book III.-B. David, I.