1 Samuel is a story of prayer, failed institutions, contested kingship, tragic leadership, and the costly rise of David.
Hannah's prayer opens a book in which the lowly are raised and the powerful are judged. Eli's house collapses, the ark is captured and returned, Israel asks for a king, Saul is chosen and later rejected, and David is anointed while Saul still reigns. The narrative then follows love, jealousy, covenant, flight, deception, violence, restraint, political survival, and lament until Saul and his sons die at Mount Gilboa.[1][2][4][5]
How to read this guide: The story's Iron Age setting, the age of the traditions it preserves, and the date of its final literary form are different questions. The guide also distinguishes the medieval Masoretic text, earlier Hebrew scrolls, and Greek textual forms rather than treating one witness as a simple copy of another.
1 Samuel quick facts
- Traditional association
- Samuel, with later prophetic records connected to Nathan and Gad.
- Historical author
- Anonymous final form assembled from older materials and editorial work.
- Narrative setting
- Late judges through Saul's death and the rise of David.
- Likely composition
- Layered traditions shaped across monarchic and later periods; no single final date is certain.
- Original language
- Biblical Hebrew, with several difficult or damaged passages.
- Major witnesses
- Masoretic tradition, 1Q7, 4Q51, 4Q52, 4Q53, Old Greek, revisions, and later versions.
- Length
- 31 chapters in the modern two-book division.
- Jewish placement
- Part of Samuel, one work among the Former Prophets.
- Christian placement
- Normally the first of two Samuel books among Historical Books.
- Central themes
- Prayer, vocation, holiness, monarchy, obedience, rejection, covenant, power, violence, providence, and lament.
Who wrote 1 Samuel?
The book never names its final author. Samuel is central to chapters 1-24, but he dies in 25:1 and remains dead. That narrative fact prevents Samuel from being the sole writer of the entire received book, including Saul's death in chapter 31.[1][2][4]
Bava Batra 14b associates Samuel with "his book," while 1 Chronicles 29:29 refers to records connected with Samuel the seer, Nathan the prophet, and Gad the seer. These are important traditions about authorship and source memory. Neither text identifies one person as the writer of the final thirty-one-chapter form now called 1 Samuel.[17][18]
Modern scholarship observes older narrative blocks, repeated or contrasting reports, speeches with Deuteronomistic language, and editorial connections extending into 2 Samuel and Kings. Scholars propose different models for how those materials developed, but the evidence supports describing the final work as anonymous and layered rather than assigning it to one modernly reconstructed editor.[2][3][4][7]
Responsible conclusion: Samuel belongs to the book's remembered prophetic world and may stand behind early records or traditions. The historical identity of the final author or editors is unknown.
When was 1 Samuel written?
The events are set during the emergence of monarchy, conventionally associated with the late eleventh and early tenth centuries BCE. Archaeology can illuminate highland settlement, Philistine cities, political centralization, and the social conditions in which early kingship may have emerged. It does not date every story or prove each speech and battle.[29][30][31]
Older narrative memories
Stories of Samuel, the ark, Saul, David, local sanctuaries, warfare, and royal families may preserve material rooted in the monarchic era. Historical proximity, however, must be argued passage by passage rather than assumed for the whole book.
Literary growth
Repeated and contrasting accounts, such as different moments in Saul's rise or David's introduction, suggest that the work preserves more than one narrative stream and has undergone literary combination.[3][4][7]
Deuteronomistic shaping
Warnings about covenant loyalty, obedience, kingship, prophetic authority, and national consequence connect Samuel with Deuteronomy and Kings. Many scholars therefore identify substantial shaping within the wider Deuteronomistic History.[2][4][5]
Final form
The book's present form is later than Samuel and later than at least some events it narrates. Proposals range across monarchic, exilic, and postexilic stages, and no single precise completion date commands agreement.
In what language and manuscripts is 1 Samuel preserved?
First Samuel was composed primarily in Biblical Hebrew. Its Hebrew is often vivid and economical, but the surviving text is also one of the most difficult in the Hebrew Bible. Some passages contain missing words, unusual grammar, duplicated material, or differences that cannot be responsibly resolved without comparing witnesses.[3][4][8][16]
Masoretic tradition
The medieval Masoretic manuscripts preserve the standard complete Hebrew form underlying most modern translations. Their readings remain central, but difficult places must be evaluated alongside earlier evidence.
