/// / X . 2 5 LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINCETON, N. J. Presented by The Wi' clow or Greorc^'eDuAdbin, ^^Q Dii/ision.r~..^r-^.\' I i* Seciion...:..h:r'...(r:i ' ^ C^oa^ 2. ^-v Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library http://www.archive.org/details/booksofsamuel05erdm COMMENTARY ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES: CRITICAL, DOCTRINAL AND HOMILETICAL, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MINISTERS AND STUDENTS. BY,, JOHN PETER ^ANGE, D. D., IN CONNECTION WITH A NUMBER OP EMINENT EUROPEAN DIVINES. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN, AND EDITED, WITH ADDITIONS, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED, BY PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D., IN CONNECTION WITH AMERICAN SCHOLARS OP VARIOUS EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS. VOL. V. OF THE OLD TESTAMENT : CONTAINING THE FIKST AND SECOND BOOKS OF SAMUEL. NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. THE BOOKS W SAMUEL. Rev. Dr. CHR. FR. DAVID ERDMANN, QENERAL SUPERINTENDENT OF THB PBOVINCB OF SILESIA, AND PROFESSOR OF THEOLOeT IN THB UNIVERSITY OF BRESLAU. TRANSLATED, ENLARGED AND EDITED BY Rev. C. H. TOY, D. D., LL. D., AND Rev. JOHN A. BROADUS, D. D., LL. D., PROFESSORS IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT LOUISVILLE, KY, NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by SCEIBNEK, ARMSTRONG & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. PREFACE TO VOL. V. OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. The Commentary on the two Books of Samuel was prepared in German by the Rev. Dr. Erd- MANX, General Superintendent of Silesia and Honor. Professor of Theology in the Univerfiity of Breslau, and in English by the Eev. C. H. Toy, D. D., LL. D., and the Eev. John A. Broadus, D. D., LL. D., Professors in the Theological Seminary at Green vulle, South Carolina. Dr. Erdmaxn, in his Preface, dated Breslau, ]\Iarch 8, 1873, says: ' In regard to the execution of the work in its several parts, I add the following remarks. In the translation, while I have tried to follow the ground-text closely, I have preserved as far as pos- sible the tone and impress of Luther's translation. On account of the admitted defectiveness of the Masoretic text of these books, it seemed to me better not to place the textual remarks and discus- sions, together with the various readings and emendations, under the text of the translation, but to insert them in the exegetical explanations. In the exegesis I have departed in one point from the form usual in this Bible- Woi'k, namely, instead of explanations under each verse, I have given an exegesis that reproduces the content of the text in connected development, following the received division of verses. "Exegesis," therefore, or "Scientific Exposition," would have been a fitter lieading for the section in question tlian "Exegetical Explanations."* In the next division, in- stead of the usual heading, "Dogmatic and Ethical Fundamental Thoughts," I have chosen as a more appropriate designation for these prophetical-historical books: "Theocratic-historical and Biblical-Theological Comments;"! for we have here to do with a new step in the historical de- velopment of the Theocracy in Israel, and with the wider unfolding of the religious-ethical truth which has its root in the advancing revelation of God. From this point of view of the his- tory of revelation and the theocracy, the comments and remarks of this section are intended to serve as contributions to the hitherto too little cultivated science of the Biblical Theology of the Old Testament. In the homiletical section, while I have given my own words, I have rather cited the diverse witnesses of ancient and modern times, from whom I could derive any valuable mate- rial for fruitful application and parsenetic use of the text on the basis of the preceding scientific exposition. 'In every part of my work on this portion of the Old Testament history of the Kingdom of God, with its fund of religious-ethical revelation, I have been constantly reminded of and deepiv impressed by a profound saying of Hamanx, with which I here close: "Every biblical history is a prophecy, which is fulfilled through all the centuries and in the soul of every human being. Every histoiy bears the image of man, a hofJy, which is earth and ashes and nothing, the sensible letter; but also a soul, the breath of God, the life and the light, which shines in the dark, and cannot be comprehended by the darkness. The Spirit of God in His word reveals itself as the Self-sufficient in the form of a servant, in flesh, and dwells among us full of grace and truth." ' As regards the English edition, the work has been so divided that Dr. Toy prepared the Exegetical and Historical sections, and paid careful and minute attention to the Hebrew text ; Dr. Broadus has reproduced the Homiletical and Practical portions, partly condensing and partly en- larging the original from English sources, especially from Bishop Hall's Contemplations and Ser- mons, Matthew Henry's Commentary, and Dr. W. Taylor's Life of David. PHILIP SCHAFF. IsEw York, 42 Bible House, March 1, 1877. * [' Exegetio.il and Critical ' is the heading adopted for the section in this translation.] f ['Historical and Theological' in the translation.] THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL. INTRODUCTION. § 1. THE NAME. The title of these books is an indication not of their origin, but of their chief contents. Although it is only in the first book that the work of the Judge and Prophet Samuel is ex- pressly related, and himself, with the divine mission which he had to fulfil for Saul and David, everywhere made to take precedence of them, yet the naming of both books after Samuel is justified by the fact that Samuel, by his conspicuous position, as it is set forth only in the first book in his judicial and prophetic olfice in the light of special divine call and guidance (he being not merely the close of the troubled period of the Judges, but also the foundational beginning of the divinely ordained kingly rule in Israel), thus towers far above the first two kings, so far as they were chosen and called through him, and points out and maintains for the Israelitish kingdom, which owes its origination and stability to him, its true theocratic basis and significance. Abaebanel remarks rightly {Prcej. in Lihr. Savi. f 74, in Carpzov, Introd. p. 212) : "All the contents of both books may in a certain sense be re- ferred to Samuel, even the deeds of Saul and David, because both, having been anointed by Samuel, were, so to speak, the work of his hands.'' Keil also well .says: " The naming of both these books, which in form and content are an insejjarable whole, after Samuel is ex- plained by the fact that Samuel not only by the anointing of Saul and David inaugurates the kingdom in Israel, but at the same time by his prophetic activity exerts so determining an influence on the spirit of Saul's government as well as David's, that this government also may be regarded as in a sort the continuation and completion of the reformation of the Isra- elitish theocracy begun by the prophet." (Introduction to Prophetical Historical Books of 0. T. [Claek's Foreign Theol. Library], prefixed to Vol. IV. (Josh., Judg., Euth), p. 4). § 2. DIVISION. In the Hebrew manuscripts and in the Jewish list of Old Testament books only one book of Samuel, "^X^DK/, is given. Its division into two books under this name, as we find it in our printed texts of the Old Testament, was first introduced in the sixteenth century, by Daniel Bomberg, after the example of the Septuagint and the Vulgate, and may be re- garded as thus far appropriate, that the death of Saul, that epoch-making occurrence in the early history of the Israelitish kingdom, forms the close of the first book. Our Hebrew editions of the Bible follow the Seventy in dividing the Hebrew book of Samuel into two parts ; they (the LXX.) did not, however, name these two books after Samuel, but included them with the two books of Kings, into which they in like manner divided the original one Hebrew book of Kings, D'Dra, under the common name " Books of the Kingdoms," [3tl3Aoi Qa»i ioco.— Tlie obscurity of the narrative in the connection of the different sections is due no doubt to its brevity and to our ignorance of certain circumstances, which, if known, would enable us clearly to see harmony in these different accounts. The supposition of contradictory accounts is in itself very improbable, considering the fact that the events were well known and carefully recorded by competent persons. It is therefore wiser to suppose an omission of connecting facts than a contradiction in the recorded accounts. — Te.J §■4- CHARACTER AND COMPOSITION. 10 to what precede-!. Up to 1 S;iin. vii. 14 has been related how Samuel exercised his judicial office, and Israel under his lead gained a brilliant victory over the Philistines. At this puiiit in the history he has reached the apex of his judicial activity ; here the period proper of the Judges ends, and th§ history turns to the new-beginning period of the Kings, in which in- deed Samuel with his judicial authority is still a power ; not, however, as before, sole ruler, but God's instrument to carry out the idea of the theocratic kingdom, about which the whole following history turns. This was then the place, iu the description of Samuel as judicial ruler, in which was summarily and in conclusion (and at the same time proleptically) con- densed all that was to be said about his judicial rule, in order that the history, abandoning the point of view heretofore maintained, might turn to the beginning of the royal rule and to Samuel's work, so far as it centred in this rule. In the section 1 Sam. xiv. 47-52 we have a similar critical point in the connection of the theocratical development of history. This section contains in like manner general compre- hensive and closing remarks on Saul, partly on his wars, partly on his family and household connections, partly on his constant activity in war against the Philistines (vers. 47, 48, 49 51, 62). Eeference is made proleptically to the wars against the Amaiekites and Philistines, which are afterwards narrated ; this forms the connection with what follows ; but in the way of conclusion, looking back to viii. -xiv., everything that remains to be said in general of Saul is brought together here, because by the before-mentioned victory over the Philistines, he stands on the summit of his royal power, which God committed to him against this ene- my; but at this moment also, in consequence of the judgment already pronounced against him by Samuel in xiii. (on which follows in xv. the definitive announcement of rejection), begins to decline from that elevation on which as chosen of the Lord he is by his own fault unable to remain. Eeturniug to Samuel's prophetic and theocratic position, there begins (after that closing section) in xv. and xvi. with the narration of the rejection of Saul and the choice of David a new period in the history of the theocratic kingdom, in which David is the central figure, and first in the large section, xv.-xxxi., is described his gradual ascent through conflict and suffering to the throne, along with the gradual, truly heart-rending descent of Saul till his shameful downfall in battle with the Philistines. Again in the section 2 Sam. viii. there is a critical point [abschluss] in the hitherto splendidly advancing history of David's kingship. In a theocratical sense David here finds himself on the summit of the royal majesty bestowed on him by God, after he has established the Ark permanently in the secure capital, received the promise of permanent lordship for his House, and poured out his soul in thanksgiving to the Lord (vi. and vii.). On the other hand, there here begins by his own fault his gradual decline from this height (x., xi.). At this turning point, as in Saul's history, a summary view of all David's wars is given (vers. 1-14), in ver. 15 his work as king is stated generally, and in vers. 16-18 a general statement of the government and its officers is made, in order that the history may now turn to the new phase of retrogressive development, and from the Ammonite-Syrian war on, which is proleptical, mentioned in this closing section, and during which occurred the grave sin of David that determined all that followed, the sad consequences of this sin in the royal family and in the kingdom may be traced uninterruptedly up to the restoration of the shattered royal power. At the close of this connected history there follows again a summary and closing state- ment respecting the government of the thoroughly shaken and broken kingdom, 2 .Sam. xx. 23-26. The disagreement between this list of officers and viii. 16-18 is explained very simply by the changes that had occurred in the interval. It is worthy of remark, that in both Joab, the highest otficer in the army, stands first, and so both lists in the oflices here named really attach themselves closely to the preceding relations of the wars by which iiiternal peace, as condition of an orderly administration of internal affairs, was secHred for the king- dom. A similar character and aim belong to the section 2 Sam. v. 13-16. Here are given David's family connections in Jerusalem at the important point in the advancing deve- lopment of his kingly authority, when he obtains the rule over all Israel, fixes his royal resi- 20 INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL. dence in Jerusalem, and enters on a new pliase of historical development, which is indicated by the three following facts: Vanquishing the Philistines by the baud of the Lord (v. 17-25), Tranference of the Ark to Jerusalem (vi.), and Nathan's prophecy of the building of the temple and of the everlasting rule (vii.). » We see in these sections the same peculiarity of Hebrew historical writing that shows itself, for example, also in the composition of Genesis, namely, that general remarks on household and family affairs and other things not decisive for the principal design of the history form a summary and often anticipatory close to the preceding narrative and the pre- paration for the transition to a new phase of historical development. Comp. Ewald, Gesch. [Hisf. of Israel], 3d ed., I. 212, 213. Although, then, a certain conclusional character must be recognized in the above-cited sections of our books, it does not thence follow that the con- nected narrations to which they belong pertain to just as many different documents, as if the indication were therein given of different authors of the individual parts. In accordance with this view Ewald remarks {ubi sup., p. 212, 3d ed.) that in his explanation of 1 Sam. vii. it is not of consequence " whether the words there are to be referred to our narrator or the following one." The author of our* books could himself select these closing sections, and from the character of the content, it is evident that he drew from appropriate historical sources which were at his command. Keil excellently remarks {Comm. on Bam, Introd. 6); " These concise statements are anything but proofs of a compilation from various sources, for which they have been taken from ignorance of the peculiarities of Shemitic historical writing ; they serve to round off the different periods into which the history is divided, and furnish points of rest which neither destroy the real connection of the separate groups, nof render the authorial unity of the Books doubtful." If now we examine our Books more closely in their purely historical character or accord- ing to the purely historical point of view, they lack, in the first place, a strictly chronological statement and arrangement of the facts. In general, precise chronological statements are wanting here, such, for example, as are very carefully given in the Books of Kings ; and so it is not the principle of chronological order that controls the connection of the narrative ^ but the principle of the real connection of things in the grouping of facts, in favor of which the chronological order is infringed. Saul's victory over the Amalekites is mentioned in 1 Sam. xiv. 47, 48, and it is not till xv. that the history of the war against them is . larrated, because, as we have seen, it is the design of the author here to group and bring together pro- leptically everything relating to Saul's foreign Avars and family connections, in order after- wards to relate at length Saul's grave sin, which occurred during the Amalekite war, and which, as the cause of his rejection by God, forms the crisis of his history. — In the same way the chronological-historical order is interrupted in 2 Sam. viii., where the author, in giving a general view of all David's foreign wars, mentions proleptically the Ammonite- Syrian war [which he afterwards (chapter x.) relates at length] because it stands at an important turning-point in Davids history, when, in consequence of his great sin, a series of divine judgments is prepared for him. The absence of chronological order is especially marked in 2 Sam. xxi.-xxiv. ; neither is the beginning, ch. xxi., attached chronologically to ch. xx., nor do the separate parts stand in chronological connection. The section xxiii. 8-39 belongs, according to time and content, to 2 Sam. v. 1-10, which position, answering to the historical connection, it actually has in 1 Chron. xi. The passage xxi. 15- 22, in spite of the ^1> ["yet again"], which points to the just preceding narrative, cannot be connected in time with ver.l4, but belongs chronologically probably to the passage indi- cated in 1 ChroQ. xx. 4sq. (where are mentioned three of the four deeds of heroes here related), namely, 2 Sam. xii. 30, 31 (comp. with 1 Chron. xx. 2, 3). The thanksgiving song of David, ch. xxii., is evidently not in its right place, but belongs, according to the clue which the con- tent gives to the occasion, to a time when David was saved by a great war from grievous dis- tress and danger. That ch. xxiv. is not in its proper chronological position is evident. Similar inequalities and interruptions show themselves, as in the chronological, so also in the factual UQaXment of the historical material—To look at the last portion, chs. xxi.- xxiv., one would have expected that the two narratives, xxi. 1-14 and xxiv., on account of §4. CIlAUACTEIl AND COMPOSITION. 21 the similarity of their points of view and the theocratical tendency which they both show in Teference to God's anger, which is to be appeased, would have been put together as they in content belong together. So, the sections xxi. 15-22 and xxiii. 8-39 belong together accord- ing to historical content, but are separated by the lyrical -prophetical pieces, xxii, and xxiii. 1-7, which in content belong together. Apart from the chronological point of view, xxiii. 8-39 seems to be detached from the section, 2 Sam. v. 1-10, to which, according to content, it belongs. It is thus in some cases true, that the historical material, even apart from chrono- logical order, is not grouped in relation to its facts, as we should have expected from the similarity of the contents and the points of view. — Further, we several times find references to facts which are assumed to be known, but are not mentioned either in these books or in any others that have been handed down. For example, in 1 Sam. xiii, 2, in the narrative of Saul's military undertakings against the Philistines, Jonathan suddenly appears as leader of part of the army, and defeats the Philistines in their camp at Gibeah, though he had not before been mentioned as Saul's son (this is not done till ver. 16 and xiv. 1), or as taking part in the campaign against the Philistines. So in 1 Sam. xxi. 1 the removal of the tabernacle to Nob is pre-supposed, though we are not told when and how it had been carried thither from Shiloh, where it still stood under Eli (i. 3, 9). The history of the expiation, 2 Sam, xxi., whose omission David had to supply, supposes the occasioning event, the slaying of the Gibeonites by Saul, though it has nowhere been mentioned. So reference is made to the expulsion of necromancers by Saul (1 Sam. xxviii. 3), and to the flight of the Beerothites to Gittaim (2 Sam. iv. 3), which incidents are not narrated. Thus historical facts are here and there in the narration merely taken for granted, the relation of which we should have ex- pected for the sake of completeness and pragmatical connection. In regard to the fulness of the narrative, it must be particularly remarked, that the Books do not propose to give a properly biographical account of Samuel, Saul and David. The historical material of Samuel's life, regarded from a biographical point of view, is very sporadically and atomically given; there are wanting large jjarts of the life-development of the prophet. In regard to Saul we find important facts either wholly un mentioned or only briefly touched on or intimated. From a comparison of our Books Vi^ith the parallel passages in the Books of Chronicles on David, it appears that our author has used less freely than the author of Chronicles the historical material which lay equally before both. The account that our Bodk gives of the wars of David with the Ammonites and Syrians (2 Sam. viii., X.) leaves out many things that the Chronicler inserts (1 Cliron. xviii., xix.). It is not supposiible that the history of the preparations for the building of the Temple, the organiza- tion of the priestly service and of the army was unknown to our author; but he says nothing about what is contained in 1 Chron, xxii. — xxviii. Even the account of David's end, for which we cannot suppose a lack of material, is wanting, an unexpected omission in a history of David that elsewhere goes so minutely into particulars. We see, therefore, that the author purposed neither to insist on strict chronological arrangement of facts, nor to work up his known or accessible historical material with all possible completeness in all parts of his narration. This eclectic treatment of the historical material has its ground in the desire to give special prominence to those things only which were important for the development of the Kingdom of God from a theocratic-prophetical point of view. Thus, for example, in 1 Sam. iii. a fact in the history of Samuel's childhood is made prominent and related at length, that was decisive for his divine call to the prophetic office in contrast with the cor- rupt priesthood. So the Amalekite war and the Ammonite war (1 Sam. xv. and 2Sam.x.,xi.) are given in full, because in the first we have the ground of Saul's rejection, and in the second the sin of David, on account of which a heavy judgment afterwards falls on his house and king- dom (of which a full relation is given), has its historical background and its factual occasion. "We come once more to the close of the Books, 2 Sam. xxi. — xxi v. In the examination of this conclusion in reference to the arrangement and combination of the historical mate- rial, two things strike us : first, that these four chapters are not connected with what precedes by a continuity of historical development, but form a supplement or appendix composed of bits without historical connection among themselves, and second, that with such a conclusion INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL. the history of David is not rounded off by a continuation to the end of his life or even of his reign. If we compare the six sections in this closing supplement (1, the famine and the atone- ment, xxi. 1-1-i; 2, summary account of deeds of heroes in the Philistine wars, xxi. 15-22; 3 David's song of praise, xxii.; 4, David's last words, xxiii. 