1 Samuel 4:9

_BE STRONG, AND QUIT YOURSELVES LIKE MEN, O YE PHILISTINES, THAT YE BE NOT SERVANTS UNTO THE HEBREWS, AS THEY HAVE BEEN TO YOU: QUIT YOURSELVES LIKE MEN, AND FIGHT._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

1-9 Israel is smitten before the Philistines. Sin, the accursed thing, was in the camp, and gave their enemies all the advantage they could wish for. They own the hand of God in their trouble; but, instead of submitting, they speak angrily, as not aware of any just provocation they had given him. The foolishness of man perverts his way, and then his heart frets against the Lord, Proverbs 19:3, and finds fault with him. They supposed that they could oblige God to appear for them, by bringing the ark into their camp. Those who have gone back in the life of religion, sometimes discover great fondness for the outward observances of it, as if those would save them; and as if the ark, God's throne, in the camp, would bring them to heaven, though the world and the flesh are on the throne in the heart....

Verse 1 Samuel 4:9. _BE STRONG, C._] This was the address to the whole army, and very forcible it was. "If ye do not fight, and acquit yourselves like men, ye will be servants to the Hebrews, as they have been to you and you may expect that they will avenge themselves of you for all the cruelty you have exercised towards _them_....

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

BE STRONG, AND QUIT YOURSELVES LIKE MEN, O YE PHILISTINES,.... Since this was all they had to depend upon, their manly courage; if they did not exert that it was all over with them; and seeing their case was desperate, having gods as well as men to fight with, it became them to exert themselves to the uttermost; which did they, there was a possibility still of gaining victory, and so immortal honour to themselves; these words seem to be spoken by the generals and officers of the army of the Philistines to the common soldiers: THAT YE BE NOT SERVANTS TO THE HEBREWS, AS THEY HAVE BEEN TO YOU; that is, before and in the times of Samson; but it appears from hence that at this time neither the Philistines ruled over the Israelites, nor the Israelites over them; but as there was danger of their becoming subject to Israel, they had better die gloriously in the field of battle than to be in the...

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

1 SAMUEL 4:1 B. NOW ISRAEL. 1 SAMUEL 4:1 (E). From ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE ARK (_cf._ above, p. 273). 1 Samuel 4:1 b - 1 Samuel 4:11. The Israelites, Defeated by the Philistines, Fetch the Ark. They are again Defeated. 1 Samuel 4:1. Philistines: pp. 56f., 66f. EBEN-EZER: Stone of Help (_cf._ 1 Samuel 7:12). Sites of Eben-ezer and Aphek (1 Kings 20:26 *)

QUIT YOURSELVES LIKE. the Hebrew verb _hayah,_ to become; as "was "should be rendered in Genesis 1:2. MEN. Hebrew. _'ish_ or _'enosh._ App-14. AS. according as....

Observe how vividly the successive emotions of the Philistines are painted: _astonishment_, when they heard the triumphant shout of the vanquished army: _dismay_, when they learnt its cause: manly _resolution_, when they had recovered from the first panic....

The Loss of the Ark and End of Eli's House, 1 Samuel 4:1-22. _The Loss of the Ark._ 1 Samuel 4:1-11 And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Ezenezer: and the Philistines pitched in Aphek. 2 And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel: and when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines: and they slew of the army in the field about four thousand men. 3 And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us today before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies. 4 So the people sent to Shiloh, tha