Dead Sea Scrolls
Samuel is represented at Qumran by 1Q7 and by 4Q51, 4Q52, and 4Q53. The substantial 4Q51 preserves Hebrew readings that sometimes agree with forms otherwise known through the Greek tradition.[11][12][13][14][15]
Key example: Parts of 1 Samuel 17-18 are substantially shorter in the Old Greek. This affects how readers understand David's arrival, Saul's knowledge of him, and the development of the Goliath narrative. The variants should be studied rather than hidden.
Summary of 1 Samuel
Hannah prays for a child and dedicates Samuel to service at Shiloh, where Eli's sons abuse sacred authority and Samuel is called as a prophet. After Israel loses the ark to the Philistines, its dangerous holiness is displayed before its return. Samuel leads Israel, but the people request a king; Saul is privately anointed, publicly selected, and confirmed through victory. His reign becomes marked by disobedience, conflict with Samuel, and rejection. David is anointed, defeats Goliath, enters Saul's household, forms a covenant with Jonathan, marries Michal, and becomes the target of Saul's fear. David flees, receives help, spares Saul twice, is restrained from bloodshed by Abigail, and enters Philistine service under Achish. Saul consults the medium at Endor, hears judgment from Samuel, and dies with his sons at Mount Gilboa.[1][2][4][6]
How is 1 Samuel organized?
1. Hannah, Eli, and Samuel
Chapters 1-3 move from Hannah's prayer and song to Samuel's call, while Eli's house is judged for corruption and failed restraint.
2. Ark and Philistine crisis
Chapters 4-7 follow defeat, the capture of the ark, disaster in Philistine cities, its return, and Samuel's leadership at Mizpah.
3. Israel asks for a king
Chapters 8-12 preserve warning, divine accommodation, Saul's anointing and selection, rescue of Jabesh-gilead, and Samuel's covenant lawsuit.
4. Saul reigns and is rejected
Chapters 13-15 narrate war, Jonathan's initiative, Saul's oaths, conflict over obedience, the Amalek command, and the announcement that Saul's dynasty will not endure.
5. David enters the royal house
Chapters 16-20 bring David's anointing, music before Saul, Goliath, public success, Saul's jealousy, Michal, Jonathan, and covenantal protection.
6. David flees; Saul falls
Chapters 21-31 follow priests, outlaws, spies, Abigail, two spared opportunities, Philistine refuge, Endor, Ziklag, and the deaths on Gilboa.
What are the central theological ideas of 1 Samuel?
Prayer and reversal
Hannah's prayer, vow, and song place vulnerable petition at the center of public worship. Her song announces the reversal of power that shapes Saul's rise and fall and David's rise.[25]
Holiness cannot be controlled
The ark is not a military charm. Israel, Philistines, priests, and communities all discover that divine presence cannot be manipulated without consequence.
Leadership is accountable
Eli, his sons, Samuel's sons, Saul, David, priests, commanders, and families are judged by what they do with entrusted authority. Election does not eliminate accountability.
Monarchy is both gift and danger
A king may rescue, organize, and be empowered by God, but kings also take, conscript, centralize, and disobey. The book refuses to make monarchy simply sacred or simply illegitimate.[5][23]
Obedience exceeds ritual performance
Samuel's rebuke in chapter 15 exposes religious language used to cover disobedience. Sacrifice cannot substitute for faithful response to divine command.
God sees beyond appearance
Saul's stature and David's overlooked place among Jesse's sons create a contrast between visible qualification and divine discernment of the heart.
Covenant loyalty restrains power
Jonathan, Michal, Abigail, priests, servants, and communities protect life and interrupt royal violence, even when loyalty to a ruler or household is costly.
Central figures in 1 Samuel
Hannah
A petitioner, worshiper, poet, and mother whose prayer and song establish the book's theology of reversal and anointed leadership.
Samuel
Dedicated child, prophet, judge, intercessor, kingmaker, critic of kingship, and grieving mentor whose authority spans Israel's political transition.
Eli and his sons
Eli can recognize Samuel's call but fails to restrain abusive priestly sons. Their house embodies institutional decline and the cost of unaccountable sacred power.
Saul
Chosen, empowered, courageous, fearful, disobedient, rejected, tormented, violent, and tragic. His story should not be reduced to a cartoon villain or psychiatric label.[19][20][21][26]
David
Shepherd, musician, warrior, royal servant, fugitive, raider, negotiator, and future king. The narrative favors his rise without making every decision morally clean.
