The word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and encamped beside Ebenezer; and the Philistines encamped in Aphek.
Parallel Translations
-
The word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and encamped beside Ebenezer; and the Philistines encamped in Aphek.
-
And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Eben-ezer: and the Philistines pitched in Aphek.
-
And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Eben-ezer; and the Philistines pitched in Aphek.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to 1 Samuel 4:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Samuel 29:1 Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek; and the Israelites encamped by the spring which is in Jezreel.
- 1 Samuel 5:1 Now the Philistines had taken God’s ark, and they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.
- 1 Samuel 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Yahweh helped us until now.”
- Joshua 12:18 the king of Aphek, one; the king of Lassharon, one;
- Joshua 15:53 Janim, Beth Tappuah, Aphekah,
- Joshua 19:30 Ummah also, and Aphek, and Rehob: twenty-two cities with their villages.
- 1 Samuel 3:11 Yahweh said to Samuel, “Behold, I will do a thing in Israel at which both the ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.
- 1 Kings 20:30 But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand men who were left. Ben Hadad fled, and came into the city, into an inner room.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (22 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Or, stone of help, 1 Sam. 7:12.
Or, stone of help, 1 Sam. 7:12.
From the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt, unto the time of Samuel, are about 397 years.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 1Sa 4:1 And the word of Samuel came to…
1Sa 4:1 And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Ebenezer: and the Philistines pitched in Aphek.
Ver. 1. And the word of Samuel came to all Israel.] It was commonly noised and noticed what he had foretold against Eli and the whole people; and it happened accordingly, because they prepared not to meet the Lord with entreaties of peace, as afterwards they did, {1Sa 7:2-6} when once and again they had paid for their learning. Samuel was but a child when he foretold this calamity; but at man’s estate, fit to succeed Eli in the government, ere it was inflicted. God is slow, but sure, if men repent not; and those that will not hearken to the word shall "bear the rod, and who hath appointed it." {Mic 7:9}
Read full note →
And pitched beside Ebenezer,] i.e., The stone of help, so called here by anticipation. See 1Sa 7:12. And, as it proved now to the defeated Israelites, by antiphrasis, as Mare Pacificum, which is out of measure troublesome and dangerous.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The word of Samuel, i.e. the word of the…
The word of Samuel, i.e. the word of the Lord revealed to Samuel, and by him to the people; either, first, The prophetical word mentioned before, 1Sa 3:11, &c., which is here said to come, or to come to pass, as it was foretold, to all Israel. But the subject of that prophecy was not all Israel, but Eli and his house, as is evident. Or rather, secondly, A word of command, that all Israel should go forth to fight with the Philistines, as the following words explain it, that so they might be first humbled and punished for their sins, and so prepared by degrees for their future deliverance.
Against the Philistines; or, to meet the Philistines, who having by this time recruited themselves after their great loss by Samson, Jdg 16:30, and perceiving an eminent prophet arising among them, by whom they were likely to be united, counselled, and assisted, thought fit to suppress them in the beginning of their hopes and designs of rescuing themselves from their power. Ebenezer; a place so called here (by anticipation) from a following event, 1Sa 7:12. Aphek; a city so called in the tribe of Judah, Jos 15:53, upon the borders of the Philistines’ country; not that Aphek in Asher, Jos 19:30; Jdg 1:31, which was very remote from them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain The first words of this paragraph, which relate to…
The first words of this paragraph, which relate to Samuel, that his word came to all Israel, seem not to have any reference to the following story, as if it was by any direction of his that the Israelites went out against the Philistines. Had they consulted him, though but newly initiated as a prophet, his counsel might have stood them in more stead than the presence of the ark did; but perhaps the princes of Israel despised his youth, and would not have recourse to him as an oracle, and he did not as yet interpose in public affairs; nor do we find any mention of his name henceforward till some years after (Sa1 7:3), only his word came to all Israel, that is, people from all parts that were piously disposed had recourse to him as a prophet and consulted him. Perhaps it is meant of his prophecy against the house of Eli. This was generally known and talked of, and all that were serious and observing compared the events here related, when they came to pass, with the prophecy, and saw it accomplished in them. Here is,
I. A war entered into with the Philistines, Sa1 4:1. It was an attempt to throw off the yoke of their oppression, and would have succeeded better if they had first repented and reformed, and so begun their work at the right end. It is computed that this was about the middle of the forty years' dominion that the Philistines had over Israel (Jdg 13:1) and soon after the death of Samson; so bishop Patrick, who thinks the slaughter he made at his death might encourage this attempt; but Dr. Lightfoot reckons it forty years after Samson's death, for so long Eli judged, Sa1 4:18.
Read full note →
II. The defeat of Israel in that war, Sa1 4:2. Israel, who were the aggressors, were smitten, and had 4000 men killed upon the spot. God had promised that one of them should chase a thousand; but now, on the contrary, Israel is smitten before the Philistines. Sin, the accursed thing, was in the camp, and gave their enemies all the advantage against them they could wish for.
III. The measures they concerted for another engagement. A council of war was called, and, instead of resolving to fast and pray and amend their lives, so ill taught were they (and no wonder when they had such teachers) that, 1. They quarrelled with God for appearing against them (Sa1 4:3): Wherefore has the Lord smitten us? If they meant this as an enquiry into the cause of God's displeasure, they needed not go far to find that out. It was plain enough; Israel had sinned, though they were not willing to see it and own it. But it rather seems that they expostulate boldly with God about it, are displeased at what God has done, and dispute the matter with him. They own the hand of God in their trouble (so far was right): "It is the Lord that has smitten us;" but, instead of submitting to it, they quarrel with it, and speak as those that are angry at him and his providence, and not aware of any just provocation they have given him: "Wherefore shall we, that are Israelites, be smitten before the Philistines? How absurd and unjust is it!" Note, The foolishness of man perverts his way, and then his heart frets against the Lord (Pro 19:3) and finds fault with him. 2. They imagined that they could oblige him to appear for them the next time by bringing the ark into their camp. The elders of Israel were so ignorant and foolish as to make the proposal (Sa1 4:3), and the people soon put it in execution, Sa1 4:4. They sent to Shiloh for the ark, and Eli had not courage enough to detain it, but sent his ungodly sons, Hophni and Phinehas, along with it, at least permitted them to go, though he knew that wherever they went the curse of God went along with them. Now see here, (1.) The profound veneration the people had for the ark. "O send for that, and it will do wonders for us." The ark was, by institution, a visible token of God's presence. God had said that he would dwell between the cherubim, which were over the ark and were carried along with it; now they thought that, by paying a great respect to this sacred chest, they should prove themselves to be Israelites indeed, and effectually engage God Almighty to appear in their favour. Note, It is common for those that have estranged themselves from the vitals of religion to discover a great fondness for the rituals and external observances of it, for those that even deny the power of godliness not only to have, but to have in admiration, the form of it. The temple of the Lord is cried up, and the ark of the Lord stickled for with a great deal of seeming zeal by multitudes that have no regard at all for the Lord of the temple and the God of the ark, as if a fiery concern for the name of Christianity would atone for a profane contempt of the thing. And yet indeed they did but make an idol of the ark, and looked upon it to be as much an image of the God of Israel as those idols which the heathen worshipped were of their gods. To worship the true God, and not to worship him as God, is in effect not to worship him at all. (2.) Their egregious folly in thinking that the ark, if they had it in their camp, would certainly save them out of the hand of their enemies, and bring victory back to their side. For, [1.] When the ark set forward Moses prayed, Rise up, Lord, and let thy enemies be scattered, well knowing that it was not the ark moving with them, but God appearing for them, that must give them success; and here were no proper means used to engage God to favour them with his presence; what good then would the ark do them, the shell without the kernel? [2.] They were so far from having God's leave to remove his ark that he had plainly enough intimated to them in his law that when they were settled in Canaan his ark should be settled in the place that he should choose (Deu 12:5, Deu 12:11), and that they must come to it, not it to them. How then could they expect any advantage by it when they had not a just and legal possession of it, nor any warrant to remove it from its place? Instead of honouring God by what they did, they really affronted him. Nay, [3.] If there had been nothing else to invalidate their expectations from the ark, how could they expect it should bring a blessing when Hophni and Phinehas were the men that carried it? It would have given too much countenance to their villany if the ark had done any kindness to Israel while it was in the hands of those graceless priests.
IV. The great joy there was in the camp of Israel when the ark was brought into it (Sa1 4:5): They shouted, so that the earth rang again. Now they thought themselves sure of victory, and therefore gave a triumphant shout before the battle, as if the day was without fail their own, intending, by this mighty shout, to animate themselves and their own forces, and to intimidate their adversaries. Note, Carnal people triumph much in the external privileges and performances of religion, and build much upon them, as if these would infallibly save them, and as if the ark, God's throne, in the camp, would bring them to heaven, though the world and the flesh should be upon the throne in the heart.
V. The consternation into which the bringing of the ark into the camp of Israel put the Philistines. The two armies lay so near encamped that the Philistines heard the shout the Israelites gave on this great occasion. They soon understood what it was they triumphed in (Sa1 4:6), and were afraid of the consequences. For, 1. It had never been done before in their days: God has come into their camp, and therefore woe unto us (Sa1 4:7), and again, woe unto us, Sa1 4:8. The name of the God of Israel was formidable even to those that worshipped other gods, and some apprehensions even the infidels had of the danger of contending with them. Natural conscience suggests this, that those are in a woeful condition who have God against them. Yet see what gross notions they had of the divine presence, as if the God of Israel were not as much in the camp before the ark came thither, which may very well be excused in them, since the notions the Israelites themselves had of that presence were no better. "O," say they, "this is a new design upon us, more frightful than all their stratagems, for there has not been such a thing heretofore; this was the most effectual course they could take to dispirit our men and weaken their hands." 2. When it had been done in the days of old, it had wrought wonders: These are the gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness, Sa1 4:8. Here they were as much out in their history as in their divinity: the plagues of Egypt were inflicted before the ark was made and before Israel came into the wilderness; but some confused traditions they had of wonders wrought by or for Israel when this ark was carried before them, which they attributed, not to Jehovah, but to the ark. Now, say they, Who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods? taking the ark for God, as well they might when the Israelites themselves idolized it. Yet, it should seem, they scarcely believed themselves when they spoke thus formidably of these mighty gods, but only bantered; for instead of retreating, or proposing conditions of peace, which they would have done had they been really convinced of the power of Israel's God, they stirred up one another to fight so much the more stoutly; this surprising difficulty did but sharpen their resolution (Sa1 4:9): Be strong, and quit yourselves like men. The commanders inspired bold and generous thoughts into the minds of their soldiers when they bade them remember how they had lorded it over Israel, and what an intolerable grief and shame it would be if they flinched now, and suffered Israel to lord it over them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And the word of Samuel came to all Israel,....…
And the word of Samuel came to all Israel,.... Or was "known", as the Targum, the word of prophecy by him, which related to what befell Eli and his family; this was spread throughout the land, and everyone almost had knowledge of it, and which began to be fulfilled in the war between Israel and the Philistines, later related; or the doctrine, instructions, and exhortations of Samuel to the people of Israel, were by the means of others conveyed throughout the land; and yet they went into measures which proved fatal and ruinous to them; or the word of Samuel, which was from the Lord, came to Israel, to stir them up to go to war with the Philistines, whereby the punishment threatened to Eli's family would begin to have its accomplishment:
now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle; according to the word of Samuel, or of the Lord by him; though Ben Gersom thinks they did this of themselves, which was their sin, and did not ask counsel of the Lord, nor of Samuel his prophet; but it seems as if the Philistines were the aggressors, and first came forth to war against them, and they went out to meet them (a), as the word is, and defend themselves as it became them: this was forty years after the death of Samson, and at the end of Eli's government, who judged Israel so many years, when they had recruited themselves, and recovered their losses they sustained by Samson; and when they perceived a new judge was raised up among the Israelites, who was likely to be of great service to them, and to prevent their authority over them, and therefore thought to begin with them as soon as possible:
Read full note →
and pitched beside Ebenezer; a place so called by anticipation, and had its name from an later victory obtained, when Samuel set up a stone between Mizpeh and Shen, and called it by this name, Sa1 7:12, it signifies a stone of help:
and the Philistines pitched in Aphek; a city in the tribe of Judah, bordering on the Philistines; see Gill on Jos 12:18.
