Notable Biblical Characters (OT)

All books, excludes Kings, Judges, and the 12 Prophets

Barak (All Notes)

• Son of Abinoam (Judges 4:6)

• In response to the people asking Deborah what they should do about Sisera, she sent a message to him, telling him that God commands him to gather men from the tribes of Napthali and Zebulun, go to Mount Tabor, meet Sisera there at the Kishon River, where God will help him defeat Sisera there (Judges 4:5-7)

• But because he gave her a condition in going, that she go with him, she told him he will not be honored when Sisera is defeated (Judges 4:8-9)

• Thus, God allowed a woman to defeat Sisera instead of him (Judges 4:9)

• He and Deborah did as God commanded but first went to the city of Kadesh (Judges 4:9-10)

• He and his men attacked Sisera and during the battle God confused Sisera and his army and chariots and defeated Sisera’s army but Sisera escaped (Judges 4:14-15)

• Fought Sisera’s army until all of his men were killed and not one man remained alive (Judges 4:16)

• When he eventually came to catch up with Sisera, he had found him already dead in the tent of a woman named Jael with the tent peg through the side of his head (Judges 4:22)

  • This thus fulfilled her prophecy that a woman would come to save Israel

• Sang the famous song of Deborah along with her (Judges 5:1-31)

Jael (All Notes)

• Wife of Heber the Kenite (Judges 4:17)

• Invited Sisera, who had recently escaped from a battle against Deborah and Barak, into her tent and was hospitable to him (Judges 4:18-20)

• When Sisera fell asleep, she grabbed a tent peg and hammer and killed Sisera by putting the tent peg to the side of his head and hitting it with a hammer, stabbing him through the side of his head and going intro the ground (Judges 4:21)

• When Barak eventually came to catch up with Sisera, he had found him already dead in her tent with the tent peg through the side of his head (Judges 4:22)

• On that day, God had helped the Israelites defeat King Jabin of Canaan (Judges 4:23-24)

Jether (All Notes)

• Gideon’s first-born son (Judges 8:20)

• Asked by Gideon to slay Zebah and Zalmunna for their crimes, but he could not because he was still a child at the time (Judges 8:20)

Abimelech (All Notes)

• Temporary “King” of Israel between Gideon (the fifth judge) and Tola (the sixth judge)

• Ruled the Israelites for three years (Judges 9:22)

• Son of Gideon’s concubine in Shechem (Judges 8:31)

  • Son of Gideon or Jerubbaal (Judges 9:1)

• Went to his mother’s family in Shechem and asked them if they would rather be ruled by all 70 of Gideon’s sons or just one (Judges 9:2)

  • When they answered with just one, they chose him because he was their closest relative (Judges 9:3)

  • They have him 70 pieces of silver (representing his ruling in the place of 70 sons, probably), but it came from a Temple of Baal (Judges 9:4)

  • Used the silver to hire some men and they became his followers but they were worthless (Judges 9:4)

• Killed all of Gideon’s other sons (all of his brothers), all “on one stone” (Judges 9:5, 24)

  • However, Gideon’s youngest son Jotham escaped (Judges 9:5)

  • From there, Israel made him their “king” (usurper) (Judges 9:6) thus supporting him in doing this evil act (Judges 9:24)

  • So God caused for there to be trouble between him and the people who chose him (Judges 9:24)

  • The leaders of Shechem who chose him to be their leader began planning ways to hurt him (Judges 9:24)

  • The people of Shechem partied, ate, and drank at their Temple of Baal and cursed him (Judges 9:27)

• Got a warning message from Zebul, his officer and governor of Shechem, saying that Gaal son of Ebed and his troops were coming to destroy him, so he and all his soldiers hid near Shechem waiting for Gaal of Ebed and his army (Judges 9:31-34)

• He and his men chased Gaal and his men and killed many of them before they had a chance to escape Shechem (Judges 9:40)

• He then proceeded to attack the people of Shechem by surprise and he and his men killed the people of Shechem fighting against the city of Shechem and eventually capturing it, killing all its people, and tearing down the city and throwing salt over the ruins (Judges 9:42-45)

• When people who lived at the Tower of Shechem heard what happened to the other people in their town, they gathered together in the Temple of Baal and when he had heard that they all gathered together there, he and his men gathered tree branches, placed them up against the Temple, lit them on fire and burned and killed all the people in the room, which totaled to 1000 men and women (Judges 9:46-49)

• From there, he and his men went to the city of Thebez (not the Egyptian city) and captured it but there was a tower in the city that everyone in the city climbed to the top of and when he and his men went to the tower to burn it, a woman at the top of the tower dropped a stone on his head which crushed his skull (Judges 9:50-53)

• Asks his weapon-carrying servant to take out a sword and kill him so that people thereafter will not say he was killed by a woman, and his servant obeys (Judges 9:54-55)

  • In this way, God punished him (and the men of the city of Shechem) for all the bad things he ()and they) had done (Judges 9:56-57)

