Senses
1. Samuel (prophet and judge of Israel) — The proper noun Samuel (Hebrew שְׁמוּאֵל), referring primarily to the prophet, priest, and last judge of Israel, son of Elkanah and Hannah, who anointed both Saul and David as kings. All 140 occurrences denote this same individual (with a minor secondary referent in 1 Chr 7:2 for a Levitical genealogy). The two-cluster split is purely syntactic: 136 occurrences as bare or conjunctive forms vs. 4 with the preposition לְ ('to Samuel'). Multilingual evidence is unanimous: eng 'Shemuel / Samuel / to Shemuel,' spa 'Samuel / a Samuel,' hin शमूएल / शमूएल से, arb صَمُوئِيل / لِـ صَمُوئِيل, kor 사무엘이 / 사무엘에게, swa Samweli / kwa Samweli. 140×
AR["صَمُوئِيلَ","صَمُوئِيلُ"]·ben["শমূয়েল","শমূয়েলের"]·DE["Samuel"]·EN["Shemuel"]·FR["Samuel"]·heb["שמואל"]·HI["शमूएल","शमूएल-को","शमूएल-ने","शेमूएल"]·ID["Samuel"]·IT["Samuele"]·jav["Samuel"]·KO["사무엘"]·PT["Shemu'el"]·RU["Шмуэль","Шмуэлю","Шмуэля"]·ES["Samuel"]·SW["Samweli"]·TR["Şemuel","Şmuel"]·urd["سموئیل","شموئیل","شموئیل-نے","شموئیل-کو"]
1 Sam 1:20, 1 Sam 2:21, 1 Sam 2:26, 1 Sam 3:1, 1 Sam 3:4, 1 Sam 3:6, 1 Sam 3:6, 1 Sam 3:8, 1 Sam 3:9, 1 Sam 3:10, 1 Sam 3:10, 1 Sam 3:10 (+38 more)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
שְׁמוּאֵל140 n.pr.m. Samuel (= name of Ēl Thes al. (or, his name is Ēl HomHeb. Trad. 98 f. WklKAT3 225 Now 1 S 1:20), cf. פְּנוּאֵל, רְעוּאֵל; v. Dr 1 S 1:20; PrätZMG 1903, 777 ff. caritative from יִשְׁמָעֵאל; Palm. שמואל Lzb 377; v. further GieAT1 Schätzung d. Gottesn. (1901), 102 ff.);— 1. great prophet, 11th cent. b.c., Σαμουηλ: 1 S 1:20 (name expl. as if from שָׁאַל), 1:18, 21, 26 + 125 times…