1-7; 5, David's heroes in con- flict with the Philistines, xxiii. 8-39; 6, the plague in consequence of the numbering of the people, and the atonement, xxiv.), 1 and 6, 2 and 5, 3 and 4, correspond in content. The sections 1 and 6 have an objective-theocratical tone, and are therefore to be referred to sources that owed their origin to the theocratic stand-point of tlie historical narration. Two sins against the Lor 1: one king Saul's, whose consequences reach to the time of David's reign, the other king David's, which falls in the last period of his reign (Ewald and Thejt.), have for their results judgments which affect the whole people ; in both cases an atonement has to be made in order to appease the wrath of God. The sections 2 and 5, which correspond in their military character, and especially in their reference to the Philistine wars, have an an- nalistic or chronicle-like tone, and point to corresponding sources. The two-fold utterance of David (3 and 4), forming the centre of this supplement, has the same theocratic-religious tone with its two border-pieces (1 and 6), only with the subjective modification proper to the lyric-prophetic content, and points perhaps to the same source from which the author has woven in the other lyrical pieces of his history. (On this point see further below.) Along with this correspondence in the pairs of sections in the characteristic peculiarities of their con- tent, we may discover, perhaps, in spite of the lack of pragmatic connection between them, a partially ideal combination of them in the conception of the author. The summary account of the Philistine wars (xxi. 15-22) — for which in the reverse direction we might find a point of attachment, though a loose one, in the reference in ver. 12 to the earlier Philistine wars under Saul — has an ideal pragmatic connection with the following thanksgiving-song; for in xxii. 1 the author, thinking, no doubt, of the principal enemies of Israel, who at -the same time represented all the rest, marks this song as addressed to Jehovah at a time " when Je- hovah had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies." In this combination, there- fore, chap. xxii. has in that section (xxi. 15-22) its historical basis and illustration. The song composed by David on a definite historical occasion is placed here by tlie author as a song of triumph, that it may form the cap-stone of the war-tossed life of David. The reflec- tion on the glorious conclusion of all military undertakings against foes, which filled up the greater part of David's reign, led the author on to David's last prophetic word, which is the culmination of his inner life, where, as prophet, on the ground of the everlasting covenant which God had made with him, he foretells salvation under the righteous ruler, who was to proceed from his house. Thenius rightly sees in this song "the last poetical flight that Da- vid ever took, to be put perhaps shortly before his death,'' and says that it can hardly be doubted that we have here David's swan-song (p. 271, 275). It is appropriate to our aim in making a close examination of this song here — namely, to fix the characteristics of the ar- rangement of this supplementary section— to quote Ewald's admirable words : " In the song which an old tradition rightly calls 'the last (poetical) words of David,' the poetical and ethical spirit of the aged king is at last completely transfigured into the prophetical ; onre more before his death rising to a poetic flight he feels himself in truth Jehovah's pro[)het, and looking back on his now closing life, he announces, as with a free outlook into the future the divine presentiment he felt that the rule of his house, firmly fixed in Gnd, would outla-^t his death" [Gesch. III. 268). In regard to the prophetic element, Keil says still better ( Comm. p. 484sq.): " These * last words ' are the divine attestation of all that he has sung and prophesied in several Psalms of the everlasting rule of his seed, founded on the divine pro- mise announced to him by the prophet Nathan, chap. vii. For these words are no mere lyric expansion of that divine promise, but a prophetical declaration which David made in the evening of his life by divine inspiration concerning the true King of the Kingdom of God." The author has taken the list of heroes, xxiii. 8-39, out of its (according to 1 Clir. xi. 10) ori- ginal connection, where, according to its superscription, it illustrated the establishment of David's kingdom over all Israel in victorious battle against enemies by the help of his he- ?4- CHARACTER AND COMPOSITION. 23 roes, and put it into this place, perhaps in order to give a historical framework to David's last word concerning the glory of his kingdom in its exhibition of power against its ungodly opposers, inasmuch as it had a historical foundation. The two statistical-historical sections xxi. 15 sq. and xxiii. 8 sq., would therefore form an appropriate frame for the two pictures (xxii! and xxiii. 1-7) wliich in their contents are so important for the history of David's kingdom. There is a similar ideal connection between chaps, xxi v. and xxiii. 8-39; for the narra- tive of the census, male in a spirit of haughty self elevation to ascertain David's military strength, connects itself factually with the list of his heroes, and also with chap. xxi. to which it points by the opening words "and again the anger of the Lord was kindled ao-ainst Israel,"' and by the closing words in ver. 25 (comp. chap. xxi. 14), since it relates a similar case of royal sin and the consequently necessary appeasing of God's anger. Further, there is an ideal connection between the close of this passage (ver. 25 and Sep- tuagint comp. with 1 Chr. xxi. 27 —xxii. 1), where Araunah's threshing-floor is represented as the place on which, after the building of an altar by David, the Temple was built, and the passage xxiii. 1-7. In the latter the author presents David gazing in prophetical perspective on the glory of the House which God will build for him in righteousness in the future of his kingdom; in the former he shows us how, under divine guidance, the place where David "builds an altar to the Lord, brings the expiatory offering, and receives the answer to his prayer for the staying of the pestilence, is selected for the building of the Temple, which is 1o become the permanent place of God's abode and His gracious presence with His people, yet, by the Lord's express command, is to be built for the Lord as His house, not by David, Taut by his son. Finally it is generally agreed that the chief part at least of this section, chaps, xxi. — xxiv. belongs to the later period of David's life. Thus Ewald characterizes the two plagues (xxi. 1-14 and xxiv.) and the great song of triumph (xxii.) as evidently pertaining to David's last years. " The last words of David " (xxiii. 1-7) put it beyond doubt that the author was here looking at the close of David's reign. From this examination it appears that it is at least inexact to say that " chaps, xxi. — xxiv. are very loosely and externally connected, and are put at the end only that the author might here add the sections that seemed to him important for David's life, and for which he had before found no fitting place" (so Haevernick, p. 130). It is true the connectednar- rative of David's life closed with the description of the complete quelling of Absalom's re- volt, with w'hich is connected the insurrection of Sheba (2 Sam. xx. 1-32). But the author did not intend this to be the real conclusion of his whole history, so that we should have to regard chaps, xxi. — xxiv. merely as an appended collection which he had at first intended "to omit (Ewald, Gesch. III. 239) ; rather he purposed giving in these sections the proper con- clusion of his history of David's reign ; not, however, by presenting a connected and full nar- rative of the occurrences in the last period of his reign, but by gathering up these events of David's later life under the loftiest points of view, which control the whole history from the first, and appending them as its conclusion. We have here, not an appendix that is brought in at the conclusion (Naegelsbach, 409), but an appendix that is itself conclusion, as the principal facts in the content show. Before, however, we establish the sense in which the author intended to ctose his history ■with this section, we must consider an objection urged by many — namely, that as there is no account of David's death, the Books of Samuel have no proper conclusion ; thus we shall dis- cover the point of view under which the continuation of a connected narrative of David's life up to his death is omitted at the end of our Books. From the stand-point of ordinary bio- graphical-historical narration, this fact — that at the close of a so elaborate and in part bio- graphical narrative of David's life, his death is not mentioned — is certainly strange. It can- not be explained by the supposition that the author's materials did not reach to the death of David ; for the Redactor of our Books certainly wTote after David's death, and needed no special authority to conclude with a reference to that event. Nor is it an explanation to say that the author wrote shortly after David's death, and from his proximity to this generally INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOKS Of iSAMUf;!.. known event, did not care to impart it to his contemporaries (Haevernick, p. 145) ; for, aside from the incorrect presupposition in this view, it is inconceivable that the author should have been silent about the decease of this great king after having so elaborately described his life-course in its several stadia. So also we must reject the hypothesis that the author of the Books of Samuel has in this work of his at least in part treated the history of Solomon, of which much is retained in the beginning (chaps, i. and ii.) of the Books of Kings (Bleek, Einl. [Introd.], pp. 359, 360) — that in these two chapters the thread of the narrative in the Books of Samuel is continued without break by the account of the death of David and the accession of Solomon, as Ewald maintains ((?esc7i. I.p.207sq.,239sq.),assumingthatth3 fir.-t half of his supposed great work on the Kings reached up to 1 Kings ii. If the similarity of the style of the narration be insisted on in support of this view, this is sufficiently explained by the common source from which both drew (1 Chr. xxix. 29). If appeal is made to the si- milarity of particular narratives, for example, 1 Sam. ii. 27-36 compared with 1 Kings ii. 26 sq., it being maintained that the same writer who in the first passage recounts the threatening prophecy of the fall of the House of Ithamar, has in the second recounted its fulfilment ia the removal from the priesthood of Abiathar (great-great grandson of Eli) by Solomon im- mediately after his accession, and in confirmation of this view reference being made to the repetition of the threat against Eli in 1 Sam. iii. 11-14— all that we can thence safely con- clude is that the author of 1 Kings was acquainted with the Books of Samuel which were written long before his time. The same remark holds of the comparison of 1 Kings ii. II with 2 Sam. v. 4, 5 in respect to the similar accounts of David's reign, which were taken from the same source, and also of the reference of 1 Kings viii. 18, 25 to the author of 2 Sam. vii. 12-16. Moreover it is an objection to this view that^ if the first chapters of the Books of Kings form the continuation of 2 Sam. xx. 26 by the same author, the section 2 Sam. xxi. — xxiv, intervenes in a strange and unaccountable way, while, on the other hand, these two chapters (1 Kings i. 11) stand in pragmatic connection with chap, iii., since they form the introduc- tion to the narrative of Solomon's accession (comp. Baehr [in Laxge's Bible-work], Ko7nm. zio den BB. der Konige, Einl. p. 14 [American transl., p. lOj). Nagelsbach says well (p. 408 sq.)^ against Ewald's assumption of 1 Kings ii. 46 as the end of the first half of the Book of Kings, that if the original limit of the narrative of the Books of Samuel is to be sought outside of 2 Sam. xxiv, 25, it should rather be in 1 Kings ii. 12, where, after the statement of the length. of David's reign, it is said : " then sat Solomon on the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was established greatly," for this passage with the immediately preceding verses has all the marks of a great epoch-making conclusion, — but if, on account of the undeniable re- lationship of the preceding and succeeding context, the line cannot be drawn here (EwALD for this reason does not put it here), still less can it be drawn at chap. ii. 46. The present conclusion of the Books of Samuel (wanting the narrative of the death of David) is satisfactorily explained only by the point of view in which they, as well as the Books of Kings, are composed. If it had been the author's object from a biographical-his- torical point of view to write an elaborate and complete life of David, he would necessarily have narrated its end. But the point of view which controls his whole account, and accord- ing to which he groups his historical material, is the theocratic-prophetic, and through the whole history the characteristic features not only of its theocratical kernel, but also of its con- ception and narration, are seen from the theocratic-prophetic point of view. A specific Israelitish-religious and theocratic character is throughout more prominent in our Books than in the other historical books. Euetchi rightly remarks {Stud. u. Krit. 1866, p. 213) : " Careful recurrence to religious fundamental ideas is particularly important in the Books of Samuel, because they suppose in the reader a deep relisrious sense, and in this respect take, we may say, the highest rank among the historical books of the Old Testament." This character presupposes that view of the history of Israel as God's chosen people and possession (Ex. xix. 3-6), according to which this history is throughout determined by the specific-supernatural factor of divine control, and strives towards a highest divine goal, the realization of the rule and kingdom of God in the chosen people, and therefore is conditioned in its development not merely by human factors, but by supernatural divine guidance. The § 4. CHARACTER AND COMPOSITION. am of the history is to set before tliB people how the divine conception and purpose of a kingdom was iulfilled at the close of the period of the Judges in the establishment of the theocratic kingdom by its two first heads ; or, how the controlling working of the God of Israel showed itself in the restoration of the Theocracy through Samuel's judicial-prophetic labors, and in the setting up of the theocratic kingdom under the contrast of its forever typi- cal representatives, the rejected Anointed of the Lord and the true king after God's own heart. To this aim corresponds the tone of the content of the Books, which is essentially a history of the theocratic development of the kingdom of God in Israel during the period of the Judges, which closed with Samuel, and during that of the kingdom, which beo-an with Saul and David. The composition and mode of presentation of the content is determined by this aim and by the turning-point of the whole history of Israel which lies in this devel- opment. As in general the authors of the biblical-historical books do not fully and uniformly recount everything in the sacred history worthy of mention, but only give prominence to the most important elements of the history of the Kingdom of God in the facts and persons that exhibit them, grouping them according to their bearing on the history of the kingdom, so also the author of our Books does not design to give connected elaborate biographies of Samuel, Saul and David, but in the arrangement of the historical material makes a selection which is determined by the point of view of God's Kingdom in Israel, which develops itself by means of the divinely founded earthly-human kingdom into glorious power even over the heathen nations. Thus the chief momenta of the theocratic development of the history of Israel that lie in the time of transition from the Judges to the Kingdom, are grouped around Samuel, as the instrument of the divine working within and without, up to the end of 1 Sam. vii. Though Samuel continues to act a long time still as God's instrument, yet from ch. viii. the kingdom and the man chosen as its first head, Saul, appear in the foreground till priucipially his theocratic mission as King of Israel ceases (end of ch. xiv.). True, from ch. XV. on to the close of 1 Sam. xxxi. the history of Saul and Israel is carried on ; but the con- tent and the form show plainly how the immediate divine interposition in Saul's inner and outer life is an advancing judgment, and essentially nothing but the divinely arranged con- sequence of the sentence of condemnation, xiii. 13, 14. The man whom the Lord had sought out " after his own heart, that he should at the Lord's command be captain over his people," appears in the very beginning of this retrogressive development of the history of Saul's kintf- dom as the theocratic centre of the whole following history, so that 1 Sara. xv. — 2 Sam. xxiv. is from this point of view the history of David's kingdom. Appointed by immediate divine call and selection king of Israel, because in his relation to the Lord as the man after His heart he possesses the proper qualification for the position, he is saved by divine i^rotection from Saul's persecutions and snares, under divine guidance and direction (2 Sam. ii. 1) assumes a partial royal authority at Hebron, and before the Lord makes a covenant with the elders of all Israel (ch. v.), in order then in Jerusalem to be confirmed by the Lord king over all the people (ver. 12). Since David recognizes and fulfils his theocratic calling to develop the victorious power of God's people against foes without, and to establish God's dominion and sanctify him within the people, as he shows by establishing the Ark on Mount Zion as the visible sign of both these aims, so the Lord acknowledges him in the great promise in 2 Sara, vii., that the Lord would establish the throne of his kingdom forever, and that the do- minion of his house should last forever. David's deep fall does not invalidate this divine promise. The Lord indeed sends the punishment by word and deed (2 Sam. xii. 9-11) as necessary consequence of the grave sin of His Anointed. But David humbles himself in honest penitence under the mighty hand of God; the hand of the Lord leads him through all suffering in house and kingdom; the royal authority, shaken and sunken by his fault is restored by God's controlling dealing with His servant; the divine promise preserves the his- torical supposition on which it is based, and remains in force. From the history of the last periods of his government the author brings out one other fundamental fact, namely, that human sin infallibly draws down divine punishment; but anger disajjpears before the divine mercy. By his thanksgiving song (ch. xxii.) and by his last prophetic utterance conceruiug INTRODUCTION TO TME BOOKS OF SAMUEL. the righteous ruler over meu, the ruler in the fear of God, the author presents David to us at the highest point of his theocratical kingship before the presence of the Lord. Here therefore, is a real conclusion, which answers not to the biographical-historical, but to the ^Aeocra^ica^-historical aim and content of the history. David is presented to us in this closing composite section as the servant of God, who has fulfilled his mission, whose house the Lord has built, and whose seed will build a house for the Lord as His dwelling-place in the midst of His royal people. The preliminary historical fulfillment of 2 Sam. vii., so far as it pertains to the time of David's government, has here in these last words of his found its conclusion. The narration of the Aveakness of his old age, of the historical occurrences occasioned by it, and of his death, all looking to Solomon's accession to the throne, could have no farther essential theocratic significance. The Book of Kings, however, makes these historical facts the introduction to the beginning of Solomon's reign, with which they stand in pragmatic connection, taking them from the sources common to hiin with the author of the Books of Samuel, and connects his narrative in 1 Kings i. 1 by the 1 ["and"] with the historical work, the existence of which he assumes, and to which he refers in the very beginning (ii, 4sq.) in connection with the promise in 2 Sam. vii. The omission of David's death therefore in the conclusion of this work is satisfactorily explained from the theocratic character and aim of the composition, since in this conclusion the fulfillment of the theocratical mission of David is completed. But with this theocratical complexion of the history its prophetical character is insepara- bly connected. From the beginning of our Books on we see the great theocratic significance of the Prophetic Order in the history of the King(Jom of Israel, in the first place, as the organ of the divine Spirit and the medium of the divine guidance and control. Samuel appears here as the true founder of the Old Testament Prophetic Order as a permanent public power alongside of the priesthood and the kingly office. We see how, by the hand of God, the priesthood, which showed so badly in its representatives, together with the Ark, was removed from the centre of the theocratic development of history, and the Prophetic Order comes for- ward as mediating agency between God and His people, and, as Organ of the immediate application of the word and Spirit of God to the chosen people, calls forth a mighty move- ment of spiritual and religious-moral life. Over against the kingly oflace it is in part the theocratic mediating office, which, with controlling guidance, reveals to it God's counsel and will, and is thus a firm support of its power, in part the divine watch-office, which, in the name of the Lord, directs the fulfilling of the royal calling, punishes the king's sins, and is set to offer to royal tyranny a powerful opposition f )unded on the divine word. The stamp of the prophetic style appears not merely in particular prophecies (1 Sam. ii. 12; 2 Sam. vii. 12), but in the tone of the whole ; a theocratic pragmatism everywhere ruling, by which is determined the selection of the material and the unfolding of the chief historical momenta. Looked at in its particulars, the prophetic element in our Books appears in very varied form and relation. To the song with prophetical content at the beginning answers the pro- phetical discourse of the m?n of God, ii. 27-36, who announces to Eli and his family the ap- proaching divine punishment. The first revelation which Samuel as "servant of the Lord" receives concerning the House of Eli, iii. 11-14, is the beginning of his prophetic office, and in vers. 19-21 it is briefly set forth in its significance and importance for the people as the accompaniment of his judicial office; and the words: " I will perform what I have spoken to Eli from beginning to end" (ver. 12) show ''how this prophecy as the controlling divine working in the Theocracy forms for our historian the true kernel and centre of the whole history" (IIaevern. Ei>d. II. 1, 125). The f)llowing history is the fulfillment of what God had announced by him as prophet, of the " words of God" by his mouth. As prophet he completes the reformation which is described in ch. vii.; by virtue of his prophetic calling he accomplishes the change of the theocratic constitution (viii., ix.), everywhere speaking and acting as immediate mouth-piece of God (x., xi.). His address to all Israel (ch. xii.) breathes the prophetic spirit with which he was filled. In his office of prophetic watchman he chides Saul's disobedience, and foretells to him the downfall of his kingdom, xiii. (comp. xii. 25). The narrative of the battle and victory over the Philistines, xiii. G — xiv. 4G, rep- ^4. CHARACTER AND COMrOSinON. 