WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

Samuel
    n 1: (Old Testament) Hebrew prophet and judge who anointed Saul
         as king

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:

Samuel
   heard of God. The peculiar circumstances connected with his
   birth are recorded in 1 Sam. 1:20. Hannah, one of the two wives
   of Elkanah, who came up to Shiloh to worship before the Lord,
   earnestly prayed to God that she might become the mother of a
   son. Her prayer was graciously granted; and after the child was
   weaned she brought him to Shiloh nd consecrated him to the Lord
   as a perpetual Nazarite (1:23-2:11). Here his bodily wants and
   training were attended to by the women who served in the
   tabernacle, while Eli cared for his religious culture. Thus,
   probably, twelve years of his life passed away. "The child
   Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the Lord, and also
   with men" (2:26; comp. Luke 2:52). It was a time of great and
   growing degeneracy in Israel (Judg. 21:19-21; 1 Sam. 2:12-17,
   22). The Philistines, who of late had greatly increased in
   number and in power, were practically masters of the country,
   and kept the people in subjection (1 Sam. 10:5; 13:3).

     At this time new communications from God began to be made to
   the pious child. A mysterious voice came to him in the night
   season, calling him by name, and, instructed by Eli, he
   answered, "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth." The message
   that came from the Lord was one of woe and ruin to Eli and his
   profligate sons. Samuel told it all to Eli, whose only answer to
   the terrible denunciations (1 Sam. 3:11-18) was, "It is the
   Lord; let him do what seemeth him good", the passive submission
   of a weak character, not, in his case, the expression of the
   highest trust and faith. The Lord revealed himself now in divers
   manners to Samuel, and his fame and his influence increased
   throughout the land as of one divinely called to the prophetical
   office. A new period in the history of the kingdom of God now
   commenced.

     The Philistine yoke was heavy, and the people, groaning under
   the wide-spread oppression, suddenly rose in revolt, and "went
   out against the Philistines to battle." A fierce and disastrous
   battle was fought at Aphek, near to Ebenezer (1 Sam. 4:1, 2).
   The Israelites were defeated, leaving 4,000 dead "in the field."
   The chiefs of the people thought to repair this great disaster
   by carrying with them the ark of the covenant as the symbol of
   Jehovah's presence. They accordingly, without consulting Samuel,
   fetched it out of Shiloh to the camp near Aphek. At the sight of
   the ark among them the people "shouted with a great shout, so
   that the earth rang again." A second battle was fought, and
   again the Philistines defeated the Israelites, stormed their
   camp, slew 30,000 men, and took the sacred ark. The tidings of
   this fatal battle was speedily conveyed to Shiloh; and so soon
   as the aged Eli heard that the ark of God was taken, he fell
   backward from his seat at the entrance of the sanctuary, and his
   neck brake, and he died. The tabernacle with its furniture was
   probably, by the advice of Samuel, now about twenty years of
   age, removed from Shiloh to some place of safety, and finally to
   Nob, where it remained many years (21:1).

     The Philistines followed up their advantage, and marched upon
   Shiloh, which they plundered and destroyed (comp. Jer. 7:12; Ps.
   78:59). This was a great epoch in the history of Israel. For
   twenty years after this fatal battle at Aphek the whole land lay
   under the oppression of the Philistines. During all these dreary
   years Samuel was a spiritual power in the land. From Ramah, his
   native place, where he resided, his influence went forth on
   every side among the people. With unwearied zeal he went up and
   down from place to place, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting the
   people, endeavouring to awaken in them a sense of their
   sinfulness, and to lead them to repentance. His labours were so
   far successful that "all the house of Israel lamented after the
   Lord." Samuel summoned the people to Mizpeh, one of the loftiest
   hills in Central Palestine, where they fasted and prayed, and
   prepared themselves there, under his direction, for a great war
   against the Philistines, who now marched their whole force
   toward Mizpeh, in order to crush the Israelites once for all. At
   the intercession of Samuel God interposed in behalf of Israel.
   Samuel himself was their leader, the only occasion in which he
   acted as a leader in war. The Philistines were utterly routed.
   They fled in terror before the army of Israel, and a great
   slaughter ensued. This battle, fought probably about B.C. 1095,
   put an end to the forty years of Philistine oppression. In
   memory of this great deliverance, and in token of gratitude for
   the help vouchsafed, Samuel set up a great stone in the
   battlefield, and called it "Ebenezer," saying, "Hitherto hath
   the Lord helped us" (1 Sam. 7:1-12). This was the spot where,
   twenty years before, the Israelites had suffered a great defeat,
   when the ark of God was taken.

     This victory over the Philistines was followed by a long
   period of peace for Israel (1 Sam. 7:13, 14), during which
   Samuel exercised the functions of judge, going "from year to
   year in circuit" from his home in Ramah to Bethel, thence to
   Gilgal (not that in the Jordan valley, but that which lay to the
   west of Ebal and Gerizim), and returning by Mizpeh to Ramah. He
   established regular services at Shiloh, where he built an altar;
   and at Ramah he gathered a company of young men around him and
   established a school of the prophets. The schools of the
   prophets, thus originated, and afterwards established also at
   Gibeah, Bethel, Gilgal, and Jericho, exercised an important
   influence on the national character and history of the people in
   maintaining pure religion in the midst of growing corruption.
   They continued to the end of the Jewish commonwealth.

     Many years now passed, during which Samuel exercised the
   functions of his judicial office, being the friend and
   counsellor of the people in all matters of private and public
   interest. He was a great statesman as well as a reformer, and
   all regarded him with veneration as the "seer," the prophet of
   the Lord. At the close of this period, when he was now an old
   man, the elders of Israel came to him at Ramah (1 Sam. 8:4, 5,
   19-22); and feeling how great was the danger to which the nation
   was exposed from the misconduct of Samuel's sons, whom he had
   invested with judicial functions as his assistants, and had
   placed at Beersheba on the Philistine border, and also from a
   threatened invasion of the Ammonites, they demanded that a king
   should be set over them. This request was very displeasing to
   Samuel. He remonstrated with them, and warned them of the
   consequences of such a step. At length, however, referring the
   matter to God, he acceded to their desires, and anointed Saul
   (q.v.) to be their king (11:15). Before retiring from public
   life he convened an assembly of the people at Gilgal (ch. 12),
   and there solemnly addressed them with reference to his own
   relation to them as judge and prophet.

     The remainder of his life he spent in retirement at Ramah,
   only occasionally and in special circumstances appearing again
   in public (1 Sam. 13, 15) with communications from God to king
   Saul. While mourning over the many evils which now fell upon the
   nation, he is suddenly summoned (ch.16) to go to Bethlehem and
   anoint David, the son of Jesse, as king over Israel instead of
   Saul. After this little is known of him till the time of his
   death, which took place at Ramah when he was probably about
   eighty years of age. "And all Israel gathered themselves
   together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at
   Ramah" (25:1), not in the house itself, but in the court or
   garden of his house. (Comp. 2 Kings 21:18; 2 Chr. 33:20; 1 Kings
   2:34; John 19:41.)

     Samuel's devotion to God, and the special favour with which
   God regarded him, are referred to in Jer. 15:1 and Ps. 99:6.


Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's):

Samuel, heard of God; asked of God