Jonathan
Saul's son, successful commander, covenant partner of David, advocate, and heir who must navigate affection, family duty, and succession politics.[27][28]
Michal
Saul's daughter who loves David and helps him escape. Her marriage also becomes a tool of dynastic politics.
Abigail
An intelligent negotiator who prevents David from retaliatory bloodshed, names the moral danger before him, and redirects the future king.
Key passages from 1 Samuel
1 Samuel 1:9-18
Hannah prays from deep distress, is misjudged by Eli, explains her grief, and receives a blessing. Study petition, misunderstanding, vow, and embodied worship.
1 Samuel 2:1-10
Hannah's song celebrates holiness, knowledge, reversal, justice, and the anointed. It is a theological map for the book and an important conversation partner for Mary's song in Luke.
1 Samuel 3:1-10
Samuel learns to recognize his call amid rare revelation and institutional failure. The passage is about vocation, but also about receiving a difficult word.
1 Samuel 8:4-22
Israel asks for a king. Samuel warns what a king will take, while God permits the request. Read the passage as both political warning and part of the larger monarchy debate.
1 Samuel 12:19-25
Samuel combines judgment, reassurance, intercession, covenant memory, and a call to faithful service after the monarchy is established.
1 Samuel 15:22-23
Samuel insists that obedience cannot be replaced by sacrifice. The saying must be read inside the ethically difficult Amalek narrative rather than isolated from it.
1 Samuel 16:6-13
David is chosen after his older brothers are passed over. The contrast between appearance and heart challenges visible assumptions about leadership.
1 Samuel 17
David confronts Goliath through confidence, rhetoric, skill, and courage. Compare the Hebrew and shorter Greek forms before harmonizing every narrative detail.
1 Samuel 18:1-5; 20
Jonathan loves David and makes covenant with him. Their relationship joins personal loyalty, household protection, royal succession, and political risk.
1 Samuel 24 and 26
David spares Saul in two related narratives. Study restraint, oath, propaganda, conscience, kingship, and why repetition matters.
1 Samuel 25
Abigail intervenes between Nabal and David. Her speech exposes the danger of vengeance and gives a woman a decisive role in shaping royal morality.
1 Samuel 28 and 31
Endor and Gilboa complete Saul's tragedy. Read isolation, forbidden mediation, remembered judgment, courage, death, and the narrative's refusal of an easy ending.
Difficult questions in 1 Samuel
Does the book support or oppose monarchy?
First Samuel 8 warns that kings take land, labor, children, produce, and freedom. Yet Saul is genuinely chosen, empowered, and confirmed, and David is later anointed. The book preserves competing perspectives and ultimately subjects monarchy to prophetic and covenantal accountability rather than offering a simple yes or no.[2][5][23]
Why are there repeated or contrasting accounts?
Saul's rise, his rejection, David's arrival, David's relationship to Saul, and the two sparing episodes contain repetitions and tensions. Some readers emphasize literary repetition and characterization; others reconstruct combined sources or editorial stages. Both final-form artistry and literary history deserve attention.[3][4][7]
Why was Saul rejected, and is the judgment fair?
Chapters 13 and 15 connect rejection with disobedience, failed waiting, self-justification, and incomplete execution of command. The narrative also says God regrets making Saul king while Samuel grieves him. Saul's genuine election and later suffering make the story tragic and theologically difficult; readers should not erase that tension.[19][21][26]
What is the harmful spirit from the Lord?
The story's theological language connects Saul's torment with loss of royal favor and David's entrance into the court. The text does not offer a modern diagnosis. Using it to label Saul with a psychiatric condition, or to imply that mental illness proves divine rejection, goes beyond the evidence and can harm living people.[26]
How should readers approach the command against Amalek?
First Samuel 15 presents a command of total destruction and must be named as morally disturbing. Literary, historical, theological, and ancient-war-rhetoric questions can illuminate the chapter, but they do not make the violence trivial. The text must never be turned into authorization for modern ethnic, religious, or political violence.[22][23]
Why does the Greek Goliath account differ?
The Old Greek lacks substantial material found in the Masoretic form of chapters 17-18. The shorter narrative reduces some tensions about how David enters Saul's court and why Saul asks his identity. Qumran Samuel evidence demonstrates that divergent Hebrew editions existed, so comparison is a textual-history question, not an attack on Scripture.[8][10][16]
Were David and Jonathan lovers?