27 Tesents tbe brilliant success of Israel under Jonathan as an exhibition of the Lord's power for his people (xiv. 10, 12, 15, 23, 45) : " So the Lord saved Israel that daj% the Lord wrought il- through Jonathan." In chs. xv., xvi., Samuel displays all the power which he had over against Saul by virtue of his prophetical office, announcing to him by divine direction the sentence of rejection on account of his disobedience, and anointing David to be king in his stead. The Lord speaks to Samuel, and Samuel speaks in the name of the Lord as his pro- phet to Saul; XV. 1, 10sq.,16sq.,22sq.,26sq.; xvi.lsq.,7sq. Saul had been made a partaker of the prophetical spirit. Now the Spirit of Jehovah leaves him. " And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward" (xvi, 13, 14). "The Lord was with him, and was departed from Saul " (xviii. 12). This is the consequence of God's immediate inter- ference by the word and deed of the prophet. This is, as it were, the prophetic superscrip- tion to all that is related from ch. xvii. to the end of the First Book concerning Saul's de- meanor towards David and the relation between them, and concerning the ever-deepening condemnation into which Saul was falling, and the repeated indication and certification of David as the Anointed of the Lord. The whole varied content of this large section is not a portraiture of David's private life from a biographical point of view, as Haevernick main- tains (p. 127), but a description, from & prophetical point of view, and going into biographical details, of the history of David as the king chosen and anointed in Saul's stead, who is per- secuted by Saul because he is the Anointed of the Lord, and whom God protects against Saul because he has received the mission and promise of the kingdom. All this is clearly under- stood only when it is looked at from the theocratic-prophetic point of view which controls the whole account; it is all, as Haevernick [uhi sup.) rightly says, the development of ch. xvi., the consequence of the desertion of Saul by the Spirit of Jehovah, but at the same time for that very reason to be regarded as narrated from a purely prophetical stand-point, which is clearly indicated in xiii. 25 and xvi. 13, 14. This, however, Haevernick fails to see; he establishes the prophetic element simply from the presence of prophetic utterances, and so thinks it has as good as disappeared here, because he without ground assumes that the pre- ceding narration (up to ch. xvi.) was taken from a document which was a collection of pro- phetic words of Samuel. But we have to recognize the prophetical element in this second larger half of the First Book not merely on account of those all-controlling prophetical points of view under which lie these histories with their divine factor, which has a double operation in respect to Saul and David; it manifests itself also in individual passages immediately in the appearance and actions o{ prophetic persons and in occurrences which put in the clearest light the importance of the prophetic office in the connection of these narratives. In the first place, the section xix. 18-24 has more importance than Haevernick (p. 127) accords to it. David's flight to Samuel to Eamah, the statements which he makes to him of Saul's conduct towards himself, his long stay with Samuel and in the school of the Prophets there, whither Saul comes to seek him out— all this supposes that he had already before been intimately associated with Samuel, especially (it is probable) since the anointing (xvi. 13), and had had the advantage of his counsel and direction for his future calling. There with Samuel David seeks safety; there in the circle of prophet-pupils he finds repose, collectedness, strengthening for his inner life. We here get a view of the associated life and the holy usages of the prophet-school at Eamah, in which the prophetic inspiration is so mighty that Saul's messengers and he him- self are seized by it. Samuel appears at the head of this community of prophets, whence came the watchmen of the Theocracy; "this is a clear sign that his labors in the latter part of his life were directed especially to this department of eifort," as Naegelsbach rightly re- marks {ubi sup., p. 398). Again, we see the prophetic influence on the history of David in the person of the prophet Gad (xxii. 5), from which we may infer the close union in which David constantly stood during his persecution with the prophetic circle and with Samuel, whetlier it be that Gad, ever since his abode in Ramah, was more intimately connected with him. and shared his wandering life, or that he was sent to him by Samuel as deputy to tell him of the danger attending his stay in Ramah (which was well known there), and counsel iim to pass over into the territory of the Tribo of Jiulali. The b^ief notice Cxxv. 1) ot 28 IN'PRODUCTION TO THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL. Samuel's death has by no means the mere signifidance of an external passing mention, but is a weighty testimony to the great authority which Samuel had wielded in the whole nation till his death, and to the permanent mighty influence which he had exerted as Reformer of the Theocracy, and so even after he had laid down his official judicial position, as Chief Leader of God's people and as Prophet. The Second Book shows us in the history of David, besides the universally controlling fJtfocraJic point of view — as, for example, in the account of his entrance on the rule over Judah (ii.lsq.), his growth in power and recognition (iii.lsq ), and his covenant with all the- Tribes of Israel (v. 1 sq.) — in important crises the mighty and decisive influence of the Pro- phe'ic Order, over against which here, as in the First Book, the Priesthood retires into the background. From ch. vii., which has a specifically marked prophetic coloring, a clear light is thrown back on the history in chs. i.-vi. by the words in ver. 1 ; because David under divine guidance had obtained the whole royal authority and sat in a strong royal seat, and by God's might had cast down his enemies round about, he receives through the prophet Nathan this divine promise of the imperishableness of the rule of his House and of the building of the Lord's house. From this prophetic passage clear light falls also on all that follows : the wars with external enemies end, in accordance with this promise and prophecy, with splen- did victories, and must conduce to the highest development of the royal power and the estab- lishment of the royal Theocracy (chs. viii.-x.). The internal shocks given to the royal authority by David's sin and the crimes of individual members of his House cannot defeat the fulfilment of the promise given to this house; the prophetic watch-ofiice fulfils through Nathan its duty towards the deep-sunken king as preacher of repentance, but announces also to the penitent king the pardon of his sin, without keeping back the judgments, announced by God, which would fall on his house; they are completed according to the prophetic an- nouncement, till the Lord restores the kingdom in its power, while the scion of the House, with whom David's House proper was to begin, to whom the royal authority is promised for- ever, stands under the protection and guidance of the same prophet (xi.-xx.). The prophetic content of the closing section (xxi.-xxiv.) has already been set forth; David himself here appears as prophet in the latter part of his.reign, and the prophetic office again fulfils through the prophet Gad a divine mission for king and people. And if we look at the significance of tlie description of the prophet Gad as "David's Seer," and at the intimate and lasting per- sonal relations in which we have found David to stand with Samuel and Nathan, it is not tO' be doubted that God's immediate guidance of his life through word and deed connected itself with these three conspicuous prophetic personages, whom we here encounter in his history. Tiie significance of the prophetic element, inseparably connected with the theocratic, is therefore great enough in the content of our Books to establish two things: 1) that the com- position of these Books is throughout controlled by the theocratic prophetic point of view, and that the content has a corresponding coloring, and 2) that this content, a great part of it at least, was taken from a tradition whose centre and starting-point was in the mighty and influential Prophetic Order. Our investigation has thus led us to the question concerning the origin and genesis of the Books of Samuel, for the answer to which, so far as it is possible, we have gained thq necessary foundation in the examination of the content and character of the Books. We must here come to a decision respecting the sources, the author, and the time of composition, in order to explain approximately the historical origin of the work. I The Messianic character of " Samuel " is one of its most marked features. The central figure of the book, David, is also the central figure of Messianic prophecy, the man who, most of all Old Testament-personages, in his life, experiences, and character, sums up the life of the servants of God, and thus represents the great Head of them all. It is in this Book that the three elements of the Jewish state, the prophetic, priestly, and kingly offices are first fully established, and not only fix the develoi)ment of the typical Israel, but set forth the functions of the Anointed Leader of the true Israel. This feature of the Book is con- nected immediately with its theocratic-prophetical character, and gives to the latter its full ?5 THE SOURCES. significance. It is because the king Jom of Israel is preparatory to another, and David the forerunner of his greater Son that this history is of transcendent importance. And, as the general principles of God's dealings with His servants are the same from age lo age, we may see in this history of the fortunes of Israel and its leaders an anticipation of the history of the later Dispensation, distinctly marked in proportion to the theocratic prominence of the persons and events. The proclamation of David as king has its counterpart in the announce- ment of the setting up of the Divine Son (Acts xiii. 33) ; David s conviction of the preserving love of God towards His servants is fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ (Acts xiii, 34-37) ; and David's purpose to build a house for the Lord is the occasion of the promise of an ever- lasting seed (2 Sam. vii. 13), and this covenant points him to the Eighteous Euler (2 Sam. xxiii. 1-7) as the consummation of his hopes. Thus the whole Book is an anticipation on a lower platform, and with imperfect material, of the true spiritual kingdom of Christ. Bible Commentary, Intxo^. to "Samuel": " the very title, ' the Christ,' given to the Lord Jesus (in Matt. i. 16 and elsewhere) is first found in 1 Sam. ii. 10 ; and the other designation of the Saviour as the 'Son of David ' is also derived from 2 Sam. vii. 12-16." Wordsworth, Introd. to " Samuel " : " The book of Samuel occupies an unique place, and has a special value and interest, as revealing the kingdom of Christ. It is the first book in Holy Scripture which declares the Incarnation of Christ as King — in a particular family — the family of Da- vid. It is the first book in Scripture which announced that the Kingdom founded in Him, raised up from the seed of David, would be universal and everlasting. Here also the prophetic song of Hannah gives the clue to the interpretation of this history," " An uninspired An- nalist could hardly have treated the history of Samuel, Saul and David, in such a manner as to display preparatory and prophetic foreshadowings of the office and Work of Christ as Pro- phet, Priest and King, and of the history of Judaism in relation to Him." — But while this history of God's kingdom in its early earthly investiture is thus truly a foreshadowing, a his- torical typical prophecy of the antitypical spiritual kingdom of Christ, we must guard against an arbitrary typical interpretation of individual facts (in which Wordsworth in his Commen- tary often offends). A historical fact that sustains a clearly defined and important rela- tion to the theocratic kingdom, expressing in itself a fundamental spiritual truth, may be the type of some other historical fact in the New Dispensation that expresses the same spiritual truth. Otherwise the distinction between type and illustration must be carefully maintained. On this general subject Fairbairn's "-Typology^' and his "-Prophecy,^' and R, P, Smith's "Prophecy a Preparation for Christ" may be advantageously consulted. — Tr.], ^ 5. THE SOURCES. As to the sources of our Books, in the first place, it is generally admitted that their content has been taken from various sources; but in the determination of these sources opinions differ widely. We shall first develop our view on the basis of the results reached in the preceding section, adopting, however, at the outset, the excellent canon for this investigation which Bleek has laid down. He says {Einl. p. 366) : " We may assume with tolerable certainty that the author of these books, besides the poetical passages which he has introduced, in some parts found and used written tnemorials of the times and events of rohich he treats / bitt it is impossible to determine throughout tvith any certainty or with particular j^robability (as several modern scholars had attempted to do, see De Wette, § 179) how many earlier writings the author uses, or precisely what he has taken from one or the other." The position and importance of the jorop/te//ca/ element of the Books makes it beforehand very probable that the author took a corresponding portion of his matter from written tradi- tions of prophetical origin. The development and influence of the Prophetic Order through and under Samuel, especially in the community of the " sous of the prophets," which was under his direction, coincides with the beginning of the extensive literary activity, the object of which was the history of Israel in the light of the Theocracy. In the hands of Prophecy lay the theocratic writing of history, in which this history was described, in its outward progress and accordine; to its internal connection of cause and effect, not as a mere result of human 30 LNTIIODUCTION 10 THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL. fa"tors, but rather according to the all-coutroUing divine factor, and in the light of God's guidance by His holy will and His retributive righteousness, that is, according to theocr'atie^ liragmatism, in order that in this mirror the revelations of the living and holy God and their experiences and fortunes, which had their root in the divine righteousness, might be set be- fore the people for warning, for threatening, and for consolation. This was clearly the case in the most flourishing period of the Prophetic Order, which coincides with the time of the kings, for almost all the books which "Chronicles" cites for the history of Israel from David to Hezekiah are called prophetical histories. Though it may be doubtful in particular in- stances, considered apart from the rest, whether the name of the prophet indicates the autlior or the chief personage of the history, for example "the words" of Nathan the propiiet, yet in general the first is by far the more probable, as appears especially from tlie titles Nebuath Ahijah [Prophecy of A.J, Chazoth Jedai [vision of J.], Chazon Isaiah, and from 2 Chron. xxvi. 22, where Isaiah is expressly said to be the author of a history of Uzziah (Bleek, p. 158 sq.). According to the testimony of the Chronicler the three authorities on which the author of the Books of Kings bases his history, " the Book of the Acts of Solomon, the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel, and the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah " (I Kings xi. 41 ; xiv. 19, 29), were collections from prophetical historical books, whose authors lived at the same time with or after the events which they related. The author of the Books of Kings, in the history of Solomon (in which several sections are identi- cal with the account in " Chronicles," so that the two are taken from the same source) refers to " the Book of the Acts of Solomon," while "Chronicles" instead of this refers to the "words" ('n?7) of the prophet Nathan, the "prophecy" (HXIDJ) of the prophet Ahijah of Shiloh, and the "vision" (nun) of the seer Iddo (2 Chr. ix. 29). Where the first for the history of the Kings, from Rehoboam on, cites the Book of the Kings of Judah, the other cites " the words C^^l) of the prophet Shemaiah and of the seer Iddo " (Rehoboam, 2 Chr. xii. 15), the " I^'TI'? (midrash or commentary) of the prophet Iddo " (Abijah.xiii. 22), "the writing (2J?3) of the prophet Isaiah" (Uzziah, xxvi. 22), "the words ('!??!) of the seers" (Manasseh, xxiii. 18, 19), "the words ('i^^l) of Jehu, the son of Hanani," "which are re- corded in the Book of the Kings of Israel" (Jehoshaphat, xx. 34), the vision (|''in) of Isaiah (Hezekiah, xxxii. 32). Now in the Books of Samuel we do not find any such references to earlier historical wri'ings as basis of the history, as in the Books of Kings and Chronicles; but it does not thence follow that the Redactor did not use such authorities, inasmuch as there was no need to cite them. If the prophetical historiography occupies so important a place in the history of Solomon and the succeeding kings, we may thence, looking back, surmise that there were similar sources for the history of David, w-ho, as has been shown, was so intimately connected with the communities of prophets. In respect to the non-mention of such sources it is to be remarked that the farther the authors of the Books of Kings and Chronicles stood from the times of which they wrote, the more requisite they would feel it to make express mention of their authorities, which, like the events, were on account of the distance not well known to their readers, while it would not seem necessary to an author who lived comparatively near to the events which he described, (as was the case with the author of our Books, on which see below), to name to his readers authorities known to them, and thus to commend the cre- dibility of his history (see Haevern,, p. 148 ; Then., p. XIV.). But on the other hand, as our author was not near enough to the time embraced in his history to describe the events of this period a^ one who had taken part in them, he was not in position to give so distinct and detailed an account as we have, unless he had access to very full written authorities besides the oral tradition to which, in oriental histories, so much value is to be attached. We have already seen that large parts of the liistory of David, and precisely those which go most into particulars about persons and facts, point to the school of the Prophets in Ra- mah; 1 Sam. xix , xx.. xxii., xxv., xxviii. h^ 1 Sam. xix. 18, in the statement that David "at Ramah told all that Saul had done to him," we have good ground for the assumption 2 5. THE SOURCES. 31 that iu this community of prophets was noted down immediately, from David's state- ments and the accounts of his companions, what oould not be written from their own observation and experience. Compare THExrgs' remarks on chap, xx., p. 90, and chap. XV., p. 114,— especially on chap, xix., p. 89: "David's stay in the Seminary of the prophets guarantees the historical character especially of what our Book so particu- larly recounts, in this chapter and some of the following, of David's relation to Jonathan aod Saul, it being very probable that there David s own accounts were noted down, and that the reports here given are based, in part at least, on those notes." It is evident also from 1 Sam. x.5sq.,that there was a school of the prophets at Gibeah, Saul's dwelling-place, not far from Samuel's abode, and we may therefore suppose that here too, as iu Ramah and other prophetic communities, theocratic historiography was cultivated, and that here we may look for J, principal authority in Saul's history. We shall not err if we suppose that, apart from the sections in which accounts are given of prophetic agency in the time of Saul and David (Samuel's, Nathan's, Gad's), all the narrations also in which mention is made of the direct influence of the word of the Lord on the history (for example, in Saul's history, 1 Sam. xiv. 18sq., and in David's history, 1 Sam. xxiii. 