Jotham (All Notes)

• Gideon’s youngest (last-born) son (Judges 9:5)

• Escaped Abimelech’s murdering of all of his brothers (Judges 9:5)

• When he had heard that the leaders of Shechem made Abimelech their leader, he gave a speech on Mount Gerizim about an olive tree, a fig tree, a vine, and a thornbush as a metaphor for the way things were going, with Abimelech likely being the thornbush in which fire will come out of it if one chooses not to find “shelter in its shade” (Judges 9:7-15)

• Asks those listening to his speech to remember what his father Gideon had done for them, risking his life to save them from the Midianites and that because they turned against his father’s family in favor of a relative, they will be destroyed by Abimelech and he will be destroyed as well if they did so for no other reason other than he was their relative (Judges 9:16-20)

  • This “prophecy” turns out to be true (Judges 9:57)

• After this speech, he ran away to a far city because he was afraid of his brother Abimelech (Judges 9:21)

Gaal (All Notes)

• Son of Ebed (Judges 9:27)

• Moved to the city of Shechem along with his brothers (Judges 9:26)

• At the time he moved, the leaders of Shechem decided to trust and follow him instead of Abimelech (Judges 9:26)

• When he gains enough influence, he questions why the men of Shechem should obey Abimelech asking who he thinks he is and that they should obey their own people, the men from Hamor, for Hamor was the father of Shechem (Judges 9:28)

• He promises to the leaders of Shechem that if they make him commander over them, he will destroy (and taunt) Abimelech (Judges 9:29)

• Was initially stunned at Abimelech’s force coming down from the hills towards Shechem, but when the leaders poked fun at him for not bragging about Abimelech’s men in the moment, he led the leaders of Shechem out to fight Abimelech (Judges 9:36-39)

• Upon his failure of defeat and killings under his lead against Abimelech and his army, he and his men were forced out of Shechem by Zebul (Judges 9:40-41)

Zebul (All Notes)

• Governor of Shechem who was one of Abimelech’s “officers” who got angry at Gaal for saying what he said about him and Abimelech and warned Abimelech of Gaal’s plot to destroy him (Judges 9:30-33)

• Forced Gaal and his brothers to leave Shechem after they had attempted but failed to defeat and of which many of his men were killed by Abimelech and his army (Judges 9:41)

Manoah (All Notes)

• From the city of Zorah and from the tribe of Dan (Judges 13:2)

• Had a wife who was unable to have children (Judges 13:2)

• The angel of God appeared to his wife and told her that she will eventually become pregnant and have a son despite not being able to have children and that he will be dedicated to God in a special way since he will be a Nazirite so his hair can never be cut and that he will be God’s special person from before he is born and will save Israel from the Philistines (Judges 13:3-5)

• So his wife went to him and told him what happened to her and that she is not to eat any unclean food or drink any strong drinks because she will be pregnant (Judges 13:6-7)

  • Upon hearing this, he prayed to God asking him to send the angel of His again to tell them how to raise the son (Judges 13:8)

  • Upon hearing that, God sent an angel to his wife again and she ran to tell him and when he asked the angel if it was the same as before and the angel said yes, he asked it what their son will be like (Judges 13:9-12)

  • Upon hearing that, the angel of God repeated the commands to his wife in front of them (Judges 13:13-14)

  • After that, not realizing it was an angel of God, he offered the angel a meal (Judges 13:15)

  • The angel refused the offer but offered instead to have him offer a sacrifice to God for his thanks (Judges 13:16)

  • After that, he asked the angel’s name so he could honor the angel’s name when the angel’s prophecies come true (Judges 13:17)

  • After that, the angel says his name is too amazing for him to believe, so he offers a sacrifice in the name of God and in the name of the “One Who Does Amazing Things” and the sacrifice was then accepted and he and his wife prostrated themselves and he realized he was speaking to an angel of God instead of a man (Judges 13:18-21)

• The angel did not appear to him or his wife ever and when he thought they were going to die because they saw God (Judges 13:22)

  • His wife assures him, however, the God does not want to kill them because if he did he would not have accepted the sacrifice or showed them these things about their son (Judges 13:23)

• So his wife had a boy named Samson, which God grew and blessed him (Judges 13:24)

Delilah (All Notes)

• Samson fell in love with her, and the rulers of the Philistines eventually got a hold of her and bribed her asking her to trick him into telling her his secret about his supernatural strength and so she tried to do this (Judges 16:4-6)

  • When she asked him what made him so strong, he trolled her multiple times - each time he told her what would make him lose his strength, then she would tell him the Philistine men are going to find out and capture him, then when they do so by the method he says and he overcomes them, she confronts him about lying to her and asks him to tell the truth and continues to do so every day until he is so annoyed by her that he is overwhelmed by it and then finally tells her the secret source of his strength (Judges 16:6-16)