The text directly describes love, covenant, gifts, protection, kissing, grief, and David's later lament that Jonathan's love was extraordinary. These words also function in ancient household, covenant, military, and succession politics. Queer and gender-aware readings raise real interpretive questions, but the narrative does not directly define a sexual relationship. Certainty in either direction exceeds what it states.[27][28]
Was the figure at Endor really Samuel?
The narrator calls the figure Samuel, the medium reacts with alarm, Saul recognizes the description, and the message repeats Samuel's earlier judgment. The episode does not teach readers how to summon the dead or approve the practice; it depicts a king cut off from ordinary guidance and unable to escape the word already spoken.[21][24]
Is David presented as morally perfect?
No. David shows courage, loyalty, grief, and restraint, but also deceives priests and enemies, serves Achish, conducts raids, withholds information, and benefits politically from the collapse of Saul's house. The narrator supports David's rise without requiring readers to approve every tactic.[24][32]
Did these events happen exactly as narrated?
Archaeology and comparative history support an Iron Age context of highland communities, Philistine centers, conflict, and emerging political organization. Historians debate the scale and form of Saul's and David's rule. Material evidence cannot independently verify every person, speech, miracle, battle, or chronological sequence.[29][30][31]
Key points from 1 Samuel
- Hannah's prayer and song establish the theology of reversal that shapes the entire book.
- Sacred institutions are judged when leaders exploit worshipers or fail to restrain abuse.
- The ark narrative rejects attempts to control divine presence as a political or military object.
- Israel's request for a king is permitted, warned against, and never freed from covenant accountability.
- Saul is genuinely chosen and genuinely tragic; his failure should not be reduced to a diagnosis or caricature.
- David's anointing does not make every action morally exemplary.
- Jonathan, Michal, Abigail, priests, servants, and communities are active agents in the political story.
- Violence against Amalek, at Nob, around the ark, and in royal rivalry requires ethical confrontation.
- The Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint preserve evidence of an especially complex textual history.
- First and Second Samuel are one work in Jewish tradition and were divided through Greek transmission.
Passages worth deeper study
1 Samuel 1-2 and Luke 1
Compare Hannah's petition and song with Mary's song, noting reversal, the lowly, the powerful, memory, promise, and anointed hope.
1 Samuel 4-7 and 2 Samuel 6
Track the ark, holiness, fear, death, blessing, Philistine response, and the danger of treating divine presence as manageable.
1 Samuel 8, 10, and 12
Place warning, anointing, public selection, rescue, covenant speech, and divine accommodation beside one another before forming a view of monarchy.
1 Samuel 13-15
Study Saul's rejection across more than one episode. Note command, waiting, ritual, fear, oaths, responsibility, regret, grief, and the narrator's sequence.
1 Samuel 16-18 in Hebrew and Greek
Compare how the textual forms introduce David, music, Goliath, Saul's questions, Jonathan, and royal jealousy.
1 Samuel 21-22
Study David's deception, priestly vulnerability, Doeg, Saul's command, the massacre at Nob, and the consequences of political fear.
1 Samuel 24, 25, and 26
Compare David's restraint toward Saul with Abigail's prevention of violence against Nabal's house.
1 Samuel 27-31
Follow David's Philistine entanglement and Saul's final isolation without simplifying either man's choices.
Connections with other biblical and early writings
Judges: Samuel emerges after a period of decentralized leadership, internal violence, and the repeated claim that Israel had no king. First Samuel tests whether monarchy actually cures the deeper covenant and leadership failures.
Deuteronomy: Laws and warnings about kings, prophets, covenant obedience, worship, Amalek, warfare, and listening to God's voice provide essential background. First Samuel turns many of these concerns into narrative.
Ruth: Ruth ends with David's ancestry in Bethlehem; 1 Samuel introduces David as Jesse's son in Bethlehem. The books connect migration, household faithfulness, public reputation, and the memory of David's origins.
Second Samuel and Kings: The story continues directly into David's lament and reign. Samuel-Kings forms a long account of monarchy, prophetic challenge, covenant failure, judgment, and exile.
Chronicles: First Chronicles retells Saul's death and David's rise with different emphases and refers to records associated with Samuel, Nathan, and Gad. Comparison reveals how later biblical authors interpret inherited history.[18]
Psalms: Psalm headings connect later prayer traditions with episodes in David's flight. They are important reception markers, though a heading alone does not settle the historical composition of every psalm.