1 sq. ; xxx. 7 sq ; 2 Sam. ii. 1 sq. ; v. 1 sq.; v. 18-25) are to be referred to prophetic-historical records as the primary source. If, now, we ank for express mention of such historical writings of prophetical origin and character as, according to the preceding discussion, we are warranted in assuming or presup- posing as the basis of our Books, we shall not find it in 1 Sam. x. 25, where it is said of Sa- muel " that he told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before the Lord." The content of this book is not stated ; for it cannot have been the " manner (law) of the king," viii. 11-17 ; but it no doubt contained the conditions fixed by Samuel, by which a barrier was set up against undue extension of the royal power, and the duties and rights of the king were fixed after the norm of God's will. From the existence of this writing of Samuel, which did not come into general circulation, but, with the funda- mental law of the Theocracy, the Torah [Law], was deposited in the Sanctuary of God, we may infer that he himself, like the prophetic communities, of which he was the founder and leader, occupied himself with literary pursuits, and particularly it seems certain that he wrote down his prophetical declarations arwl discourses, as we have them in the first book, and the same thing may be assumed of Nathan in reference to 2 Sam. vii., xii., and of Gad in re- ference to 1 Sam. xxii. 5, and 2 Sam. xxiv. 11-14. Recollecting, then, the flourishing con- dition of prophetical historical writing, according to the citations of the Chronicles, even in the beginning of the regal period, it is to these three prophets that we must look to find the foundation of this history. The prophetical authorities, not mentioned in our Books, from which the history is taken, aie found in fact in 1 Chr. xxix. 29, 30: "And the history ("2?^) of king David, the first and the last, behold, it is written in the history C^?^) of Samuel the seer, and in the history of Nathan the prophet, and in the history of Oad the Seer, with all his reign and his might, and the times that went over him and over Israel, and overall the kingdoms of the countries.'' With these words the Chronicler closes his narrative of the history of David (chs. x. — xxix.), which agrees wath the history in " Samuel " not only in general but also in particulars often literally. He refers for the history of David to three productions: the "^^"^^ Sx^atl' n3T [Words of Sa- muel the seer], the N'33n |r\j ^yy^^ [Words of Nathan the Prophet] and the nmn nj ^n^n, [Words of Gad the Seer], and characterizes them at the same time as works valuable for their fulness, and furnishing material complete as to the time embraced, and elaborate and exact in content. Evidently the Chronicler purposes giving the sources from whence he takes his history and establishing its credibility and trustworthiness. It is plain, from this purpose- of his, which relates to i\\Q facts recounted by him, and from the content of the list of autho- rities, that the ';?3T [words] means not merely declarations, discourses of the prophets (Hae- VRRN . Kfj?,), but also history or narrations; it remains undecided at the outset whether the nanips of the prophets indicate the authors or the chief per-onages. In any case the*e titles point to independent writings, and by no means to mere extracts from a great work entitled INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL. " the chronicles of the kings of .Tudah and Israel," as Bertheau supi^oses [Bucher der Chronik, 1S54:, Einl. I 3). Nor is the view tenable that our Books of Samuel themselves in their cor- responding divisions are meant by that citation under three names (Caepzov, Introd. II.; J. 1). MiCHAELis on 1 Chr. xxix. 29 ; Eichhorn II., p. 487 sq ; Movers on Chr., p. 178, and De Wette, Einl. [Introd.l 1 192 b) ; for that the three names in the citation are to be understood as the titles of three different independent productions follows, not only from the form of the <>itatibn, but also from the fact that "the Dibre of Nathan the prophet" is again specially adduced for the history of Solomon (2 Chr. ix. 29) ; and we cannot suppose this to be a dif- ferent work (as De Wette does, ubi sup.), and therefore it is not an extract from our Books heiic. This might suggest the supposition that such chiefly annalistic statistical historicnl works, giving information concerning the army and the civil government, heroes and officials, house- hold and family, were prepared by prophetical writers or under the guidance of prophets; and we might therefore here also in the "chronicles of David" recognize a prophetical v/ork. But even supposing that the prophetical historiography never occupied itself either indirectly or directly with such annalistic-statistical records, it could nevertheless use them as trust- worthy sources. It is highly probable that the officer termed "^iJlD Sopher (Chancellor or Secretary of State) had the care of these annalistic-statistical records whence came the ""^Pl D"'p'ri [chronicles] of David. The widespread opinion that the officer at David's court who was called "i'-?.'?, Mazkir or Recorder (2 Sam. viii. 16, and xx. 24 ; 1 Chr. xviii. 15) was the official state-annalist, and had to perform the duty of a historiographer has been conclusively shown to be untenable by Bleek [Einl. p. 158, 370) and Baehr {Komm. z. d. Buchern d. K'dnige, Eiyil. X. sq.). The elaborate pragmatic writing of history was in the hands of the prophets. The Mazkir (according to Thenius on 1 Kings iv. 3) was so called " because as fivijjMv he had to bring to the king's recollection aflTairs of state which were to be attended to, and offer counsel," and "if it was his duty, as Bleek says {ubi sup. p. 870), always to write down immediately whatever of special importance happened, this was merely to remind the king his master, and not to write history." — "The supposition by most crit'csof state-ann .Is, besides the prophetic records, as a second authority is based on an arbitrary confounding of the records of the Chancellor for the state-archives with public state-annals." (Keil, In- trod. I 54, Rem. 3; comp. I 59). The work mentioned in 1 Chr. xxviii. 24, the '"I ■''' '.??") [chronicles of David] was, however, very probably a collection of such official annalislic- statistic-historieal records of the Sopherim. It is a natural supposition that the lists of offi- cials in 2 Sam. viii. 15-18 and xx. 23-26 belongs to this work, although on the other hand we may presume that their names were known to the prophetical historiographers also. Yet it is true that the latter could have had little to do with the statistics of the specifically mili- tary affiiirs and the deeds of war, which they described only so far as seemed to them neces- sary from the theocratic point of view. So it is probable that the statistical-historical account of the wars of David in 2 Sam. viii. belonged to this work, while the therein-mentioned Am- monite-Syrian war is afterwards narrated at length, in connection with the sin of David and the intervention of Nathan, accordii\g to the prophetical work. So also the summary state- ment of the Philistine wars in 2 Sam. xxi. 15-22 and the register of heroes in xxiii. 8-39. Perhaps the author of our Books had access to other historical records, to which might be referred such sections as 1 Sam. xvii. 12-31, 55 sq., which do not seem to agree with the ?5. THE SOURCES. 35 context. Yet this can no more be determined with certainty than the question whether and how far oral tradition was used by the author, from which the incongruences in the passages in question might be explained. It is however possible, as Naegelsbach supposes {uU sup. p. 140), that the prophetical books discussed above contained many different accounts (from which that incongruity in 1 Sam. xvii. 12, 55 sq., may be explained), or no longer existed in proper arrangement and clearness. Besides the historical authorities the Redactor of our Books was acquainted viWh. poetical productions which he has inserted in his history : as, the Song of Hannah, 1 Sam. ii. 1-10 -, David's lament over Abner, 2 Sam. iii. 33, 34; David's song of praise, 2 Sam. xxii. ; and his last words, 2 Sam. xxiii. 1-7. We leave it undecided whether these songs were known to him separately, or belonged in part to a collection of songs — as Bleek says of the last words of David, supposing that they with their superscription (xxiii. 1) belonged to a mashal-col- lection {ubi sup. p. 362, 363) — or were all found in one poetical collection. The only autho- rity to which he ex2:)ressly refers is the Sepher Hajjashar, Book of Jashar (2 Sam. i. 18; CDmp. Josh. X. 13). From this he took the beautiful lamentation of David over Saul and Jonathan, which is inserted in the narrative under the title " Bow " j"*?^!?., vers. 19-27. This " Book of the Just " [i. e., " of that which is just ") (in this collective sense it is now usually explained, Vulgate: liber justorum) must have contained a collection of songs on specially memorable events of Israelitish history, and must have been in existence at the time of the composition of the present Book of Joshua and of the Books of Samuel. We cannot deter- mine whether it contained also a continuous history of the events to which the songs refer, and was therefore an authority for the author of our Books (see Bleek, p. 150). According to Knobel [Komm. zum Pent., Schlussabhandlung , Exeget. Handbuch 13, p. 546 sq., and on Josh. X. 15) it was a "law-book," a view which falls to the ground with the untenable view that the title means law-book. The sources, therefore, from which the author drew, were partly prophetical histories, which described the lives of Samuel, Saul and David, from the theocratic-prophetical stand- point in pragmatic connection (comp. 1 Chr. xxix. 28-30), partly official stntisiical-histnrical records of the history of David's government (comp. 1 Chr. xxvii. 24), Tpaxily poetical litera- ture. To this threefold element of the sources of the Books the content of the concluding section, 2 Sam. xxi. —xxiv., clearly jioints. The production of these authorities is to be put partly in the time, partly soon after the time of the events to which they refer. On the ground of these contemporaneous original accounts our Books bear throughout the stamp of historical credibility; so Thenius [Einl. XV.), who, it is true, grants this of a part of the work only, otherwise admirably remarks : "1) the places and very often the time also of the events are given in part with great exactness ; 2) the narrative answers fully to the character of the times ; and 3) the personages act in a life-like way." In this section on the original authorities we must mention the principal of the very va- rious and often contradictory hypotheses concerning the basis and construction of our Books, all of which are founded on their supjwsed contradictions, incongruences and repetitions, and therefore fall with this untenable presupposition. The first hypothesis worthy of mention is that of Eichhori^ [Einl. Ill,, ^| 469, 471, 475). According to it the foundation of the Second Book of Samuel is an " old short life of David with later insertions," which, however, are also to be referred to written sources, while the First Book was taken from an " old chronicle of Samuel and Saul," but contained also ele- ments of oral tradition, especially in Samuel's history. The Books received their present form from insertions and additions which were made from oral tradition and writings. — This hypothesis is so far modified by Bertholdt {Einl., p. 894 sq., 920 sq.) that he assumes four principal authorities: 1) for 1 Sam. xxxi. and 2 Sam. v., with ElCHHORlfHhe summary history of David's government with later insertions and additions; 2) for 1 Sam. i. — vii. a history of Samuel, for viii. — xvi. a history of Saul, for xvii. — xxx. a history of David before his accession to the throne. — Further by an anonymous writer (in Paulus Memor. VIII. 61 sq. Probe eines Krit, Vers, uber das ziveite Buck Sam.) many smaller component parts were as- sumed for the Second Book on the ground of supposed stylistic differences (thus 1 Sam. xxxi. ; 36 INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL. 2 Sam. i. 1-16, 17-28; iv., v. 1-10; xi. — xvi.).— Staehelin [Krlt. Unters. ub. d. Pent., p. 112 sq., 129 sq.) assumes as basis of the First Book an old work which he ascribes to the Je- hovist, to which important additions were made by the Redactor, from whom also the whole of the Second Book comes. -Gramberg {Gesch. d. Religionsideen d. Alt. Test. II., p. 71 sq.) finds two narrations, going over nearly the same ground, but contradictory, which went side by side through a great part of the First Book and into the Second, and were worked up to- gether by the collector.— Graf [De Ubrorum Sam. et Reg. compositione, scriptoribus, etc., Ar- o-ent. 1842) assumes as old constituent parts 1 Sam. xiii. 16 — xiv. 52 ; xvii. ; xviii. ; xix. 1-17 ; XX. — xxii. ; xxiii. — xxvi. ; xxvii. ; xxviii. 1 f. ; xxix. ; xxx. All the rest he holds to be mar- vel-loving hierarchical addition — that Samuel is presented as -an ideal of theocratic prophetic i-ule — that the judgeship of Samuel and Eli is an invention, and Saul's election a product of his name " he who is demanded " — and that in the same way older portions and later addi- tions in the Second Book were distinguished. On all these hypotheses see De AVette, | 179, who points out what is more or less unfounded in them, and says of the last : " This criticism is based almost entirely on what seemed to the author historically credible or not," — On Gramberg's hypothesis see Haevernick (p. 141) and Thenius (p. XL). The latter pro- perly characterizes it in the remark that " sections of wholly different character are arbitra- rily thrown together, and precisely those sections in which the presence of tradition cannot be mistaken, are declared to be the older." What Thenius says of the above-cited attempts to fix the component parts of the Books of Samuel — that they are all open to unanswerable objections — applies to his own hypothesis also. He distinguishes on internal grounds five principal parts : 1 ) a history of Samuel, 1 Sam. i. — vii., based on information gotten from the schools of the Prophets and on trustworthy tradition ; 2) a history of Saul according to tradition, probably introduced from a popular work, viii. ; x. 17-27; xi. ; xii. ; xv. ; xvi. ; xviii. 6-14; xxvi.; xxviii. 3-25; xxxi, ; 3) an older condensed history of Saul from old written accounts, and not altered in its historical foundation by tradition, ix. ; x. 1-26; xiii. ; xiv. ; 4) a history of David, into which the con- densed history of Saul has been enlarged by a not much later continuer, xiv. 52 ; xvii. ; part of xviii. ; xix.; xx. ; part of xxi. ; xxii.; part of xxiii.; xxiv. ; xxv. ; xxvii.; xxviii. 1, 2; xxix. ; xxx. ; 2 Sam., part of chaps, i.-v. ; vii. ; viii. ; 5) a special history of David, almost a biography, describing the second half of his life, and especially his domestic life, 2 Sam. xi. 2-27 ; xii. 1-25 ; xiii. — xx. The objections to this attempt to fix the original component parts of our Books are directed against the presupposition of contradictions, incongruences, repetitions, conclusions, and chronicle-like passages, from which the assumption of so many original sources is supposed necessarily to flow (see above). The kernel of Ewald's hypothesis is the assumption of a great comprehensive Book of Kings, of which our Books formed a component part {Gesch. I., 3 ed., p, 193-244). There was first, according to this view, an old historical work, composed soon after Solomon, per- haps in the happy times of Asa, full of very simple narrations of detached events with inter- spersed remarks, a work distinguished by a beautiful copiousness, lively and abounding in pictures, especially in the narration of wars; of this we have remains in 1 Sam, xiii., xiv., xxx. 26-31 ; 2 Sam. viii., and also in Judg. xvii, sq,,xix.-xxxi. Besides this there existed in the troublous times after Jehu's elevation a work composed by a prophetical writer who was at the same time a Levite, attractive from its high prophetical view of events, and which, commencing with Samuel's birth and labors, as an entirely new beginning in Israelitish his- tory, described, from a prophetical stand-point, principally the establishment of the kingdom with the origin of which Samuel's labors were necessarily connected ; of this work large connected remains, in many places in the original fulness and in almost unchanged form, are to be found in the section 1 Sam. i. — 1 Kings i., ii. (both which last chapters betray the same hand as the principal parts of First and Second Samuel), and may be followed in scat- tered traces even to 2 Kings ix. 1— x. 27. According to Ewald, the arrangement of the his- torical material in this prophetical book may still be clearly seen in First Samuel according to three chief points of view : 1) the basis of the history of the establishment of the king- dom, 1 Sam. i.— vii., Samuel's life, concluded with the summary vii. 15-17. 2) The history g5. THE SO C ROES. 37 of Saul's rule, 1 Sam. viii.— xiv., with the concluding summary xiv. 47-52. 3) The narration concerning David and Saul, the decline of the latter, the rise of the former, in 1 Sam. xv.— xxxi. In Second Samuel, on the contrary, the original account of David's reign, on account of the revision which it afterwards underwent, cannot be so clearly recognized. Yet its prin- cipal features may be seen in the three sections in which David's life is described : 1 ) The remains of the history of David from Saul's death to his elevation to the throne of all Israel are to be found in 2 Sam. i.— vii, 2) The history of the middle period of David's reign in Jerusalem, whose richer material was most condensed in the work, is found in 2 Sam. viii. 1-14 (the foreign wars and victories, probably an abridgment of the before-mentioned mili- tary history), viii. 15-18 (internal organization), ix. (David's ethical attitude towards Saul's house), X. — XX. 22 (David's relation to his own house), xxi. 1 14; xxiv. (the plagues). 3) Out of the latter part of David's life belonged to the work 2 Sam. xx. 25, 26 ; xxii. xxiii. 1-7, with which the whole section fitly closed. This work, says Ewald, " the best basis for all the widely read histories of the kingdom," was afterwards much revised, and thus on the one hand enlarged, but on the other greatly abridged, as may be seen from passages in which there are allusions and presuppositions in respect to facts and persons that were never before mentioned; so 1 Sam. xiii. 2; xxx. 26-31. In 1 Sam. between chaps, xxiii. and xxx. much of the original work is lost; chaps, xxiv. and xxvi. are by later hands. The sections xxiii. 8-39 and xxi. 16-22 are taken from " Journals of the kings or state-annals." With the frag- ments of this prophetical work, Ewald holds, and of the first-mentioned more military his- tory are combined in our Books those of another work going over about the same period, and certainly written not much later, which, according to its traces in 1 Sam. v.-viii. and xxxi., did not have the sharply defined character of the other, though similar to it, but was drier and more colorless in style. From its author came probably the narrative of the Pe- riod of the Judges from which Judg. iii. 7 — xvi. is taken — A broader, freer form was given to this History of the Kings by a later revision, as appears plainly in our present history of Saul and David in ch. xii. ; xv. — xvii. ; xxiv. ; xxvi. ; xxviii. ; for these are fragments of from two to three later works. Afterwards the histories of the Kings received their present forui in two revisions; first, by the Deuteronomistic redactor soon after the reformation under Josiah, who, adopting the method of the Deuteronomist, sifted, worked up and abridged the material which had been greatly increased by preceding recensions, and for the first time gathered up and skilfully combined what seemed to him the most important parts of the older works, as we see in our present history, 1 Sam. i. — 1 Kings ii. The basis of his book was that work of the prophetical narrator, with which, besides the material from other books, he worked in his own additions which were not numerous (1 Sam. vii. 3, 4, a good deal in xii. ; 1 Kings ii. 2-4.) The work, thus greatly enlarged by the Deuteronomistic redactor, received its last revision by an author who lived in the second half of the Babylonian Exile, who edited the history of the origin of the kingdom to Solomon's accession (1 Sam. i. — 1 Kings ii.), "as good as quite unaltered," according to the preceding redactor, appended some detached pieces from David's biography which he had at first designed to omit, but, for the rest, issued the present Books of Judges, Euth, Samuel and Kings as a connected whole, inserting the Book of Ruth (written in the midst of the Exile, and the only one retained of a number of similar fragments by the same author), with reference to the absence of gene- alAgical statements about David's descent in the Books of Samuel, just before those Books as a preparation for David's history, while he put the Book of Judges, in its present form, at the head as an introduction to the whole Book of Kings. He did this for the sake of unity in the connection of the whole history after Joshua with the history of the kings; for the internal connection between the Book of Judges and the Books of Samuel is shown in the statement concerning Samson, that he began to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philis- tines, in which reference is made to the continuation of this history in Eli, Samuel, David. This redactor, properly speaking, merely edited anew the first half of the older large work on the Kings, which goes to 1 Kings ii. ; only the second, from 1 Kings iii. on, can rightly be called his own work. In this assumption of Ewald's of several redactors, too much play is given to conjee- 3S INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL. ture without firm supports in historical data. We have, however, in those three prophetical authorities (1 Chron. xxix- 28-30) and in the chronicles of David (1 Chron. xxvii. 24) ground sufficient to conjecture that our assumed author of the present Books of Samuel followed those authorities, writing from a prophetical stand-point, and according to prophetical points of view- That a special historical work must be assumed, from which to derive 1 Sam. xiii., xiv., in the historj^ of Saul, and 1 Sam. xxx. 26 sq. and 2 Sam. viii. iu the military history of David, seems less probable than that the first is to be referred to the written records in the schools of the Prophets, which took careful note of the deeds of Saul and Jonathan, and the two last to the " words C"?.