Here, for those who will read them with care and sympathetic understanding, are all aspects of human nature – strength and weakness, loyalty and betrayal, piety and hypocrisy, faith and folly.

within a period of a century, the history of Israel is dominated by three fascinating, widely differing personalities, whose highly colored experiences and greatly diverse characters provide an abundance of inspiring examples and valuable warnings. In and out of these pages flicker inspired anticipations of the Greatest Israelite of them all, the promised Son of God. No other book in all the world has history and prophecy interwoven in the way that is almost commonplace in sacred history. Yet it is to be questioned whether these two books, I and II Samuel, get the attention they deserve, even from dedicated Bible Readers.