  • His secret was that he had never had his hair cut because he was dedicated to God before he was born, so if someone shaved his head, he would actually lose his strength (Judges 16:17)

  • So she told the Philistine men the true reason and they paid her as promised (Judges 16:18)

  • She then proceeded to get him to sleep with his head lying in her lap while another man shaved his hair off while he was asleep, so when he woke up he thought he was going to be able to escape from the Philistine men like before, but he did not yet realize God had left him and his strength was removed from him (Judges 16:19-20)

  • So the Philistine men captured him, tore out his eyes, took him to Gaza, put chains on him, put him in prison, and made him work for them; in this way she helped them do that (Judges 16:21)

Micah (All Notes)

• During his time, Israel did not have a king, so everyone did what they thought was right (Judges 17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:25)

• He was from Ephraim (Judges 17:1)

• He admits to stealing silver from his mother and gives it back to her to which she gives his thanks (Judges 17:2-3)

• However, she gives him back the silver as a gift to God by giving it back to her son so he can make a statue and cover it, but when her son just gives the silver back to her, she takes some of the silver and hires a silversmith to make a silver-covered statue with it which was then put in his house (Judges 17:3-4)

• He had a temple for worshipping idols and he chose one of his sons to be his priest (Judges 17:5)

• Offered a man from the tribe of Levi who was seeking out Ephraim as a potential place to live to be his father and priest to him and that he would give him silver, clothes, and food each year (Judges 17:7-10)

  • The Levite agreed to his offer and became like one of his own sons and became chosen by him to become a priest while he lived in his house (Judges 17:11-12)

  • He thinks that God will be good to him now that he has a Levite in house being his priest (Judges 17:13)

• Five men from the tribe of Dan from the cities of Zorah and Eshtaol were sent by the tribe to go look for land for them to live at since they did not have their own land yet unlike the rest of the tribes of Israel, and they came to Ephraim and spent one night at his house (Judges 18:1-2)

• When the five men encountered the young Levite who had lived with him, they asked him to ask God if their search for land will be successful and the Levite said it would be (Judges 18:3-6)

  • So the men left and discovered the city of Laish thereafter and thought God had given it to them because it was peaceful and safe and that it would be a good idea to attack the people there and take it for themselves because of this (Judges 18:7-10)

  • So they went back to their tribe (Dan) and gathered 600 men and prepared them to attack Laish but on their way they stopped in Ephraim and came back to his house again and told the 600 men from Dan that there are idols and statues in his house and so they 600 men took the idols and statues (Judges 18:11-18)

  • When the young Levite man in his house protested, they told him he could be their own father and priest instead of the namesake’s and so he went with the men from Dan and abandoned the namesake man who gave him a place to stay (Judges 18:18-21)

• People living near him met together and found out about the disappearance of the Levite and so he went with them to chase down the Levite and the men of Dan and ask for his idols back, but they refused and warned him that they could be easily angered and pushed to kill him and his family so he got scared of them, gave up, and went back home (Judges 18:22-26)

  • So the men of Dan took the idols that he made and the priest who had been with him and came to Laish, attacking its people, killing them with their swords, and burning their city to the ground and built a new city in its place, which became their home (Judges 18:27-28)

  • They then set up his idols in their new home of Dan, named after the tribe and ancestor, having renamed Laish (Judges 18:29-31)

Johnathon, son of Gershom (All Notes)

• Grandson of Moses (Judges 18:30)

• He and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the time when Israel was taken into captivity (Judges 18:30)

• He oversaw the idols the people of Dan had set up for themselves in the new city (Judges 18:31)

Naomi (Some Notes)

• Lived during the time the judges ruled but when there was a famine in the land (Ruth 1:1)

• She and her husband Elimelech left the town of Bethlehem in Judah where they lived with their two sons Mahlon and Kilion and traveled to Moab and stayed there (Ruth 1:2)

• Her husband and sons eventually died, so she was left alone except for her two daughters-in-law Ruth and Orpah, the wives of her sons who were from Moab (Ruth 1:3-5)

• While in Moab, she heard that God had helped His people in Judah and gave them food during the famine, so she decided to return to her home in Judah and her daughters-in-law decided to go along with her (Ruth 1:6-7)

  • She discouraged them from going with her and prays to God that he will be as kind to them as they were to her and that they will find husbands and homes (Ruth 1:8-9)

  • They cry and plead to stay but she ultimately convinces Orpah to leave but Ruth refuses and demands to stay with her in a profound gesture of loyalty (Ruth 1:10-17)

  • So she stopped arguing with her and traveled with her until they reached Bethlehem (Ruth 1:18-19)

• When she returned to Bethlehem at the beginning of the harvest season and the people recognized her, she told them her new name was Marah because God had made her life very sad and her original name, which means happy, was furthest from the truth because God has given her much trouble (Ruth 1:20-22)

Ruth (Some Notes)