^"!) of the days of David," 1 Chron. xxvii. 24. — The hypothesis of a final shaping of the Book of Kings partly by a Deuteronomistic redactor, partly by a final remodellcr and collector in the second half of the Babylonian Exile, has, in relation to the history under discussion (1 Sam. i. — 1 Kings ii.), little foundation; and it is simpler and more natural to refer the views in the discourses of Samuel which are termed Deuteronomis- tic {e.g. "return to God with all your hearts and serve him," 1 Sam. vii. 3 and xii. 20, 24) to this prophetical work, the " Words of Samuel," and the collection and addition of the section, 2 Sam. xxi. — xxiv., to the redactor who arranged and prepared the history up to ch. xx. 26. The similarity in language and style between 1 Kings i., ii., and the preceding narrative in 2 Sam. may be explained by the fact that the authors of the two books used the same autho- rity, namely, the prophetical Book of Nathan. — For the rest, Ewald's hypothesis differs from the others mentioned, in that it represents the Book of Kings, as far as it here comes into consideration (from 1 Sam. i. to 1 Kings ii.), leaving out the parts supposed to have been later introduced by various redactors, as having unity and as the finished work of one pro- phetic historian, and avoids the dissection of the historical material which we find in the other hypotheses. Naegelsbach rightly remarks, that the additions which this hypothesis ascribes to a Deuteronomistic redactor do not make the eighth part of the whole, and that therefore the general unity of the work is confirmed by them [ubi sup., p. 407). It must also be noted that both the division of the content of the First Book (chs. i.-vii. Samuel, viii.- xiv. Saul, xv.-xxxi. David and Saul), and the division of the Second Book, the history of David's government according to the theocratic chief points of view which control the entire narrative, cannot be more admirably presented than has been done by Ewalp. But from the fiict that the content of the books is evidently divided in accordance with such a theo- cratic-prophetic view of the history of the preparation, genesis and establishment of the the- ocratic kingdom under Samuel, Saul and David, we are authorized to conclude that the redactor of this history, apart from the prophetical authorities to which he had access, was himself a prophet. ^ 6. THE AUTHOR AND THE TIME OF COMPOSITION. Having discussed the original sources of our Books, we have now to consider, and in connection with one another, the two questions concerning the author and the time of com- position. What EwALD says {ubi suj)., p. 211) of the author of the foundation of the Book of Kings, that he was himself a prophet, we claim for the redactor of our Books on the grounds already discussed at length ; but we cannot apply to him what Ewald maintains of the for- mer, namely, that he was also a Levite, which Ewald holds to be clear from the care'^ul account which he takes, in the midst of so many more important events, of the fortunes of the sacred Ark and of the Priests and Levites, and from the considerable acquaintance which he clearly shows with everything pertaining to them. For a propihetical writer as such would have had that lively interest and exact knowledge; he need not have been a Levite. It is, however, further against this view, that in our Books the priesthood recedes in a striking manner into the background over against the prophetic element, and therefore "no histori- cal work is more instructive and important than this for the understanding of the older pro- phetic order in Israel," as Ewald {ubi sup.) well says. Nothing is known to us of the person and surroundings of the redactor of our Books; on the opinions of the older writers, see Caepzov, p. 213sq. Thenius supposes, not without I 6. THE AUTHOR AND THE TIME OF COMPOSITION. Teasnn, that, since he had access to so many good authorities, he could not have been in mean circumstances. " The Talmudical statement, that Samuel wrote the Books called after him is shown to be unhistorical by the simple fiict that the history goes beyond Samuel's death" (Kkil, Inlrod, II. 48). — The view in some Introductions, as Eichhorn's {Einl. | 468, p. 529 bq.), Jahn's I^Elnl., p. 232 sq.), Herbst's [Emf. II. 1, p. 139 sq.), De Wette's (in the Beitrdge I., p. 43sq., but retracted by him in EiyiL §186), and others, that our Books had the same author with the Books of Kings, and that therefore their composition is to be put not before the latter part of the Babylonian Exile, or immediately after the Exile, is untenable; fir the differences between them in form and content are too great to admit of identity of authorship. In the first place, it is a striking difference that "' Kings" quotes its authority in every section, while "Samuel" never does, whence it follows that the author of the latter lived nearer to the events described, the author of the former much farther off. Again, the language is different; numerous traces of the Aramaean dialect occur in "Kings," and almost none at all in "Samuel." In the Books of Kings we see traces from beginning to end of their composition during the Exile, while in the Books of Samuel there is not the slightest reference to the time of the Exile. In the latter there are no direct distinct references to the Law of Moses, while in the former, even before the discovery of the Book of the Law under Josiah, the law is several times spoken of as written (I Kings ii. 3 ; 2 Kings xiv. 6 ; xvii. 37). In our Books mention is made of the various places of worship and sacrifice which existed besides the Ark without blame or hint that this was displeasing to God, while in "Kings" the •worship in high places is condemned as illegal. The form of the narrative is quite different also in the two works. In "Kings" the chronological statements are carefully repeated with every king, while the chronological element is almost entirely neglected in "Samuel." The epic breadth and copiousness which the latter shows in many parts is almost wholly lacking in the former, which gives only extracts, usually short, from its authorities to which it refers for wider information. There is no trace here of the standing character-formula which is peculiar to the Books of Kings: " He did that which was right, or evil, in the eyes of the Lord." For all these reasons the author of the Books of Kings cannot be the same with the redactor of the Books of Samuel. — The Rabbinical view, which has had a good many advo- cates, that Jeremiah is to be regarded as the author of "Samuel" as well as "Kings," be- cause his prophecy has much similarity to them, and here and there corresponds with them in content (a view to which Grotius also, on 1 Sam. i. 1, inclines), is similarly untenable; for this proves nothing more than that the author of " Kings " was acquainted with the Book of Jeremiah (see Kueper, Jerem. libror. sacr.interpr. atque vindex, p. 65), and Jeremiah with the Books of Samuel. Staehelin [Krit. Unters., p. 137 sq.) infers from our author's friendly attitude towards royalty, from the promises made to the House of David, and from Jere- miah's allusions to these Books, that they were composed under Hezekiah ; to which Nae- gelsbach excellently replies, that this is referring to a subjective motive what has a good, objective, historical ground, and Jeremiah might certainly refer to our Books, though they did not originate in his time (p. 411). If we inquire for positive indications of the time of composition in the content and form of our Books, we can find in the formula "even unto this day" (1 Sam. v. 5; vi. 18; xxx. 25; 2 Sam. iv. 3; vi. 8; xviii. 18), and in the explanation of obsolete expressions (1 Sam. ix. 9) and old customs (2 Sam, xiii. 18) nothing more than the indication of a time of author- ship somewhat distant from the events narrated. Nor can anything more definite, least of all the composition after the division of the kingdom, be determined from the mere distin- guishing between Jadah and Israel in 1 Sam. xi, 8; xvii. 52; xviii. 16; 2 Sam. ii. 9, 10; iii. 10 ; V. 1-5 ; xix. 41 sq.; xx. 2 ; for this distinction was already usual in the time of Saul and David, being based on the fact (pre-supposed in the passages cited) of such a division, which conditioned the development of the history of David's kingdom. At first only the tribe of Judah adhered to David as its king, the other eleven tribes under the common name Israel forming a separate kingdom for seven and a half years under Ishbosheth,* and afterwards for a short time under Absalom. * [Mi-ire precisely stated, under the represcnt.itives of Saul's House ; Isliboshetli was probably not kinc; the •whole time. — Tb.] 40 INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL. From 2 Sam. v. 5 it appears that the redactor certainly wrote after the death of David, since the whole number of years of his re'gn is given. But the non-mention of David's death cannot show that he wrote shortly thereafter, as Haevernick (p. 145) maintains ; for even if his death had occurred only a short while before, the author could not have maintained silence about it simply because it was generally known, and "not a matter -of interest," since he certainly did not write merely for his own contemporaries. — Further, it undoubtedly ap- pears from 1 Sam. xxvii. 6 ("Ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah to this day") that our author made his recension after the division of the kingdom into the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. Haevernick's explanation (p. 144) that the "kings of Judah" are not here opposed to those of the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, but are the kings who sprang from and ruled Judah, is untenable. The " kings of Judah " can be understood only of the kingdom of Judah which arose after Solomon's time in consequence of the division, in distinction from the kingdom of Israel. It is, however, uncertain at what time after the division the book was composed ; probably it was before the destruction of the kingdom of the Ten Tribes,. since there is no indication that the author knew of the dispersion of an important part of the people (Bleek, p. 362). " In general," rightly remarks Keil [Comm. Introd., p. 11), " the content and language of our Books point to the time immediately succeeding the divi- sion of the kingdom, since there are no references to the subsequent downfall of the king- doms, much less to the Exile ; and the diction and language is throughout classic and free from Chaldaisms and later forms." That the recension took place not long after the division of the kingdom may be inferred from the fact that worshipping the Lord and offering sacri- fices in various places is, as already remarked, regarded not at all as blameworthy, but rather as well -pleasing to God (1 Sam. vii. 5sq., 17; ix. 13; x. 3; xiv. 35; 2 Sam. xxiv, 18-25). We therefore adopt the hypothesis of Thenius, who refers (p. xiv.) to 2 Sam. viii. 7; xiv. 27, in which, according to the correct Hebrew text suggested by the Septuagint, there is allusion to Rehoboam, and says of the author, that the notices, in all probability inserted by him, do not reach farther than the time of Eehoboam. — The result of our investigation is. therefore, that the Books of Samuel in their present form were composed by a prophetical writer soon after the division of the kingdom. [On the sources, date and authorship of "Samuel," see Art. "Books of Samuel" in Smith's Bib. Diet, and Introd. to Samuel in the Bible Comm. The latter refers to David's Psalms as one of the sources, points out that twenty or thirty years of the first part of Saul's reign is omitted, and puts the book (as it stands) towards the time of Jeremiah. The diffi- culty of coming to a satisfactory decision on this point is well brought out by Erdmann. — Tr.] I 7. literature. Theodoret, Quxst.inlibr.l., II., Reg. Op. ed., Vaessel, Hal., 1769, Tom. I.; Nik. liX-RK, Postill. in univ., 8. S. Lugd., 1545; J. Bugenhagen, Annotationes in Deuteron. et Samuel, Basil., 1524, 8; Annot. in libros Sam., Argentor., 1525, 8; J. Menius, Enarratio in Sam. libr. prior em, 1532, Viteberg; J. Brentius, Homil. in libr. I., Sam., Francof ad M., 1554, fol. ; J. Calvin, Homil. in lib. I. Sam., Amstelod., 1667, fol. ; H. Weller, Sam., lib. I. annotationibus explicatus, Francof., 1555, 56, fol. ; P. Martyr, Comment, in II. Ubr. Sam., Tig., 1567, 1575, fol. ; C. Pellicanus, Comment, in libr. Sam., Tigur, 1582 ; V. Strigel, Comment, in libr. Sam., etc., Lips., 1591, fol.; Paul Laurentius, Griindl. Auslegung iiber die zwei Bucher Sam., Leipz., 1616, fol.; Drusius, Annot. in loc. diffic. Jos., Judg., Sam.., Arnh., 1618, 4; C. Sanctius, In 4 libr. Reg., etc., Comm., Antwerp, 1624, fol.; Critici sacri, T. II., London, 1660; Bonfrere, Comm. in libr. (4) Beg., etc., Thor., 1643, 2 Th. fol.; H. Grotius, Annot. in vet. test., Paris, 1664, IIL Tom. ; ed. Vogel, Hal., 1775, T. I.; A. Calo- vius, Bibl. illustrata, T. I., Francof., 1672 ; S. Schmid, In libr. Sam. Comment., Argent., 1687, ff. II. Tom. 4 ; JoH. Ad. Osiander, Comm. in I et IL lib. Sam., Tubing., 1687, fol. ; JOH. Olearius, Bibl. Erkldrung der ganzen Heiligen Schrift, Leipz., 1678, fol. V. Theil; POLUS, Synopsis criticor., Francof. ad M., 1694 ; J. Clerious, Vet. test, libri historici, Amste- lod., 1708, fol.; Dathe, lib. histor. vet. test. Jos., Jud., Ruth, Sam., etc., Hal., 1784; J. D. LITERATURE. 41 MiCHAELis, Deutsche Uebersefzung des Alt. Test., Gottingen, 1772, Th. 4; J. H. Michaelts, Bibl. hebraica, Magdeb., 1720; J. Chr. Fr. Schulze, Comm. Norimh., 1784; Niemeyek, Charakieristik der Bibel, 4, 5, Th. Halle, 1795; Hensler, Erldut. des ersten Bucks Sam., etc., Hamb., 1795; Hoepfner u. Augusti, Exeget. Handb. d. A. T., Leipz., 1798; Maurer, Comm., Leipz., 1835; Chr. H. Kalkar, Qucest. biblic. Specim. II. [de nonnullis prior. Sam. libr. locis, etc.), Othiu., 1835; O. Thenius, Die Bucher Sam. erkldrt, 2 Aufl., Leipzig, 1864 (conip. RuETSCHLl in the Siud. und Krit., 1866, p. 207 f.); 0. Fr. Keil, Bibl. Komm. uber die prophet. Geschichtsbucher des Alt. Test. II. Die Bucher Sam., Leipz., 1864 [Eng. Tr. Keil, on Samuel] ; Bunsen, Die Bibel, etc, II., Die Propheten. V. Dietrich, Summarien, 1578, Niirnb. fol. ; L. Osiander, Deutsche Bibel Lathers mit Erkldrung, von D. Foerster, Stuttg., 1600, fol.; Pfleickbr, Predigten uber das erste Buch Sam., Tiib., 1605, fol. ; Dan. Wuelpfer, Saul Exrex, Predigten icber die Historien des Konigs Saul, Niirnb., 1670, 4 ; Cramer, Summarien und bibl. Auslegung, 1627, 2 Aufl., Wolfenbiittel, 1681, fol.; ViETOR, David's, Leben und Regierung in Predigten, Nurnb., 1690, 4; Wuertem- BERG, Summarien und Auslegungen der Heil. Schrift; Das A. T, von J. K. Zeller, Stuttg.,. 1677; vermehrt herausgegeben durch die theol. Fakult. in Tubingen, Leipz., 1709, 4; Gottf. KoHLRElF, Betrachtungen fiber 30 auserlesene Oerter aus d. Buch. Sam., Eatzeburg, 1717, 8; Berlenb. Bib., 2 Th., 1728, fol.; Joachim Lange, Biblisch-historisches Licht und Recht, Halle u. Leipz., 1734, fol. ; Chr. M. Pfaff, Biblia d. i. die game Heil. Schrift. mit Summa- rien und Anmerk, Tubing., fol. 8 Aufl. Speier, 1767; Starke, Synopsis II.; Eichter, er- kldrte Hausbibel A. T. II., Barmen., 1835 ; LiSKO, Das A. T. mit Erkldrungen 1 Die histor. Bucher, Berlin, 1844 ; O. V. Gerlach, Das A. T. mit Einl. und erkldrend. Anmerk., 2 B., Berl. 1846 (5 Aufl., 1867); Calwer, Handbuch d. Bibelerkldrung /., Calw. und Stuttg., 1849; Daechsel, Die Bibel, mit in den Text eingeschalteter Auslegung, mit eiriem Vorwort von Dr. A. Hahn, General-Superintendent, etc., I. 1, Die Geschichtsbucher, Heft 11-14, Bresl. 1865 sqq., bei Duelfer; Betbibel, 2 B. Eisleben, 1863. M. Fr. Eoos, Ei7il. in die bibl. Gei^chichten.—neuer Abdruck, Stuttg., 1857, Th. 2 ; ElSEN- LOHR, Das Volk Israel unter d. Herrschaft d. Konige, 2 Th., Leipz., 1856; J. Schlier, Di& Konige in Israel, ein Handbiichlein zur heil. Geschich., 1859; Hasse, Gesch. d. Alt. Bundes, 1863 ; Staehelin, Das Leben David's eine histor. Unter suchung , Basel, 1866. J. Schlier, Konig Saul, Bibelstunden, Nordl, 1867 ; J. Disselhoff, Die Gesch. Konig Saul's— el/ Predigten, 4 Aufl. Kaiserswerth a. Eh., 1867 ; Fr. Arndt, Der Mann nach dem Herzen Gottes, 19 Predigten liber d. Leben David's, Berl., 1836 ; F. W. Krummacher, David, der Konig v. Israel, ein biblisches Lebensbild, Berlin, 1867 ; J. Disselhoff, Die Gesch. Konig David's, des Maimes nach dem Herzen Gottes, 14 Predigten, 3 Aufl.. Kaiserswerth a. Rh., 1867; J. Schlier, Konig David, Bihelstunden, Nordling., 1870 ; J. Euperti, Licht und Schatten aus d. Gesch. des Alt. Bundes, I. Samuel der Prophet, Hermannsburg, 1870. [Besides Dictionaries of the Bible (Ersch m. Gruber, Winer, Herzog, Kitto, Fair- bairn, Smith), Introductions (De Wette, Keil, Bleek, Davidson), and Geographical Works (Eeland, Lightfoot, Bochart, Eitter, Eobinson, Stanley's Sinai and Pales- tine, Thomson's The Land and the Book, Porter in Murray's Handbook), the following additional aids may be mentioned : 1. Jewish Commentaries.— R. Solomon Isaaki (Eashi), eleventh cent., in Bux- TORF's Biblia Rahbinica, and Lat. translation by J. F. Breithaupt, Gotham, 1714 ; R. David Kimchi (Eadak), 13th cent, in Buxtorf; E. Levi ben Gershom (Ealbag), thir- teenth cent., in Buxtorf; Abarbanel, fifteenth century. Good suggestions may be gotten from these. 2. Patristic— Jerome, Qucest. in Sam. ; Augustine, Quest, and De Civ. Dei Lib. 17 ; Gregory the Great, Comm. ; Chrysostom, Hojnilies on Hannah and on David. 3. Continental LuDOVlCUS de Dieu, Oritica Sacra, Amstelaedami, 1693, full of valuable grammatical observations; Die Israelitische Bibel (L. Philippson), Leipzig, 1858, represents modern liberal Jewish opinions. 4. English Commentaries.— Of the older (generally unscientific and unsatisfactory), Patrick, Lowth atid Whitby has much good exposition ; Wall s Critical Notes are nearly 42 INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL. useless ; Gill has references to Jewish authorities ; Henry is devout ; Claeke is learned, but sometimes erratic and untrustworthy ; the Compreheiisive Commentary is a compilation not without value. Of the later, Bishop Wordsworth's Holy Bible with Notes is devout and conservative, and has some useful quotations from patristic writers, but is marred by excessive literalness and allegorizing ; the Critical and Experimental Commentary by Jamie- SON, Fapsset and Brown is condensed and clear, useful for those who have not time for wide reading ; the Bible Commentary, " by Bishops and other Clergy of the Anglican Church," is intended to give the results of modern scientific investigation as held by orthodox Angli- cans, and is a valuable and generally trustworthy work. 5. Biographies, Histories, etc. — Chandler's Critical History of David and Delaney'S History of David are useful ; Hunter's Sacred Biography ( Hannah) and Robinson's Scrip- ture Characters, of not much profit; the quaint sagacity and earnest piety of Bp. Hall's Contemplations is well known ; Kitto's Daily Bible Illustrations are especially useful in giving vividness to Scripture scenes and persons; Stackhouse's Hist, of the Bible, Milman's Hist, of the Jews, Stanley's Lectures on the Jewish Church, Ewald's Gesch. d. Volkes Israel (Eng. transl. History of Israel, Clark's Foreign Theolog. Library), Hengstenberg, Gesch. d. Beiches Gottes u.d. A. B. (Eng. transl. Hist, of the Kingdom of God under the Old Covenant), are valuable ; C. Kinqsley, Four Sermons on David, delivered at the University of Cam- bridge, sprightly and suggestive; W. M. Taylor, David the King of Israel, New York, 1875, a series of interesting and wholesome discourses; F. D. Maurices Prophets and Kings of the 0. T. is thoughtful and candid. 6. On the criticism of the text. — Besides general works on text criticism and the Biblia Hebraica of J. H. Michaelis, mentioned above by Dr. Erdmann, we have Kenni- <:OTT's Fd. of Heb. Bib., Oxford, 1776-80; De Eossi, Vari(e Lectiones Vet Test., Parmje, 1784; Thenius and Keil (Eng. tr., Clark's Foreign Theolog. Lib.), in their commenta- ries; Wellhausen, Der Text d. Biccher Sam., Gottingen, 1871 ; foot-notes in Ewald's Hist. of Israel; Strack' s Proleg. Crit. in Vet. Test.; Fbankel's Vorstudien zur LXX.; David- son's Biblical Criticism. — Tb.] THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. FIRST PART. SAMUEL. 1 Sam. I.— VII. Samuel's I^ife and Work as Judge, Priest axd Prophet, Directed Towards a Tho- rough Eeformatiox op the Theocracy and Laying the Foundation of the Theocratic Kingdom, FIRST DIVISION : SAMUEL'S EARLY LIFE. 1 Sam. I.— III. FIRST SECTION. Samuel's Birth in Ans-wer to Prayer to the Lord Chap. I. 1-20. I. SamueV s parents, the Ephrathite Elkanah and the childless Hannah. Vers. 1-8. 1 Now [om. Now^] there was a certain [oin. certain] man of Ramathaim-zophim,' of Mount Ephraira, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of 2 Elihu, the son of Tohu, the Son of Zuph, an Ephrathite. And he had two wives ; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah ; and Pe- 3 ninnah had children, but [and] Hannah had no children. And this man went up yearly out of [from] his city to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord [Jehovah] of hosts [Hosts] in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there [And there the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phine- 4 has, were priests of Jehovah^]. And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he 5 gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions; but unto Hannah he gave a worthy [double*] portion, for he loved Hannah, but [and] 6 the Lord [Jehovah] had shut up her womb. And her adversary also lorn, also] provoked her sore [ins. also], for [o»i. f >r] to make her fret because* the Lord [Je- 7 hovah] had shut up her womb. And as he did so [And so it happened®] year by year ; when she went up to the house of the Lord [Jehovah], so she [she thus] pro- TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 1 [Ver. 1. The 1, being a part of the introductory narrative-formula, and not a connective with some other narrative, is better rendered by the presentative "now" than by the connective "and;" and is best omitted entirely. — Tr.]. 2 [Ver. 1 Vat. has 2i0a, wiiicli points to '31}^ " aZuphite ;" Targ. renders "of the disciples of the propliets," Pesh. " from the hill of the watchers," both of which point to the present text, but are not probable transla- tions.—Te.]. ^ [Ver. .3. It is not said that these were the only priests. — Tr.]