(a) "in occursum", Pagninus, Montanus.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Israel smitten by the Philistines, ver. 1, 2. They…
Israel smitten by the Philistines, ver. 1, 2. They bring the ark into the camp, which affrights the Philistines, ver. 3-9. Israel beaten and the ark taken, ver. 10, 11. The news brought to Shiloh and the death of Eli, ver. 12-18. The travail and death of his daughter-in-law, 19-22.
The word - That is, the word of the Lord revealed to Samuel, and by him to the people. A word of command, that all Israel should go forth to fight with the Philistines, as the following words explain it, that they might he first humbled and punished for their sins, and so prepared for deliverance. Went out - To meet the Philistines, who having by this time recruited themselves after their loss by Samson, and perceiving an eminent prophet arising among them, by whom they were likely to be united, and assisted, thought fit to suppress them in the beginning of their hopes.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain A battle between Israel and the Philistines, in which…
CHAPTER IV
A battle between Israel and the Philistines, in which the former
Read full note →
are defeated, with the loss of four thousand men, 1, 2.
They resolve to give the Philistines battle once more, and bring
the ark of the Lord, with Hophni and Phinehas the priests, into
the camp, 3, 4.
They do so, and become vainly confident, 5.
At this the Philistines are dismayed, 6-9.
The battle commences; the Israelites are again defeated, with
the loss of thirty thousand men; Hophni and Phinehas are among
the slain; and the ark of the Lord is taken, 10, 11.
A Benjamite runs with the news to Eli; who, hearing of the
capture of the ark, falls from his seat, and breaks his neck,
12-18.
The wife of Phinehas, hearing of the death of her husband, and
father-in-law, and of the capture of the ark, is taken in
untimely travail, beings forth a son, calls him I-chabod, and
expires, 19-22.
NOTES ON CHAP. IV
Verse 1. The word of Samuel came to all Israel] This clause certainly belongs to the preceding chapter, and is so placed by the Vulgate, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic.
Pitched beside Eben-ezer] This name was not given to this place till more than twenty years after this battle, see 1Sa 7:12; for the monument called האבן העזר haeben haezer, the "Stone of Help," was erected by Samuel in the place which was afterwards from this circumstance, called Eben-ezer, when the Lord had given the Israelites a signal victory over the Philistines. It was situated in the tribe of Judah, between Mizpeh and Shen, and not far from the Aphek here mentioned. This is another proof that this book was compiled after the times and transactions which it records, and probably from memoranda which had been made by a contemporary writer.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 1Sa 4:1. The word of Samuel came to all…
1Sa 4:1. The word of Samuel came to all Israel — The revelation of God’s mind and will, which had been very rare among them in former days, (1Sa 3:1,) now became frequent and plentiful. For as Samuel himself was ready to instruct every one that came to him, so he instituted schools or colleges of prophets, (as we read in the following parts of this book,) which, in time, were settled in divers parts of the country, for the better preserving and spreading the knowledge of God among the people, 1Sa 10:5; 1Sa 19:18-20. Israel went out against the Philistines — Some have thought they did this at the word of Samuel, and that he was commanded by God to direct them to go, in order that they might be humbled and punished for their sins, and so be prepared for deliverance. But we are not told that they went by Samuel’s direction, and it is more likely that they were induced to take this step by the death of the lords of the Philistines, and the great slaughter which Samson had made of them at his death, Jdg 16:27; Jdg 16:30. Or, perhaps the Philistines, having recruited themselves from that loss, and wishing to be revenged of the Israelites, had made an inroad into their country, which they might the rather be induced to do at this time, in consequence of receiving intelligence that an eminent prophet had arisen in Israel, by whom they were likely to be united and assisted, and so to be rendered more formidable, unless they were crushed in the very beginning of their hopes and efforts.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Some attach the opening words to the close of…
Some attach the opening words to the close of 1 Sam. 3, as the complement of what is there said, “The Lord revealed himself to Samuel ... in Shiloh, and the word of Samuel went forth to all Israel.” If placed at the commencement of 1 Sam. 4, and in connection with what follows, they are to be understood in the sense that Samuel called all Israel to battle against the Philistines. (Compare 1Sa 7:5.) But this is not the natural interpretation of the words, which seem clearly to belong to what went before.
The mention of the Philistines connects the narrative with Judg. 13–16. Since the Philistine servitude lasted forty years Jdg 13:1, and seems to have terminated in the days of Samuel 1Sa 7:13-14 in about the 20th year of his judgeship 1Sa 7:2; and since it had already begun before the birth of Samson Jdg 13:5, and Samson judged Israel for 20 years “in the days of the Philistines” Jdg 15:20, it seems to follow that the latter part of the judgeship of Eli and the early part of that of Samuel must have been coincident with the lifetime of Samson.
Read full note →
Eben-ezer - (or, the stone of help) The place was afterward so named by Samuel. See the marginal references. “Aphek,” or the “fortress,” was probably the same as the “Aphek” of Jos 12:18. It would be toward the western frontier of Judah, not very far from Mizpeh of Benjamin, and near Shiloh 1Sa 4:4.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain And. Hebrew inserts here the conclusion of the last…
And. Hebrew inserts here the conclusion of the last verse, whence some would infer that Samuel told the Israelites to make war upon the Philistines. But as it turned out so ill, this would have tended to discredit him; and we find that the Philistines were the aggressors. --- Days. this war took place immediately after the threats denounced to Heli; (Sararius) or according to Usher, and the best chronologists, about 27 years after that event. (Calmet) --- The addition of the Septuagint seems to insinuate, that the sons of Heli persevered for a long time in their wicked course, chap. iii. 20. (Haydock) --- Josephus says that Phinees was his father’s coadjutor. --- Salien observes that this must be considered as a fresh blot in the character of the latter, since he ought to have delivered the delinquents up to execution, Deuteronomy xxi. 21. Tirin[Tirinus], on the contrary, adduces the power of his sons, and the debilitated state of Heli, to excuse his neglect. (Haydock) --- Help. In Hebrew Eben-ezer; so called, from the help which the Lord was pleased afterwards to give to his people, Israel, in that place, by the prayers of Samuel, chap. vii. 12., (Challoner) about 21 years afterwards. --- Aphec, in the tribe of Juda, not far from Maspha.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain CAPTURE OF THE ARK, AND DEATH OF ELI’S SONS,…
CAPTURE OF THE ARK, AND DEATH OF ELI’S SONS, 1Sa_4:1-11.
This section records the beginning of the downfall of Eli’s house, and that bitter affliction of the tabernacle — the loss of the sacred ark. See note on 1Sa_2:32. Led by Jehovah’s word, as communicated through Samuel, Israel goes out to battle with the Philistines; but it is that it may be made to feel its utter weakness without Jehovah’s constant aid. The impiety of the nation demanded a signal chastisement, especially in the persons of its religious leaders, and Divine Wisdom saw fit to inflict it in the way here recorded. In the first engagement four thousand Hebrews are left dead upon the field. The survivors hasten to their camp, and whilst all hearts are quaking with terror, or quailing under a sense of bitter loss, the elders hold a speedy consultation. It was probably a midnight conference. They feel that Jehovah is not with them as he had been with their fathers, but they vainly imagine that to have the ark of the covenant among them will be to have a talisman against all possibility of failure. Delusive trust! They had yet to learn that in a wicked age, and under the ministry of a flagitious priesthood, Jehovah’s presence may forsake even the sacred symbols. The ark was brought, and with it Eli’s sons, but Jehovah came not.
Read full note →
1. The word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines — Some have thought that the first sentence of this verse belongs to the narrative of the preceding chapter, and the English version gives countenance to this view. But let the words and and now (in the Hebrew the same word, וי) be transposed, and the meaning of the sacred writer will be more readily seen. Now the word of Samuel came to all Israel, and Israel went, etc.; that is, Israel went out to battle in accordance with the word of Samuel, or by reason of his word. Perhaps they were encouraged by the appearance of the prophetic gift in Israel. Hence their wonder and surprise on being defeated. 1Sa_4:3. The Israelites had now for a long time been under the yoke of the Philistines, and it seems to have been the same subjection from which Samson began to deliver them, (Jdg_13:5,) but from which they were not entirely freed until the time of Samuel. 1Sa_7:13-14. The severe losses of this battle were doubtless providentially designed to teach Israel important lessons, and the captured ark, by its effect upon the Philistines and their gods, magnified the name of Jehovah among the heathen more than its remaining in the tabernacle could have done. Therefore we need not wonder that the word of God, through Samuel, counselled Israel to go forth even to this disastrous battle.
Eben-ezer — This name was given to the place at a later day, after Jehovah had given Israel a signal victory over the Philistines. 1Sa_7:12. Its mention here, and in 1Sa_5:1, before the place had received the name, would naturally be made by an author writing at a later period, when this had become the common and well-known name of the place. Both Eben-ezer and Aphek must have been situated some few miles north or northwest of Jerusalem, but their exact locality has not been decided.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain Ch. 1Sa_4:1-11. Defeat of Israel by the Philistines and…
Ch. 1Sa_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.”