• When Naomi tried to convince her to leave her and go back to her mother, her people, and her gods; she refused and told Naomi not to force her to leave her and that she will go wherever Naomi goes and that only death will separate them (Ruth 1:15-17)

• Tells Naomi that she will go to the fields and try and find someone who will be kind to her and let her gather the grain they leave in the field (Ruth 2:2)

• When she went to the fields, she followed the workers who were cutting the grain and gathered the grain that was left and the field just happened to be owned by Boaz, Naomi’s relative (Ruth 2:3)

• When Boaz meets her and allows her to gather the grain of the field, drink the water from his jug, and tells her the other men have been warned not to bother her, she prostrates and tells him she is a foreigner from Moab (Ruth 2:8-10)

• When Boaz blesses her, he offers her something to eat and tells other workers to help her gather grain for herself by dropping some of their grain for her and told them not to stop her (Ruth 2:11-16)

• When she left Boaz, she returned home to show Naomi what she had gathered and when Naomi inquired who she worked for, she told him it was Boaz and Naomi told her who Boaz was, and then she tells Naomi that Boaz wanted her to continue working with him until the harvest was finished (Ruth 2:17-21)

• Naomi told her to continue working in that field for if she worked in another field, men might her, so she continued working with Boaz and his women servants and continued to gather grain until the harvest was finished (Ruth 2:22-23)

• Then Naomi tries to find a husband for her and tells her to go to Boaz at the threshing floor, but not let him see her until after he ate dinner, after she has seen him go down to rest and life the cover off his feet and lie down with him asking him what she should do about marriage and so she did these things (Ruth 3:1-5)

• Marries Boaz and they have a son named Obed, who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David (Ruth 4:13-17)

Boaz (Some Notes)

• He was a rich man living in Bethlehem (Ruth 2:1)

• He was a close relative of Naomi’s from Elimelech’s family (Ruth 2:1)

• Greeted his workers and blessed them, then inquired about the girl in the fields, Ruth and one of his servants told him how she got there (Ruth 2:4-6)

• He tells Ruth to stay in the field to gather grain for herself and that there is no need for her to go to any other field, she can continue following behind his women workers (Ruth 2:8)

• He also tells Ruth she can drink from the same jug as his men drink because he warned the young men not to bother her (Ruth 2:9)

• After she prostrates herself in front of him, he tells her he knows of the good she has done for Naomi and he tells her God will reward her for all the good she has done and will protect her (Ruth 2:10-12)

• He tells Ruth that she has a relative closer to her than he that she can marry instead of him, but that they will marry if that cannot be arranged (Ruth 3:10-13)

• Marries Ruth and they have a son named Obed, who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David (Ruth 4:13-17)

Elkanah (All Notes)

• From the Zuph family, he lived in Ramah from the tribe of Ephraim (1 Samuel 1:1)

• Was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph from the tribe of Ephraim 1 Samuel 1:1)

• He had two wives, Peninnah and Hannah, but Hannah did not have children (1 Samuel 1:2)

• Every year, he left his town of Ramah and went up to Shiloh, worshipping and offering sacrifices to God there (1 Samuel 1:3)

• Whenever he offered his sacrifices, he always gave one share of the food to Peninnah and her children and one share to Hannah because he loved her very much despite her not having children (1 Samuel 1:4-5)

• When he sees his wife Hannah crying from being upset about Penninah’s remarks about her not being able to have children, he asks her why she is crying, why she will not eat, and why she is sad and tells her she has him and asking her if that is better for her than having even ten sons (1 Samuel 1:8)

Hannah (All Notes)

• Second wife of Elkanah (1 Samuel 1:2)

• God did not allow her to have kids (1 Samuel 1:2, 5)

• Receives one share of the food equal to the share of Peninnah, Elkanah’s other wife from Elkanah’s sacrifice to God at Shiloh because Elkanah loved her very much (1 Samuel 1:4-5)

• Upset by Peninnah who always made her feel bad that God had not made her able to have children and this happened every year Elkanah and the family went to Shiloh (1 Samuel 1:6-7)

  • She was so upset she began to cry and fast and after her husband Elkanah convinced her to eat and drink, she prayed to God for a son (1 Samuel 1:7-9)

• She made a special promise to God telling Him that He can see how sad she is and asking Him to remember her and that if He gives her a son, she will give him to Him in the hopes of being a Nazirite, and prayed to God for a long time (1 Samuel 1:9-12)

• She prayed with her heart, and did not say the words out loud, so Eli, the priest at the temple, thought she was drunk, but she responded to him by saying that she is not drunk but deeply troubled and was telling God about her problems and how sad she has been to which Eli tells her to go in peace and to which she responds by requesting he be happy for her and then her sadness left her (1 Samuel 1:13-18)

• She eventually had sex with Elkanah and they had a son and so in this way God remembered her, and she named him Samuel (meaning, ‘I asked God for him’) (1 Samuel 1:19-20)

