1 Samuel 4:21

_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._ She named the child I-chabod, х_ 'IY-KAABOWD_ (H350), inglorious]....

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 But though the glory is withdrawn from one sinful nation, city, or village after another, yet it shall never depart altogether, but shines forth in one place when eclipsed in another....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 4:21. _SHE NAMED THE CHILD I-CHABOD_] The versions are various on the original words כבוד _I-chabod_; the _Septuagint_, ουαιβαρχαβωθ _ouaibrachaboth_; the _Syriac_, [Syriac] _yochobor_; the Arabic, [Arabic] _yochabad_. But none of these give us much light on the subject. It is pretty evident they did not know well what signification to give the name; and we are left to collect its meaning from what she says afterwards, _The glory is departed_ _from Israel_; the words literally mean, _Where is the glory_? And indeed where was it, when the armies of Israel were defeated by the Philistines, the priests slain, the supreme magistrate dead, and the ark of the Lord taken? THIS is a very eventful, interesting, and affecting chapter, and prepares the reader for those signal manifestations of God's power and providence

IS DEPARTED - Properly, “Is gone into captivity.”...

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 SHE NAMED THE CHILD ICHABOD,.... Which some render, "where is the glory?" as in the margin of our Bibles; but it signifies "no glory", as Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it; her husband being dead, she gives her child its name; the reason for which name follows: SAYING, THE GLORY IS DEPARTED FROM ISRAEL: the God of glory, or the glorious Lord, was departed from Israel; the ark, the symbol of his presence, being taken from them, and carried captive by the enemy; see Psalms 78:61 BECAUSE THE ARK OF GOD WAS TAKEN, AND BECAUSE OF HER FATHER IN LAW, AND HER HUSBAND; who were dead; these are the words either of the writer of this book, or, as Abarbinel thinks, of the women that assisted at her labour; who interpreted the name of the child, and suggested what were her intentions in giving this name, which she had only expressed in general terms;

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

I-CHABOD. Where is the glory? BECAUSE OF. Some codices add "the death of". Compare 1 Samuel 4:19....

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....