Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

• Date and Writer
  Statements in the Book of Samuel imply that someone who had witnessed at least some of the events recorded wrote it. However the original writer must have written most of it after Samuel's death (i.e., -1 Sam. 25-2 Sam. 24) a...
• Scope
  The Book of Samuel covers the period of Israel's history bracketed by Samuel's conception and the end of David's reign. David turned the kingdom over to Solomon in 971 B.C.3David reigned for 40 and one-half years (2 Sam. 2:11...
• Outline
  I. Eli and Samuel chs. 1-3A. The change from barrenness to fertility 1:1-2:101. Hannah's condition 1:1-82. Hannah's vow 1:9-183. Hannah's obedience 1:19-284. Hannah's song 2:1-10B. The contrast between Samuel and Eli's sons 2...
• 3. The results of God's selection of David 18:1-19:17
  Earlier the writer narrated Saul's anointing, military success, and the popular reaction to him (chs. 10-11). Now he followed the same pattern by recording David's anointing, military success, and the popular reaction to him ...
• Saul's indirect attempts to kill David 18:17-30
  Since he had been unsuccessful in murdering David himself, Saul also tried to get other people to kill him (cf. 2 Sam. 11:15). Saul had promised his daughter in marriage to Goliath's victor (17:25). Nevertheless now Saul adde...
• Jonathan's attempt to protect David 19:1-7
  Saul now abandoned pretense (18:22) and ordered Jonathan and his servants to put David to death (cf. v. 11). He "went public"with his attacks against David feeling driven, like Pharaoh, to more desperate measures. This create...
• David's continuing success and Saul's renewed jealousy 19:8-10
  This section records Saul's fourth attempt to kill David. The writer set his account of these attempts in chiastic form.ASaul directly tried to kill David. 18:10-16BSaul indirectly tried using the Philistines. 18:17-20B'Saul ...
• Saul's anger over David's absence 20:24-34
  Saul concluded at first that David had not come to the new moon sacrificial meal because he was unclean (cf. Lev. 7:20-21; 15:16). His continued absence required an explanation, which Saul looked to David's friend to provide....
• Abishai's offer to kill Saul 26:6-12
  Ahimelech the Hittite may have been a foreign mercenary (cf. Uriah the Hittite, 2 Sam. 11:3). The writer may have mentioned him to show the extent of David's appeal. Abishai was David's nephew, one of the sons of his sister Z...
• Bibliography
  Ackroyd, Peter R. The First Book of Samuel. Cambridge Bible Commentary on the New English Bible series. Cambridge, Eng.: University Press, 1971._____. "The Verb Love--'Aheb in the David-Jonathan Narratives--A Footnote."Vetus ...
• VI. DAVID'S TROUBLES chs. 9--20
  Chapters 9-20 contrast with chapters 2-8 in that this later section is negative whereas the earlier one was positive. It records failure; the former records success. Compare the similar narrative of Saul's triumphs (1 Sam. 7-...
• The dragon's hostility toward the male child 12:1-6
  This pericope furnishes the plot for the drama that unfolds in the rest of the chapter.12:1 John saw a "sign,"something that signified or represented something else (cf. v. 3; 13:13-14; 15:1; 16:14; 19:29). Usually John used ...

Expositions Of Holy Scripture (Maclaren)

• A Soul's Tragedy
  1 Samuel 18:5-161 Samuel 18:5 anticipates 1 Samuel 18:13-16. It is the last verse of a section which interrupts the even flow of the story, and which is absent from the Septuagint. Verse 6 follows immediately on 1 Samuel 17:5...
• II. The Second Stage Was The Attempt On David's Life.
  1 Samuel 18:10-11, which record it, are not in the Septuagint, and the narrative does run more smoothly without them. But if they are retained, they show how the moody suspicion with which Saul eyed David' came to a swift, mu...