First and Second Samuel

Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching

Walter Brueggemann

• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781611644494, 9780804231084
• eBook ISBN: 9781611644494
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

With critical scholarship and theological sensitivity, Walter Brueggemann traces the people of God through the books of Samuel as they shift from marginalized tribalism to oppressive monarchy. He carefully opens the literature of the books, sketching a narrative filled with historical realism but also bursting with an awareness that more than human action is being presented.

PART ONE

The Rise of Samuel

I SAMUEL 1—7

[He] increased in wisdom

and in stature, and in favor

with God and humankind.

Luke 2:52

These chapters have Samuel as their lead character. They trace Samuel’s rise in authority from his birth until he is established in Israel as the foremost leader. He is acknowledged as the bearer of God’s word (3:19–21) and as the administrator of justice (7:17). Indeed, Samuel is characterized as responsible for the life of Israel in every aspect.

Critical scholarship is generally agreed that chapters 1–7 probably developed as at least three independent literary units, the narrative of Samuel’s birth and youth (1–3), the narrative of the ark (4–6), and the account of Samuel’s leadership as a judge (7). Willis, however, has made a strong case for the structural and redactional coherence of the seven chapters (1971, 1972, 1979). Together they bear witness to the faith, power, leadership, and cruciality of Samuel for the faith and life of Israel. Samuel embodies ancient Israel’s traditional covenantal commitments, which were as important for the public, political life of Israel as for the faithful practice of religious Yahwism.

I Samuel 1—3

The Legitimacy of Samuel

These chapters trace the emergence of Samuel as Yahweh’s authorized leader in Israel. At the center stands the “Song of Hannah” (2:1–10), which not only celebrates the gift of Samuel but articulates Israel’s future (and future king) as an anticipated gift of Yahweh. Every assertion of chapters 1–3, from the gracious birth of Samuel (1:3–28) to the dream theophany (3:1–10), to the final statement of Samuel’s authorization (3:19–21), witnesses to the decisive role of Yahweh in Israel’s new beginning. Every actor in the entire Samuel narrative, Hannah, Samuel, Saul, David, and the many lesser players, are all creatures of God’s sovereignty and agents of God’s intended future. These chapters disclose how it is that Yahweh reshapes Israel’s historical process for the sake of the new king and the coming kingdom. Interpretation that takes the whole narrative in context asks how this Samuel, who is a gift of God’s power, serves the coming kingdom.

I Samuel 1:1–28

Troubled Israel, as the books of Samuel begin, is waiting. Israel is portrayed as a marginal community. We are soon to learn from the narrative that Israel is made marginal by the power and the pressure of the Philistines. In the face of that external threat, Israel is politically weak and economically disadvantaged. But there is also a moral, theological dimension to Israel’s trouble. By the end of the book of Judges, Israel is shown to be a community in moral chaos, engaged in brutality (chs. 19–21) and betrayed by undisciplined religion (chs. 17–18). Israel does not seem to have the capacity or the will to extricate itself from its troubles.

As the Samuel narrative unfolds, we discover that Israel is waiting for a king who will protect, defend, gather, liberate, and legitimate the community. Indeed, Israel is finally waiting for a quite particular king: for David! When David finally appears, Israel has the assurance that “this is he” (I Sam. 16:12). With David’s appearance Israel’s fortunes begin to change, and the change is known in Israel to be the work of God.

The story, however, does not rush to David. There is a long waiting; the object for which Israel waits is not known concretely beforehand. The waiting has its bitterness, for Israel in the meantime is afflicted by its troubled social, political, and economic situation. The waiting is confused, for Israel cannot know for certain where its future lies, how to appropriate that future, or how to wait faithfully for it. Indeed, Israel cannot even know just now that it has a future. The narrative leads us, along with ancient Israel, through that long season of bitter, confused, uncertain waiting. It may be that the narrator knows, well ahead of the telling, what the outcome will be. But as in every good story, we are not told too much too soon.

