1 Samuel 9:9

9. Beforetime in Israel A long time before our historian wrote. According to some exegetes, this verse is an interpolation by a later writer; but if the books of Samuel were written, as we have supposed, (see Introduction,) about the time of Rehoboam or of his son Abijam, the historian himself may properly have spoken of a custom of Samuel’s time as prevailing beforetime in Israel, for Rehoboam reigned nearly a century after the death of Samuel.

A Prophet… a Seer According to the strict etymology of these words a prophet ( nabi) is one who announces a divine oracle, a seer ( roeh) one who sees some supernatural vision, or sees in some marvellous or supernatural way. The former would thus take his name from the fact of his communicating a divine message to others; the latter from the manner of his receiving a divine revelation. Seer is said to have been the more ancient or archaic name, but Abraham was called a prophet, (Genesis 20:7,) and in the days of Asa, king of Judah, more than a hundred years after Samuel, Hanani was called a seer. 2 Chronicles 16:7. The Septuagint reads: “The prophet the people ( ο λαος ) were formerly accustomed to call the seer,” as if seer was the popular as well as the ancient name. Probably the name of seer lingered long after the name of prophet became the more common and popular title, for no common word goes out of use but by slow degrees. Samuel’s honoured ministry seems to have wrought this change of names. When he appeared in Israel the word of God was rare; there was no open vision. Chap. 1 Samuel 3:1. But there were probably plenty of seers men not endowed with the divine gift of prophecy, nor established as prophets of Jehovah, as Samuel was, but shrewd and practiced observers of men and things, who were skilled in solving many of the doubts and difficulties of the common people. These were not honoured with the lofty title of prophet, which, the people of that time associated only with such saintly personages as Moses and Abraham, for the seers probably pretended to no divine mission or special inspiration from Jehovah. But from Samuel’s time onward the Lord spake often by prophets, and that office and order became an institution in Israel to offset the dangerous tendencies of the monarchy; and so the name seer gradually became obsolete.