Samuel to Solomon In Simple Paraphrase with Helpful Explanations

By Chris Wright

There’s much more to the story of Samuel than knowing that he was a boy in the Tabernacle who heard God calling him. There’s a lot more about King Saul that we don’t hear as children.
There’s much more to the story of David than knowing that he was a shepherd boy who killed Goliath, became king, and wrote some of the Psalms.
And Solomon? Yes, the wisest king ever. He met the Queen of Sheba, but does he really stay wise right to the end of his life? Why do the tribes of the children of Israel divide into two hostile kingdoms after his death?
These accounts are told in separate books in the Bible: the two Books of Samuel, the two Books of Kings, and the two Books of Chronicles. The Books of Kings and Chronicles share many of the same events, with the scribes in Kings writing from the perspective of the prophets, and the scribes in Chronicles writing mostly about the royal line in Jerusalem from the perspective of the priests. This White Tree Publishing Paraphrase combines many of the major – and minor – events from these separate Books in a straightforward retelling verse by verse of the Bible account in simple English, in the order in which the events occur. Many verses and chapters have been omitted to produce this abridged version.

• Language: English
• Publisher: White Tree Publishing
• Release date: Jan 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781913950804

Chris Wright

Chris Wright is a young author who enjoys reading and is keen to share this joy with others. He lives in England, but he grew up in a small village in Hampshire. He wants to inspire young readers with his tales of a simpler time, outside among nature.

Book preview

About the Book

There’s much more to the story of Samuel than knowing that he was a boy in the Tabernacle who heard God calling him. There’s a lot more about King Saul that we don’t hear as children.

There’s much more to the story of David than knowing that he was a shepherd boy who killed Goliath, became king, and wrote some of the Psalms.

And Solomon? Yes, the wisest king ever. He met the Queen of Sheba, but does he really stay wise right to the end of his life? Why do the tribes of the children of Israel divide into two hostile kingdoms after his death?

These accounts are told in separate books in the Bible: the two Books of Samuel, the two Books of Kings, and the two Books of Chronicles. The Books of Kings and Chronicles share many of the same events, with the scribes in Kings writing from the perspective of the prophets, and the scribes in Chronicles writing mostly about the royal line in Jerusalem from the perspective of the priests.

This White Tree Publishing Paraphrase combines many of the major – and minor – events from these separate Books in a straightforward retelling verse by verse of the Bible account in simple English, in the order in which the events occur. Many verses and chapters have been omitted to produce this abridged version.

Samuel to Solomon

In Simple Paraphrase

With Helpful Explanations

by Chris Wright

© White Tree Publishing 2022

eBook ISBN: 978-1-913950-80-4

Published by

White Tree Publishing

Bristol

UNITED KINGDOM

More books on https://whitetreepublishing.com

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All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this abridged edition.

Table of Contents

Cover

About the Book

Introduction

About the Author

Part 1

Paraphrase of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles

How We Got Here

Chapter 1: 1 Samuel chapters 1-6

Chapter 2: 1 Samuel chapters 7-12

Chapter 3: 1 Samuel chapters 13-16

Chapter 4: 1 Samuel chapters 17-20

Chapter 5: 1 Samuel chapters 21-25

Chapter 6: 1 Samuel chapters 26-31

Chapter 7: 2 Samuel chapters 1-9

1 Chronicles chapter 13, verses15-18

Chapter 8: 2 Samuel chapters 11-15

Chapter 9: 2 Samuel chapters 16-24

Chapter 10: 1 Kings chapters 1-7

1 Chronicles chapters 22-29

Chapter 11: 1 Kings chapters 8-12

2 Chronicles chapters 5-10

Part 2

Running Through the Bible

About White Tree Publishing

More Books

Introduction

Part 1 of this book is a paraphrase of a section of the Old Testament covering the lives of Samuel, Saul, David and Solomon. A paraphrase of the Bible is nothing new. For example, between 1517 and 1524 the scholar Erasmus wrote a paraphrase of the whole New Testament, with helpful explanations and comments.