The story of I and II Samuel turns on the surprising gift of David, who makes all things right. The story, however, does not begin with the gift of David. It begins with desperate need, so that when the gift is offered we will be amazed by its grace. The narrator holds in abeyance the impressiveness, certitude, and triumph of David and begins with other, less formidable figures who inhabit Israel’s move toward kingship. The sequence of “great men” from Samuel to Saul to David is the obvious story line of the narrative. Even with this triad of impressive and dominating figures, however, we are still not at the beginning of this troubled waiting.

In a daring move, back behind “the great men,” the narrative locates the origin of Israel’s future and the source of its “great leaders” in the story of a bereft, barren woman named Hannah (1:2). The story of Israel’s waiting that moves from trouble to well-being begins neither in grand theory nor in palace splendor nor in doxological celebration. It begins, rather, in a single Ephraimite family, whose father has a solid family pedigree (1:1) but whose mother is barren—without children, and without prospect of children. Our story of waiting begins in barrenness wherein there is no hint of a future. Israel’s waiting (which culminates in David) begins as Hannah’s waiting begins, in hopelessness (cf. Gen. 11:30; 26:22; 29:31; Luke 1:36). Those who read the narrative are invited to listen and to notice—in the midst of such barren hopelessness—that fruitful waiting, hoping, and receiving can indeed happen.

The narrative of Elkanah-Hannah-Samuel (ch. 1) stands as our entry point into Israel’s astonished waiting. The narrative of chapter 1 functions as a paradigm for the entire drama of Israel’s faithful waiting as it is presented in the Samuel narrative. This chapter is a narrative complete in itself; it begins in a problem (v. 2) and ends in a resolution (v. 28). The problem is barrenness: no child, no son, no heir, no future, no historical possibility. The resolution is worship, with a son given and a future opened. The dramatic flow of the narrative is the process through which the problem of barrenness is transformed into a resolution of glad, trustful, yielding praise.

Israel’s drama from problem to resolution, then, is well under way before and without David. That dramatic movement from hopelessness to gift has as its proper subjects those who are, like Hannah, barren and bereft. It has as its unmistakable agent Yahweh, the one who can turn barrenness to birth, vexation to praise, isolation to worship. The narrative is a witness to Yahweh’s transformative power, which creates a new historical possibility where none existed.

This is no ordinary narrative. This is no “natural history.” This is a history which from its beginning refers outside itself to a sovereign will that overrides Israel’s chaos, to a comfort that overcomes Israel’s bitterness. This story does indeed wait for David, but the time until David comes is no empty time waiting to be filled. It is time already filled with the power of Yahweh to begin again. This first chapter is a narrative of Yahweh’s power and will to begin again, to create a newness in history precisely out of despair. This newness out of barrenness (and therefore out of despair) violates our reason and our reasonableness. Speaking reasonably, Hannah would have no child and Elkanah would have no heir. Israel would have no future. That exhausted rationality, however, is now shattered and defeated. Those overly fixed in their despair now have their life made over by the power of Yahweh. The function of the narrative is again and again to make life over by this inexplicable but relentless transformative power.

1:1–2. The problem is clearly and immediately articulated. The man with his impressive genealogy (v. 1) is matched to a barren woman (v. 2). From his fathers, Elkanah has a proud past. With his wife, however, he has no future. The story invites us with Israel to reflect on the question, How is a new future possible amid the barrenness that renders us bitter, hopeless, and fruitless? The dramatic answer to this question is articulated in four scenes.

1:3–8. This scene is a transaction between Elkanah and Hannah. The problem is barrenness. The incongruity in the scene is between the love Elkanah has for Hannah, which is not to be doubted (vv. 5, 8), and the fact of barrenness wrought by Yahweh (vv. 5, 6). Hannah’s barrenness overrides the power of Elkanah’s love. The outcome is a provoked woman, abused by her rival, Peninnah (v. 6), more vexed by Yahweh’s foreclosure of her future. Hannah’s response to her trouble is depression, grief, and loss of appetite (v. 7).