Read full note →
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 Jdg_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” (Jdg_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. 1Sa_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. 1Sa_7:12.
Aphek] = “stronghold,” the name of several places in Palestine. This Aphek was close to Eben-ezer (1Sa_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. 1Sa_29:1.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) And the word of Samuel.—To which portion of…
(1) 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 young chosen servant of the Highest, with a note simply relating how the word of the boy-prophet was received through the varied tribes of the people? Or does it tell us that at Samuel’s word—that is, acting under his advice—Israel commenced this new disastrous war with the Philistines? By adopting the first supposition, which understands the words as a general statement respecting Samuel’s influence in Israel, the grave difficulty of supposing that Samuel was mistaken in his first advice to the people is, of course, removed; but then we have to explain the separation of this clause from the preceding section in chapter 3, to which it would appear so naturally to belong; we have also to account for the exceeding abruptness with which the announcement of the war with the Philistines follows the clause respecting the “word of Samuel.” The Speaker’s Commentary attempts to solve the problem by suggesting as “the cause of the abruptness” that the account of the battle probably is extracted from some other book in which it came in naturally and consecutively, and that it was here introduced for the sake of exhibiting the fulfilment of Samuel’s prophecy concerning Eli’s family. Evidently, however, the Hebrew revisers of Samuel did not so understand the clause. They have placed the notice of Samuel’s words coming to all Israel as introducing the narrative of the battle.
The compiler of the book, in his relation of the young prophet’s error, touches upon an important feature of his great life. Anarchy and confusion had long prevailed throughout the tribes, and none of the hero Judges who had as yet been raised to power had succeeded in restoring the stern, rigid form of theocracy which had made the Israel of Moses and Joshua so great and powerful. The high qualities which in his prime had, no doubt, raised Eli to the first place in the nation, in his old age were almost totally obscured by a weak affection for his unworthy sons. A terrible picture of the corruption of the priesthood is presented to us during the last period of Eli’s reign. We can well imagine what the ordinary life of many among the people, with such an example from their religious guides and temporal governors, must have been. Individual instances of piety and loyalty to the God of their fathers, such as we see-in the house of Elkanah, even though such instances were not unfrequent of themselves, would have been totally insufficient to preserve the nation from the decay which always follows impiety and corruption. In this period of moral degradation the Philistines, part of the original inhabitants of the land, a warlike and enterprising race, taking advantage of the internal jealousies and the weaknesses of Israel, made themselves supreme in many portions of the land, treating the former conquerors often with harshness, and even with contempt.
Read full note →
Samuel grew up to manhood in the midst of this state of things. He was conscious that the invisible King, forgotten by so many of the nation, had chosen him to be the restorer of the chosen people. The boy-prophet, as he passed out of childhood into manhood, does not appear at first to have recognised the depth of moral degradation into which Israel had sunk, or to have seen that it was utterly hopeless to attempt to free the people from the yoke of their Philistine foes until something like a pure national religion was restored. Samuel and the nobler spirits in Israel, who thirsted to restore their nation to freedom and to purity, needed a sharp and bitter experience before they could successfully attempt the deliverance of the people; so the first call to arms resulted in utter disaster, and the defeat at Aphek—the result, we believe, of the summons of Samuel—was the prelude to the crushing blow to the pride of Israel which soon after deprived them of their leaders, their choicest warriors, and, above all, of their loved and cherished “Ark of the Covenant,” the earthly throne of their unseen King, the symbol of His ever-presence in their midst.
And pitched beside Eben-ezer.—“The stones of help.” The name was not given to the place until later, when Samuel set up a stone to commemorate a victory he gained, some twenty years after, over the Philistines.
In Aphek.—With the article, “the fortress.” Perhaps the same place as the old Canaauitish royal city Aphek.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And the word of Samuel... all Israel. This clause…
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 full authority until after Eli"s death.
DEFEAT OF ISRAEL AND CAPTURE OF THE ARK (vers. 1-11). Now Israel rather. And Israelwent out against the Philistines. During the declining years of Eli, the yoke of the Philistines, which apparently had been shaken off in his manhood, began once again to press heavily upon the neck of Israel. But Israel was still strong enough to make valiant resistance, provoked apparently by the Philistines invading the land, as we find that they had pitched , i.e. encamped, in Aphok. As Aphek means a fortress, many places bear the name; but the position of the Philistine camp is fixed by its being near both to Eben-ezer and to Mizpah, and probably, therefore, it was the Aphek in Judah. (Jos_12:18) Eben-ezer, the stone of help, had not as yet received this name; (see 1Sa_7:12) and apparently it was not a town, but a monument set up m an open plain fit for the purposes of war, and which up to this time had. no specific appellation.
Read full note →
Vers. 1-11.
Moral causes of disaster.
Assuming that the first sentence properly belongs to the third chapter, and refers generally to the acceptance of Samuel as prophet by the whole nation, the section (vers. 1-11) sets forth the following facts:
1. Israel, suffering from subjection to the Philistines, enters on war for therecovery of freedom and suffers defeat.
2. Ordinary means failing, recourse is had to the ark of God in order toinsure success.
3. The visible presence of the ark at once raises the courage and hope ofIsrael and fills the Philistines with fear.
4. As a counter stimulus to conflict, the Philistines stir up their own love offreedom.
5. The battle issues in the heavy defeat of Israel, the death of Eli"s sons,and the capture by the Philistines of the ark of God. There can be no doubt but that the will of God is being wrought out in the triumphs and disasters of national life through all time. The laws by which men are governed are uniform. They are often slow and subtle in operation, and it requires that the whole life of a people be known before we can see the sure working out of the laws that determine success or ruin. It is an advantage to the world that in sacred history we have revealed to us, in concrete form, the principles on which God rules men. The disasters that fell upon Israel in the early years of Samuel"s life furnish us with much instruction. We learn that
I There is for a PEOPLE A STATE OF PROSPERITY FOR WHICH THEY ARE ORIGINALLY DESIGNED, AND AFTER WHICH IT IS NATURAL FOR THEM TO ASPIRE. Israel, as a people, was constitutionally fitted to enjoy a high degree of national well being. There are material blessings proper to all nationalities, and especially were these included in the lot promised to Israel through Moses. (Deu_28:1-13) It was quite natural, therefore, for the people in Samuel"s time to seek freedom from a foreign yoke, and to strive to regain political influence and internal prosperity. There stands, more or less clear, before the mind of nations and individuals, an ideal of what they ought to attain to. The vision of good, though remote, is a powerful influence in life. Before every State, Church, and home there lies a condition of freedom, peace, and influence for which it is designed by Providence, and which should ever be the goal of effort.
II The DIVINE FAVOUR IS REQUISITE FOR TRUE SUCCESS IN THE EFFORT TO ATTAIN TO THE GOAL. Israel could not obtain the national blessings so eagerly sought unless the favour of God be secured. This is the record of their entire history. It is the "blessing of the Lord that maketh rich." The life of a nation extends possibly over centuries; and as during the few years of a man"s life he may be allowed to strive on without God to the end before disaster is apparent, so the course of centuries alone may reveal whether it is possible for true, enduring success to be realised apart from the favour of God. The favour of God means a coworking of the Divine energy with his creatures, so as to secure a convergence of all physical, mental, and social forces towards their welfare. That he should do this without dislocations of nature is as reasonable as that our spirit should, in its measure and mode, strike in on the external forces of matter, and, without violating their laws, cause them to subserve its purposes.
III The REVEALED CONDITION OF INSURING GOD"S FAVOUR IS CONFORMITY TO HIS WILL. Israel could not expect that God would, as a matter of course, prosper their endeavours after the goal of life. The evils from which the nation suffered were the result of nonconformity to the will of God. It is clear that God discriminates between men, and although it may be that God"s energy works along lines fixed and uniform, yet, inasmuch as all the lines are his creation, and are coincident with his great law of blessing the good and chastising the bad, it turns out, in every case, that his favour, in specific acts and issues, goes with conformity to his will. Moreover, is there not a very true sense in which it may be said that the whole being of God is in immediate and constant contact with every subtle element in existence? They are all ministers that do his pleasure. God has not banished himself from all spheres of action, so as to be the only powerless Power in the universe.
IV CONFORMITY TO THE WILL OF GOD LIES IN TWO THINGS:
1. EXERTION.
2. MORAL CHARACTER.
The natural craving of Israel for national prosperity could only be satisfied by making strenuous efforts to shake off the Philistines" yoke and develop all the resources of the land, and, further, by the possession of a moral character such as God delights in. It is the will of God that if men will enjoy whatever enters into the conception of a well developed, prosperous life, they must work for it. But that is only one side of duty. We are not only bound to act, to work, but are bound to BE; and it depends on the kind of persons we are as to the direction and force of our acts. Israel in Samuel"s time had a moral character, but not according to the will of God. Every nation and every individual bears a moral character before the eye of God. It is only when our moral condition is a reflex of the righteousness of God that we can be said to have the conformity to his will which is essential to the favour that insures real success to life"s effort.
V RELIANCE SOLELY ON PHYSICAL AND MENTAL EXERTION FOR THE ATTAINMENT OF A DESIRED GOOD IS SURE TO END IN FINAL DISASTER. Israel put forth physical and mental effort to attain to freedom and former prosperity. In this respect there was conformity to the will of God, and an observance, therefore, of the laws of success. But the radical defect in the case was that of an utter carelessness concerning the possession of the character which alone can be acceptable with God. The people lacked all the force which lies in being right with God. Those who strive for the masteries must, we are told, (2Ti_2:5) strive lawfully in harmony with all the moral as well as physical laws which govern the enterprise, whatever it be, public or private, relating to commerce, education, or religion. The great practical truth here exhibited is that it is possible for a people to set heart on the achievement of a purpose good in itself, to devise means, combine forces, and arouse enthusiasm likely to issue m the desired result; but yet there may be in the daily life some irreligious, unholy spirit, which, being known to God, has the effect of causing the hidden wheels of Providence so to move as to render useless efforts otherwise sufficient. Righteousness is the most important factor in life. Unrighteousness will in the end neutralise all exertion. The seeming prosperity of the wicked is short, and "shall destroy them." Sin saps the foundations of public and private good. True godliness alone makes the most of men.