Luke and Acts: Mary's song echoes Hannah's language of reversal, while Acts 13 summarizes Israel's request for a king, Saul's reign, and David's selection in Christian proclamation.
Septuagint and early Jewish interpretation: The Greek Books of Kingdoms, Qumran Samuel scrolls, Josephus, rabbinic attribution, and later liturgical traditions show that 1 Samuel was copied, revised, translated, and interpreted within diverse Jewish and Christian communities.[8][10][17]
Which communities receive 1 Samuel as Scripture?
In Jewish Scripture, First and Second Samuel are one book, Samuel, among the Former Prophets. The later two-book division does not mean that Jewish tradition treats them as unrelated works. Rabbinic discussion also preserves Samuel's position within the Prophets and a traditional association with Samuel himself.[4][17]
The Greek tradition divides the material and numbers Samuel and Kings together as four Books of Kingdoms. Protestant, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Ethiopian Orthodox Bibles receive the Samuel narratives as Scripture, while book names, numbering, placement, and base textual traditions differ. Official Ethiopian Orthodox, Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox sources all include the work within their Old Testament canons.[33][34][35]
Frequently asked questions
Who wrote 1 Samuel?
The final book is anonymous. Rabbinic tradition associates Samuel with his book, and Chronicles mentions records connected with Samuel, Nathan, and Gad, but Samuel dies in chapter 25 and cannot be the sole author of the present work.
When was 1 Samuel written?
The events are set around the transition from the judges to early monarchy, commonly placed in the late eleventh and early tenth centuries BCE. The book reached its present form through a longer process involving older traditions and later editorial shaping; one precise final date is not certain.
Why are 1 and 2 Samuel separate?
In the Hebrew tradition Samuel is one work. Its division developed in the Greek textual tradition, where Samuel and Kings became four Books of Kingdoms, and the two-part form later became standard in Christian Bibles.
Does 1 Samuel support or oppose monarchy?
It does both. The demand for a king receives severe warning, yet Saul is genuinely chosen and empowered, and David is later anointed. Monarchy is permitted but remains accountable and dangerous.
Why was Saul rejected?
The narrative connects Saul's rejection especially with failures of obedience in chapters 13 and 15. Repeated accounts, divine regret, Samuel's grief, and Saul's later suffering make this a theological and literary problem rather than a simple story about a bad man.
What is the harmful spirit from the Lord?
The narrative connects Saul's torment with rejected kingship and David's rise. It does not supply a modern medical diagnosis, and it should not be used to stigmatize people experiencing mental illness.
Why is the Greek Goliath story shorter?
The Old Greek preserves a shorter form of parts of chapters 17-18. Qumran evidence elsewhere in Samuel shows that some Greek differences reflect distinct Hebrew editions, so textual variation must be examined rather than dismissed.
Were David and Jonathan lovers?
The narrative explicitly describes extraordinary love, covenant, loyalty, lament, and succession politics. Scholars debate whether erotic interpretation is possible. Responsible reading distinguishes the text's wording from conclusions it does not directly state.
Was the Endor figure really Samuel?
The narrator calls the figure Samuel, and the message repeats Samuel's earlier judgment. The episode does not endorse necromancy; it portrays Saul's isolation and inability to escape the word already spoken.
Which communities receive 1 Samuel as Scripture?
Samuel is part of the Jewish Former Prophets and is canonical in Protestant, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Ethiopian Orthodox traditions. Its division and numbering vary.
Sources and scholarly bibliography
- 1 Samuel. Primary biblical text. References use chapter and verse rather than reproducing a copyrighted modern translation. See the USCCB text.
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. "The Books of Samuel." Official introduction, outline, literary history, monarchy traditions, and notes. Official introduction.
- McCarter, P. Kyle, Jr. I Samuel. Anchor Bible 8. Yale University Press, 1980; paperback edition 1995. Publisher record.
- Sweeney, Marvin A. 1-2 Samuel. New Cambridge Bible Commentary. Cambridge University Press, 2023. DOI record.
- Goldingay, John. The Theology of the Book of Samuel. Cambridge University Press, 2024. DOI record.
- Chapman, Stephen B. 1 Samuel as Christian Scripture: A Theological Commentary. Eerdmans, 2016. Publisher record.