1:9–18. Hannah interacts with Eli, the priest at Shiloh. Her husband is absent in this scene. The action of this longer scene largely consists of three speeches. First, Hannah makes a vow (v. 11). She addresses Yahweh, the same God who in verses 5–6 had caused her barrenness. Her vow seeks to evoke a new gift from God. The vow is a standard part of a complaint prayer. As Hannah is bitter in her barrenness, so she will be grateful in her anticipated fruitfulness. She vows that the son of her womb will be preserved for obedience only to Yahweh. At the beginning we have a clue about how and why Samuel became such a sturdy champion of Yahwistic faith. He is predestined by his mother to be such a champion.

The second speech of Hannah is one of self-vindication to refute Eli’s mistaken assessment of her (vv. 15–16). He had thought her to be a drunken woman (v. 13). She is not drunk; she is desperate. Her desperation leads to an act of candid piety, speaking her grief and vexation precisely to Yahweh. She knows whom to address.

The third speech is a response of Eli, an assurance and a benediction (v. 17). The priest asserts that “the God of Israel will (may) hear and answer.” The exchange between the two is thoroughly Yahwistic. The priestly answer functions characteristically to resolve the complaint. The scene enacts intense covenantal faith in which the attentiveness of Yahweh is mediated by the priest. Hannah asks; Yahweh answers. (See the same kind of interaction in 7:9.) The narrative conclusion indicates that the priestly assurance marks the decisive turn in the story. Hannah believes Eli. She does not doubt “that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (Luke 1:45). As a result, the grief and despair of verse 8 are nullified (v. 18). She is a new, restored woman with a new chance in life, caused by a word of assurance authoritatively spoken. She believed the word!

1:19–20. In this scene Hannah is again with Elkanah, as in scene 1. The words are terse and minimal, but the account is sufficient to implement the priestly promise of verse 17. Yahweh does remember (v. 19). This is precisely what Hannah had asked, that Yahweh should remember and not forget (v. 11). Yahweh is a powerful rememberer; and when Yahweh remembers the partner and the promise, newness becomes possible (v. 20; cf. Gen. 8:1; 19:29; 30:22). The new son is the one “asked” for and the one graciously given. The hopeless one (Hannah) is now the one given a future. As is characteristic in Israel’s text, the drama leading up to the hoped-for event receives the most attention. The gift itself only implements that which the drama has anticipated. When the story finally gets to the actual gift, things can happen quickly. Nineteen verses prepare for the birth; one verse narrates it.

1:21–28. The fourth scene is structurally quite complicated. Hannah lingers behind Elkanah when he goes up to the temple, but in due season she comes to Shiloh, back to the priest Eli. Her business in Shiloh is to pay her vow (vv. 26–28). In offering her thanksgiving, Hannah is aware of the amazing sequence by which her barrenness has eventuated in birth. The one whom she had “asked” is now given back. Hannah is faithful; Yahweh is powerful. Hannah is appropriately grateful. In place of despair has come gratitude, resulting in submission and praise.

The resolution is glad worship (v. 28), a trusting yielding, which is Israel’s proper posture for the new story of monarchy now about to begin. Hannah’s “now therefore” indicates the climax of the narrative and the resolution of the problem. Her offer of the boy is a faithful counterpart to her vow. Barrenness ends, by the power of God, in glad, trustful worship.

This narrative, constructed according to the conventions of the genre of birth narrative, is carefully crafted and tightly disciplined. Its outside perimeters (vv. 1–2, 28) show that the structure of Israel’s faith is one of problem-resolution. This structure is presented through the speaking parts of complaint (vv. 11, 15–16) and assurance (v. 17), which then issues in thanksgiving (vv. 25–27). By transposing the action of problem-resolution or even barrenness-birth to complaint-assurance, the story turns our attention away from the event of the birth itself to the drama of fidelity between Hannah and Yahweh. The subject of the narrative is Yahweh’s astonishing fidelity and Hannah’s responding fidelity.

