1 Samuel 4:1

1 Samuel 4:1-11. Defeat of Israel by the Philistines and Loss of the Ark

1. Now Israel went out The Sept. and Vulgate contain an additional clause, which softens the abruptness of the transition: "And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered together to fight against Israel."

The abruptness of the narrative may be explained (1) because the historian only wishes to give an account of the war so far as it bears upon his main subject, the fulfilment of the prophecies against Eli's house: (2) because probably the account of the battle with the Philistines is extracted from some other book, in which it came in naturally and consecutively.

The last mention of the Philistines was in Judges 13-16. In Judges 13:1 we read that "the Lord delivered the children of Israel into the hand of the Philistines forty years," and the best solution of the difficult question of the chronology of the Judges is to suppose that we are now at the middle of this period of Philistine oppression. The first twenty years of that oppression will then coincide with the last half of Eli's judgeship, and probably with Samson's judgeship of "twenty years in the days of the Philistines" (Judges 15:20). There is no difficulty in supposing that Eli, who was a civil judge during this time and permanently resident at Shiloh, was contemporaneous with Samson, the military leader of a guerilla warfare on the frontiers of Philistia. The second half of the period of Philistine oppression coincides with the twenty years during which the Ark remained at Kirjath-jearim (ch. 1 Samuel 7:2).

Might we not conjecture that the present renewal of the war was connected with Samson's death? Either the Israelites took the aggressive to avenge their champion, or the Philistines thought to profit by the opportunity and reduce them to more complete subjection.

the Philistines See Note IV. p. 238.

Eben-ezer = "the stone of help." The name is used by anticipation. It was not given till twenty years afterwards, on the occasion of the great defeat of the Philistines, ch. 1 Samuel 7:12.

Aphek = "stronghold," the name of several places in Palestine. This Aphek was close to Eben-ezer (1 Samuel 4:6), in the neighbourhood of Mizpeh of Benjamin, near the western entrance of the pass of Bethhoron, and probably distinct from the Aphek of ch. 1 Samuel 29:1.