. * TVer. 6. See Notes, rn locn. — Tr]. 6 [Ver. G. It was over this that the adversary designed to make Hannah fret. — Tr.]. * [Ver. 7. The verb is probably to be pointed nt^J^V— Te.]. 43 44 THE FIKST BOOK OF SAMUEL. 8 voked her, therefore [and] she wept and did not eat. Then said E'.kanah her hus- band [And Elkanah her husband said] to her, Hannah, why weepest thou ? and why eatest thou not ? and why is thy heart grieved ? am not I better to thee than ten sons ? II. Hannah's Prayer Jor a Son. Vers. 9-18 a. 9 So [And] Hannah rose up after they [she^] had eaten in Shiloh, and after they [slie''] had drunk. ISTow [And] Eli the priest sat upon a [the] seat by a [the] post 10 of the temple [Sanctuary*] of the Lord [Jehovah]. And she was in bitterness of 11 soul, and ])rayed unto the Lord [Jehovah], and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts [Jehovah of Hosts], if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thy handmaid, but [and] wilt give unto thine handmaid a male-child, then I will give him unto the Lord [Jehovah] all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his 12 head. And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the Lord [Jehovah], 13 that Eli marked her mouth. Now [And] Hannah, she \_07n. she®] spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore [and] Eli 14 thought she had been [was] drunken. And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou 15 be drunken? put away thy wine from thee. And Hannah answered and said, No,. my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit ; I have drunk neither wine nor strong 16 drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord [Jehovah]. Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial [dissolute woman^°] ; for out of the abundauce 17 of my complaint and [i?is. my] grief have I spoken hitherto. Then [And] Eli answered and said, Go in peace ; and the God of Israel grant thee [om. thee] thy 18 a petition that thou hast asked of him. And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight [thine eyes]. III. SamucUs Birth. Vers. 18 6.-20. 18 6 So [And] the woman went her way and did eat, and her countenance was no 19 more sad.^^ And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the Lord [Jehovah], and returned and came to their house to Eamah. And Elkanah 20 knew Hannah his wife ; and the Lord [Jehovah] remembered her. Wherefore [And] it came to pass, when the time was come about, after Hannah had [that Hannah] conceived, that she [and] bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying,. Because [For, said sAe,] I have \_om. have] asked him of the Lord [Jehovah]. '• Ver. 9. The Infin. refers here rather to Hannah. — Tr.]. 8 [Ver. 9. 7J'n is not necessarily "temple," but any large structure. — Tk.]. 9 [Ver. 13. The Heb. inserts the pron. XTI " she," but our Eng. dors not well permit it.— Tr.]. 10 [Ver. 10. 71'^ 73 " worthlessness" should not be rendered as a proper name in O. T. ; Eng. A. V. frequently rendei-s " sons of B." by " ungodly " or " -wicked." — Tr.]. " [Ver. 18. See Kotes.— Tjr.]. EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL."^ I. SdinncTs Parents. Ver.s. 1-8. Vers. 1, 2. And there •was a man of Ra- mathaim-zophim. — Here an account is given of SaiJtnrtit (/en/'alofiy and birth-place. There is no sufHcient ground for adopting (as Thcnius does) tlie reading of the Sept. MS. R. (\'at.j rrn jyN [there was a man] instead of ^•i^ ''?.''l [and there was a man], since this latter does not aflbct the independence of Ijie Books of Samuel; for the 1 [and] does not indicate attach- ment to somctliing preceding, tlie continuation of the Book of Judges, but ""n'^ [and tliere was] Btands here, as it often does at the beginning of a narrative, as historical introductory formula, * [In the German " exegelixche er. autfrungen," cal explanation.'*." — Tk.]. ' exegeti- .Jos. i. 1 ; Judg. i. 1 ; Kuth i. 1 ; 2 Sam. i. 1 ; 1 Kings i. 1 ; Esth. i. 1 ; Ezra i. 1 ; Ezek. i. 1 ; Jonah i. 1. The father of Samuel was a man of Eama- thaim-zophim in the liill-country of Ephraim, named Elkanah. The place Pamatliai in (D'HOiri) ^ • - r |tt is doubtless the same that is called in ver. 3 "his city," and afterwards in ver. 19 and ii. 11 by the shorter name Ramah (nO"in) whence it \ T T T '' appears that it was not merely the family-resi- dence, but also Elkanah's abode, where he had "his house." The full name Ramathaim-^o^j/uHi is found here only. The dual "Two-hills" points to the site of the place as on the sides or summits of two liills. It is the l)irth-}>lace of Samuel (ver. 10), the same Ramah in which he had his house (vii. 17), the central point of his labors (viii. 4; XV. 34; xvi. 13; xix. lS-22) and his ;d>()de a.s long as he lived, and where he was buried ( xxvi. 1 ; xxviii. 3). But this Ramah of Samuel, according CHAP. I. 1-20. 45 to Pressol's clear statement in Herzog {R.-E. s. v. Rama), is most probably identical with the Ea- mah in the tribe of Benjamin (Jos. xviii. 2o) ; for the statement of Josephus (Ant. 8, 12, 3) that Eamathon,* which = Q.'O"-'"' [Kamathaim] and is therefore doubtless the Ramah of Samuel, was forty Stadia from Jerusalem, and that of Eusebius (Onomast. s. v. ' Apaads/i) that it was somewhat farther north in a line from Jerusalem towards Bethel, carry us into the territory of Benjamin. If it be urged against this view that, according to Judg. iv. 5 and this passage, Kamah of Samuel was in the mountains of Ephraim, and therefore in the Tribe-territory of Ephraim, it is to be ob- served on tlie other hand that the mountains of Ephraim stretch into the Tribe of Benjamin, and not only include its northern mountains, but ex- tend towards Jerusalem and unite with the moun- tains of Judah. The Ramah of Samuel lay in Benjamin near Gibeah, Saul's home, and Mizpah. The addition zophim (D^ili^fj distinguishes it from the other places of the same name, and indicates the district (the land of Znph ix. 5) in which it lay, whose name is to be derived from the family of Zuph or Zophim from whom Elkanah de- scended (comp. 1 Chr. vi. 11, 20). Since, accord- ing to this, Zophim indicates a region, which took its name from the descendants of Zuph, the place Soba, which has lately been discovered west of Jerusalem, cannot be the Ramah of Samuel, as Robinson and Ritter suppose (see Then, sacks, exe- get. Studien, II. 134 sq., and Ewald, Gesch. II. 595). It is rather to be sought in the site of the pre- sent Er-Ram between four and live (Eng.) miles, as Josephus states, from Jerusalem on the summit or side of a conical mountain on the road from Jerusalem to Bethel. When Saul (in cli. ix. 5) comes into the " land of Zuph," he straightway finds Samuel in "this city." That "this city," Samuel's abode, is identical with Ramathaim- zophim here is beyond doubt. But against the view that it, together with the region " Zuph," belonged to Benjamin, and in support of the view that it is different from Ramah of Benjamin, and lay in the territory of Ephraim, the principal consideration adduced is Saul's route (ix. 4 — x. 2) : on the return from Ramah to Gibeah, Saul, it is said, certainly took the directest road; but, according to x. 2-5, he first crossed the border of Benjamin (x. 2), and then came into the neigh- borhood of Bethel (x. 3), which lay close to the border of Benjamin and Ephraim ; according to this, Ramah of Samuel was situated north of Bethel in Ephraim not far from Gibeah (ver. 20) but near Shiloh (ch. i. 24), for if it had been far from Shiloh, the animals for offering would not tave been carried from home. So Then, on ix. 5, p. 34. But the assumption that Saul went the directest way to Gibeah is not certain. In ver. 3, remarks Winer correctly ( W.-B. s. v.), nothing is said really of the neighborhood of Bethel, but only that Saul should meet men who were going to Bethel, from what direction we know not. And Ramah of Benjamin was so near Shiloh, that there was no needf to drive thither the animals * [So Josephus ; but the text of Erdmann has Rama- thai m.—TR.]. t (Tliat is, it was not necessary to drive the animals thither lieforehand. since, the distance being so small, they could be sent for when needed. — Tu.J. which could not easily be purchased on the spot.- The other geographical term ^7^1£X "Ephraim- ite " (which must not be connected with ^li' (Luth.)in which case it would have been TlliJXn) certainly describes Elkanah as an Ephraimite, who belonged not only to the mountains, but also to the Tribe of Ephraim — and not as a Bethlehe- mite, as Ilofiinann ( Weissag. u. Erf all. II. 61) and Robinson (Pal. II., 683 [Am. ed. ii.7sq.])sup. pose ; for in xvii. 12 and Ruth i. 2, to which ap- peal is made, the word is further expressly de- fined by the phrase " of Bethlehem." " It by no means follows, however, from this description of Elkanah (comp. Then. p. 2) that Ramathaim- zophim pertained to the territory of Ephraim, but only that Elkanah's family had settled in this Ramah, and had afterwards moved to Ramah in Benjamin " (Keil, p. 18). As Elkanah came from the Levitical family of Koliath, son of Levi, whose land lay in Ephraim, Dan and Manasseh (Josh. xxi. 5, 21 sq. ), and as the Levites generally were counted as citizens of the tribes in which their residence was, it is not strange that Elkanah is here designated as an Ephraimite according to his descent, while he lived in Benjamin, whither his forefathers had immigrated. The f ami! 1/ of Elkanah is here traced back only through four generations to ^'li' " Zuph," no doubt with reference to the preceding designation Zo- phim, because Zuph had settled in this district with his family, and it had taken its name from him. It would therefore properly be written D'£)12f " Zuphim." This explanation of the name is certainly more natural than that which sup- poses that the district in which it lay, the "land of Zujjh " (ix. 5) was so called from its abundant supply of water, and than the explanation of some Rabbis, " Ramathaim of the watchers or jjro- phets." [The first question with regard to this word, whether we read Zophim or, with Erd- mann, Zuphim, is a grammatical one: is the com- bination Ramathaim-zophim in accordance with Heb. usage? In proper names the rule is that the first word of a compound is in the construct, state, but the two exceptions, compoimds with 73N "meadow," Gen. 1. 11, etc., and niil' "plain," ••T ' ' ' '"T '^ ' Gen. xiv. 5, seem to prove the possibility of an appositional construction, so that we must admit (against Wellhausen " Der Text. d. Bucher Sam." in loco) Ramathaim-zophim to be a possible form. But, as "Zophim" never appears again as an ap- pendage to Ramathaim, and the old vss. Chald. and Syr. render it as an appellative, it would per- haps be better, with Wellhausen, to suppose that the final D m comes by error of transcrii^tion * [The (lifficnlties in the way of identifying Rama- thaim (-Zophim) on the suppossition that it is the same vvith '■ this city " (ix. 0) are almost insuperable. The conditions to be met are 1) the place is in Mt. Ephraim ; 2) it is apparently south ot Rachel's tomb (1 Sam. x. 2); 3) it was Samuel's residence Ramah. They decide the question against Er-Ram, which is north of Rachel's tomb. The only solution is that which rejects the above, supposition. If (he city in which Saul was anointed was some other place, or Saul's residence at that time was not Gibeah. tlien Er-Ram maybe Ramah, and in other respects this answers better than any other place to the circumstances. But the question must be re- garded as undecided. See Stanley's "Sinai and Pales- tine," Note to ch. ■!,and Mr. Grove's Articlos (•• Rnniah," '■ Ramathaim") in Smith's Dictionary, with Ur.Wolcott's additional remarks.— Tk.]. 46 THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. from the following word, tind to read 'SliSf "a Zuphite/' which would then correspond to the " Zuph " at tli^i end as " an Ephraimite " does to "Mount Ephraim."— Tr.]. From a comparison of the two genealogies in 1 Chr. vi. 20, 27 (Heb. 11, 12) 3-4, 35 (Heb. 19, 20) with this genealogy oi' Samuel it appears that they agree except in the last three names, which in the tirst list in Chr. are Eliab, Xahath and Zophai, and in the second, i-.liel, Toah and Zipli. They are plainly the same names with various changes of form. These clianges are probably to be ascribed to differences 01 pronunciation or to the mis-writing of the ori- ginal forms which are preserved in this passage (comp. Then. 2). - The Levifieal descent of Elkanah and Samuel is put beyond doubt by a comparison of the gene- alogy here with those in Chronicles. In the first of these, 1 Chr. vi. 22 sq. (Heb.7 scj.) the genealo- gical list descends from tlie second son of Levi, Kohath, to Samuel and his sons ; in the second, ver. 33 sq. ( Heb. 18 sq. ), it ascends from the singer ileman, Samuel's grandson, to Kohath, Levi and Israel. These Levites of the Family of Kohath had their dwellings appointed them in the tribes of Ephraim, Dan, and Manassch. As the Levites were usually designated by the tribes in which their dwellings were fixed (Ilengstenb. Beitr. [Contributions] zur Elnl. ins. A. T. III. 61), the name "Ephraimite" here cannot be adduced against the Levitical descent of Samuel, as is done by Knobel (II. 29, Anm. 2), Nagelsbach (Her- zog, B.-E. s. V. Samuel) and others. The latter himself refers to Judg. xvii. 7 and xix_. 1 as cases where a Levite is described as belonging to an- other tribe, but thinks it strange that, while in those passages the Levitical descent of the men is also expressly mentioned, Elkanah's descent from Levi is here "not hinted at, and this is all the more surprising, if he was really a Levite, wlien his ancestor came from Ephraim to Kamah and gave his name to tlie region. But the author of the Book of Judges had a special motive for men- tioning the Levitical cliaracter of those persons, ■while our author had little or none, since in his narrative of Samuel he lays all the stress on his prophetic office, and writes, as we have seen, from a prophetic stand-point. There was the less need to emphasize Samuel's Levitical character because, as Ewald (II. 594) remarks, the Levites that were not of Aaron's family, seem in early times to have been more blended with the people. And the statement in "Chronicles" of Samuel's Levitical descent was not occasioned by the fact that the prophet performed priestly functions (Knobel ubi sup.), nor is it to be ex]>lainO(l Ijy saying that per- haps quite early tlie conviction that Samuel must luxve been a Levite grew out of the difficulty which every Levite must have felt at tlie discharge of priestlv duties by Samuel, if he were not of the stem of Levi ( N^gelsbach, ubi siip.)—nov to be re- ferred, witli Tlienius (p. 2), to the fact that, per- liaps in later times the genealogy given in our Book was attached to tliat of Levi in order thus to justifv Samuel's oflcrin^ sacrifices. " Chroni- cles" throughovit makes its statistical-liistorical statements from the Levitical point of view, and thus supplements the history of David and Sa- muel in our Book. Ilengstenberg well says {ubi sup.) : " We cannot suppose these genealogies to be an arbitrary invention, simply because, if the author liad been disposed to this, he would doubt- less have put Samuel among the descendants of Aaron." Ewald remarks, " Any one who looks narrowly at the testimony in 'Chronicles' cannot possibly doubt that Samuel was of a Levitical fa- mily," while our author attached no importance to this fact {ubisup. Anm. 2). So Bunsen (in loco), referring to Josh. xxi. 21, where the dwellings of the Kohathites are fixed in Mount Ephraim also, says: " The Levitical descent of Samuel is certain ; only it is not made specially prominent here." Xiigelsbach himself is obliged to admit that tlie proofs of Samuel's Levitical descent are convin- cing; for 1) looking at " Chronicles" (1 Chr. xxv. 4; comp. VI. 18 sq.), he is obliged to concede that Samuel's posterity is very decidedly considered as belonging to the Levites, since Heman, tlie re- nowned singer, grandson of Samuel and father of a numerous posterity, has an eminent place in the lists of Levites of David's day ; and 2) he urges fur- ther as a not unimportant consideration the name of Samuel's father, " Elkanah, that is, he whom God acquired or purchased," for this name is both in signification and use exclusively a Levite name, and all the Elkanahs mentioned in the Old Test, (leaving out the one in 2 Chr. xxviii. 7, whose tribe is not stated) were demonstrably Levites, and belonged mostly to the family of Korah from whom Samuel also was descended. See Simonis Onomast., p. 493; Ilengstenb., ubi supra 61; Keil in loco. — The further objection is made that Sa- muel was really dedicated to the Sanctuary-ser- vice by his mother's vow, which would not have been necessary if Elkanah had been a Levite. To this the answer is not that Hannah's vow referred to the Nazariteship of her son^ — for though all Nazarites were specially consecrated to the Lord, they did not thereby come under obligation to serve in the Sanctuary like the Levites — but ra- ther that in Hannah's vow the words " all the days of his life" (vers. 11 and 22) are to be em- pliasized. While she consecrates him to the Lord as Nazarite, she at the same time by her vow de- votes him for his whole life to the service of the Lord in the Sanctuary ; while the Levites did not enter the service till the age of twenty-five or thirty (Numb. viii. 23sq.; iv. 23, 30, 47), and then needed not to remain constantly at the Sanc- tuary, Samuel as soon as he is weaned is destined by his mother to continual service there (ver. 22), aiid while yet a boy wears there the priestly dres.i. — It is again urged against the Levitical descent of Elkanali that, according to the Septuagint ren- dering of ver. 21 (wliich adds vaaac rof (^Karac T?]c yf/c avTov "all the tithes of his land"), he brought tithes (Then.); but the genuineness of tliis addition is very doubtful, and, even if it be received, the bringing of tithes is no evidence of Elkanah's non-Levitical character (Josephus, who relates tlie Levitical descent, makes no difficulty in speaking of the tithe-bringing), for, according to the Law, the Levites had to bestow on the priests, as gift of Jehovah, one-tcntli of the tenth which they themselves received from the other tribes. Numb, xviii. 2Gsq.; comp. Neh. x. 38 (Keil 20, Note). Ewald (11. -",94) says: "The tithe whicli Elkanah (according to i. 21, Sept.) brought proves nothing against his Levitical cha- CHAP. I. 1-20. 47 racter." See his Alterth'dmer ( Archaeology), p. 346. Thenius refers the fulfilment of the pro- phecy in 1 Sam. ii. 35 to Samuel, and thereon bases the assertion that Samuel's Levitical descent is set aside by the prophecy ; but, even if his re- ference be conceded, this consequence does not follow, for in this prophecy the sense requires us to emphasize not the priest but what is predicted of him. n^n, 'Ar?n, Hannah (found in Phoenician also; Dido's sister was named Anna), a common name for women among the Hebrews, signifying "charm," "favor," "beauty," and in a religious sense " grace." Elkanah's bigamy with Hannah and Peninnah ("coral," "pearl"), like tlie custom of taking concubines along with the proper wives, is funda- mentally opposed to the original divine ordina- tion of monogamy. The Mosaic Law does not forbid polygamy, but never expressly ap- proves it ; it accepts it as a custom and seeks to restrict and govern it by various regulations (Lev. xviii. IS; Ex. xxi. 7-10; Dent. xvii. 17; xxi. 15- 17). According to Gen. iv. 19 it was a Cainite, Lamech, that first violated the original ordinance. As it was usually only the men of more wealth and higher position that took two or more wives, we may suppose that Elkanah was a wealthy man. — The curse which attached to this relation appears in Elkanah's married and family-life ; Peninnah, who was blessed with children, exalts herself haughtily above the childless Hannah, and embitters her soul. The resulting discord in the family-life shows itself at the holy place, where Hannah's heart is continually troubled by her "adversary," while Elkanah seeks to console her by all the more affectionate conduct. Vers. 3-5. Elkanah's yearly worship and sacrifice at Shiloh. And this man vyent up, etcr — ■ The expression "from year to year" C"* D'O'D) is used in Ex. xiii. 10 of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and so elsewhere (Judg. xi. 40; xxi. 19). On the traces of the Passover in the Period of the Judges see Hengstenberg Beitr. [Contrib.] III. 79-85. It is this Feast that is meant here. For Elkanah is said in the text to have traveled regu- larly every year with his whole household (ver. 21) to the Sanctuary. This journey was not taken at pleasure, but at an appointed time, and there- fore at one of the festivals at which the people were required by the Law to appear before the Lord, Ex. xxxiv. 23; comp. Deut. xvi. 16. It was only at the Passover that the whole family were accustomed to go up to the Sanctuary, only then that every man without exception went. But Elkanah attended the feast regularly only once a year. Nothing but the Passover, therefore, can be meant here. At this feast Elkanah went up once every year to the tSanctuary with his whole family. [This statement — that tlie feast which Elkanah attended was the Passover — would be * The addition of the Sept ef 'ApM.a8at> does not war- rant tlie supposition that the corresponding Heb. ex- pression lias fallen out after II^J^D, but seems to be an explanation of the translator — (^ D''D'^ not "at his T ■ usual time" (Luther), nor "■ siatuHs diehua" but "from y€»ar to year," yearly (Ex. xiii. 10), comp. ii. 19; n^t □ ';3^n " tlie yearly offering." pi'obable, if we could assume regularity in carry- ing out the Mosaic Law at this time; but this cannot be assumed. See Judges xvii., xviii., xix. ; 1 Sam. ii. 12-17. Some preler to see here a feast ditierent from any of the three great festivals, re- ferring to the feasting (ver. 9) and David's "yearly sacrifice," 1 Sam. xx. 6; comp. Deut. xii. 11-14 {Bib. Comm. in loco). This, however, is not con- clusive; feasting would be appropriate at the great festivals, (see Lev. xxiii. 40; Neh. viii. 12) ; and the question what occasion this was must be left undecided. — Tr.]. To worship and to sacrifice. — The beautiful picture of Israelitish piety which we have in the fol- lowing account of Elkanah and Hannah is intro- duced by these features as the chief and fundamen- tal ones. Theworship relatesto the wa»ie of the Lord who dwells in His chosen place in the Sanctuary, and is the expression of the remembrance of this name before tlie Lord. The sacrifice is the embo- died prayer ; in the sacrifice worship is presented to the Lord as the act by which the ofierer brings liimself, and all that he has, to the Lord. Ac- cording to the Law (Ex. xxiii. 