VI DISTINGUISHED GOODNESS OF INDIVIDUALS AND REGARD FOR RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS ARE NO SUBSTITUTES FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS OF LIFE. Samuel had become known in Israel. The long lost "open vision" was restored. The people knew that he was a prophet. There was, therefore, so the people reasoned, an evident sign that the favour of God was returning. Their own character was bad enough; but had they not a holy man of God, a superior character, in the sanctuary at Shiloh? Encouraged by this trust and heedless of repentance and reformation, they sought freedom and prosperity by the exertion of their own physical powers. The moral element of conformity to the will of God was despised. Disaster came. In like manner it is in vain for a nation to leave goodness to officials in the Church, and for men of business to leave goodness to their wives and children. God will take no substitute for personal holiness. Not even is the perfect righteousness of the Redeemer of any avail to the man who will live in unrighteousness. He is "our righteousness" when our faith in him brings forth the fruits of the Spirit. But the ingenuity of the heart in evil is marvellous. Israel, finding that vicarious goodness is of no avail, has recourse to a new expedient outward regard for the symbols of religion. Men remember historical facts, though they may have lost a perception of their spiritual significance. Had not the waters of Jordan and the walls of Jericho recognised the presence of the "ark of God"? Did it not go before the people to "search out a resting place" for them? If the presence of a Samuel in the land was not a guarantee of victory, surely all power must submit to this ancient and renowned worker of wonders? And thus the unholy heart imagines that an outward exhibition of the sacred things pertaining to Divine worship will be a practical substitute for the character not possessed. "History repeats itself." Yes; men still trust in the symbols of the Church creeds more or less orthodox, outward forms of worship, and much else in vain hope that these will prove a charm by which the crushing power of sin will be avoided and life end prosperously. The most sacred of forms and symbols are a poor refuge for a soul that loves unrighteousness. (Psa_24:3-5)
Practical lessons:
1. Study well all the laws of permanent success in secular government, religious organizations, commercial transactions, domestic life, and spiritual culture.
2. Let personal conduct be influenced by the fact that even the salvation ofthe soul is according to law (cf. Mat_11:28, Mat_11:29; Act_4:12; 1Co_9:25; 2Ti_2:5)
1. The comparative failure of religious efforts outwardly suitable may beremedied by a revival of the spiritual power.
2. In times of depression and religious weakness in the Church, look not somuch to the adoption of new expedients for subduing the world to Christ, as to the spiritual condition of his professed servants.
Unexpected coincidences.
It was declared to Eli that a sign of coming judgment on him and his house should be found in the death of his two sons in one day, (1Sa_2:34) and also that an event should occur at which "both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle". (1Sa_3:11) The fulfilment of this prediction was, to the mind of Eli, certain, but the means and occasion were uncertain. It was difficult for the old man to conjecture how God would keep his word. The narrative reveals the unlooked for coincidences which established the veracity of God.
I MEN ARE INDUCED TO ADOPT A COURSE OF CONDUCT AT VARIANCE WITH THEIR USUAL PRACTICE. The recent history of Israel proved them to be utterly indifferent to religion. The vile conduct of the priests caused them to abhor the sacrifices of the Lord. In their conflicts with foes they had gone forth at first without the presence of symbols of religion; but now these same people, being left judicially to the blind guidance of their corrupt hearts, lead forth to war the "ark of God," and the priests in charge of it. In like manner the ordinary course of the Philistines would be to yield to the force of their knowledge of what wonders had been achieved by the "ark of God" (vers. 6-8), and either refrain from fighting or flee at the first onset. But instead of that, by, doubtless, the subtle, secret action of God on their spirits, the ordinary course was deviated from, and the strongest sentiments of religious superstition were overborne by an urgent appeal to weaker sentiments. The last thing men do is to go in face of religious fears and historic facts. History furnishes parallel instances. The Jews, in their desire to get rid of Christ, although disgusted with Roman supremacy, took the strange course of pleading their loyalty as against his treason. In ordinary affairs, also, men are often found acting on new lines which perplex their opponents.
II GOD SOMETIMES DOES THINGS THAT ARE NOT ANTICIPATED. The Israelites little thought that God, whose symbols they paraded, would so act on the spirits of their foes as to counteract the natural effect of their own expedient. Man is a very imperfect judge of the ways of God. There are no doubt immutable laws of righteousness on which all his actions are based, and in many spheres we are enabled by a careful study of things to say what is sure to happen. But we see only "parts of his ways." His "thoughts are not as our thoughts." He sometimes does "a new thing." Precedents are being created. An ordinary observer would not have thought that the eternal God would suffer his covenant people to endure serfdom. It was foolishness to the Greeks that a crucified One should be the Divinely appointed Saviour of the world.
III By THE COINCIDENCE OF UNEXPECTED HUMAN AND DIVINE ACTIONS THE PURPOSES OF GOD ARE SOMETIMES ACCOMPLISHED. Had not Israel deviated from their usual course in demanding the ark, the sons of Eli would have remained in Shiloh. Had not the Philistines striven hard to overcome religious fears, no defeat would have fallen on Israel. Had God exercised his power as in former times, the ark would not have been captured. But the reverse of these events occurred, and therefore, in accordance with prediction, Eli"s sons were on the battle field, and perished in one day, and "both the ears" of all the people were made "to tingle" with the awful tidings that the "ark of God" was taken. So is it true in other instances that, by the concurrence of events not anticipated, and by the secret action of God along with the human events, his purposes are realised in judgment or in mercy.
General lessons:
1. God holds a complete mastery over the spirits of men, and can, when it pleases him, so act on them as to secure the realisation of his designs without destroying their freedom.
2. The Church may look on with confidence to the fulfilment of all that issaid of Christ"s kingdom, since God can bring about the desired conjunction of events.
3. Wicked men, emboldened by deferred judgments, may well tremble atthe thought that the "day of the Lord" may come as a "thief in the night.
HOMILIES BY B. DALE. Vers. 1-11. (EBEN-EZER and APHEK.)
Judgment inflicted on Israel.
was smitten, and the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain" (vers. 10, 11). The law of retribution which prevails in the world is, more especially in the outward life, often slow in its operation, inexplicable, and sometimes apparently partial and imperfect. But in many instances it is manifested in a sudden, clear, and most equitable manner. One of these instances is here described. Hophni and Phinehas were warned in vain, and pursued their evil way. The influence which they exerted on others was pernicious, and their sin was largely shared in by the people. At length the hour of judgment struck. "Israel went out against the Philistines to battle not, probably, according to the counsel of Samuel, but according to their own will, and to repel a fresh attack of their most powerful foes and oppressors (ver. 9). They were defeated with a loss of about 4000 men; but instead of humbling themselves before God, the elders expressed their surprise and disappointment at the result. They were blinded by sin, and assumed (as others have often done) that because they were the acknowledged people of Jehovah they would necessarily receive his help according to his covenant, whether they fulfilled their part of the covenant and obeyed his commandments or not. To insure his help more effectually, they sent to Shiloh for "the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth between (is enthroned upon) the cherubim." They looked for deliverance from the ark of the Lord rather than from the Lord of the ark. Hophni and Phinehas, its appointed guardians, readily consented to go with it, not knowing that they were going to their doom; and the aged high priest was too weak to oppose the presumptuous enterprise. The exultation of Israel was speedily turned into humiliation, and the fear of their enemies into triumph; and one of the greatest calamities Israel ever experienced occurred. These events suggest the following reflections:
I How OFTEN ARE THE UNGODLY EMPLOYED BY GOD FOR THE CHASTISEMENT OF HIS PEOPLE (vers. 1, 2).
1. When those who have been chosen to be separate from and superior tothe ungodly have learnt their ways, it is just and appropriate that they should be given up to chastisement at their hands.
2. The chastisement which is thus inflicted upon them is the most severe they can experience. "Let us not fall into the hand of man". (2Sa_24:14) "The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel". (Pro_12:10)
3. In fulfilling their own purposes the wicked are subject to the control of God; they can go no further than he pleases, their designs are overruled for good, and when they have done their work they are broken and cast aside like useless saws and axes (Isa_27:7, Isa_27:8; Act_5:28) This is the case with Satan himself. "Satan is a very important element in the Divine economy. God needs him, and he therefore keeps him until he shall have no more use for him. Then will he be banished to his own place. The Scriptures call the wicked heathen tyrant Nebuchadnezzar a servant of God. They might give Satan the same name" (Hengstenberg).
II How VAIN IS THE POSSESSION OF THE FORM OF RELIGION WITHOUT ITS SPIRIT (vers. 3, 4). Israel had a great though superstitious reverence for the ark, and expected that it would "save them out of the hand of their enemies.
1. Excessive devotion to the outward forms and ceremonies, anddependence upon them, is commonly associated with the absence of spiritual life (Mat_5:20; 2Ti_3:5)
2. Reliance upon such forms arises from the delusion that they insure the presence and working of God apart from the spirit in which they are employed. They are, however, neither the necessary, nor the exclusive channels of Divine grace, (Joh_6:63) and no benefit formerly received through them (Num_10:35) is to be expected, unless there be a right relation to him who has appointed them.
3. The vanity of it is clearly shown in the day of trial. "If progress to perfection is placed only in external observances, our religion, having no Divine life, will quickly perish, with the things on which it subsists; but the axe must be laid at the root of the tree, that, being separated and freed from the restless desires of nature and self, we may possess our souls in the peace of God" (A Kempis).
III How NEAR ARE THOSE WHO ARE ELATED IN FALSE CONFIDENCE TO THEIR SIGNAL DOWNFALL (ver. 5). There was a shout in the camp at the arrival of the ark. It struck consternation into the Philistines, who had heard of the wonders wrought by Jehovah in former, (1Sa_6:6) and who, like Israel, supposed that his presence was inseparably connected with the symbol thereof (vers. 6-8). But they speedily regained courage, and obtained a second and greater victory (ver. 9).
1. False confidence is blind to its own weakness and danger.
2. It is generally associated with neglect of the proper means of safety.
3. Nothing is more displeasing to God than pride and presumption; nothing more frequently condemned or more severely punished (1Sa_2:3; Pro_16:18; Isa_2:11) "By that sin fell the angels." "We must therefore bear this in mind throughout our whole life, every day, every hour, and every moment, that we never indulge so much as a thought of confidence in self" (Scupoli).
IV How SURE IS THE FULFILMENT OF THE DIVINE THREATENINGS AGAINST THE IMPENITENT (vers. 10, 11; 1Sa_2:30, 1Sa_2:34) In mercy it may be long delayed; but mercy has its limits, and judgment comes at last (Pro_29:1; Rom_2:5)
1. The priests, who had so grossly abused their power in many ways, and now exposed the ark of the Lord in battle, were struck down by the sword of his enemies.
Wisdom supreme! how wonderful the art Which thou dost manifest in heaven, in earth, And in the evil world, how just a meed Allotting by thy virtue unto all (Dante, "Inferno ).