In 1873-74 Charles Foster published a much acclaimed paraphrase of major sections of the Bible, with simple explanations of various events along the way. In 2002 Eugene Peterson published a paraphrase of the whole Bible called The Message. There have, of course, been others.

Foster’s paraphrase had the rather misleading title of The Story of the Bible which implied to some that it was the history of how we got our Bible. Although the work was generally well received, Charles Foster admitted in the introduction to a later printing to receiving some criticism for changing the words of the Bible.

Presumably this criticism was directed to his changing the words of the King James translation. In the English Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, the English translation of the Bible (known as the Great Bible) was required by law to be placed in every church in the land. It was held by a chain to prevent it being borrowed or stolen. But this was not all. The law also required Erasmus’ English paraphrase of the New Testament, with helpful comments, to be placed with the Bible.

A paraphrase of the New Testament was seen as essential in the Reformation, when for the first time ordinary people were able to get easy access to an English Bible. In the paraphrase they found helpful explanations about what they were reading, presented in a simplified wording of Scripture.

For this book, Chris Wright has taken many of the chapter headings and episodes from Foster’s original book of 1874. There was no point in reinventing the wheel, and Foster did a wonderful job in compiling his book which sold in hundreds of thousands, but which would now seems very dated in its wording and its complete lack of speech marks. The format of Foster’s original book is used here as a template for a completely new edition in today’s English, with the addition of many other events.

Foster makes it clear that his work is not the Bible, but a retelling of it in his own wording. This, of course, is what preachers do every Sunday when expanding on a Scripture passage, for which they (hopefully!) receive thanks rather than criticism. Sunday school and group leaders do the same when they’re telling a Bible story.

Exactly the same thing is done in this paraphrase, which makes no claim to be an exact translation of the original Hebrew. Of course, there are often several ways to understand the exact meaning of a verse. Here we give the generally accepted ones, but not all readers will agree on every point. Bear in mind that this paraphrase is not a deep theological work, but a quick look through the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles up to the death of Solomon ‒ and beyond.

White Tree Publishing wants to make it absolutely clear, as Charles Foster did for his own book, that a paraphrase is not an exact word for word translation of inspired Scripture, and should not be treated as such. It is, however, a good way of getting to grips with the events involving the children of Israel from the birth of Samuel to the death of King Solomon.

Because sentences are often a shortened combination of several verses, sometimes taken from the three Books used here, they must not be used by themselves to prove a particular point, or to quote as Scripture. All readers are encouraged to pick up whatever translation of the Bible they prefer, and read the three Books for themselves.

White Tree Publishing acknowledges that the complete Bible is the inspired Word of God, but for anyone unfamiliar with the Old Testament, this paraphrase with comments makes a valuable contribution.

Hopefully, after reading this book, the reader will be in a better position to read these accounts in the Bible for themselves, with more understanding. There are nearly 100,000 words in the relevant Bible chapters covered here, cut down in this paraphrase to 28,000 ‒ so there is plenty of material still to be found in the Bible!

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Part 2: Not sure how the whole Bible fits together? Abraham and Moses? The Exodus and the Exile? Confused over kings and prophets? Old Testament, New Testament? We’ll start at zero, and assume nothing.

In Part 2 of this book we’re running quickly through the Bible, and we won’t be travelling alone. There’s a red cord running with us, starting in Genesis where we begin our journey, through to Revelation at the end.

The red cord binds the Bible together. It’s God’s rescue plan for the people He created, giving us a way out of the mess we’ve made of our lives through the free will He has given us. A friend of the author who had just finished reading the whole Old Testament for the first time, told him, It was written with God’s tears.

Indeed it was. The friend could have added, The New Testament was written with blood ‒ the blood of Jesus.

Running Through the Bible by Chris Wright is available separately in both paperback and eBook format, also published by White Tree Publishing. The paperback ISBN is 978-0-9927642-6-5, and the eBook ISBN is 978-0-9933941-3-3.

