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The remainder of his life he spent in retirement at Ramah, only occasionally and in special circumstances appearing again in public (1 Samuel 13, 15) with communications from God to king Saul. While mourning over the many evils which now fell upon the nation, he is suddenly summoned (ch.16) to go to Bethlehem and anoint David, the son of Jesse, as king over Israel instead of Saul. After this little is known of him till the time of his death, which took place at Ramah when he was probably about eighty years of age. “And all Israel gathered themselves together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah” (25:1), not in the house itself, but in the court or garden of his house. (Comp. 2 Kings 21:18; 2 Chronicles 33:20; 1 Kings 2:34; John 19:41.)

Samuel’s devotion to God, and the special favour with which God regarded him, are referred to in Jeremiah 15:1 and Psalm 99:6.

•SAMUEL, BOOKS OF The LXX. translators regarded the books of Samuel and of Kings as forming one continuous history, which they divided into four books, which they called “Books of the Kingdom.” The Vulgate version followed this division, but styled them “Books of the Kings.” These books of Samuel they accordingly called the “First” and “Second” Books of Kings, and not, as in the modern Protestant versions, the “First” and “Second” Books of Samuel.

The authors of the books of Samuel were probably Samuel, Gad, and Nathan. Samuel penned the first twenty-four chapters of the first book. Gad, the companion of David (1 Samuel 22:5), continued the history thus commenced; and Nathan completed it, probably arranging the whole in the form in which we now have it (1 Chronicles 29:29).

The contents of the books. The first book comprises a period of about a hundred years, and nearly coincides with the life of Samuel. It contains (1) the history of Eli (1-4); (2) the history of Samuel (5-12); (3) the history of Saul, and of David in exile (13-31). The second book, comprising a period of perhaps fifty years, contains a history of the reign of David (1) over Judah (1-4), and (2) over all Israel (5-24), mainly in its political aspects.

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