15; xxxiv. 20; comp. Deut. xvi. 16) those who came to the Sanc- tuary to attend the festival were not to appear empty-handed before the Lord, but "every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which He hath given thee." The nsn ("to sacrifice") is to be understood of the Shelamim, which consisted of free-will offer- ings (Deut. xvi. 10), partly from the tithes set apart for this purpose (Deut. xiv. 22 sq.) and the first-born of cattle (Deut. xv. 20; Numb, xviii. 17), which were preceded by burnt offerings, (Numb. X. 10) and followed by jovful feasting. (Oehler, Herzog E.-E. IV. 386). With reference to this sacrificial meal, which belonged essentially to the peace-ojferinys (Shelamim), the whole act of sacrifice is designated by n^I, because this word denotes slaying with reference to a meal to- be afterwards held, and the expressions W^'ulU (peace-offerings) and CHl^r (sacrifices) are ex- actly equivalent, the 113? n^T ("to sacrifice a sacrifice") being used of the Shelamim. This peace-offering, whose performance is called npr " slaughter," was preceded by a sin-offering and a burnt-offering, of which the former removed the alienation from God occasioned by sin, and the latter through the worship offered made the of- ferer acceptable in the sight of God ; and thus the peace-offering was the representation and confir- mation of tlie relation of integi'ity, the peaceful and friendly communion between the Lord and the man who was hrourjht near to Him [olVJ inte- ger fu it) ; comp. Oehler in Herzog X. 637, Heng- stenb. Beitr. III., p. 85 sq. To the Lord of Hosts, Jehovah Sabnoth. El- kanah draws near with worsliip and with sacri- fice. The signification of the name nin' [ Jahveh, which probably, and not Jehovah, is the correct pronunciation, — Tr.] is tlie ground of the worship and of the presentation of the offering. The living, unchangeable eternal God, who by His historical self-revelation as His people's Covenant- God has prepared Himself tlie name by which 4S TflE FIEST BOOK OF SAMUEL. they are to know and call Him, and by which He conies into direct intercourse with them, has thus tirst made possible tor His people the worship and sacritice whicli they are to l)ring to His honor, and also made it a sacred duty. In Shiloli Elkanah brings his offering to the Lord of Hosts. Shiloli (^tbty, that is, "Eest") lay in the territory of Ephraira, " on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway tliat goetli up from Bethel to Shechem and on the south of Lebonah," Judg. xxi. 19. Here the hjanctuary of Israel, the Tabernacle with the Ark, which immediately after the entrance into Canaan was placed in Gilgal (fifty stadia from Jordan, ten from Jericho), was located from the time men- tioned in Josh, sviii. 1 (the sixth year after the passage of the Jordan according to Joseph. Ant. v., i. 19), to the capture of the Ark by the Phi- listines. For a time only, during the Benjamite war (Judg. xx. 27j, the Ark was in Bethel. Shi- loli was the permanent seat of the Sanctuary till the unfortunate Philistine war under Eli. And this Sanctuary was, during the whole period of the Judges up to Samuel's time when the Ark fell into the hands of the Philistines, the only one that the people of Israel had, the national Sanc- tuary instituted by Moses, where men came into the presence of the Lord, wliere all sacrifices were offered and the great festivals celebrated, where tlie whole nation assembled: tlie dwelling, the house, the temple of God (vers. 7, 9, 22). In re- gard to Shiloh as the religious centre of the people during the whole period of the Judges on account of the location there of the Sanctuary with the Ark by Joshua, see for further details Hengstenb. Beitr. [Contrib.] III., ji. 52 sq. Shiloh was the home of the prophet Aliijah under Jeroboam II. (1 Ki. xi. 12, 14) and was still in existence at the time of the Exile ( Jer. xli. 5). Jerome found there some ruins and the foundation of an altar (see on Zeph. i. 14). According to Robinson (III.302sq. [Am. €d. 11. 267-270]) and Wilson {The Lands of the Bible, II. 292 sq.) the ancient Shiloh is the present ruin Seilun, whose situation answers exactly to the description in Judg. xxi. 19. The position of tlie place was such that, in accordance with its name, tlie Sanctuary of Israel could there have a ipiiet permanent place. Tliis quiet place, situated oa a hill (Ps. Ixxviii. 54) was tlie scene of the miglity revolution brought about in tlie history of the Theocracy by the call of Samuel to be the Prophet of God and by the overthrow of the priestly house of Eli. Instead of "and tliere the two sons, etc." (Uli/) '3 ''J^) the Sept. gives ical skeI 'HAt koI ol 6vn vloi ai'Tov (" and tliere Eli and liis two sons," ver. 3), as if the text had read "and there Eli," etc. ^' 7^ Dtyi) ; but this is clearly a cliange of the ori- ginal text occasioned by tlie fact, which seemed .strange to the translator, that not Eli but his two sons are mentioned at the beginning of the Book. Tliis mention of the pciests accords with the fol- lowing narrative, wliicli speaks of the sacrificial function, which Eli on account of age no longer discharged. Eli, tiiougli termed only priest, yet tilled the office of High-priest, liiit had made over the priestly duties to his sons; iience it is that they, and not he, are here specially mentioned as persons who were priests to the Lord (D^JTlS mn'7), by which it is intimated that there were others who performed this priestly service before the Lord. From the fact that only these two, with their father, are here mentioned expressly, it has been concluded that the Priesthood was numerically very meagre and simple; but this conclusion is wholly unfounded; for, on the one hand, not all the priests are mentioned here, but only the two who figure in the succeeding his- tory and iilustrate the corruption of the Priest- hood, and, on the other hand, from the fact that all Israel sacrificed at the Sanctuary at Shiloh it is clear that two or three priests would not suffice for the service, comp. ii. 14, 16. What a con- trast is given us here in the two sons of Eli, rep- resentatives of a priesthood inwardly estranged from God and sunk in immorality, and the pious God-fearing Elkanah and his consecrated wife Hannah ! Ver. 4. "The day " (D'i'n), that is, on the day when he came to Shiloh to sacrifice.* That Elkanah's sacrifice (H^T) was a praise or thank-offering is clear from what follows ; for, according to the Law (Lev. vii. 15) the flesh of this ofi'ering, of which the offerer kept a part, had to be eaten on the day on which it was brought. This praise-offerimj or thank-offering is (Lev. vii. 11 sq.) the first and principal sort of the peace-of- fering (D'p^K' = min-'7;; nar or 'd mi'n mi, vers. 13, 15), the sacrifice of the thankful recog- nition of God's undeserved benefits. The second sort of peace-offering is the vow-offering C.'l.A)? which was promised when a request Avas made for God's favor, and offered when it was granted; the third sort is the free-will-offering (DDnj) for a special experience of God's favor, and in a wider sense a voluntary contribution to the Sanc- tuary and its furniture [Ex. xxxv. 29. — Tr.]. — Elkanah's whole family took part in the feasts which he made there from the Shelamim [peace- offerings] in accordance with the provision of the Law, Deut. xii. 11, 12, 17, 18. These meals had a /o//}V/ character, comp. Deut. xii. 12; xvi. 11; xxvii. 7. In Elkanah's household this joy was disturbed all the while by the childlessness of Hannah. While he divided to Peninnah and her chil- dren their pieces, parts, portions of the flesh of the ofiering, he gave Hannah Ver. 5. D'3N nPX HJO. Of the various ex- ■ T - TT planations of these words (in which the D'SX makes the difficulty), only two now deserve con- sideration; the first (Syr., Targ., Gesen., Winer, De Wette, Bunsen, Keil [Wordsworth, Bib. Com., Calien]) takes Df^X in the sense of "persons," so that it would read " a portion for two persons," or "for persons" ([Fiirst], Bunsen, that is, "a large piece"); the second (Thenius, Bottcher, " neue exef/et. krit. Achrenlese z. A. T.", p.Soscj.) after the Vulgate and Luther renders O'SX "sad," or bet- ter, "displeased," "unwilling." Against the first *[The phrase DVn ^Ty\ moans " once," or " it hap- pened once," the Hob. using the Def. Art. (because the dav is defined by what follows) where we use an indefi- nite phrase. See 2 Kings iv. 8, 11, 18.— Tb.]. CHAP. I. 1-20. 49 explanation is the fact that the sing. ^X never has the meaning " person," nor can it be shown that this meaning belongs to the dual; it means "countenance," but it is only by forcing that the signitication " person " can thence be gotten (Keilj on the ground that "SX^ is equivalent to \J3'7 in 1 Sam. XXV. 23, and U]2B is used for "person" in 2 Sam. xvii. 11. It is, however, on linguistic grounds, better to explain the word, according to its usual signification, as expressing a displeased disposition or emotion, akin to anger. It is then to be taken adverbially (as, for example, the op- posite feeling n^lj, Dent, xxiii. 24; Hos. xiv. 5) equivalent to D'^k^S in Dan. xi. 20, "in anger." In contrast with the joy which ought to have reigned undisturbed at this feast, Elkanah's heart was fiill of sadness because his beloved Han- nah remained without the blessing of children, while her adversary, jjroud of her children, vexed her with it; for childlessness was held to be a great misfortune, a reproach, yea a divine pun- ishment (Gen. xix. 31; xxx. 1, 23). The one portion, which alone he could give Ilannah, was .a contrast to the many portions which he gave to PenLnnah and her sons and daughters, and was, as it were, the mark of her desolate despised con- dition over against the fortunate and boastful Pe- ninnali. [It is difficult to give any satisfactory rendering of this much-disputed phrase. The word C^J^ has only three meanings in the Old Test, (ex- cluding this passage): 1) nostrils (Gen. ii. 7; Lam. iv. 20); 2) face (1 Sam. xx. 41); 3) anger (1 Sam. xi. 6). The rendering, therefore, "sad- ness," " displeasure," defended above by Dr. Erd- marin, is hardly allowable. Nor does the word mean "person;" in 2 Sam. xvii. 11 (adduced by Keil) the similar word Q'Ji3 means not " per- sons," but "presence," and offers no support to this rendering. The Chaldee translation "a chosen portion" takes it in the sense "pre- sence," " a portion worthy to be set in one's presence," as the bread in the Tabernacle was called U^22 Dn^ " bread of presence," " show- bread." Another translation (mentioned by Ge- senius. Thesaurus s. v.) is "one portion of faces," that is, two slices of bread with meat between. The Syriac translation "double" is apparently based on an accidental resemblance in two words. The Sept. omits the word and renders " one por- tion," but the context requires an explanatory word here. The original strictly allows only two translations, either "a portion of anger" (so Ab- arbanel, who speaks of two angers or griefs which Elkanah had), which seems out of keeping with Elkanah's character, or " a portion set in one's presence," that is, " an offered portion," which is jejune. In this failure of the strict rendering to make sense, it is perhaps better to conjecture a meaning "persons" for 2'3X, (following Syr. and Arab.) and render "a double portion." — Tr.]. Vers. 6-8. Hannah, provoked by her adversuri/, consoled by Elkanah. Peninnah is Hannah's ad- versary on account of Elkanah's special love for the latter (ver. 5) ; out of jealousy slie is her rival. Bigamy, which is in opposition to God's appoint- ment, bears its bitter fruits for Elkanah and his house. — 0]13~D^ "with anger (or vexation) also." DJ^3 is not simply "vexation" in a subjective- intransitive sense, but is found also in an objec- tive-transitive sense, as in Deut. xxxii. 27 (the wratli which the enemy produces in me) and 2 Kings xxiii. 26 (D'O^^, provocations to anger, in reference to God). "This last is the sense here also, and the DJ ("also") indicates the heaping up of anger and vexation which Peninnah occa- sioned in Hannah. In what sense and with what design Peninnah did this is shown by the follow- ing words (">D^.|, etc.). The word (D^Tjinlliph. means " to rouse, excite, put in lively motion ;" here, as the context ('"' "IJO '3) shows, against God ; she not only held up before her her unfruit- fulness, itself reckoned a reproacli, but represented it also as a punishment from God, or at least as a lack of God's favor. — In ver. 7 Elkanah cannot be taken as subject, as is done in the present pointing (nty^^^); for in the preceding independent sen- tence (ver. 6) Peninnah is the subject; still less, for the same reason, can the suffix in nn7j^ (when she went up) according to this construction be re- ferred to Hannah. In accordance with the tenor of the narrative it is better, with Luther, De Wette, Bunsen, Thenius, to read Hty^'' and trans- late " and so it happened." [Others read not so well ni^'^'n "and so she did."— Tr.]. The two 1^ (so . . . so) correspond therefore in relation to Peninnah's conduct, not in relation to Elkanah's bearing towards Hannah, and Peninnah's provo- cation (Keil). "So it happened (in reference to Peninnah) etc., thus she provoked her (Hannah)." The words "and she wept, etc." (HJlIlJ^jl) are re- ferred naturally to Ilannah by a sudden change of subject, which is allowable only in this under- standing of the subjects from "it happened" (Du^J?") on. — In ver. 8 Elkanah's consoling address is contrasted with Peninnah's provocations. Af- ter "Hannah" the Sept. adds: "and she said, " Here am I, my lord, and he said ;" but we are not to suppose (with Thenius) that the corres- ponding Hebrew words have fallen out of the text, for this phrase, a very common one in the cir- cumstantial accounts of speeches and conversa- tions, is here clearly an insertion. The attempt to give a more fitting expression to Elkanah's feeling gives too subjective a character to this reading ; and this feeling is sufficiently portrayed by the Masoretic text, in which the first tliree questions about the why or wherefore of her grief set it fortii in a climax (weeping, not eating, grief of heart). The translation of the Sept. tI. earl am ort (" what is to thee that") does not warrant us in taking (with Thenius) for tiie original text ths corresponding Heb. ("3 l^'i^p) instead of "why" (TTD/), for, comparing it with ivari [why] for the second and third "why" of the Heb., it is easily explained as a freedom of the translator. Elka- nah, bv the reference to himself, " am I not bet- ter to thee than ten children?" will comfort his wife for her lack of ciiildren. This supposes that she feels herself united to him by the most cordial love. We here have a picture of deepest and THE FIKST BOOK OF SAMUEL. tenderest conjugal love. The number ten is merely a round number to express many. II. Hannah's Prayer for a Son. Vers. 9-18 a. 1. First in vers. 9-11 an account is given of her prayer and vow beibre tlie Lord. The " eating and drinking " is the sacriticial meal of the whole family, at which Hannah was present, thougli out of sorrow she ate nothing, and at the conclu- sion of which she rose up in order to pray to the Lord. As it is expressly said, " she ate nothing," and Elkanah asks "why eatest thou not?" we must iiof, with Luther, translate " after she had eaten," on the groundless assumption that she had done so on Elkanah's consoling address (Von Gerlach). The Sept. renders rightly according to the sense /'tTa to (payelv nvrnvQ [after they had eaten], though this does not justify us (Then.) in so reading the Heb. (D73X). The passage from rose up (Dpni) to drunk (riilL:/ on this Inf. Abs. for Inf. Con., see Ewald, ^ 339 6) is to be con- nected with prayed, ver. 10 (^^.?'?PJ) the latter expressing the act which followed her rising from the meal ; the rest, fi-om " Eli " to " soul " is pa- renthesis, which, in two circumstantial sentences, gives the ground and explanation of the following narrative. Eli's sitting at the entrance of the Sanctuary is specially mentioned because of his after conduct to the praying Hannah ; Hannah's bitterness of soul is mentioned because it was the reason of her praying to the Lord. [The Heb. favors the translation, ver. 9, " after she l^ad eaten . . . and drunk ;" it may be a mere general ex- pression, or she may have yielded to her hus- band's request. There is no contradiction in this case between ver. 7 and ver. 9. See Bib. Comm. in loco. — Tr.]. In distinction from his sons, who are called "priests of the (to the) Lord" (Hin^S Q'^d^), Eli is called the priest (|ri3ri). Though called simply " the priest," he yet filled tiie oflice of High-Priest (Aaron and Eleazar, his son, are so called Num. XX vi.l; xxvii.2). In the beginning of the period of the Judges Phinehas, son of Eleazar, was High-Priest, Judg. xx. 28. This office was bestowed not only on him, but also on his pos- terity. Num. XXV. 13. At the end of tlie period of the .Judges it is in the possession of Eli, who, however, was a descendant, not of Eleazar and Pliinehas, but of Ithamar, Aaron's fourth son. In 1 Sam. ii. 28 the continued existence of the High-priesthood from its institution to Eli is taken for granted, and is confirmed by Jewish tradition (.loseplius, Ant. V. 11, ^ 5). According to this the High-priesthood continued to exist indeed in the period of the .Judges, but did not remain, in accordance with the promise in Num. XXV., with "the seed of Phinehas," but passed over to the family of Itliamar. It is not our aiitiior's purpose to tell anytliing of the liistory of the Higli-priests and Judges. Wiiat lie relates in the beginning of liis Book of Eli and liis sons serves only to iUustrate tiie liistory and impor- tance of Samuel's call, and to show that it was a historical necessity that the reformation of reli- pious-moral life should be undertaken l)y the Prophetic Order which entered with Samuel as a new and mighty factor into the development of the Theocracy over against the corrupted priest- hood.— The door-post ^riillpj, at which Eli sat, hardly accords with the curtain which formed the entrance to the Holy Place, except on the supposition that, after the Sanctuary was perma- nently fixed in Shiloji, a solid entrance-way, per- haps of stone, with doors, was built ; this is favored by iii. 15, where the " doors " are pre- supposed by the door-post here. niH' yy\} is the Tabernacle in relation to God as King of Israel ; it is his " palace " where, in His royal majesty as " King of glory " (Ps. xxiv.). He dwells in the midst of His peojile, meets with them, and holds with them covenant-communion (Ex. xxv. 8 ; xxix. 45, 46). — Hannah was " in bitterness of soul" (K'p^ n^O) at the continuance of her hope- lessness, and the vexations which she suffered from her adversary (comp. 2 Kings iv. 27). — Her supplication was the outpouring of her troubled soul before the Lord, and the words of the prayer (that her request for a son might be heard) were accompanied with many tears (113111} 7133^) ; that was the expression of her grief because lier petitions had been hitherto unheard. Ver. 11. And she vowed a vow is, as it were, the superscription and theme of the follow- ing words, wiiich I'orm a vow-prayer. The word here used (IfJA) usually means the positive vow (Num. vi. 2-5 is an exception), the promise to return fitting thanks to the Lord, in case the pe- tition is granted, by something performed for His honor or by an oflering (the first ex. is in Gen. xxviii. 20-22) ; the negative vow, tlie promise to refrain from something, is IDX or ^DN^obliga- tio (Num. XXX. 3). The former is connected with the Shelamim, as here Hannah's vow with Elkanah's peace-oflering. [For the law of vows in the case of married women, see Num. xxx. 6-16. — Bib. Comm. in loco. — Tr.] — Hannah ad- dresses Jehovah Sabaoth in view of His all-con- trolling power, by virtue of which He can put an end to her disgrace. The "if" (Q*^) denotes not doubt, but the certainty of the fact, that, etc. Tlie three-fold expression : " if thou wilt look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget," betokens in the clearest manner her confidence that God cares for her, has fixed His eyes on her person and her troubles, and cha- racterizes the fervor and energy of her believing prayers. The thrice-re})eatcd "thy handmaid" expresses tlie deep humility and resignation Avith which she brings her petition to the Lord. The object of her petition is male seed, a son. (□'K'JX, plural of ^'ii, comp. Ewald, § 186 f.)— [The Sept. has imfi'A.F'ipjjq enl t7j%> Tn-civuacv T?/r (hvA?j(; aov, which are the identical words of the Magni- ficat. He hath regarded the low estate of his hand- maiden (Luke i. 48). Bib. Comm. in loco. — Tr.] —The Wic (then I will give him, etc.) has two jiarts: 1) the consecration of the son all the days of his life to the Lord ; she will give him to the Lord for His own, that he may serve the Lord all his life in the Sanctuary.* The emphasis is on * [This local service promised by the mother was afterwards interrupted, chiefly by the call of Samtul to higher duties as prophet. To tlie mcjther thu Sanu- CHAP. I. 1-20. 51 the words "all the days" (-Tl ^0]~i3): the son was already called and pledged as Levite to ser- vice in the sanctuary, Init not till his thirtieth or twenty-fifth year, and then to periodical service ; Hannah consecrates him to the Lord all the days of his life, that is, to a life-long and constant ser- vice in the sanctuary. But this is entirely inde- pendent of the second part of the vow. 2) " No razor shall come upon liis head," that is, he shall be a Nazir (TJJ), one set apart to the Lord. The nazirate (nazariteship), as we see it in its representatives in the time of the Judges, Samson and Samuel, belonged to the holy institutions with which special consecration to God was con- nected. The Nazarite-vow belonged to the nega- tive or abstinence-vows. According to the legal prescriptions in Num. vi.lsq. (which indeed pre- suppose the nazirate as a custom, and only regu- late it, and aflirin its importance), the character- istic marks of the Nazarite were the refraining from wine and all intoxicating drinks, letting the hair grow, and avoiding defilement by corpses even of the nearest kin. The one controlling ethical principle in these three negative prescrip- tions is expressed in vers. 2, 5, 8 : the separation or abstinence is for the Lord; the Nazir is holy to Jehovah (Hin^b t^'lj^). To the negative ele- ment answers the positive — the special devotion and consecration of person and life to the Lord. This shows itself 1 ) in the abstinence from intoxi- cating drinks, which betokens the maintenance of complete clearness of mind for the Lord in the avoidance of sensual indulgences which destroy or liinder communion with God; 2) in avoiding contact with the dead, which sets forth the jire- servation of purity of life against all moral defile- ment, and its complete devotion to the Uvirig God, and 3 ) in keeping the razor from the free-gi-owing hair, which indicates the refraining from inter- course with the world, and the consecration of the whole strengtli and the fulness of life, whose symbol is the free growth of hair as the ornament* ("^TJ of the Lord, ver. 7) of the head. It is in keeping with the great importance which is at- tached (in ver. 7) to the hair of the Nazarite as "consecration {'^}},) of his God upon his head," that here this mark alone is mentioned, and Hannah thereby distinguishes her desired son as one vowed to God, see Num. vi. 11. Comp. Oehler in Ilerzog's R.