Translators and others involved in foreign mission work, please note: If you believe that this copyright book, or part of this book, would be useful if translated into another language, please contact White Tree Publishing ([e-mail]). Permission will be free, and assistance in formatting and publishing your new translation as an eBook and/or a paperback may be available, also without charge.

About the Author

Chris Wright has three grownup children, and lives in the West Country of England where he is a home group leader with his local church. He is the author of over 50 published books, the majority of them with a Christian message.

How We Got Here

The children of Israel fill up much of the Old Testament, but how did they get their name? We go back to the time when God calls Abraham to be the ancestor of His special people.

In his old age, Abraham and his wife Sarah have a boy called Isaac. We need to follow Isaac’s family line. His sons are Jacob and Esau, but God gives Jacob a new name ‒ Israel. So from then on, Jacob’s descendants are known as the children of Israel. Sometimes as the sons of Israel.

Jacob’s youngest son Joseph is sold by his jealous brothers into Egypt as a slave, but he becomes a God-appointed ruler. In a time of famine, Jacob with his other sons and grandsons move to Egypt to be with Joseph.

In Egypt, the children of Israel are enslaved. Moses comes, and under his leadership the tribes of the children of Israel escape to the land that God promises them ‒ the promised land. On the way to the promised land, at Mount Sinai, God gives them a very special gift, a covenant, a relationship of deep, mutual commitment. He gives them the means of living in that relationship ‒ the Ten Commandments. Later, other practical rules for worship and living are added to help the people survive in the wilderness and in the new heathen land.

This is covered in the early books of the Bible. At the end of Deuteronomy, Moses and the children of Israel (descendents of Jacob) reach the border of the land that God promised to Abraham, but Moses dies before he can enter it.

We then come to the books of Joshua and Judges, and read of the entry into the promised land, where many of the occupying nations are at war. God sees these nations as followers of evil practices, including child sacrifice. He wants the children of Israel to take over the land, and He sets up judges to keep His people in order.

With the death of Joshua, who was the chosen successor of Moses, there are many judges appointed, until eventually a new judge enters the picture ‒ Samuel. As a baby specially chosen by God, he will grow up to become not just a judge, but a prophet.

The prophets are a unique and gracious gift to Israel. They too like Moses have been called up into the presence of God to have, as it were, His words put into their mouths. They are fearful but obedient and assert the character of God and His commandments before kings. God is at pains to maintain the covenant.

In the Second World War the Jews had no army, and between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe. This was around two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population.

In the promised land at the period covered in this book, the Israelites had their own army to prevent extermination, which meant major battles and loss of life on both sides as the surrounding nations constantly attack the children of Israel ‒ determined to wipe them out.

This was certainly a bloodthirsty time, with the children of Israel raising large armies for defence. The best form of defence is often to attack, so when Israel was threatened, the army went out in an attempt to destroy the enemy. However, not all their wars were acceptable to God, especially the later fighting between the tribes of Israel.

Even so, these were very violent times, although not more so than other wars over the past centuries, including much bloodshed in the world today. The result of all this fighting in the promised land is that the people of God were kept from being annihilated, leading to the Christian faith we have today through Jesus, whose mother Mary was descended from David. This is not, of course, an excuse to approve all religious wars.

When did all this happen? When indeed! Even today, historians differ widely in their estimations. Without becoming involved in unnecessary disputes, let’s say in round figures that Abraham lived in 2,000 BC (plus 100 years and minus 200) and Samuel lived around 1,000 BC. These dates are very approximate, and are given here simply as a rough guide!

Now read on:

Chapter 1

1 Samuel chapters 1-6

[These chapter summaries in italics are spoilers, so don’t read them if you don’t want to know what’s coming next! But they are useful reference points for what is in each chapter.]

Elkanah and his wives Peninnah and Hannah sacrifice at Shiloh. Hannah prays for a