• The year Samuel was born, she did not go on the annual trips to Shiloh with Elkanah anymore because she had to raise the him first before she could take him to Shiloh to give to God and Elkanah complied with her request (1 Samuel 1:21-23)

  • Once the boy was raised, she took him to God’s house at Shiloh and prepared Elkanah’s sacrifice to God (1 Samuel 1:24)

  • She then gave Samuel to Eli the Priest telling him who she was and who her son was going to be, a servant of God all his life so she left him there and worshipped God (1 Samuel 1:25-28)

• As she worships God, she gives thanks to him for a son in a famous worship prayer to God (1 Samuel 2:1-10)

  • When she and the rest of her family went back home to Ramah, Samuel stayed in Shiloh and served God under Eli the priest (1 Samuel 2:11)

• Would give her son Samuel a robe each year she went up to Shiloh with Elkanah for the annual sacrifice (1 Samuel 2:19)

• Was blessed by Eli the priest who told her she would have even more children to replace Samuel and this was true, God gave her three sons and two daughters while her firstborn son Samuel stayed at the Temple of God in Shiloh with Eli the Priest (1 Samuel 2:20-21)

Eli (All Notes)

• Priest who led Israel for 20 years (1 Samuel 4:18)

• His sons, Hophni and Phinehas, served as priests of God at Shiloh (1 Samuel 1:3)

• Sitting near the door of God’s Temple, he watched as Hannah prayed to God for a son but since her lips were moving but she wasn’t audible, he thought she was drunk but when she tells him her troubles he realizes she is not and he tells her to go in peace and tells her may the God of Israel favor her (1 Samuel 1:9-17)

• His sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were evil men who did not care about God or about how priests were supposed to treat people and did not perform their job duties as priests correctly or responsibly and thus showed disrespect to God by disrespecting the offering made to Him, a terrible sin against Him (1 Samuel 1:12-16)

  • When he found out that his sons were having sex with women who served at the door of the tent of meeting, he confronted them asking them why they did those evil things and telling them to stop doing those evil things because God’s people are saying bad things about them; but his sons refused to listen to him (1 Samuel 2:22-25)

• Blessed Elkanah and his wife Hannah, telling them God will give them even more children through Hannah that will take the place of Samuel (1 Samuel 2:20)

• A man of God came to him and told him that God chose his tribe to be his priests and the meat from the sacrifices, so it asks him why he and his sons are refusing to respect the gifts, sacrifices, and God saying that he honors his sons more than he honors Him and become fat from all the meat they are eating (1 Samuel 2:27-29)

  • Once God promised that his father’s family would serve God forever but God is now saying that that will never happen because of the crimes of his sons (the disrespect they showed to God) and so his descendants will all die by the sword because of what his sons did and his family line will be wiped out (1 Samuel 2:30-33)

  • Says God will give him a sign to show that this prophecy will come true (1 Samuel 2:34)

  • Says God will make it so that his sons Hophni and Phinehas will die on the same day (1 Samuel 2:34)

  • Says God will choose a new priest he can trust and make his family strong and his family will always serve before his chosen king and his family will become beggars to this priest (1 Samuel 2:35-36)

• As he got older, his sons lived more and more in a way God considered evil (1 Samuel 4:1)

• During his time, the Philistines came and defeated the Israelites once and then when Israel fled and returned with the Ark of the Covenant, thinking God would protect them from their enemies with it and even though the Philistines grew fearful because they recognized that is what allowed Israel to defeat the Egyptians, they still fought them and defeated them and 30K Israelite soldiers and more significantly, they killed his two sons Hophni and Phinehas just as Samuel had prophesized and they also took the Ark of the Covenant (1 Samuel 4:2-10)

  • A man from the tribe of Benjamin who fought against the Philistines came to Shiloh and told him and everyone else what happened (1 Samuel 4:12-17)

  • When he heard what happened to the Ark of the Covenant, he fell backward off his chair and broke his neck, having died old and fat (1 Samuel 4:18)

• His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant soon after his death and she had a baby and named him Ichabod, meaning that “Israel’s glory has been taken away” and because both her husband and father-in-law were dead and because the Philistines had taken the Ark of the Covenant (1 Samuel 4:19-22)

  • However, God caused trouble amongst the Philistines so long as they possessed the Ark of the Covenant so much so that they decided to give it to another city but keep it from Israel so they gave it to Gath and so God caused just as much trouble to Gath as to the Philistines so then Gath decided to keep it from Israel but give it away so they gave it to Ekron and God continued cause as much trouble for Ekron as for Gath and for the Philistines (1 Samuel 5:1-12)

  • So they eventually sent it back to Israel given how much harm it caused them and the Philistine priests and magicians guided them through the process to give them to Israel in the correct way so that they would be healed from all the things the Ark of the Covenant was causing to happen to them and the priests and magicians suggest that by doing so God will stop punishing them like He punished Egypt and so the Philistines did everything the priests and magicians told them to do and the Philistines sent gifts to the God of Israel for their sins and the damage they caused in Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron (1 Samuel 6:1-18)

