Professor Ackroyd's introduction summarizes the place of the First Book of Samuel in the Old Testament canon, its relationship with history and its theological purpose.The main divisions of the text are those provided by the New English Bible itself, but the text is further subdivided for the purposes of the commentary, which draws out the kind of significance indicated in the introduction. As in the series of Cambridge Bible Commentaries on the New English Bible New Testament, short passages of text and the editor's commentary are interspersed so that the reader does not have to refer to another part of the book to find the commentary.A final brief section asks what is the theological message today of this account of the beginnings of the line of David, of Samuel's role as judge and Saul's as king.