Who was the prophet Samuel?

Samuel was an 11th-century BC Israelite judge, priest, and prophet whose life is recorded in 1 Samuel. Born to Hannah after years of infertility, he served under the priest Eli from childhood, led Israel as its last judge, and anointed both Saul and David as king.

Why did Hannah dedicate Samuel to God?

Hannah, one of two wives of Elkanah, was unable to conceive and was tormented by her husband's other wife. She prayed at the shrine of Shiloh and vowed that if God gave her a son, she would give him back to the Lord's service for his entire life. After Samuel was born and weaned, she brought him to live at the temple with the priest Eli, as she had promised (1 Samuel 1:11, 24-28).

What happened when God called Samuel as a boy?

Sleeping in the temple near the Ark of the Covenant, young Samuel heard a voice call his name three times and each time ran to Eli, assuming the old priest had called him. Eli finally realized it was the Lord and told Samuel how to respond: 'Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening' (1 Samuel 3:9-10). It became one of Scripture's clearest models of hearing God's call.

Which kings did Samuel anoint?

Samuel anointed Saul, Israel's first king, at God's direction (1 Samuel 10:1), and later anointed David, the youngest son of Jesse of Bethlehem, after God rejected Saul for disobedience (1 Samuel 16:13).

Was Samuel a priest, a judge, or a prophet?

Samuel held all three roles at different points, which is part of what made him such a pivotal transitional figure in Israel's history: he served in the priestly line at Shiloh, functioned as Israel's last judge before the monarchy began, and was recognized throughout Israel as a trustworthy prophet (1 Samuel 3:20).

Samuel: The Boy Who Answered in the Dark

A Prayer Answered in Silence

Samuel's story begins with someone else's grief. His mother, Hannah, is one of two wives of a man named Elkanah; the other wife has children, and Hannah has none, and Scripture says plainly "the Lord had closed her womb" (NABRE, 1 Samuel 1:5). Her rival torments her over it year after year, until one visit to the shrine at Shiloh, Hannah breaks down entirely. "In her bitterness she prayed to the Lord, weeping freely" (NABRE, 1 Samuel 1:10), promising that if she were given a son, she would give him back to the Lord's service for his whole life.

Sir Joshua Reynolds, "The Calling of Samuel," c. 1776, National Trust — public domain.

She prays so intensely, and so silently, that the priest Eli assumes she's drunk. "How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself?" he asks (NABRE, 1 Samuel 1:14). Hannah corrects him gently — "I was only pouring out my heart to the Lord" (NABRE, 1 Samuel 1:15) — and Eli sends her off with a blessing. She conceives, bears a son, and names him Samuel, "because I asked the Lord for him" (NABRE, 1 Samuel 1:20). True to her vow, once the boy is weaned, she brings him to Shiloh and leaves him in Eli's care permanently: "Now I, in turn, give him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he shall be dedicated to the Lord" (NABRE, 1 Samuel 1:28). Her prayer of praise that follows, sometimes called the Song of Hannah, would later echo in Mary's own Magnificat.

A Voice in the Dark Temple

Samuel grows up serving in the temple at Shiloh under Eli, whose own sons are corrupt priests exploiting the sacrificial system for their own appetites — a contrast the text draws deliberately between the failing priestly line and the boy being raised alongside it. One night, as Samuel sleeps near the Ark of the Covenant, he hears his name called. "The Lord called to Samuel, who answered, 'Here I am'" (NABRE, 1 Samuel 3:4). He runs to Eli, assuming the old man summoned him. Eli sends him back to bed. It happens again. And a third time.

Only then does Eli understand: it is the Lord calling the boy, who "did not yet recognize the Lord, since the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him" (NABRE, 1 Samuel 3:7). Eli instructs him: "Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, 'Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening'" (NABRE, 1 Samuel 3:9). When the voice calls a fourth time — "Samuel, Samuel!" — the boy answers as told: "Speak, for your servant is listening" (NABRE, 1 Samuel 3:10). What follows is a hard message: God is about to judge Eli's household for its corruption. Samuel, still a child, has to deliver difficult news to the only father figure he has ever known — his first act as a prophet is an act of costly honesty.

Last of the Judges

Samuel grows into the role of judge, one of the tribal leaders who governed Israel in the era before kings, and his integrity becomes the standard by which all Israel measures him: "all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba came to know that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord" (NABRE, 1 Samuel 3:20). But by the time Samuel is old, the people want something he considers a rejection of God's own kingship over them — they demand a human king "like all the nations" (1 Samuel 8:5). Samuel warns them at length what a king will cost them in taxes, labor, and their sons' and daughters' service, but the people insist, and God tells Samuel to give them what they ask.

Anointing Saul, and Then David

Samuel anoints Saul, a tall Benjaminite chosen partly, it seems, for his commanding physical presence: "The Lord anoints you ruler over his people Israel" (NABRE, 1 Samuel 10:1). Saul begins well but repeatedly disobeys God's instructions, and eventually the Lord tells Samuel he regrets making Saul king. Grieving, Samuel is sent on a second, riskier mission — to anoint a successor while Saul still reigns.

In Bethlehem, Jesse of Bethlehem parades seven sons before Samuel, and each time Samuel is told, "The Lord has not chosen him" (NABRE, 1 Samuel 16:8). Samuel had assumed the eldest, tall and impressive like Saul, would be the one — but he is corrected sharply: "Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature... God does not see as a mortal, who sees the appearance. The Lord looks into the heart" (NABRE, 1 Samuel 16:7). Only when Jesse's youngest son, tending sheep, is finally brought in does God give the word: "There—anoint him, for this is the one!" (NABRE, 1 Samuel 16:12). "Samuel, with the horn of oil in hand, anointed him in the midst of his brothers, and from that day on, the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David" (NABRE, 1 Samuel 16:13).

Samuel's life closes the era of judges and opens the era of kings, and his willingness to anoint the shepherd boy nobody else in the room thought to consider set in motion the royal line that Scripture traces all the way to Jesus, "son of David." For more on how that shepherd boy's story unfolds, see our article on King David. Another prophet from this same tradition, Elijah, would later carry on this same fight for Israel's fidelity, all the way to Mount Carmel.