  • However, no priests of Israel were there to take back the Ark of the Covenant, so God killed the 70 men that took it back and the people of their town, Beth Shemesh, cried loudly and asked for a priest to carry it and found one to do so (1 Samuel 6:19-21)

• The prophecies given to him about his family being in the priesthood and that not continuing are fulfilled in 1 Kings 2:27

Samuel (All Notes)

• His name means “because I asked God for him” (1 Samuel 1:20)

• Son of Hannah, wife of Elkanah (1 Samuel 1:20)

• Was made to serve God in His Temple all his life and he was left with Eli the Priest at Shiloh when he was old enough to ‘eat solid food’ and she left him and went back home to Ramah and he grew up there (1 Samuel 1:24-28, 2:18, 21)

• Was Eli’s helper and served God with him (1 Samuel 3:1)

• God started calling to him when he was asleep but he did not know it was God calling to him and thought it was Eli, the priest he served under, so he ran to Eli but as this kept happening Eli realized God was calling to him so he told him that the next time it happens ask for God and tell Him you are His servant and you are listening and so the fourth time it happened when he went back to bed and heard the call and spoke to God the way Eli told him to (1 Samuel 3:2-10)

• God tells him of the prophecy of Eli’s family and that he will punish Eli’s family forever because of his sons disrespect for God and Eli’s failure to control them and they won’t be able to offer sacrifices to make up for their sin but when he woke up he became afraid to tell Eli about the vision God gave him (1 Samuel 3:11-15)

• When he told Eli what God had told him because Eli told him to not hide anything from him, Eli responded by saying that God is God and He will do whatever He thinks is right (1 Samuel 3:18)

• God was with him when he grew up and did not let any of his messages he gave to him be proven false so all of Israel knew he was a true prophet of God and that God worked through him to do what He wanted (1 Samuel 3:19-21)

• He eventually announced God’s message about Eli’s son to all Israel (1 Samuel 4:1)

• He told Israel that if they are really coming back to God with all their heart, they must throw their foreign gods and idols of Ashtoreth and give themselves fully to God and serve only Him, and that if they do this, He will save them from the Philistines and so Israel did as he told them and so he told them to meet at Mizpah where he will pray to God for them and so Israel did, making a fast for their sins (1 Samuel 7:3-6)

• Under his guidance, when the Philistines came to Mizpah, they came to fight against Israel, but he continued to pray for God for Israel and asking Him to save them from the Philistines, so he made a sacrificial offering to God and prayed to God and God answered him (1 Samuel 7:7-9)

• God caused a loud clap of thunder to hit near the Philistines that confused them in order that Israel could easily defeat them in battle and they did and killed many along the way to Beth-Car where they chased them (1 Samuel 7:10-11)

  • After this, he set up a special stone to help people remember what God did and named it “Stone of Help” since God “helped them all the way to this place” (1 Samuel 7:12)

• Under his guidance, God caused the Philistines to be defeated and God was against them for the rest of his life, causing Israel to take back the cities the Philistines initially took from them including Ekron and Gath (1 Samuel 7:13)

• Under his guidance, there was peace between Israel and the Amorites (1 Samuel 7:14)

• Led Israel all his life going from place to place judging the Israelites and traveling around the country every year but always going back to his home in Ramah where built an altar to God and judged Israel (1 Samuel 7:15-17)

• When he was old, he appointed his sons Joel and Abijah to be judges for Israel, but they did not live the way he did and they did evil things and when the people Israel saw this they asked him for a king to lead them (1 Samuel 8:1-5)

• When the people Israel asked him for a king to lead them, he prayed on it to God and God told him to do as the people ask but to warn them what kings will do to them and how kings rule over people (1 Samuel 8:6-10)

  • So he told the people Israel what God had told him, which included the bad things that would happen under a king including

    • Sons being taken away from families and forced to fight in the king’s army and take up positions of different rank in that army (1 Samuel 8:11)

    • Sons being forced to plow the king’s fields and gather the king’s harvest (1 Samuel 8:12)

    • Sons being forced to make weapons for war and accessories for chariots for the king (1 Samuel 8:12)

    • Daughters being taken away to make perfume for the king and cook and bake for him (1 Samuel 8:13)

    • People’s fields, vineyards, and olive groves being taken away and given to the king’s officers (1 Samuel 8:14)

    • 1/10 of people’s grain and grapes being taken away and given to the king’s officers (1 Samuel 8:15)

    • People’s servants being taken away for the king (1 Samuel 8:16)

    • People’s best cattle being taken away and used all for the king’s own work (1 Samuel 8:16)

    • 1/10 of people’s flock being taken away and given to the king (1 Samuel 8:17)

    • People being slaves to this king (1 Samuel 8:17)

  • And he told the people that when they cry and become upset over the king they chose that does all this, God will not answer them about it when that happens (1 Samuel 8:18)