2. The elders and people, who "asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord," were abandoned to their own devices, and 30, 000 of them were slain.
3. The whole nation, which had forsaken the Lord, was deprived of the sign of his presence (ver. 11); the place of the sanctuary, which had been defiled, was made a perpetual desolation (Psa_78:59-64; Jer_7:11, Jer_7:12, 14 26:6) and they who would not serve the Lord with gladness were compelled to wear the heavy yoke of their oppressors (Deu_28:47, Deu_28:48; 1Sa_7:2, 1Sa_7:14)
The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small; Though he stands and waits with patience, with exactness grinds he all.
"God"s judgments are the expressions of his opinion about our guilt.... But there is this difference between man and God in this matter: A human judge gives his opinion in words; God gives his in events. And God always pays sinners back in kind, that he may not merely punish them, but correct them; so that by the kind of their punishment they may know the kind of their sin" (C. Kingsley). D.
The inquiry of the afflicted.
hath the Lord smitten us?" (ver. 3). Men are accustomed to meet affliction in various ways.
1. Some meet it lightly, and endeavour to laugh at it. But this is possible only when it is not very severe.
2. Others exaggerate it, lose their self-possession, and sink under it intodespondency and despair.
3. Others quarrel with it as with an enemy, become embittered and cynical.
4. Others, still, endure it with philosophical (stoical) fortitude, accountingit not an evil, and resolving not to feel it. But this method breaks down in actual experience, and leaves the character unimproved. The truly wise, whilst fully sensitive to its natural influence, and confessing it to be an evil, seek to understand its meaning and purpose, and act in accordance therewith. They adopt this inquiry of the elders of Israel, though in a somewhat different spirit. The inquiry pertains to
I THE HAND FROM WHICH IT COMES. "Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us?
1. His dominion is supreme and universal.
2. His operations are often indirect, and to our view intricate and perplexing. Adversity is not the less under his direction and control because it comes by the hand of man.
3. All he does is done in perfect wisdom, justice, and benevolence. It must be so, even when it appears otherwise. (Psa_77:19, Psa_77:20) The mystery which beclouds his ways is itself adapted to beget in us proper feelings toward him. The first necessity in affliction is to settle it in our hearts that "it is the Lord.
II THE CAUSE TO WHICH IT IS DUE. Whence? Suffering is the result and penalty of violating the natural or moral order which God has established in the world.
1. It may be often traced to the transgression of the sufferer, but notalways. Those who are greater sufferers than others are not necessarily greater sinners. (Luk_13:1-5)
2. It is often due to the transgressions of others with whom we areintimately associated, and in the effects of whose conduct we necessarily have part.
3. It is connected with the sinfulness of the heart, and implies participationin the fallen and corrupt nature of humanity. "This is the key both to the sufferings of the righteous and to many other secrets." Human suffering points, as with the finger of God, to human sin, and should ever lead to self-examination and profound humiliation.
III THE PURPOSES FOR WHICH IT IS SENT. Herein the fatherly love of God appears; and to those who love him punishment is transformed into chastisement and a means of blessing. (Heb_12:11) It is designed
1. To manifest the presence and evil of sin, which would not be otherwise properly felt. The consequences of transgression often quicken the conscience to its "exceeding sinfulness," and lead to godly sorrow. (Isa_27:9)
1. To restrain, and prevent future disobedience. (Psa_119:67)
2. To educate and improve the character by instructing the soul in spiritual truth, working in it submission and patience, disposing it to sympathy, etc. (Psa_94:12; Rom_5:3; 2Co_1:4) "All things work together for good," i.e. for the perfecting of the character in conformity to "the image of his Son". (Rom_8:29)
3. To prepare for the experience of higher joy, here and hereafter. (2Co_4:17)
4. To promote the holiness and happiness of others in many ways.
5. To bring glory to God. (Joh 9:3Jn_1:11:4) What is naturally a curse has thus hidden within it a priceless blessing; which, however, is not attained without human cooperation and Divine grace. Affliction has not in itself the power to purify, strengthen, and save.
IV THE MEANS BY WHICH THESE PURPOSES ARE ACCOMPLISHED.
1. Humility and penitence. (Job_40:4 Job_42:6)
2. Filial trust; entering into fellowship with Christ in his sufferings, and receiving his Spirit according to his promise.
3. The hope of heaven, where there shall be "no more pain". (Rom_8:18)
Whatever thou Host hate, Whatever thou wouldst cast away and scorn As profitless Affliction never lose; Affliction never cease to venerate. For sorrow sanctified bears fruit to God, Which, in his heavenly garner treasured up, Shall feed his own to all eternity. D.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain
CHAPTER V I.
THE ARK OF GOD TAKEN BY THE PHILISTINES.
Read full note →
1Sa_4:1-22.
WE are liable to form an erroneous impression of the connection of Samuel with the transactions of this chapter, in consequence of a clause which ought to belong to the last chapter, being placed, in the Authorized Version, at the beginning of this. The clause "And the word of Samuel came to all Israel" belongs really to the preceding chapter. It denotes that Samuel was now over all Israel the recognized channel of communication between the people and God. But it does not denote that the war with the Philistines, of which mention is immediately made, was undertaken at Samuel's instance. In fact, the whole chapter is remarkable for the absence of Samuel's name. What is thus denoted seems to be that Samuel was not consulted either about the war or about the taking of the ark into the battle. Whatever he may have thought of the war, he would undoubtedly have been horrified at the proposal about the ark. That whole transaction must have seemed to him a piece of infatuation. Probably it was carried into effect in a kind of tumultuous frenzy. But there can be no reasonable doubt that whatever Samuel could have done to oppose it would have been done with the greatest eagerness.
The history is silent about the Philistines from the days of Samson. The last we have heard of them was the fearful tragedy at the death of that great Judge of Israel, when the house fell upon the lords and the people, and such a prodigious slaughter of their great men took place. From that calamity they seem now to have revived. They would naturally be desirous to revenge that unexampled catastrophe, and as Ebenezer and Aphek are situated in the land of Israel, it would seem that the Philistines were the aggressors. They had come up from the Philistine plain to the mountainous country of Israel, and no doubt had already sent many of the people to flight through whose farms they came. As the Israelites had no standing army, the troops that opposed the Philistines could be little better than an untrained horde. When they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines, and they slew of the army about four thousand men. In a moral point of view the defeat was strange; the Philistines had made the attack, and the Israelites were fighting for their homes and hearths; yet victory was given to the invaders, and in four thousand homes of Israel there was lamentation and woe.
But this was not really strange. Israel needed chastening, and the Philistines were God's instruments for that purpose. In particular, judgment was due to the sons of Eli; and the defeat inflicted by the Philistines, and the mistaken and superstitious notion which seized on the people that they would do well to take God's ark into the battle, were the means by which their punishment came. How often Providence seems to follow a retrograde course! And yet it is a forward course all the time, although from our point of view it seems backward; just as those planets which are nearer the sun than the earth sometimes seem to us to reverse the direction of their movement; although if we were placed in the centre of the system we should see very plainly that they are moving steadily forward all the time.
Three things call for special notice in the main narrative of this chapter - 1. The preparation for the battle; 2. The battle itself; and 3. The result when the news was carried to Shiloh.
1. The preparation for the battle was the sending for the ark of the Lord to Shiloh, so that Israel might right under the immediate presence and protection of their God.
It seemed a brilliant idea. Whichever of the elders first suggested it, it caught at once, and was promptly acted on. There were two great objections to it, but if they were so much as entertained they certainly had no effect given them. The first was, that the elders had no legitimate control over the ark. The custody of it belonged to the priests and the Levites, and Eli was the high priest. If the rulers of the nation at any time desired to remove the ark (as David afterwards did when he placed it on Mount Zion), that could only be done after clear indications that the step was in accordance with the will of God, and with the full consent of the priests. There is no reason to suppose that any means were taken to find out whether its removal to the camp was in accordance with the will of God; and as to the mind of the priests, Eli was probably passed over as too old and too blind to be consulted, and Hophni and Phinehas would be restrained by no scruples from an act which everyone seemed to approve. The second great objection to the step was that it was a superstitious and irreverent use of the symbol of God's presence. Evidently the people ascribed to the symbol the glorious properties that belonged only to the reality. They expected that the symbol of God's presence would do for them all that might be done by His presence itself. And doubtless there had been occasions when the symbol and the reality went together. In the wilderness, in the days of Moses, "It came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said. Rise up, Lord, and let Thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate Thee flee before Thee "Num_10:35). But these were occasions determined by the cloud rising and going before the host, an unmistakable indication of the will of God (Num_9:15-22). God's real presence accompanied the ark on these occasions, and all that was expressed in the symbol was actually enjoyed by the people. There was no essential or inherent connection between the two; the actual connection was determined merely by the good pleasure of God. It pleased Him to connect them, and connected they were. But the ignorant and superstitious elders forgot that the connection between the symbol and the reality was of this nature; they believed it to be inherent and essential. In their unthinking and unreasoning minds the symbol might be relied on to produce all the effect of the reality. If only the ark of God were carried into the battle, the same effect would take place as when Moses said in the wilderness, "Rise up, Lord, and let Thine enemies be scattered."
Could anything show more clearly the unspiritual tendencies of the human mind in its conceptions of God, and of the kind of worship He should receive? The idea of God as the living God is strangely foreign to the human heart. To think of God as one who has a will and purpose of His own, and who will never give His countenance to any undertaking that does not agree with that will and purpose, is very hard for the unspiritual man. To make the will of God the first consideration in any enterprise, so that it is not to be thought of if He do not approve, and is never to be despaired of if He be favourable, is a bondage and a trouble beyond his ability. Yet even superstitious men believe in a supernatural power. And they believe in the possibility of enlisting that power on their side. And the method they take is to ascribe the virtue of a charm to certain external objects with which that powder is associated. The elders of Israel ascribed this virtue to the ark. They never inquired whether the enterprise was agreeable to the mind and will of God. They never asked whether in this case there was any ground for believing that the symbol and the reality would go together. They simply ascribed to the symbol the power of a talisman, and felt secure of victory under its shadow.
