AN
This book, and that which follows it, bear
the name of Samuel in the title, not because he was the
penman of them (except of so much of them as fell within his own
time, to the twenty-fifth chapter of the first book, in which we
have an account of his death), but because the first book begins
with a large account of him, his birth and childhood, his life and
government; and the rest of these two volumes that are denominated
from him contains the history of the reigns of Saul and
David, who were both anointed by him. And, because the
history of these two kings takes up the greatest part of these
books, the Vulgar Latin calls them the First and Second
Books of the Kings, and the two that follow the Third
and Fourth, which the titles in our English Bibles take
notice of with an alias: otherwise called the First Book of the
Kings, &c. The LXX. calls them the first and second Book
of the Kingdoms. It is needless to contend about it, but
there is no occasion to vary from the Hebrew verity. These two
books contain the history of the last two of the judges, Eli
and Samuel, who were not, as the rest, men of war, but
priests (and so much of them is an appendix to the book of Judges),
and of the first two of the kings, Saul and David,
and so much of them is an entrance upon the history of the kings.
They contain a considerable part of the sacred history, are
sometimes referred to in the New Testament, and often in the titles
of David's Psalms, which, if placed in their order, would fall in
these books. It is uncertain who was the penman of them; it is
probable that Samuel wrote the history of his own time, and that,
after him, some of the prophets that were with David (Nathan as
likely as any) continued it. This first book gives us a full
account of Eli's fall and Samuel's rise and good government,