• But the people Israel ignored his warnings and demanded a king to rule over them so they will be the same as all the other nations (1 Samuel 8:19-20)

• So he told God what happened and God told him to give them a king and so he told them they will have a king soon (1 Samuel 8:21-22)

• God told him that he will send a man to him from the tribe of Benjamin who He will make leader over His people Israel and that this man will save Israel from the Philistines and when he saw that this man was Saul who had come with his servant to find his father Kish’s lost donkeys, God told him that this is the man that will rule His people (1 Samuel 9:15-17)

  • When Saul went up to him, he told Saul he was the man of God and told Saul that he and his servant can eat with him today and he will answer all his questions and that the donkeys of his father Kish had been found and he implores Saul to come because he tells him Israel is looking for him and his family (1 Samuel 9:18-20)

  • So he took Saul and his servant to eat and share the sacrificial meal and he gave him and his servant the most important place at the table and he told them to eat and so they ate and he gave Saul a bed to sleep in and then told him and his servant they could go but then told him to stay because he has a message from God for him (1 Samuel 9:22-27)

• So he tells Saul the message from God for him and anoints Saul to be the first king of Israel and gives him instructions on what to do before becoming king and tells him he can do whatever he chooses to do because God will be with him (1 Samuel 10:1-8)

• So he told all Israel to meet together with God at Mizpah and he told Israel that God sees that they reject Him and that they want a king, and so he announced in front of Israel that Saul would be king, that God chose him and that there is no one like Saul among the people and the people shouted ‘long live the king’ (1 Samuel 10:17-24)

• He explained the rules of the kingdom to the people and wrote the rules in a book and put the book before God and then told all the people to go home (1 Samuel 10:25)

• He told Israel that he has done everything they wanted him to do and he has given them a king to lead them and confirms to them that he has never wronged them and confirms in front of God that he is a witness to the fact that he has never wronged them and then he goes on explaining the history of Israel to them and what God has done for them, including how Moses and Aaron saved them from Egypt and how Gideon, Barak, Jephthah, and he saved them from their enemies so they could live in safety but warns them that they still have to follow God and their king has to follow God and that if they do not, God will be against them and destroy them and their king (1 Samuel 12:1-15)

• He prayed to God to send thunder and rain onto the people and when this happens they become afraid of God and him and he consoles them saying not to be afraid and that despite these bad things they have done, he implores them not to stop following God and serve Him with all their heart (1 Samuel 12:16-20)

• He tells the people Israel that idols are only statues and that they cannot help or save them and that God will not leave them since He was pleased to make them, and he will never stop praying for them for if he did he would be sinning against God, so he says he will continue to teach them the right way to live a good life but that the people must honor God and serve him with all their heart and that if they do not God will throw them and their king away (1 Samuel 12:21-25)

• Tells Saul that he did a foolish thing by not obeying God and thus his kingdom will not continue because God is looking for a man who wants to obey him, and so God now found a new man to rule Israel instead (1 Samuel 13:13-14)

• Sent by God to go to Bethlehem with his oil in his horn because He has chosen one of Jesse’s son to be the new king and God tells him to make a sacrifice to God and invite Jesse to the sacrifice and so he does this (1 Samuel 16:1-5)

• God tells him that Eliab and Abinadab and that the seven sons Jesse presents to him are NOT going to be the new king and so when he asks Jesse if he has any others, Jesse says yes and so he brings that son and he says to Jesse that this is the son God wants him to anoint (1 Samuel 16:6-12)

• Buried at his home in Ramah (1 Samuel 25:1)

Abinadab (All Notes)

• The priest who presided over the taking of the Ark of the Covenant back to the Israelites from the Philistines stealing it who performed a special ceremony with the men of Kiriath-Jearim to guard the Ark of the Covenant, where it stayed in Kiriath-Jearim for a long time (1 Samuel 7:1-2)

Kish (All Notes)

• An important man from the tribe of Benjamin who was the son of Abiel, who was the son of Zeror, who was the son of Becorath, who was the son of Aphiah (1 Samuel 9:1)

• Had a son named Saul (1 Samuel 9:2)

• One day, his donkeys got lost, so he said to his son Saul to take one of his servants and look for the donkeys, so when his son went to go look for the donkeys he and his servant could not find them but when they reach the town of Zuph, the servant informs Saul that they should not leave just yet because there is a man of God there who might help them find the donkeys, so they muster a gift of a little money to give to the man of God and go to the town where the man of God is and eventually find the man of God, Samuel l (1 Samuel 9:3-14)

Jonathan son of Saul (All Notes)

• Befriends David and makes a pact with him saying they will protect each other no matter what (1 Samuel 18:1-4)

• When his father Saul told him and his officers to kill David, he secretly warned David that Saul was trying to kill him so he told him to go hide in the fields (1 Samuel 19:1-3)

• So he talked to his father Saul telling him about the good things David has done and that David hasn’t done anything wrong to Saul, so Saul should not do anything wrong to David (1 Samuel 19:4-5)

