The First Book of Samuel

The subject of this study is the story of Samuel and Saul and the anything but smooth transition of Israel from a tribal confederacy to a centralized state, as presented in the Masoretic text of the First Book of Samuel. The term story rather than history of the transition is employed to describe the subject because the biblical book is a history only in the very special sense of prophetic history, the purpose of which is to inform Israel of the consequences of failure to observe the terms of th