1 Samuel 4 - Introduction
IV. (1 Samuel 4:1) Last Days of Eli. Defeat of Israel at Aphek. The Ark leaves the Shiloh Sanctuary. The Battle in which the Ark is taken. Hophni and Phinehas are Slain. The Death of Eli.... [ Continue Reading ]
IV. (1 Samuel 4:1) Last Days of Eli. Defeat of Israel at Aphek. The Ark leaves the Shiloh Sanctuary. The Battle in which the Ark is taken. Hophni and Phinehas are Slain. The Death of Eli.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE WORD OF SAMUEL. — To which portion of the narrative does this statement belong? Is it part of that account of the Lord’s dealings with Samuel which closed the preceding chapter? Does it close that brief narrative which tells of the Divine voice which called to, and the vision seen by, the yo... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE HATH THE LORD SMITTEN US? — The people and the elders who, as we have seen above, had undertaken the war of liberty at the instigation or the young man of God, amazed at their defeat, were puzzled to understand why God was evidently not in their midst; they showed by their next procedure h... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THE PEOPLE SENT TO SHILOH. — There was, no doubt, in the minds of the elders, the memory of many a glorious victory gained in the old heroic days of Moses and Joshua in the presence of their sacred Ark; but _then_ God was with His people, and the sacred Ark of the Covenant served as a reminder of... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN THE ARK... CAME INTO THE CAMP. — As far as we know, this was the first time since the establishment of the people in Canaan that the Ark had been brought from the permanent sanctuary into the camp. The shout of joy represented the confidence of the army that now the Ark, which had witnessed... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD IS COME INTO THE CAMP. — The joy manifested by the Israelites at the arrival of the Ark from the sanctuary made the Philistines suspect that their enemies’ God was now present with the defeated army. The city of Aphek, near to which the camp of Israel was pitched, was close to the western entran... [ Continue Reading ]
THESE ARE THE GODS THAT SMOTE THE EGYPTIANS. — No doubt the compiler of these “Memoirs of Samuel” has given us the very words of the Philistines, preserved in their national traditions of this sad time. They are the expression of idolaters who knew of “Gods” and dreaded their malevolent influence, b... [ Continue Reading ]
BE STRONG,... O YE PHILISTINES... — The ring of these striking words — part of the same Philistine tradition of their splendid success — probably embodied in some well-known hymn of victory, was evidently in St. Paul’s mind when he wrote his stirring words of exhortation to his loved Corinthian Chur... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ISRAEL WAS SMITTEN. — The result was strictly in accordance with those immutable laws which have ever guided the connection of Israel and their God-Friend. As long as they clave to the invisible Preserver, and served Him with their whole heart and soul, and kept themselves pure from the pollutio... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE ARK OF GOD WAS TAKEN. — The bare fact, without comment or note, is given of this, the greatest calamity that had yet happened to Israel. All the people would know by this terrible sign that their invisible King had withdrawn His countenance from them; but the loss of the Ark to the heathen t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THERE RAN A MAN OF BENJAMIN. — The Rabbinical tradition relates that this messenger was Saul, who snatched from Goliath the tables of the Law taken out of the Ark, in order to save them. The whole of this account is so vivid, and is so full of detail that it must have come from some eye-witness... [ Continue Reading ]
ELI SAT UPON A SEAT. — The text here is a little confused, but the sense is perfectly clear. The best and most accurate rendering would be, _Eli sat by the side of the way of the watchers: i.e.,_ the street or way in Shiloh, so named probably from the watch-tower which was situated in it. (See _Spea... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT MEANETH THE NOISE? — The blind old man, we must suppose, was seated on his chair of state, surrounded by priests and Levites, who were in attendance on him as high priest and judge. As the runner drew near, and the torn dress and the dust sprinkled on his head — the symbols of disaster — became... [ Continue Reading ]
NINETY AND EIGHT YEARS OLD. — The LXX. here reads “ninety” years, the Syriac Version “seventy eight.” In the sacred text, where numbers are concerned we usually find these varieties of translation and interpretation. The present system of numerals was invented by the Arabs. The Hebrews use the lette... [ Continue Reading ]
I FLED TO DAY OUT OF THE ARMY. — The fatal battle had taken place very early that same morning. The utter rout, the awful slaughter, the death of Hophni and Phinehas, and the loss of the Ark of the Covenant, all this the messenger knew, and with this terrible news had hasted to the seat of the gover... [ Continue Reading ]
HE FELL FROM OFF THE SEAT BACKWARD. — The compiler of these books was actuated by no feeling of friendship to the high priest Eli. In composing this history of the events which led to the elevation of Samuel to the judgeship, he simply puts together the materials he possessed of the records of these... [ Continue Reading ]
(21-22) THE GLORY IS DEPARTED FROM ISRAEL. — This singular and circumstantial account of the death of the widow of Phinehas, the evil warrior-priest, the son of Eli, which follows directly after the story of the great national disaster, is introduced from the records of that sad time, not from any s... [ Continue Reading ]