• Once Saul promises him David won’t be put to death, he calls David and told him everything that was said and brings him before Saul (1 Samuel 19:7)

• Makes a promise before God that he will learn how Saul feels about David and if he feels good or not about him and let him know whether Saul wants to hurt him or not and asks God to punish him if he doesn’t do this and asks God to be with him the way he has been with his father, and hopes that, as long as he lives, he’ll be shown the same kindness that God shows him and to be faithful to them even when God destroys all of David’s enemies from the earth; so he and David made this agreement and asked God to hold him and his family responsible for keeping it (1 Samuel 20:12-16)

• Because he loved David as himself, he asked him to repeat this agreement for himself (1 Samuel 20:17)

• So he tells David what he is going to do to find out if Saul wants to kill him or not and asks David to remember this agreement between them for God is their witness forever (1 Samuel 20:18-23)

• When he goes to meet with his father Saul, it takes a few days for Saul to realize David is not there because he is protecting him and so he lashes out at him and tries to kill him, his own son; so he knew he was upset not just with him but with David so he got up from the table upset and angry and immediately ran out to the field to meet David and tell him what happened (1 Samuel 20:24-35)

• When he informed David that Saul was planning to kill him, he honors the agreement and goes over to David and tells him to leave for good and they kiss and cry with each other as it was a very sad goodbye, especially for David (1 Samuel 20:41)

• Then he tells David to go in peace and reminds him of the agreement they made to be friends forever and that God be a witness between them and their descendants forever (1 Samuel 20:42)

• Went to visit his friend David when he was in the mountains in desert of Ziph and encouraged him to have stronger faith in God since he was scared Saul was going to kill him (1 Samuel 23:15-16)

  • He told David not to be afraid since Saul will not hurt him and that one day he, David, will be king of all Israel and even Saul knows this will happen (1 Samuel 23:16-17)

  • So he and David make an agreement about this before God and then he goes home afterwards (1 Samuel 23:18)

Michal (All Notes)

• Daughter of Saul and wife of David

• She helps David escape from Saul’s officers by tricking them by putting clothes onto a household god statue and goats’ hair on the statue’s head and putting the statue in the bed, lying to Saul’s officers telling them that David is sick while she helps him through the window beforehand (1 Samuel 19:11-16)

• Saul asks her why she tricked him and she told him that David told her he would have killed her if she didn’t help him escape (1 Samuel 19:17)

Doeg (All Notes)

• Edomite, officer of Saul, leader of Saul’s shepherds (1 Samuel 21:7)

• Had been kept near Ahimelech the Priest before God when David went to him for help (1 Samuel 21:7)

• Informs Saul that he saw David with Ahimelech the Priest, son of Ahitub at the city of Nob and told him Ahimelech gave him food and the sword of Goliath (1 Samuel 22:9-10)

• Ordered by Saul to kill Ahimelech the Priest and the entire city of Nob, so he killed Ahimelech, the 85 priests of Nob, and all of the men, women, children, small babies, and animals of the city (1 Samuel 22:18-19)

Abiathar (All Notes)

• Son of Ahimelech the Priest of Nob (1 Samuel 22:20)

• Escaped from Doeg the Edomite’s massacre of Nob (1 Samuel 22:20)

• Told David that Saul had killed God’s priests at Nob (1 Samuel 22:21)

• David apologizes to him for not being more careful about Doeg the Edomite but promises to protect him since Saul is trying to kill not just him but also David (1 Samuel 22:20-23)

Abigail (All Notes)

• Her first husband was Nabal of Carmel from Caleb’s family (1 Samuel 25:3)

• She was a wise and beautiful woman, but her husband was a mean and cruel man (1 Samuel 25:3)

• One of her husband’s servants came to her and informed her that Nabal was rude to David’s servants and foolish in responding to David the way he did, since David and his men were very good to them and their fellow shepherds and protected them and never did anything wrong to them - and that as a result, terrible trouble was coming to Nabal and all his family, so they implored her to think of something to do to stop the violence (1 Samuel 25:14-17)

• She quickly gathered lots of food, put them on donkeys, and told her servants to get on them with her and ride them down to the other side of the mountain (1 Samuel 25:18-19)

• She met David and his men coming from the other direction, bowed down to him, and asked him to blame her for what happened since she did not see the men he sent and pleads to him not to pay any attention to Nabal, since his name means foolish and that is what he is (1 Samuel 25:20-25)

• Pleads to David to forgive her for she was in the wrong, pleads him to accept her gift of food on donkeys, pleads him not to cause harm to Nabal or his family and not to be tempted to kill innocent people because she knows God is on his side and God would not want to see him do that and pleads to him to make sure he remembers her when God blesses him (1 Samuel 25:26-31)

• When she told Nabal everything that had happened, he had a heart attack and ten days later God gave him a stroke and he died (1 Samuel 25:37-38)