Would that we could think of this spirit as extinct even in Christian communities! What is the Romish and the very High Church doctrine of the sacraments but an ascription to them, when rightly used, of the power of a charm? The sacraments, as Scripture teaches, are symbols of very glorious realities, and wherever the symbols are used in accordance with God's will the realities are sure to be enjoyed. But it has long been the doctrine of the Church of Rome, and it is the doctrine of Churches, with similar views, that the sacraments are reservoirs of grace, and that to those who place no fatal obstacle in their way, grace comes from them ex opere operato, from the very act of receiving them. It is the Protestant and scriptural doctrine that by stimulating faith, by encouraging us to look to the living Saviour, and draw from Him in whom all fullness dwells, the sacraments bring to us copious supplies of grace, but that without the presence of that living Saviour they would be merely as empty wells. The High Church view regards them as charms, that have a magic virtue to bless the soul. The superstitious mother thinks if only her child is baptized it will be saved, the act of baptism will do it, and she never thinks of the living Saviour and His glorious grace. The dying sinner thinks, if only he had the last sacraments, he would be borne peacefully and well through the dark scenes of death and judgment, and forgets that the commandment of Scripture is not, Look unto the last sacraments, but, "Look unto Me and be ye saved." Alas! what will men not substitute for personal dealings with the living God? The first book and the last book of the Bible present sad proof of his recoil from such contact. In Genesis, as man hears God's voice, he runs to hide himself among the trees of the garden. In Revelation, when the Judge appears, men call on the mountains to fall on them and hide them from Him that sitteth on the throne. Only when we see God's face, beautiful and loving, in Christ, can this aversion be overcome.
If the presence of the ark in the field of battle did much to excite the hopes of the Israelites, it did net less to raise the fears of their opponents. The shout with which its arrival was hailed by the one struck something of consternation into the breasts of the other. But now, an effect took place on which the Israelites had not reckoned. The Philistines were too wise a people to yield to panic. If the Hebrew God, that did such wonders in the wilderness, was present with their opponents, there was all the more need for their bestirring themselves and quitting them like men. The elders of Israel had not reckoned on this wise plan. It teaches us, even from a heathen point of view, never to yield to panic. Even when everything looks desperate, there may be some untried resource to fall back on. And if this be a lesson to be learnt from pagans, much more surely may it be thought of by believers, who know that man's extremity is often God's opportunity, and that no peril is too imminent for God not to be able to deliver.
2. And now the battle rages. The hope of misguided Israel turns out an illusion. They find, to their consternation, that the symbol does not carry the reality. It pleases God to allow the ark with which His name is so intimately associated to be seized by the enemy. The Philistines carry everything before them. The ark is taken, Hophni and Phinehas are slain, and there fall of Israel thirty thousand foot-men.
Can we fancy the feelings of the two priests who attended the ark as the defeat of the army of Israel became inevitable? The ark would probably be carried near the van of the army, preceded by some of the most valiant troops of Israel. No doubt it had been reckoned on that as soon as its sacred form was recognized by the Philistines, fear would seize on them, and they would fly before it. It must have made the two priests look grave when nothing of the kind took place, but the host of the Philistines advanced in firm and intrepid phalanx to the fight. But surely the first onset of the advanced guard will show with whose army the victory is to lie. The advanced guards are at close quarters, and the men of Israel give way. Was there conscience enough left in these two men to flash into their minds that God, whose Holy Spirit they had vexed, was turned to be their enemy, and was now fighting against them? Did they, in that supreme moment, get one of those momentary glimpses, in which the whole iniquities of a lifetime seem marshaled before the soul, and the enormity of its guilt overwhelms it? Did they feel the anguish of men caught in their own iniquities, every hope perished, death inevitable, and after death the judgment? There is not one word, either in this chapter or in what precedes it, from which the slightest inference in their favour can be drawn. They died apparently as they had lived, in the very act of dishonouring God. With the weapons of rebellion in their hands, and the stains of guilt on their hearts, they were hurried into the presence of the Judge. Now comes the right estimate of their reckless, guilty life. All the arts of sophistry, all the refuges of lies, all their daring contempt of the very idea of a retribution on sin, are swept away in a moment. They are confronted with the awful reality of their doom. They see more vividly than even Eli or Samuel the truth of one part, certainly, of the Divine rule - "Them that honour Me I will honour; but they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed."
The time of guilty pleasure has passed for ever away; the time of endless retribution has begun. Oh, how short, how miserable, how abominable appears to them now the revelry of their evil life! what infatuation it was to forswear all the principles in which they had been reared, to laugh at the puritanical strictness of their father, to sit in the seat of the scorner, and pour contempt on the law of God's house! How they must have cursed the folly that led them into such awful ways of sin, how sighed in vain that they had not in their youth chosen the better part, how wished they had never been born!
3. But we must leave the field of battle and hasten back to Shiloh. Since the ark was carried off Eli must have had a miserable time of it, reproaching himself for his weakness if he gave even a reluctant assent to the plan, and feeling that uncertainty of conscience which keeps one even from prayer, because it makes one doubtful if God will listen. Poor old man of ninety-eight years, he could but tremble for the ark! His official seat had been placed somewhere on the wayside, where he would be near to get tidings from the field of anyone who might come with them, and quite probably a retinue of attendants was around him. At last a great shout of horror is heard, for a man of Benjamin has come in sight with his clothes rent and earth upon his head. It is but too certain a sign o£ calamity. But who could have thought of the extent of the calamity which with such awful precision he crowded into his answer? Israel is fled before the Philistines - calamity the first; there hath been a great slaughter among the people - calamity the second; thy two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are slain - calamity the third; and last, and most terrible of all, the ark of God is taken! The ark of God is taken! The Divine symbol, with its overshadowing cherubim and its sacred light, into which year by year Eli had gone alone to sprinkle the blood of atonement on the mercy-seat, and where he had solemnly transacted with God on behalf of the people, was in an enemy's hands! The ark, that no Canaanite or Amalekite had ever touched, on which no Midianite or Ammonite had ever laid his polluted finger, which had remained safe and sure in the perils of their journeys and all the storms of battle, was now torn from their grasp! And there perishes with it all the hope of Israel, and all the sacred service which was associated with it; and Israel is a widowed, desolate, godless people, without hope and without God in the world; and all this has come because they dragged it away from its place, and these two sons of mine, now gone to their account, encouraged the profanation!
"And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died; for he was an old man and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years."
This was calamity the fifth; but even yet the list was not exhausted. "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. And about the time of her death the women that stood by her said unto her. Fear not, for thou hast born a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard it. 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. And she said, The glory is departed from Israel; for the ark of God is taken."
Poor, good woman! with such a husband she had no doubt had a troubled life. The spring of her spirit had probably been broken long ago; and what little of elasticity yet remained was all too little to bear up under such an overwhelming load. But it may have been her comfort to live so near to the house of God as she did, and to be thus reminded of Him who had commanded the sons of Aaron to bless the people saying, ''The Lord bless thee and keep thee; the Lord make His face shine upon thee and be gracious to thee; the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace." But now the ark of God is taken, its services are at an end, and the blessing is gone. The tribes may come up to the feasts as before, but not with the bright eye or the merry shouts of former days; the bullock may smoke on the altar, but where is the sanctuary in which Jehovah dwelt, and where the mercy-seat for the priest to sprinkle the blood, and where the door by which he can come out to bless the people? Oh, my hapless child, what shall I call thee, who hast been ushered on this day of midnight gloom into a God-forsaken and dishonoured place? I will call thee Ichabod, for the glory is departed. The glory is departed from Israel, for the ark of God is taken.
What an awful impression these scenes convey to us of the overpowering desolation that comes to believing souls with the feeling that God has taken His departure. Tell us that the sun is no longer to shine; tell us that neither dew nor rain shall ever fall again to refresh the earth; tell us that a cruel and savage nation is to reign unchecked and unchallenged over all the families of a people once free and happy; you convey no such image of desolation as when you tell to pious hearts that God has departed from their community. Let us learn the obvious lesson, to do nothing to provoke such a calamity. It is only when resisted and dishonoured that the Spirit of God departs - only when He is driven away. Oh, beware of everything that grieves Him - everything that interferes with His gracious action on your souls. Beware of all that would lead God to say, "I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge their offence and seek My face." Let our prayer be the cry of David: - "Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold me with Thy free Spirit"
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain 1Sa 4:10-11
1Sa 4:10-11
I. Look first at the connection between declension and defeat, at the root of the calamity which befell the nation and the dishonour to the cause of God. There was a deep moral apostasy. (1) The character of the priesthood had become thoroughly corrupt, and this is one of the most ominous signs that can appear in any society. (2) Another feature of declension in the people of Israel was that they had changed their religion into a formal superstition. After their first defeat by the Philistines they began to think of higher help. But it was not of God they thought, the living God, but only of the ark. The ark has been changed into a fetish; the name of it is to be their deliverer. When religion comes to this, it sinks into a hideous idol, and the petrified shell must be broken in pieces if the spirit is to be saved. (3) There is a further stage in the ark’s history before it reaches its lowest fall. It has been dissociated from the living God, and has become not merely a common, but a desecrated, thing. To redeem the Israelites from their error, they must learn that the ark is powerless if God forsakes them, and that the symbol cannot save without the living presence. In this stern lesson God uses their enemies as teachers. In this case the Philistines were on the better side. It was not man against God, but man against falsehood under His name, and the battle ended as one might anticipate. Natural human courage proved itself stronger than corrupted religion, and hypocrisy was broken and scattered.
Read full note →
II. Look next at God’s victory. It is when men think they have gained a victory over God that they are on the edge of sore disaster. What to do with God is the world’s great trial, as what to do with Jesus was the difficulty of Pilate. For the world cannot make God to its mind, and in the end the world cannot do without Him. It carries His ark hither and thither, seeks to bring Him to the level of its own conceptions, to subject Him to its own idols, but finds in all its efforts no true rest till it suffers Him to take His own way to His throne. Notice: (1) The only obedience which God accepts is that which is given Him out of love, and for His own sake. (2) If the ark is to find its true place, it must be committed to the hands of men who love it.
J. Ker, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 162.
References: 1Sa 4:10, 1Sa 4:11.—Outline Sermons to Children, p. 37. 1Sa 4:12-18.—J. R. Macduff, Sunsets on the Hebrew Mountains, p. 62. 1Sa 4:13.—R. S. Candlish, Scripture Characters and Miscellanies, pp. 320, 336; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 365; W. Morley Punshon, Four Popular Discourses, 2nd series, No. IV. 1Sa 4:21.—Parker, vol. vii., p. 60.
1Sa 4:22
We do not know her name, nor her years, nor her previous career, this poor brokenhearted woman who died with these words on her lips. No doubt her short life had had its blinks of sunshine, but she abides in our memory an image of the deepest tragedy, and after these few minutes of supreme anguish she goes back to the silence whence she came. There is something that comes very straight to our sympathy in the picture of one fairly beaten, one who has quite given up, brokenhearted. It was not with this woman the passing despondency through which human beings get again into the cheerful sunshine. With her it was the last of this life; and thus giving up, she died.
