The book of Ruth establishes a link between the days of the Judges in Israel and the

days of David. The opening book of Samuel begins with the days of the Judges, and ends

with the death of Saul, preparatory to the anointing of David as king in the opening

chapters of the second book of Samuel.

The books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles form a complete whole, and were

apparently written by Samuel, Gad and Nathan (I Chron. 29: 29, 30). It is evident the

prophets often wrote the history of their own times, for we read, "Then Samuel told the

people the manner of the kingdom and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before the Lord"

(I Sam. 10: 25).

The prophet Gad first appears in association with David when he had escaped to the

cave Adullam, and warns David not to stay in the hold but to depart into the land of

Judah (I Sam. 22: 1-5). In I Chron. 21: 9 he is called "David's seer".

Nathan also was closely associated with David, and continued on into the days of

Solomon (II Chron. 9: 29).

A seer was an earlier name for prophet, as we see in I Sam 9: 9. The Hebrew word

for `prophet' means "one who spoke for, or was moved by God", or "God's mouthpiece".

In The Companion Bible under the heading "The First Book of Samuel", we read

"otherwise called `The First Book of Kings'.". Under the heading "The Second Book of

Samuel" we read "otherwise called `The Second Book of Kings'.".  For I & II Kings

Dr. Bullinger states "commonly called the 3rd and 4th Book of the Kings". The reason

for this is because the book that we now call I & II Samuel were always reckoned by the

Hebrew as one Book. They were first divided and treated as two by the Septuagint

translators of the O.T. Scriptures in the B.100: 3rd century.  This sub-division has been

followed ever since.

Scrolls were probably more or less equal in length. As Greek writing required at least

a third more space than Hebrew, one scroll was filled up and another necessary long

before the 55 chapters of I & II Samuel had been completed. That there was originally

no break between the two books is evident from the Sedarim, i.e. the divisions or

portions laid down for public reading. In the original, which was one long book, there

were 34 Sedarim, and the 20th begins with I Sam. 30: 25, and ends with II Sam. 2: 6,

without showing the slightest break. Exactly the same thing applies to the book of Kings.

As to the purpose of these records, we are assured that beyond the mere preservation

of the historical facts, there was a more important intention served. Peter, speaking of the

rejection of Christ by the nation of Israel at His first coming, and of His offer of