The reality of need, and explicitly barrenness, is not distinctly an Israelite problem. The narrative, however, invites a Yahwistic rendering of human trouble and its resolution. Yahweh stands at the center of each scene:

1. “The LORD had closed her womb” (vv. 5, 6)

2. “The God of Israel grant your petition” (v. 17)

3. “The LORD remembered her” (v. 19)

4. “The LORD has granted me my petition” (v. 27)

Israel’s life has to do with the power and fidelity of God. In the chapters to come, Israel will be tempted to flex its muscles, to be inordinately impressed with power and pomp and privilege—and with David! This narrative stands poignantly as a counteraffirmation to what is to come. Israel’s new life emerges out of barrenness by the power of God. That power is inexplicable, but also irresistible. That power is evoked, summoned, and triggered by lowly Hannah, who had no virtue, no claim, no capacity, only a stubborn insistence addressed to Yahweh and a readiness to yield back all good gifts. The narrative ends in yielding praise (v. 28). Such praise is the proper posture in which Israel’s new life begins again.

Our modern propensity to inquire about the biological miracle of the birth is subdued by the flow of the narrative. The narrative wants us to notice Yahweh as the key actor. The narrative invites us to wait in our trouble with such a focus on God, to see if prayers can be uttered, if vows can be made, if gifts can be received, if thanks can be rendered, if worship can be enacted. When all of that becomes possible among us, we are prepared for the story of Israel’s new life.

I Samuel 2:1–10

The birth of a child to a barren woman is not a routine matter at any time, certainly not in ancient Israel. The birth is first of all an occasion for unmitigated celebration. The deepest yearning of the mother has been inexplicably fulfilled. Hannah’s worth, her dignity, and her rightful place with her husband have been restored. Hannah must sing! Second, however, this surprising birth is perceived to be more than a personal, familial event. The birth is an assertion that concerns the entire community. It is an assertion that the life and future of Israel (like the womb of Hannah) have been reopened. Hannah and the community of Hannah are not fated. If a son is given in the midst of barrenness, who knows what else may yet be given, perhaps even well-being in the midst of this troubled community! The birth is not a private wonder but a gift of possibility for all of Israel. Israel must sing with Hannah!

This birth is not wrought by biological manipulation or by dark, managed religious secrets. It is pure gift, wrought in the intense conversation of complaint and answer, of promise and fidelity, of need and response. The narrator (and Hannah and Israel) does not doubt that the birth concerns Yahweh. Yahweh has mobilized awesome life-giving power in the midst of Israel’s hopeless deathliness. Thus the song is one of doxology. Israel must sing with Hannah in praise to Yahweh! While the newborn son is celebrated, the song finally concerns not the son but Yahweh. The accent is on the Giver, not the gift. Precious as the gift is, the Giver is the one who outruns Israel’s awed expectation. Praise is the only speech appropriate to the occasion.

Hannah sings a very special song with reference to a concrete miracle. In doing so, however, she joins her voice to a song Israel has already long been singing. Israel is peculiarly a community of doxology. Its life consists in praise to God for what God has done and for what God characteristically continues to do. Thus Hannah sings no new song; she appropriates a song already known in Israel. The “Song of Hannah” thus is likely to have been taken from Israel’s repertoire of public hymns. The song has standard hymnic elements; it speaks in unqualified ways of Yahweh’s power and dominion. It seems to contain concrete thanksgiving for remembered gifts, but these concrete memories are now generalized as characteristic of Yahweh. What Yahweh has done (in our memory and experience), Yahweh characteristically can and does do.

The song has public, national dimensions in speaking of enemies (v. 1), war (v. 4), and eventually even of a king (v. 10). It is likely that the song was originally used by the royal establishment to celebrate monarchial victories in war. Now, however, the song is appropriated by the tradition of Samuel in a double interpretive move. First, the great public song (reflected in Psalm 113) has been drawn close to the personal family celebration of an astonishing son. Second, however, the tradition which appropriates the song for Hannah is mindful that the focus of the Samuel tradition is not simply on the freshly birthed Samuel but on the emergence of k...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part One The Rise of Samuel I Samuel 1—7
• Part Two The Rule of Saul I Samuel 8—15
• Part Three The Rise of David I Samuel 16:1—II Samuel 5:10
• Part Four The Reign of David II Samuel 5:11—8:18
• Part Five The Family of David II Samuel 9—20
• Part Six Memories of David II Samuel 21—24
• Bibliography