What Is 1 Samuel?

The author of 1 Samuel was Samuel himself, at least for the first 20 chapters which is where my passage, 1 Samuel 16:14-23, lies (Old Testament Samuel 1). Samuel was the last of the line of judges who presided over the nation of Israel until the people demanded a king. Samuel was reluctant at first, but God assured Samuel that the people were rejecting God. Samuel anointed Saul to be Israel’s first king with the guidance of God. Samuel most likely wrote his account down to show future Israelites how the monarchy came about.. Samuel’s account ends far before David takes over the throne and also highlights many of Saul’s wrongdoings as he most likely wanted to show the people how a human ruler was so easily corrupted.
The passage also shows
Benjamin was a very low hanging tribe and choosing a king from one of the main tribes would have promoted fighting among the higher up tribes (Gray). The decision to choose a king from a lower level tribe helped maintain stability as in caused as little tribe friction as possible.
The war of the Philistines and the Israelites is a major theme throughout 1 Samuel yet there is little mention of surrounding nations. Many historians attribute the lack of the other nation’s involvement in the Philistine Israel conflict to the nations having their own matters to attend to (Blaikie). The other surrounding nations had many of their own concerns at the time and were not able to involve themselves in the Philistine and Israelites war. The lack of other nations left Israel with only one enemy to deal with and possibly played into the Israelites many victories.
Going back to Saul’s fall from grace we see how God’s spirit left him and an evil one took over (NOAB 1 Samuel 16:14). The Israelites understood the evil spirit to have no connection to a satanic presence as they had no concept of satan and his demons at this time in their religion (Old Testament Samuel 1). The evil spirit that possessed Saul was simply a bad spirit, possibly just a bad mood or