I. We see in the wife of Phinehas both piety and patriotism.
Putting aside her own individual losses, she summed up what had killed her in one woeful wail: "The glory is departed from Israel, for the ark of God is taken." There are some, indeed, who, in circumstances as desperate as those of Israel on that black day, would have risen to the need of the occasion and gone, with heart and soul, to the work of setting things right again. Such was Luther; such was Knox. But there are few indeed to whom God has given such strength and courage.
II. The great lesson conveyed by the text is that the glory of a nation depends on God’s presence with it; that is, on its religious character, on its solemn holding by what is right and abhorring what is wrong.
III. The glory was departed from Israel when the ark of God was taken. That was the emblem, the flower, the culmination, of all the national faith and consecration. The loss of the mere wooden chest was nothing, except as a reminder of the vital and essential loss of God’s presence which had gone before. It is the Spirit that quickeneth; it is the earnest reality of the worship that alone avails; the outward form, except as it expresses the spirit and is instinct with it, profits nothing at all.
A. K. H. B., The Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson, 3rd series, p. 57.
References: 1Sa 5:2-4.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii., No. 1342. 1Sa 5:4.—A. Scott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 237. 1Sa 5:7.—J. Ker, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 162. 1Sa 6:9.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. vii., p. 257. 1Sa 6:20.—Bishop Thirlwall, Good Words, 1876, p. 17. 1Sa 7:3.—Parker, vol. vi., p. 269. 1Sa 7:8.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. xi., p. 140. 1Sa 7:12.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix., No. 500, and Morning by Morning, p. 365; G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount, p. 201. 1Sa 7:15-17.—G. B. Ryley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 206 1Sa 7:17.—Parker, vol. vii., p. 61.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain 1 Samuel
1 Samuel
FAITHLESSNESS AND DEFEAT
Read full note →
1Sa 4:1 - 1Sa 4:18.
The first words of 1Sa 4:1 are closely connected with the end of 1Sa 3:1 - 1Sa 3:21, and complete the account of Samuel’s inauguration. ‘The word of the Lord’ came to Samuel, and ‘the word of Samuel came to all Israel.’ The one clause tells of the prophet’s inspiration, the other of his message and its reception by the nation. This bond of union between the clauses has been broken by the chapter division, apparently for the sake of representing the revolt against the Philistines as due to Samuel’s instigation. But its being so is very doubtful. If God had sent the army into the field, He would have prepared it, by penitent return to Him, for victory, as no defeat follows on war which He commands. Probably Samuel’s mission made an unwholesome ferment in minds which were quite untouched by its highest significance, and so led to a precipitate rebellion, preceded by no religious reformation, and therefore sure to fail. It was twenty years too soon {1Sa 7:3}. Samuel took no part in the struggle, and his name is never mentioned till, at the end of that period, he emphatically condemns all that had been done, and points the true path of deliverance, in ‘return to the Lord with all your heart.’ So the great lesson of this story is that when Israel fights Philistines, unbidden and unrepentant, it is sure to be beaten,-a truth with manifold wide applications.
The first disastrous defeat took place on a field, which was afterwards made memorable by a great victory, and by a name which lives still as a watchword for hope and gratitude. Happy they who at last conquer where they once failed, and in the retrospect can say, ‘Hitherto the Lord helped,’ both by defeat and by the victory for which defeat prepared a way! That opening struggle, bloody and grave as it was, was not decisive; for the Israelites regained their fortified camp unmolested, and held together, and kept their communications open, as appears from what followed.
1Sa 4:3 - 1Sa 4:5 give us a glimpse into the camp of Israel, and 1Sa 4:6 - 1Sa 4:9 into that of the Philistines. These two companion pictures are worth looking at. The two armies are very much alike, and we may say that the purpose of the picture is to show how Israel was practically heathen, taking just the same views of its relation to God which the Philistines did. Note, too, the absence of central authority. ‘The elders’ hold a kind of council. Where were Eli the judge and Samuel the prophet? Neither had part in this war. The question of the elders was right, inasmuch as it recognised that the Lord had smitten them, but wrong inasmuch as it betrayed that they had not the faintest notion that the reason was their own moral and religious apostasy. They had not learned the A B C of their history, and of the conditions of national prosperity. They stand precisely on the Pagan level, believing in a national God, who ought to help his votaries, but from some inexplicable caprice does not; or who, perhaps, is angry at the omission of some ritual observance. What an answer they would have got if Samuel had been there! There ought to have been no need for the question, or, rather, there was need for it, and the answer ought to have been clear to them; their sin was the all-sufficient reason for their defeat. There are plenty of Christians, like these elders, who, when they find themselves beaten by the world and the devil, puzzle their brains to invent all sorts of reasons for God’s smiting, except the true one,-their own departure from Him.
The remedy suggested by the united wisdom of the leaders was as heathen as the consultation which resulted in it. ‘Let us send for the ark’ ‘Those who regarded not the God of the ark,’ says Bishop Hall, ‘think themselves safe and happy in the ark of God.’ They thought, with that confusion between symbol and reality which runs through all heathen worship, and makes the danger of ‘images,’ whether in heathenism or in sensuous Christianity, that if they brought the ark, they brought God with it. It was a kind of charm, which would help them, they hardly knew how. Its very name might have taught them better. They call it ‘the ark of the covenant of the Lord’; and a covenant has two parties to it, and promises favour on conditions. If they had kept the conditions, these four thousand corpses would not have been lying stiff and stark outside the rude encampment. As they did not keep them, bringing the chest which contained the transcript of them into their midst was bringing a witness of their apostasy, not a helper of their feebleness. Repentance would have brought God. Dragging the ark thither only removed Him farther away. We need not be too hard upon these people; for the natural disposition of us all is to trust to the externals of worship, and to put a punctilious attention to these in the place of a true cleaving of heart to the God who dwells near us, and is in us and on our side, if we cling to Him with penitent love. Even God-appointed symbols become snares. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are treated by multitudes as these elders did the ark. The fewer and simpler the outward observances of worship are, the less danger is there of the poor sense-bound soul tarrying in them, instead of passing by means of them into the higher, purer air beyond.
What right had these presumptuous elders to bring the ark from Shiloh? Eli was its guardian; and he, as appears probable from his anxiety about its fate, did not approve of its removal. But ‘the people’ took the law into their own hands. There seems some hint that their action was presumptuous profanation, in the solemn, full title given in 1Sa 4:4: ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord of Hosts which dwelleth between the cherubim,’-as if contrasting His awful majesty, His universal dominion over the armies of heaven and the embattled powers of the universe, and the dazzling light of that ‘glory,’ which shone in the innermost chamber of the Tabernacle, with the unanointed hands that presumed to press in thither and drag so sacred a thing into the light of common day and the tumult of the camp. Nor is the profanation lessened, but rather increased, by the priestly attendants, Eli’s two sons, themselves amongst the worst men in Israel. When Hophni and Phinehas are its priests, the ark can bring no help. Heathenism separates religion from morality altogether. In it there is no connection between worship and purity, and the Old Testament religion for the first time welded these two inseparably together. That tumultuous procession from Shiloh, with these two profligates for the priests of God, and the bearers thinking that they were sure of their God’s favour now, whatever their sin, shows how completely Israel had forgotten its own law, and, whilst professedly worshipping Jehovah, had really become a heathen people. The reception of the ark with that fierce shout, which echoed among the hills and was heard in the Philistines’ encampment, shows the same thing. Not so should the ark have been received, but with tears and confessions and silent awe. No man in all that host had ever looked upon it before. No man ought to have seen it then. Once a year, and not without blood sprinkled on its cover, the high priest might look on it through the cloud of incense which kept him from death, while all the people waited hushed till he came forth, but now it is dragged into the camp, and welcomed with a yell of mad delight, as a pledge of victory. What could display more strikingly the practical heathenism of the people?
1Sa 4:6 - 1Sa 4:9 take us into the other camp, and show us the undisguised heathens. The Philistines think just as the other side did, only, in their polytheistic way, they do not use the name ‘Jehovah,’ but speak first of ‘God’ and then of ‘gods’ as having arrived in the camp. The nations dreaded each other’s gods, though they worshipped their own; and the Philistines believed quite as much that ‘Jehovah’ was the Hebrew’s God, as that ‘Dagon’ was theirs. There was to be a duel then between the two superhuman powers. The vague reports which they had heard of the Exodus, nearly five hundred years ago, filled the Philistines with panic. They had but a confused notion of the facts of that old story, and thought that Egypt had met the ten plagues ‘in the wilderness.’ The blunder is very characteristic, and helps to show the accuracy of our narrative. It would not have occurred to a legend-maker. It sounds strange to us that the Philistines’ belief that the Hebrews’ God had come to their help should issue in exhortations to ‘fight like men.’ But polytheism makes that quite a natural conclusion; and there is something almost fine in the truculent boldness with which they set their teeth for a fierce struggle. They reiterate to one another the charge to ‘quit themselves like men’; and while they do not hide from themselves that the question whether they are to be still masters is hanging on the coming struggle, a dash of contempt for the ‘Hebrews’ who had been their ‘slaves’ is perceptible.
According to 1Sa 4:10, the Philistines appear to have begun the attack, perhaps taking the enemy by surprise. The rout this time was complete. The grim catalogue of disaster in 1Sa 4:10 - 1Sa 4:11 is strangely tragic in its dreadful, monotonous plainness, each clause adding something to the terrible story, and each linked to the preceding by a simple ‘and.’ The Israelites seem to have been scattered. ‘They fled, every man to his tent.’ The army, with little cohesion and no strong leaders, melted away. The ark was captured, and its two unworthy attendants slain. Bringing it had not brought God, then. It was but a chest of shittimwood, with two slabs of lettered stone in it,-and what help was in that? But its capture was the sign that the covenant with Israel was for the time annulled. The whole framework of the nation was disorganised. The keystone was struck out of their worship, and they had fallen, by their own sin, to the level of the nations, and even below these; for they had their gods, but Israel had turned away from their God, and He had departed from them. Superstition fancied that the presence of the ark secured to impenitent men the favour of God; but it was no superstition which saw in its absence from Shiloh His averted face.
Is there in poetry or drama a more vivid and pathetic passage than the closing verses of this narrative, which tell of the panting messenger and the old blind Eli?
