1 Samuel 4:13

_AND WHEN HE CAME, LO, ELI SAT UPON A SEAT BY THE WAYSIDE WATCHING: FOR HIS HEART TREMBLED FOR THE ARK OF_ _ GOD. AND WHEN THE MAN CAME INTO THE CITY, AND TOLD IT, ALL THE CITY CRIED OUT._ Eli sat upon a seat by the way-side. The aged priest, as a public magistrate, used, in dispensing justice, to seat himself daily in a spacious recess at the entrance gate of the city; and in his intense anxiety to learn the issue of the battle, he took up his usual place as the most convenient for meeting with passers-by. His seat was an official chair, similar to those of the ancient Egyptian judges, richly carved, superbly ornamented, high, and without a back. The calamities announced to Samuel as about to fall upon the family of Eli were now inflicted by the death of his two sons, and after his own death, by that of his daughter-in-law, whose infant son received a name that perpetuated the fallen g...

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 4:13. _HIS HEART TREMBLED FOR THE ARK OF GOD_] He was a most mild and affectionate father, and yet the safety of the _ark_ lay nearer to his heart than the safety of his _two sons_. Who can help feeling for this aged, venerable man?...

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 WHEN HE CAME,.... To Shiloh; he either passed by Eli, who being blind could not see him, 1 Samuel 4:15 or he came in at another gate of the city on the other side of it, as Abarbinel thinks; though the former seems more likely by what follows, he not choosing to deliver the bad news to Eli first, whom he knew it would very much grieve, and therefore slipped by him into the city: LO, ELI SAT UPON A SEAT BY THE WAYSIDE WATCHING: by the "hand" of the way, as the marginal reading, and which we follow; it seems to be a place where two ways or more met, and where was a way post erected, with an hand directing what places they led to. The text is, "he", or "it smote", as if his heart smote him for letting the ark go; so Kimchi f; here Eli had a seat placed, which, as the Targum says, was at the ascent of the way to the gate; and so the Septuagint has it, at the gate; and Jos

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

LO. Figure of speech _Asterismos._ App-6. A. the. GOD. Hebrew with Art.. the God. App-14....

The Death of Eli...

DISCOURSE: 286 ELI’S ANXIETY FOR THE ARK OF GOD 1 Samuel 4:13. _Lo, Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside watching: for his heart trembled for the ark of God._ THE word of God, to whatever it relate, shall certainly in due time be accomplished: it may indeed, like the seed under the clods, appear to have been lost: but as soon as the appointed season arrives, we shall be made to see, that not a jot or tittle of God’s word can ever fail. It had some years before been announced to Eli, that God would bring such judgments upon his house as should make “the ears of every one that heard of them to tingle.” Now the time for the execution of the threatening drew nigh; and the manner in which it was executed is set before us. The Philistines had gained a victory over Israel, and had slain about four thousand men. The elders of Israel, astonished at such at event, devised an expedien