Books of Samuel
a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books in the Christian Old Testament
The Book of Samuel (Hebrew: ספר שמואל, romanized: Sefer Shmuel) is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel in most modern translations, 1-2 Kings in the Vulgate) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) that constitute a theological history of the Israelites and that aim to explain God's law for Israel under the guidance of the prophets.
According to Jewish tradition, the book was written by Samuel, with additions by the prophets Gad and Nathan, who together are three prophets who had appeared within 1 Chronicles in its account of David's reign. Modern scholarly thinking posits that the entire Deuteronomistic history was composed c. 630–540 BCE by combining a number of independent texts of various ages.
The book begins with Samuel's birth and Yahweh's call to him as a boy. The story of the Ark of the Covenant follows. It tells of Israel's oppression by the Philistines, which brought about Samuel's anointing of Saul as Israel's first king. But Saul proved unworthy, and God's choice turned to David, who defeated Israel's enemies, purchased the threshing floor where his son Solomon would build the First Temple, and brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. Yahweh then promised David and his successors an everlasting dynasty.
In the Septuagint, a basis of the Christian biblical canons, the text is divided into two books, now called the First and Second Book of Samuel.
The public source identifies “Books of Samuel” as a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books in the Christian Old Testament. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Books, Samuel and book.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q181620.
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This entry incorporates text from “Books of Samuel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.