- Gilmour, Rachelle. "(Hi)story Telling in the Books of Samuel." In The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Narrative, 192-203. Oxford University Press, 2015. DOI record.
- Aejmelaeus, Anneli. "The Books of Samuel." In The Oxford Handbook of the Septuagint, 216-224. Oxford University Press, 2021. DOI record.
- Salvesen, Alison G., and Timothy Michael Law, eds. The Oxford Handbook of the Septuagint. Oxford University Press, 2021. DOI record.
- Ulrich, Eugene. "The Scrolls from the Judean Desert and the Septuagint." In The Oxford Handbook of the Septuagint, 434-448. Oxford University Press, 2021. DOI record.
- Cross, Frank Moore, Donald W. Parry, Richard J. Saley, and Eugene Ulrich, eds. Qumran Cave 4.XII: 1-2 Samuel. Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XVII. Clarendon Press, 2005. Scholarly bibliographic record.
- Israel Antiquities Authority. "1Q Samuel" (1Q7). Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library. Official manuscript record.
- Israel Antiquities Authority. "4Q Samuel" (4Q51, 4QSam a). Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library. Official manuscript record.
- Israel Antiquities Authority. "4Q Samuel" (4Q52, 4QSam b). Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library. Official manuscript record.
- Israel Antiquities Authority. "4Q Samuel" (4Q53, 4QSam c). Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library. Official manuscript record.
- Aejmelaeus, Anneli. "The Significance of the Septuagint in the Textual Study of the Hebrew Bible." In The Oxford Handbook of Textual Criticism of the Bible, 191-212. Oxford University Press, 2025. DOI record.
- Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 14b. Rabbinic discussion of biblical order and traditional attribution. Sefaria text record.
- 1 Chronicles 29:29. Primary biblical cross-reference to records associated with Samuel, Nathan, and Gad. USCCB text.
- Davis, Ellen F. "The Tragedy of the Chosen: Saul's Kingship-1 Samuel." In Opening Israel's Scriptures, 175-184. Oxford University Press, 2019. DOI record.
- Chapman, Stephen B. "Saul the Undead and David the Bringer of Life." In The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Narrative, 99-117. Cambridge University Press, 2025. DOI record.
- Exum, J. Cheryl. "Saul: The Hostility of God." In Tragedy and Biblical Narrative, 16-44. Cambridge University Press, 1992. DOI record.
- Gilmour, Rachelle. Divine Violence in the Book of Samuel. Oxford University Press, 2021. DOI record.
- Goldingay, John. "Yahweh Who Rebuffs a King (1 Samuel 13:1-20:42[21:1])." In The Theology of the Book of Samuel, 77-110. Cambridge University Press, 2024. DOI record.
- Goldingay, John. "Yahweh Who Protects a King (1 Samuel 21:1[2]-2 Samuel 1:27)." In The Theology of the Book of Samuel, 111-140. Cambridge University Press, 2024. DOI record.
- Charney, Davida. "The Centrality of Individual Petitions in Temple Rituals: Hannah, Solomon, and First-Person Psalms." Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 48.4 (2024). DOI record.
- Balfour, R. J. "Rejection Realized: Saul, the Evil Spirit and the Loss of Kingship." Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 47.2 (2022). DOI record.
- Peleg, Yaron. "Love at First Sight? David, Jonathan, and the Biblical Politics of Gender." Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 30.2 (2005). DOI record.
- Hakvoort, Richard G. "A New Perspective on Jonathan-His Covenant with David and His Ultimate Choice." Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 48.3 (2024). DOI record.
- Matthews, Victor H. "Transition from Iron I to Iron II: The Early Monarchy." In The History of Bronze and Iron Age Israel, 98-127. Oxford University Press, 2018. DOI record.
- Faust, Avraham, and Zev I. Farber. The Bible's First Kings: Uncovering the Story of Saul, David, and Solomon. Cambridge University Press, 2025. DOI record.
- Killebrew, Ann E. "Philistines." Oxford Bibliographies in Biblical Studies. Oxford University Press. Academic record.
- Leonard-Fleckman, Mahri. "David, Gath, and the Politics of Identity." In Scribal Representations and Social Landscapes of the Iron Age Shephelah, 71-100. Oxford University Press, 2024. DOI record.
- Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. "The Canonical Books of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church." Official canonical list.
- Vatican. Catechism of the Catholic Church, section 120. Official canonical list.
- Orthodox Church in America. "Canon of Scripture." Official church Q&A.