‘Eben-ezer’ cannot have been very far from Shiloh, for the fugitive had seen the end of the fight, and reached the city before night. He came with the signs of mourning, and, as it would appear from 1Sa 4:13, passed the old man at the gate without pausing, and burst into the city with his heavy tidings. One can almost hear the shrill shrieks of wrath and despair which first told Eli that something was wrong. Blind and unwieldy and heavy-hearted, he sat by the gate to which the news would first come; but yet he is the last to hear,-perhaps because all shrank from telling him, perhaps because in the confusion no one remembered him. Only after he had asked the meaning of the tumult, of which his foreboding heart and conscience told him the meaning before it was spoken, is the messenger brought to the man to whom he should have gone first. How touchingly the story pauses, even at this crisis, to paint the poor old man! A stronger word is used to describe his blindness than in 1Sa 3:2, as the Revised Version shows. His fixed eyeballs were sightless now; and there he sat, dreading and longing to hear. The fugitive’s account of himself is shameless in its avowal of his cowardice, and prepares Eli for the worst. But note how he speaks gently and with a certain dignity, crushing down his anxiety,-’How went the matter, my son?’ Then, with no merciful circumlocution or veiling, out comes the whole dismal story once again.
Eli spoke no more. His sons’ death had been the sign given him years before that the threatenings against his house should be fulfilled; but even that blow he can bear. But the capture of the ark is more than a personal sorrow, and his start of horror overbalances him, and he falls from his seat {which probably had no back to it}, and dies, silent, of a broken neck and a broken heart. His forty years of judgeship ended thus. He was in many respects good and lovable, gentle, courteous, devout. His kindly treatment of Hannah, his fatherly training of Samuel, his submission to the divine message through the child, his ‘trembling for the ark,’ his death at the news of its being taken, all indicate a character of real sweetness and true godliness. But all was marred by a fatal lack of strong, stern resolve to tolerate no evil which he ought to suppress. Good, weak men, especially when they let foolish tenderness hinder righteous severity, bring terrible evils on themselves, their families, and their nation. It was Eli who, at bottom, was the cause of the defeat and the disasters which slew his sons and broke his own heart. Nothing is more cruel than the weak indulgence which, when men are bringing a curse on themselves by their sin, ‘restrains them not.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Capture of the Ark by the Philistines. Death of…
Capture of the Ark by the Philistines. Death of Eli
The reason which led to 1Sa_4:1; being detached from its proper context is that without it this chapter seems to begin with inexplicable abruptness. The explanation of this lack of connexion is that the editor is now using a different document. This section is in no sense a continuation of the preceding. It does not proceed with the history of Samuel, whose name does not even occur in it, but relates the journeyings of the ark. Alike in style and in conception it is totally distinct from the section which precedes and the section which follows it. In many respects it resembles the history of Samson more closely than any other part of OT.
Read full note →
1. The Philistines] see on Jdg_3:3. Ebenezer] 'stone of help.' The place is called by the name familiar to the readers of the book, though it did not actually receive the name till later (1Sa_7:12). The positions of Eben-ezer and Aphek have not been determined with certainty.
3. The ark of the covenant] so called because it was a sign and proof both of God's covenant and of His presence.
4. RV 'which sitteth upon the cherubim.' This does not imply that there were figures of cherubim upon the ark (1Ki_8:6), but refers to the general glory of Jehovah. The cherubs are heavenly beings regarded as standing in Jehovah's presence (cp. the seraphim of Isaiah 6), and, in Ezekiel 1, 10, as of composite form. Cp. also Psa_18:10. In Solomon's temple two winged cherubs stood in the most holy place (1Ki_6:24).
The two sons of Eli] This notice is intended to remind us why the arrival of the ark produced no result.
6. Hebrews] This is the general name for Israelites when foreigners are the speakers (Gen_39:14).
8. The Philistines are not quite accurate in their history, but the mistake is not at all unnatural.
15. Ninety and eight] This number is interesting as showing how mistakes arise. In the original it was denoted by two letters.
The LXX, losing sight of one, reads 90. The Syriac, confusing 9 with 7, reads 78. The Hebrew explains the cause of the other two readings.
19f. The narrative is somewhat obscure. Apparently Phinehas' wife dies in giving birth to her child; before her death, she cries out 'I-chabod,' which is thus given as the child's name. 1Sa_4:22 simply repeats 1Sa_4:21.
21. I-chabod] 'no glory.' The glory was that of the presence of God, the visible sign and symbol of which was the ark.
22. Departed] lit. 'gone into exile.' The ark had gone into a foreign land.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain 5. The judgment of Eli and His Sons--Ichabod
5. The judgment of Eli and His Sons--Ichabod
CHAPTER 4
Read full note →
1. The fulfilled prediction: The death of Eli’s sons (1Sa 4:1-11)
2. The death of Eli (1Sa 4:12-18)
3. Ichabod (1Sa 4:19-22)
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 and wood: “it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.” Alas! “the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God” (verse 4). They forgot Jehovah whom they had offended and insulted. How could He bless and deliver His people when such sons of Belial were associated with the sanctuary? A worse defeat followed. Thirty thousand Israelites fell, among them the sons of Eli. The Philistines, first terrified by the presence of the ark, gain a great victory and capture the ark.
On the words “these are the gods that smote the Egyptians with every plague in the wilderness” Wellhausen, the well known critic, remarks: “Either an excusable inaccuracy, or a copyist’s slip.” He meant that the Egyptians were not smitten in the wilderness, but in their own land. However, Wellhausen did not see that the Philistines said this. They expressed their inaccurate knowledge of what had happened and Samuel reports it as if it was spoken by the Philistines.
The tidings of the awful disaster reach Eli, ninety-eight years old and totally blind. When he heard that the ark of God was taken, he fell backward, broke his neck and died. Significant is the final paragraph of this chapter. The wife of Phinehas in child-birth also hears of the capture of the ark and the death of Eli, her father-in-law, the death of her husband and his brother. Dying, she named her baby son “Ichabod,” which means “no glory.” The glory had departed from Israel. Israel had indeed brought forth, by her departure from God, the condition of “Ichabod.” The ark as the glory of God’s manifest presence among His people was gone. “He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men; and delivered his strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy’s hand” (Psa 78:60-61). In a higher sense the word “Ichabod” is written over that which professes to be the church, but which has departed from the truth. The power and the manifest presence of Jehovah are lost. And many individual Christians have drifted into the same conditions by their sinful and worldly ways.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Ark of the Covenant in Camp
The Ark of the Covenant in Camp
v. 1. And the word of Samuel came to all Israel, it was heard throughout the nation and served for the guidance of Israel, the people accepted it without question as the Word of Jehovah. Now, Israel went out against the Philistines, who at that time were their oppressors, to battle, and pitched beside Ebenezer, a place between Mizpeh and Shen which was afterwards given this name, 1Sa 7:12; and the Philistines pitched in Aphek, also some distance west or northwest of Jerusalem.
Read full note →
v. 2. And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel; and when they joined battle, the charge being made from both sides at the same time, Israel was smitten before the Philistines, they were worsted in the encounter; and they slew of the army, while the Israelites were trying to hold their line of battle, in the field, out on the plain where the battle was fought, about four thousand men. They did not, however, put the Israelites to rout that day.
v. 3. And when the people were come into the camp, in an orderly retreat, withdrawing their forces before the superior strength of the enemy, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us today before the Philistines? They felt that this was the only explanation of. their failure, for they had apparently undertaken the campaign at the suggestion of Samuel. Let us fetch the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh into us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies. Instead of turning to the Lord in true sorrow and repentance over their sins, the people placed their trust, in a superstitious manner, in the material vessel, as in a fetish. Their faith was obscured by this heathenish feature. It was in vain for them to trust in God, when they were not purged from their sins.
v. 4. So the people sent to Shiloh that they might bring from thence the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims, the very name intimating their hope that God would join their forces by this mere outward act on their part; for God had revealed Himself to Moses from the cover of the ark, from between the cherubim, Exo 25:22. And the two sons of Eli, Hophin and Phinehas, were there with the Ark of the Covenant of God, men whose acts in desecrating the Sanctuary of the Lord were notorious.
v. 5. And when the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord came into the camp, borne an the shoulders of the reprobate priests, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again, resounding and reverberating from the shouting of the army.
v. 6. And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, the confident cry of victory, they said, What meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood, found out, that the ark of the Lord was come into the camp.
v. 7. And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. Like all heathen, they had a superstitious fear of the supernatural, also of the deities of their enemies. Moreover, the Philistines feared the power of the God of the Israelites all the more, since the fame of His powerful deeds in former times had come to their ears. And they said, in consternation and fear, Woe unto us! For there hath not been such a thing heretofore. This expedient had never been adopted by Israel before this.
v. 8. Woe unto us! Who shall deliver us out of the hands of these mighty Gods? These are the Gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. As heathen they speak of the true God in the plural, and in their excitement they express a confused view. by combining the recollection of the plagues in Egypt and the destruction of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea into one statement. But the very fear, consternation, and despair of the Philistines encouraged them to make a last supreme effort to break the power of Israel.
v. 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! A decisive victory on the part of Israel would have turned the tables and made the Philistines tributary, and the fear of such a contingency was another factor in strengthening their arms.
v. 10. And the Philistines fought, in a bitter attack; and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent, back to his home. And there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen, a total of thirty thousand (for Israel had no cavalry).
v. 11. And the ark of God was taken, as a welcome prize; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the guardians of the ark, were slain. Thus the Lord gave His people evidence that He had indeed withdrawn His merciful presence from them, in spite of the fact that they had the ark in their camp. This is a serious warning to all who boast of their orthodoxy in a mere fleshly manner. relying upon this fact to give them a standing before God, just as many have the name of Christ in their mouths, but are far from accepting Him as their personal Savior. God wants true repentance, faith, fear of His Word. A dead orthodoxy without true piety of the heart avails nothing.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Ebenezer ... Aphek
Ebenezer ... Aphek
These are the names of places. (See: How to Translate Names)
Read full note →
Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed
This can be translated in active form. AT: "the Philistines defeated the Israelites and killed" (See: Active or Passive)
about four thousand men
Here the number four thousand is a round number. There may have been a few more than that or a few less than that. The word "about" shows that it is not an exact number. AT: "about 4,000 men" (See: Numbers)
translationWords
word
Samuel
Israel
Philistines
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 4:1b–7:2 The crisis surrounding the Ark of the Covenant…
4:1b–7:2 The crisis surrounding the Ark of the Covenant demonstrated Israel’s need for Samuel’s leadership and fulfilled prophecies about Eli and his sons (3:11-14).
4:1b the Philistines: See “The Philistines” Profile. • The exact location of Ebenezer is unknown. It was probably just east of Aphek (see also 1 Sam 7:12 and corresponding study note). • Aphek was west of Shiloh, well inland and well north of Philistine territory. By camping there, the Philistines might have been trying to seize more Israelite territory.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.