1 Samuel 4:19

_AND HIS DAUGHTER IN LAW, PHINEHAS' WIFE, WAS WITH CHILD, NEAR TO BE DELIVERED: AND WHEN SHE HEARD THE TIDINGS THAT THE ARK OF GOD WAS TAKEN, AND THAT HER FATHER IN LAW AND HER HUSBAND WERE DEAD, SHE BOWED HERSELF AND TRAVAILED; FOR HER PAINS CAME UPON HER._ His daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife ... bowed herself and travailed. While in some parts of the East parturient women anciently gave birth to their offspring in a standing posture (see the note at Genesis 25:26), in others they are accustomed to bring forth kneeling, as is still the custom in Abyssinia (Ludolph, 'History of AEthiopia,' 1:, 15)....

19-22 The wife of Phinehas seems to have been a person of piety. Her dying regret was for the loss of the ark, and the departure of the glory from Israel. What is any earthly joy to her that feels herself dying? No joy but that which is spiritual and divine, will stand in any stead then; death is too serious a thing to admit the relish of any earthly joy. What is it to one that is lamenting the loss of the ark? What pleasure can we take in our creature comforts and enjoyments, if we want God's word and ordinances; especially if we want the comfort of his gracious presence, and the light of his countenance? If God go, the glory goes, and all good goes. Woe unto us if he depart! But though the glory is withdrawn from one sinful nation, city, or village after another, yet it shall never depart altogether, but shines forth in one place when eclipsed in another....

Verse 1 Samuel 4:19. _AND HIS DAUGHTER-IN-LAW_] This is another very affecting story; the defeat of Israel, the capture of the ark, the death of her father-in-law, and the slaughter of her husband, were more than a woman in her circumstances, near the time of her delivery could bear. She bowed, travailed, was delivered of a son, gave the child a name indicative of the ruined state of Israel, and expired!...

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 HIS DAUGHTER IN LAW, PHINEHAS'S WIFE, WAS WITH CHILD, NEAR TO BE DELIVERED,.... Was near her time, as it is commonly expressed. Ben Gersom derives the word from a root which signifies to complete and finish k; denoting that her time to bring forth was completed and filled up; though Josephus l says that it was a seven months' birth, so that she came two months before her time; the margin of our Bibles is, "to cry out" m; and so Moses Kimchi, as his brother relates, derives the word from a root which signifies to howl and lament, and so is expressive of a woman's crying out when her pains come upon her: AND WHEN SHE HEARD THE TIDINGS THAT THE ARK OF GOD WAS TAKEN: which is mentioned first, as being the most distressing to her: AND THAT HER FATHER IN LAW AND HER HUSBAND WERE DEAD; her father-in-law Eli is put first, being the high priest of God, and so his death gave her the greatest...

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

CAME. came suddenly....

Death of Eli's Daughter in Law 19. _his daughter in law_ Her death is recorded (_a_) as being a further fulfilment of the doom of Eli's house: (_b_) for the sake of her pathetic dying words about the Ark....

_Sadness in Israel._ 1 Samuel 4:19-22 19 And his daughter-in-law, Phinehas-' wife, was with child, _near_ to be delivered: and when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed; for her pains came upon her. 20 And about the time of her death the woman that stood by her said unto her, Fear not; for thou hast borne a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard _it._ 21 And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband. 22 And she said, The glory is departed from Israel: for the Ark of God is taken. _15._ What is the meaning of the word Ichabod? 1 Samuel