Samuel

Etymology

From 'shama' (to hear) and 'El' (God). Hannah said 'I asked the Lord for him' (using the root 'sha'al'), and the text connects his name to both hearing and asking. God heard Hannah's prayer; she asked God for a son.

Who they were

Samuel was the answer to his mother's most desperate prayer. Hannah, barren and humiliated, wept before God at Shiloh and vowed that if God gave her a son, she would give him back. God heard. Samuel was born. When he was weaned — perhaps three years old — Hannah brought him to the temple and left him there with the priest Eli. As a boy sleeping in the temple one night, Samuel heard a voice calling his name. Three times he ran to Eli thinking the old priest had called. Eli realised it was God. He told Samuel to say, 'Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.' Those became the words that defined Samuel's life. God's first message to Samuel was devastating: judgment on Eli's house. Samuel faithfully delivered it. He grew into Israel's last judge and most respected prophet — the entire nation recognised him as a man through whom God spoke. When Israel demanded a king, Samuel was grieved but obeyed God's instruction to anoint Saul. When Saul failed, Samuel anointed David. His final years were marked by the tension between the prophetic office he embodied and the monarchy he inaugurated. After his death, Saul consulted his spirit through the medium at Endor — one of the most eerie scenes in the Old Testament. Samuel's legacy is the sound of someone listening.

Family

Father

Elkanah

Mother

Hannah

Children

Joel,Abijah

Character qualities

• Attentiveness to God's voice
• Faithful truth-telling from childhood
• Willingness to anoint the wrong king and the right one
• Grief at Israel's faithlessness

Key verse

1 Samuel 3:10

Where they appear

Themes

Variants & related forms

Sam · Sammy · Shmuel

Related names