This passage presents us with a very interesting glimpse of how the ordinary Israelite people regarded a man who was accepted by the community as a prophet. To the servant of Saul, Samuel was a professional seer or diviner, who, for a fee, would investigate difficulties and provide answers. Seers or diviners of this kind are well known in African traditional society. The Hebrew word used for seer is ro-eb and implies the gift of seeing and hearing what is hidden to others. The Hebrew word used for prophet in the same verse is nabi and originally seems to have described a person who could experience a state of ecstasy of abnormal consciousness, in which he could speak with strange tongues and perform extraordinary acts. This phenomenon of ecstasy is known in many religions, and is experienced today amongst some religious groups. Amongst Christians, such a state is attributed to the power of the Holy. Spirit of God in the worshipper. In chapter 10, a description is given of a group of men, Saul among them, who were seized with ecstasy as they left a sanctuary of God.

From this passage we may conclude that at this stage of Israel's history, those who were called prophets combined the characteristics of both seer and prophet. The girls who answer the question of the servant and Saul as to the whereabouts of the seer, show no surprise at this word being used to refer to Samuel, and later in the chapter, Samuel does, in fact, tell Saul that the donkeys have been found, and describes himself as the seer. But we must balance Samuel's position as seer in the community with the other references in the passage to his position as 'a holy man' and a priest. The Israelites knew that Samuel was a man to whom God had spoken. A seer to whom God had not spoken could not be called a prophet, but a prophet could combine his God-given vocation with being a seer in his community. However, we can see that it was possible for a seer to misuse his powers, and later there was condemnation of those who did with the result that Jeremiah described as 'false' any prophet who accepted money for his messages.

Later in Israel's history, the idea of the seer faded and the idea of the nabi remained as a description of a man who was essentially the spokesman of God, but not necessarily one who experienced states of ecstasy. Like many other words, the word nabi has a history and developed in meaning over a period of time. The 'nabi' of God, in the Bible, is primarily the spokesman of God, and this is the meaning which will concern us when we come to the study of the great canonical prophets of later centuries. Whatever other characteristics any individual prophet had, the primary task of the prophets of Israel was to speak on behalf of their God, in whatever ways were appropriate to their situation. We must understand this as the word nabi was also used of those who were condemned as false prophets; the plural form nebi'im is used for those who cried to Baal on Mount Carmel when Elijah challenged the Baal worshippers, and the same word is used by Jeremiah for those who he rejects as liars, speaking what they have not heard from God.