Against this opinion as to the early age of the books of Samuel various objections have been brought. The phrase 'unto this day ' is often em ployed in them to denote the continued existence of customs, monuments, and names, whose origin has been described by the annalist (I Sam. v. 5 ; vi. 18 ; xxx. 25). This phrase, however, does not always indicate that a long interval of time elapsed between the incident and such a record of its dura tion. It was a common idiom. Joshua (xxii. 3) uses it of the short time that Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh had fought in concert with the other tribes in the subjugation of Caanan. So again (xxiii. 9) he employs it to specify the time that intervened between the entrance into Caanan and his resignation of the command on account of his approaching decease. Matthew, in his Gospel (xxvii. 8, and xxviii. 15), uses it of the period between the death of Christ and the com position of his hook- Reference is made in Samuel to the currency of a certain proverb 0 Sam. x. 12), and to the disuse of the term seer (i Sam. ix. 9), but in a manner which by no means implies an authorship long posterior to the time of the actual circumstances. The proverb, 'Is Saul also among the prophets ?' was one which for many reasons would obtain rapid and universal circulation : and if no other hypothesis be considered satisfactory, we may suppose that the remark about the term seer ' becoming obsolete may be the parenthetical insertion of a later hand. Or it may be that in Samuel's days the term tO,':.) came to be techni cally used in his school of the prophets.
The statement made in r Sam. xxvii. 6—` Ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this clay,' is a form of language, which, according to De \Vette (sec. 180), could not have been employed before the separation of the nation into the king doms of Judah and Israel. Havernick remarks, however (sec. 169), that Ziklag belonged first to Judah, and then to Simeon, ere it fell into the hands of the Philistines ; and that it became the property of David, and of David's successors as sovereigns of the territory of Judah. Judah is not used in opposition to the ten tribes ; and Ziklag became a royal possession in consequence of its being a gift to David, and to such as might have regal power over Judah. The names Israel and Judah were used in the way of contrast even in David's time, as De Wette himself admits (r Sam. xviii. 16 ; 2 SOM. XXiV. I ; V. 5 ; xix. 41-43 ; xx. 2). The explanation, however, is in all points not satisfactory. The phrase, if it be not a copyist's annotation, seems to imply the previous separation of the two kingdoms.
It is said in Chron. xxix. 29, Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer.' The old opinion as to the author ship of Samuel, to which we have already alluded, was founded on this quotation. The prophets were wont to write a history of their own times. That Samuel did so in reference to the great events of his life is evident from the statement that he wrote the manner of the kingdom in a book, and laid it up before the Lord' (I Sam. x., 25). Bleck (Ehz/. p. 178) thinks that the phrase, N.Inv may refer to our present Samuel ; but it is not so comprehensive as this collection seems to have been, as it does not, like the treatise to which the author of Chronicles refers, include the acts of David, first and last.' The annals which these three seen compiled were those of their own times in succession ; so that there existed a history of contemporary events—prophetic materials for the books of Samuel. For we do not hold, with Gramberg and other critics, that the words of Samuel, Nathan, and Gad' mean the present books of Samuel, as written successively by those pro phetic authors. Havernick (sec. 16i) supposes that
there was another source of information to which the author of Samuel might resort—namely, the annals of David's reign—a conjecture not altogether unlikely, as may be seen by his reference to 2 Sam. viii. 17, compared with Chron. xxvii. 24. The accounts of David's heroes and their mighty feats, with the estimate of their respective bravery, may be a contribution by Seraiah, the scribe. Out of such materials—ample and authoritative, some of them written and some of them oral—the books of Samuel appear to be made up (Bunsen, Bibelwerk, 2d Abth. p. 496 ; Karo, De fontibus librorum quo feruntur Sanwelis, 1862).
Another evident source from which materials have been brought is a collection of poetic com positions—some Hebrew anthology. We have, first, the song of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, which is not unlike the hymn of the Virgin recorded by Luke. That song is by no means an anachron ism, as has been asserted by Hensler (Erliinter. d. I. B. Stun. 12), by Thenius, who supposes it written by David after his victory over Goliath, and Ewald, who regards it as a triumphal ode cele brating a successful battle over some Gentile foes. Its mention of King and Afessiah is thought to be tray its recent and spurious birth. The song is one of ardent gratitude to Jehovah. It portrays his sovereign dispensations ; asserts the character of his government to be that he resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble and concludes with a prophetic aspiration, in pious keeping with the spirit of the theocracy, and with the great pro mise which it so zealously cherished (Hengstenberg, Die Authentie des Pentat. 115). It is Messianic in spirit, and its fig,ures are not more warlike than many other Messianic odes. Perhaps the references to King and Messiah embody the longing of the age, as it was ever portraying to itself its grand ideal—safety, peace, and life by the Anointed One so soon to have a type of himself in the two kings of Israel, on whose heads the son of Hannah was to pour the holy oil. 2 Sam. i. 18 also contains an extract from the book of Jasher—viz. a com position of the sweet singer of Israel, named the Song of the Bow.' Besides, there is the chorus of a poem which was sung on David's return from the slaughter of the Philistine giant (I Sam. xviii. 7). There are also three hymns of David (2 Sam. vii. 18-29), in which the king offers up his grateful de votions to Jehovah (2 Sam. xxii.) ; a triumphal ode, found with some alterations in the 18th Psalm and 2 Sam. xxiii. 1-7, which preserves the last words of the anointed of the God of Jacob.' To these may be added the remains of a short elegy on the death of Abner (2 Sam. iii. 33, 34). Whether all these effusions, as well as the lament over David and Jonathan, were taken from Jasher, we know not. It may be that they were drawn from this common source, this national collection of the Hebrew muse. At least some critics, who com pare the long hymn found in 2 Sam. xxii., and which forms the ath psalm, and note the varia tions of the text, are inclined to think that the one has not been copied from the other, but that both have been taken from a very old common source : a conjecture quite as natural as the ordi nary hypothesis—namely, that David either pub lished a second edition of his poem, or that the varier leetiones are the errors of transcribers. At all events the compiler of the books of Samuel has evidently used as one of his sources some col lection of poetry. Such collections contain the earliest history of a nation, and they abounded among the susceptible people of the East.