1 Samuel 4:12

_AND THE ARK OF GOD WAS TAKEN; AND THE TWO SONS OF ELI, HOPHNI AND PHINEHAS, WERE SLAIN._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

12-18 The defeat of the army was very grievous to Eli as a judge; the tidings of the death of his two sons, to whom he had been so indulgent, and who, as he had reason to fear, died impenitent, touched him as a father; yet there was a greater concern on his spirit. And when the messenger concluded his story with, "The ark of God is taken," he is struck to the heart, and died immediately. A man may die miserably, yet not die eternally; may come to an untimely end, yet the end be peace....

Verse 1 Samuel 4:12. _CAME TO SHILOH THE SAME DAY_] The field of battle could not have been at any great distance, for this young man reached Shiloh the same evening after the defeat. _WITH HIS CLOTHES RENT, AND WITH EARTH UPON HIS HEAD._] These were signs of _sorrow_ and _distress_ among all nations. The _clothes rent_, signified the _rending, dividing_, and _scattering_, of the _people_; the _earth_, or _ashes on the head_, signified their _humiliation_: "We are brought down to the _dust_ of the earth; we are near to our _graves_." When the Trojan fleet was burnt, AEneas is represented as _tearing his robe from his shoulder_, and invoking the aid of his gods: - Tum pius AEneas _humeris abscindere vestem_, Auxili

Runners who were swift of foot, and could go long distances were important and well-known persons (compare 2 Samuel 18:19). There seem to have been always professional runners to act as messengers with armies in the field (2 Kings 11:4, 2 Kings 11:6,2 Kings 11:19, the King James Version “guards”). EARTH UPON HIS HEAD - In token of bitter grief. Compare the marginal references....

EXPOSITION 1 SAMUEL 4:1 AND THE WORD OF SAMUEL... ALL ISRAEL. This clause is rightly connected with the foregoing verse of the previous chapter in the Syriac and Vulgate. Attached to the fourth chapter, it gives a wrong sense, namely, that Samuel gave the command for the assembling of all Israel for battle with the Philistines. This is so plainly erroneous that the A.V. dissents from it by translating the _and _in the next clause by _now. _Joined to the previous chapter, it gives the true meaning. Because Samuel spake _by the word of Jehovah, _therefore _his word came to all Israel, _that is, it was a binding and authoritative command throughout the whole land; or, in other words, when Samuel was acknowledged to be Jehovah's prophet he also became the virtual judge of Israel, though probably he did not act with

AND THERE RAN A MAN OF BENJAMIN OUT OF THE ARMY,.... Out of the rank in which he was, before the whole army was quite broken up. This was a young man as Josephus b says, which is highly probable; though not at all to be depended on is what the Jews c say, that this was Saul, later king of Israel: AND CAME TO SHILOH THE SAME DAY; which, according to Bunting d, was forty two miles from Ebenezer, near to which the battle was fought; and that it was a long way is pretty plain by the remark made, that this messenger came the same day the battle was fought; though not at such a distance as some Jewish writers say, some sixty, some one hundred and twenty miles e; which is not at all probable: WITH HIS CLOTHES RENT, AND EARTH UPON HIS HEAD; which were both tokens of distress and mourning, and showed that he was a messenger of bad tidings from the army; Joshua 7:6.

5. THE JUDGMENT OF ELI AND HIS SONS--ICHABOD CHAPTER 4 _ 1. The fulfilled prediction: The death of Eli's sons (1 Samuel 4:1)_ 2. The death of Eli (1 Samuel 4:12) 3. Ichabod (1 Samuel 4:19) Israel then renewed the conflict with the Philistines and suffered defeat. It seems that they acted in self-confidence, and when the battle was lost they readily acknowledged the hand of the Lord in the disaster: “Wherefore has the LORD smitten us today before the Philistines?” But there was no self-judgment, no repentance, no crying unto the Lord. The ark of the covenant of the LORD is brought out of Shiloh. They trust in the ark instead of Jehovah; they expect salvation from the ark of gold an

DEATH OF ELI, BIRTH OF ICHABOD. 1 Samuel 4:12. clothes rent, etc.: signs of mourning. 1 Samuel 4:18. forty; LXX twenty. AND HE... YEARS: formula used by Deuteronomic editor of Jg. (Judges 10:2 f; Judges 12:7; Judges 12:9; Judges 12:11; Judges 12:14; Judges 15:20) to conclude account

MAN. Hebrew. _'ish._ App-14....

_there ran a man of Benjamin_ Cp. 2 Samuel 18:19. The distance from Ebenezer to Shiloh was probably not more than twenty miles, so that a swift runner could easily arrive the same evening. Cp. _to-day_in 1 Samuel 4:16. There is a strange Jewish tradition that the man was Saul, who seized the tables of the law out of the hand of Goliath and fled! _out of the army_ Out of the BATTLE-ARRAY, as in 1 Samuel 4:2. _with his clothes rent and with earth upon his head_ Signs of the deepest mourning. Cp. Joshua 7:6; 2 Samuel 1:2; Home