-E. s. v. Nasiraat. [A similar omission occurs in the case of Samson, Judg. xiii. 5, who is, however, called a Nazarite. It may, perhaps, be doubtful whether all the con- ditions of the Nazirate were observed in these cases. Comp. the fuller statement concerning John the Baptist, Luke i. 15. The Sept. inserts " And he shall drink neither wine nor strong drink," plainly an addition to bring it into ex- acter accordance witli the law in Num. vi. It is possible that some freedom was used in making the vow, as the time was left at the option of the tuary-servioe seemed the best pursuit of life; but God had something better for tlie son. Yet Hannah's de- vout spiritual purpose is maintained in her son's life. -Tr.I * [This word 1TJ in Num. vi. 7 means "conseei'ation," not "crown," or "ornament." The root {KrRh. nadhara) means to " set," " impose." and thus is applied to setting apart the Nazir, or to setting a crown on the head of a priest or king. — Tr. | consecrator. Samuel was what the Talmud calls D71J.' "T'TJ, " a perpetual Nazarite." — The preser- vation of the hair does not seem to symbolize withdrawal I'rom the world ; and in fact the Na- zarite did not lead a secluded life. The view of Oehler, adopted above by Erdmann, that the hair represents vigor and life, is perhaps supported by the connection between the hair and strength in Samson's case. Another view, that it symbolizes the subjection of man to God, is adopted by Baumgarten and Fairbairn ; the latter refers to Paul's teaching in 1 Cor. xi. 10. On the general subject see Smith's Bib. Diet., Fairbairn's Ti/po- lof/i/ II. 346. — Tr.] — The nazirate is in its essen- tial elements related to the priesthood, and repre- sents the idea of a truly priestly life withdrawn from earthly-worldly things and devoted to God. But it has nothing in common with the priestly order as such ; it was, along with that, a special temporary form of consecration to the Lord in opposition to the unholy, impure life of the world. The Nazarites were not bound to service in the sanctuary, and not all who were called to tliis service were Nazarites. The son whom Hannah had consecrated by her first vow to life-long ser- vice in the sanctuary she consecrated by her second to be a Nazarite for life. The latter Avas the condition and foundation of an all the more hearty and faithful devotion to the Lord in His sanctuary-service. The life-long nazirate, to which children could be devoted before birtli, as was true here and with Samson (comp. .John the Baptist), was the highest and most comprehensive IJresentation of that idea. This double vow of Hannah and its fulfillment gave to Samuel from childhood on the disposition of heart and direc- tion of life towards the Lord, in which all the powers of his mind, all the striving and strug- gling of his inner and outer life were consecrated for the performance of the holy mission which he had received from the Lord. 2. Vers. 12, 13. Eli's profane view of the condi- tion of the praying Hannah. Her manner of praying is very distinctly described : 1) she prayed much and long, before the Lord — this marks the energy of thorough devotion and ardent piety towards God ; 2) she spake to her heart ( /J^ is not " in," nor is it= /N, Gen. xxiv. 25, where there is a similar i^hrase) ; in her prayer Han- nah looked altogether into her heart, that she might obtain consolation and rest for it, and thus it was certainly in fact speaking in her heart. This marks the deep sincerity of heart, the pro- found concentration and emotion of soul with which she prayed; it was so intense that only her lips moved as the involuntary expression of her emotion, and her voice was not heard, which was the necessary result of the fact that her heart was turned in on itself and thoroughlj^ immersed in God. — In contrast with this picture of the be- lieving suppliant, Eli's conduct is portrayed as really profitne ; his view of Hannah's condition is precisely the opposite of the truth. He appears here as a very had Judge. He judges merely from the outward appearance; he looks only at the movement of her lips (i^'S), which from the Heb. expression (r>"i;?3) must have been lively ; he remains fixed at the surface, while, consider- 52 THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. ilia; the source of Ilannah's emotion, he ought to have seen the prayerftil energy of her heart through the outward aijpearauoe ; lie passes rash judgment on lier, holding her from the signs of her emotion to be a drunken woman ; instead of " making the best " of what seemed to him strange, he fiuspiciously takes it in the worst sense, for he must have seen that Hannah came to pray, and Avas really praying, and need not liave thought of drunkenness to explain her demeanor. There is a noteworthy irony in the fact that, while the Iligh-priest takes her to be drunk, she has made a vow for her son which looks to the very oppo- site. This conduct is characteristic of Eli. With all his piety and good nature, he was lacking religiously and morally in proper earnestness and true depth and thoroughness. To the same source, his natural-fleshly disposition of heart, whence came his conduct towards his unworthy sons, we must refer his profane conduct and his so false judgment on the praying Hannah. Yet there was some ground for his hasty suspicion of Han- nah in the frequent occurrence of such cases in connection with the sacrificial meals ; and this points to a certain externalized and brutalized condition of the religious-moral life in the very precincts of the sanctuary under a brutalized priesthood. " Such heartfelt prayer seems not to have been usual at that time" (Bunsen). 3. Vers. I-^IS a. Hannah's conversation with Eli concerning her prayer shows again the striking contrast between Eli's pre-judgment of her condi- tion and her real frame of heart (vers. 14, 15), and Hannah's deep heart-felt piety as the source of her supplication (vers. 15, 16), but brings out also Eli's better nature, the expression of which is the wish for a blessing (vers. 17, 18). Yer. 14. Eli sat at the door-post of the sanctu- ary no doubt to keep watch and prevent all things improper ; but his address to Hannah shows how unworthily he did it. The question " How long wilt thou be drunken ?" must have wounded her heart all the more in the sorrowful mood of her prayer, and grieved her no less deeply than Pe- ninnah's .speech. (On the form r^3r}t^i7' see Ewald, I 191, and Gesen., H", 3). The order: "■ put away thy wine from tliee," that is, " take steps to get sober again," or "go and sleep off thy debauch" (comp. xxv. 37), is as rude and pro- fane as the question — least of all becoming to, and to be expected from, a priest. Here, looking at Eli's sons, we cannot but think of the German proverb: "The apple falls close to the tree."* It is the same unworthy littleness that we see in Acts ii. 13 ("they are full of new wine"). The Sept. has here in Eli's interests inserted "youth, servdnt" OV_l) before " Eli," and put the rude- ness off on him ; but then his dismissal must have been mentioned here, and Hannah could not have answered the servant : " no, my lord" which words are addressed to Eli (comp. Bottch. against Thenius). To Thenius' remark that tlie masoretic recension has here for unknown reasons abridged, we reply that such abridgement, which sets Eli in so bad a light, certainly cannot be regarded as probable. In reference to the " servant " of the * [Equivalent to the Eng. : "Like father, like son." — Tr.] Septuagint, the canon of criticism holds that the harder, more offensive reading is to l)c preferred. Ver. 15 sq. iJo/i/iaA' .3 a?isi6'er is an energetic de- nial of Eli's charge ; in the spirited fulness of her reply, we may see something of the indignation which Eli's unworthy speech had called forth in her heart. Her language is in part a denial of his assumptioai, in part an explanation of her condition of mind as the reason of her conduct in prayer; each of these parts has a three-fold expression, so that each denial answers to an ex- planation. First, she denies simply and sharply Avith "no, my lord" ('nN VCI) the drunkenness imjrated to her, and explains that her condition of soul is one of deep sorrow. According to the masoretic text Hannah says : " I am hard of spirit" (nn DUp). Though in Ezek. iii. 7 the similar phrase "hai'd of heart" (^7 "^^I^P) means "obstinate," "stiff-necked," yet the combination of this Adj. (HC/p) in the signification "heavy" ( Judg. iv. 24 [the hand . . . was heavy against Jabin] ; Ex. xviii. 26) with the subst. (ni"l= disposition, mind, Gen. xli. 8 ; Ps. xxxiv. 19 [18]) may give the signification "heavy-hearted." It is not clear why it should sound strange (as Thenius thinks) that Hannah, in her condition, should speak of herself as heavy-hearted ; the expression is so natural in reply to Eli's out- spoken suspicion, that she had didled her mind with intoxicating drink. Plence, also, follows immediately the express denial of this suspicion. The Sept., on the other hand, has the strange exjjression : ymy iv aK7i!/pa t'li-iepa iyu eI/ui (I am a woman in a hard day). This is based on the reading " hard of day " (DV n^p), an expression which in Job xxx. 25 ["in trouble"] describes one who has a hard clay, a hard life, is unhappy. So the Yulg. : infelix nimis ego sum, " I am very unfortunate." Perhaps this is the original read- ing, as Thenius supposes. Clericus : " This read- ing is not to be wholly despised." — The negation advances from the simple " no, my lord," to the denial that there is anything in her case to pro- duce drunkenness, that is, that she has drunk wine or any intoxicating drink i"^^^) ; with this denial she connects, so as to bring out a sharp contrast, the explanation and assurance that she lias " poured out her soul before the Lord." Comp. Ps. xlii. 5 [4] : I pour out my soul in me ; Ps. Ixii. 9 [8] : Pour out your heart before him ; and Ps. cxlii. 3 [2] : " I pour out my complaint before him." This expression, common in Ger- man [and English] also and Latin {fundere pre- ces), indicates the lighteningof the deeply moved, sorrowful heart liy complaints, petitions, etc., be- fore God the Lord, liased on humble submission to His will and trust in His help, that is, on the opposite of the feeling which Peninnah wished to excite in Hannah (ver. 6). Comp. Calvin on Ps. cxlii. 3 : " He sets the pouring out one's thoughts and telling one's trouble over against the confused anxieties which unhappy men nurse in their hearts, preferring to gnaw the bit rather than flee to Cxod." Such pouring out of the heart before the Lord witnesses for Hannah of itself against Eli's charge of intemperance and drunk- enness.— A third and sliil stronger denial she CHAP. I. 1-20. 63 makes (ver. 16) ; and this time it refers to the bad, worthless character which he had imputed to her. "Daughter of worthlessness " (on the ety- mology of /iI17r', comp. Gesen. s. f.)=bad wo- man. The words "count not," etc. [\^.^''^,etc.). cannot be explained : " Do not make me the scorn of bad women" (Clericus), but must be ren- dered : " Do not in thought set thy handmaiden before CilS/) a worthless woman," that is, let not thy handmaid be taken for a worthless woman, do not liken her to such a one. She grounds her denial of this bad opinion of her on the assurance, which answers to the two positive explanations, and forms their conclusion, that out of the abun- dance (2^) of her complaint and grief she had spoken "hitherto" (niin~1j,^), that is, as long as Eli had observed her. — Comp. Calvin ad h. I. : " Consider the modesty of Hannah, who, though she suffered injury from the High-priest, yet an- swers with reverence and humility." Ver. 17. Eli's reply. Eli, as Calvin remarks, "not only insulted a feeble woman, but blas- phemed against God Himself, though uninten- tionally." Now he retracts liis accusation ; in- deed, he really, though silently, accuses himself of injustice to Hannah, in that 1) he replies with the usual parting-formula " Go in peace !" and 2) he adds the wish that her request may be granted. ("jH 72/ is for ^■O'^^i^). There is no prophecy in this; it was a wish which God fulfilled.^Ver. 18. Hannah's answer does not ask for his media- tion (Keil), but is a respectful request that the High-priest would further grant her his favor, as he had already done (comp. ver. 20). — [There seems to be no advantage in closing this section in the middle of ver. 18. The latter part of the verse forms a fitting conclusion to the interview of Eli and Hannah, since it describes the result to Hannah of her prayer and conversation, and ver. 19 begins a new narrative, as in Eng. A. V. — Tr.] III. The Answer to the Prayer. Vers. 18 6-20. Hannah went her "way," namely, back to her husband. The words of tlie Sept.: "and she went to her inn," and (after "she did eat") "with her husband and drank," are expla- natory and descriptive additions to the original t.'xt; it is inconceivable why these words, if they stood in the text originally, should have been left out. [The words "and did eat" are wanting in the Svriac and Arabic versions and in five MSS. of Kennicott, an-l were omitted perhaps because supposed to be inappropriate; but they fitly de- SL'.ribe Hannah's more cheerful mood. — Tr.] "And her countenance was no more to her" — that is, her countenance was no longer disturbed as before. There are similar expressions in Ger- man. Comp. Job ix. 27, where, from the con- text, the word "countenance" (D'J3) is likewise to be taken in the sense "sad countenance" ["heaviness" in Eng. A. V. — Tr.].* * [So the Vss.: Chald. "bad cotuitenanoe ;" Syriac "disturbed count.:" Vulg. "in dioersa nnUaii ;" Arab. " changed on account of the reproach of her rival ;" Sept. "her countenance no longer fell." — Ta.] Ver. 19 describes circumstantially and vividly, almost solemnly, the return to Ramali after early worship together before the Lord. Eikanah knew his wife [Vy, "know," as in Gen. iv. 7j. "The Lord remembered her," indicates the fulfilment of her request; the divine control, under which (ver. 11) she had placed herself, is quite ajjpro- priately here again expressly mentioned. At the end of the verse the Sept. (Alex.) adds "and she conceived," explaining and filling out the "re- membered." There is no necessity for supposing (with Thenius, following the Sept.) that this ex- pression has fallen out of the original text, where it was a needful explanation of the "remem- bered," since in the following ver. 20 the signifi- cance of the latter is expressed, though it cannot be considered a mere addition. [The change in the text of the Sept. (in the Vat., not Al.) is easily explained. The Heb. ( ver. 20) reads " and in the course of time Hannah conceived and bare a son." The Greek translator stumbled at the place as- signed the conceiving, and therefore changed the word from after to before the "course of time." The difficulty is removed when we remember that "conceived and bare" was the common phrase to express the birth of a child. The other versions sustain the Heb. order of word§. — Some Heb. ]MSS. read "in the course of a year" (so De Wette), or, as some translate, "at the beginning of the new year" (in the autumn, Feast of Taber- nacles), but there is no authority for this. — Abar- banel: "At the end of a month."— Tr.]. — Ver. 20. " Up to the circuit or conclusion of the days or of tlie regular time " — that is, not " in the space of a year," but " at the conclusion of the period of pregnancy" (Thenius), at the end of the time necessary for what is afterwards said. — " She bare a son, Avhom she called Samuel." Hannah her- self gives the exjilanation of this name, not ety- mological but factual, " I asked him from the Lord." (On the form VnSxty see Gesen. 44, 2, Kem. 2.) According to this explanation the name 7}5'?3t^ (which belongs to two other persons only. Numb, xxxiv. 21 ; 1 Chr. vii. 2) is formed by contraction from /N J^IOl^, the j; falling out (Ewald, Gr. I 275, A. 3). ' The Eabbinical deri- vation from '7N0blKE/, whence Sno-IXE? and hn^^]^ .... ^7 — T- ^ •• : is far-fetched and improbable. [That is, " asked of God"]. The name signifies literally " heard of God," auditus Del. For Samuel was for hia mother the sign of a special answer to prayer. Similar names of children, suggested by their mothers' experiences at their birth, are found elsewhere, for example, in Jacob's children (Gen. xxix. 32 sq.; xxx. 5sq.). — The omission of "and she said " is original ; the Sept. has clearly again here filled out and explained (against Thenius). Hannah's saying, introduced without this addi- tion, is thereby characterized as an explanation, historically handed down, of this name in refe- rence to what preceded Samuel's birth. [This whole incident is discussed in the Talmudical Tract "Bcralcoth," fol. 31 b, but the discussion of- fers nothing of special value. — Tr.]. 54 THE FIKST BOOK OF SAMUEL. HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL.^ [This is the appropriate place to introduce a brief statement of the chronological relation be- tween the latter part of "Judges" (end of chap, xvi.) and the beginning of " Samuel." We shall not attempt to discuss the various schemes of the chronology which have been presented by dif- ferent writers, but merely give the biblical data for determining the chronological relations of Samson, Eli, and Samuel. The first datum is given in 1 Kings vi. 1, and, putting the fourth year of Solomon B. C. 1012, fixes the Exodus in B. C. 1492, the entrance into Canaan B. C. 1452, while David's accession foils B. C. 1056. The second datum is found in Jephthah's statement, Judg. xi. 26, according to which the beginning of his judgeship falls 300 years after the entrance into Canaan, that is, B. C. 1152. From this time to the death of Abdon (Judg. xii. 7-15) is tliirty- one years, and Abdon's death is to be put B. C. 1121. We have thus between the death of Abdon and the accession of David a space of sixty-five years in which to put Samson, Eli, Samuel, and Saul. It is clear that their histories must be in part contemporaneous. Eli dies an old man, while Samuel is yet a youth, and Samuel is an old man when Saul is anointed king. The following table may give approximately the periods of these men : Samson's Judgeship, B. C. 1120-1100 Eli's Life (98 years) " 1208-1110 Eli's Judgeship (40 " years) " 1150-1110 Samuel's Life " 1120 (or 1130)-1060 Saul's Keign " 1076-1056 According to this view the judgeships of Samson and Eli were in part contemporaneous, and Sa- muel was twenty (or thirty) years old when Sam- son died, the work of the latter being confined to the west and south-west, while Samuel lived chiefly in the centre of the land. The forty years of Philistine oppression (Judg. xiii. 1) would then be reckoned B. C. 1120-1080, reaching nearly up to Saul's accession, and the third battle of Ebe- nezer would fall in B. C. 1080 when Samuel was forty years old. Hannah's visit to Sliiloh occur- red about (or, a little before) the time that Sam- son began to vex the Philistines, but it is pro- bable that the hostilities were confined to the territories of Judali and Dan. Partly for this reason, and partly because the history has been given already in the Book of Judges, our author does not mention Samson, whose life liad no point of contact with that of Samuel, who is the theo- cratic-prophetical centre of the Books of Samuel. On the general subject see Herzog, Art. "Zeitrech- nung {biblische"), Smith's Diet, of Bible, Art. "Cfironology," Comm. on Jadgcii in Lange's Biblr- irork, and Smith's Old Testament Hist., chap. 17, Note (A) and eh. 19, Note (A). But it is doubt- ful Mdiether we have sufficient data at present for settling the question. — Tr.]. 1. The beginning of the Book of Samuel coin- * [The German is " ReichageschichtUche und hihlisch-theolo- gische AngfUhrungen." literally " theocratic-historifal and niblical-theologieal developments (or comments "). — Tu.J. cides with a principal turning-point in the liistory of the kingdom of God in Israel, introducing us into the end of the Period of the Judges, which is to be included with the Mosaic under one point of view, namely, that of the establishment of the Theocracy on its objective toundation.;. The Mo- saic Period of the development of the Israclitish religion — which is based on God's revelation in tlie Patriarchal Period in order to the choice of the one people as the bearer of the Theocracy, first in ger- minal form in the family, and then in its first na- tional development in Egypt — shows us the firm establishment of the Divine Eule, which em- braced and shaped the wliole life of the people, on the theocratic law-covenant, and on the word of the divine 2^''omise. The establishment of the llule of God in His people, in their outer and inner life, in all things great and small, by means of the institution of the Law, in which His holy will is the norm for the people's life, is the aim of the whole revelation of God in the Mosaic Pe- riod, as it appears in commandments, statutes, holy institutions, and legal jjrinciples. The land in which tliis God-rule in the chosen people was to reach historical form and developmLiit, was the object of the promises in the Patriarchal Period, and the period of Joshua and the Judges shows how this promise was fulfilled in the ac- quisition and division of tlie land. What sud- den changes, from complete defeats to glorious victories in battle against the heathen peoples in and out of the land of promise, from divine deliverances to apparently complete abandonment by God, as a consequence of the vacillation of the people between idolatrous apostasy from the living God, and return to His help forced on them by need and misery, are exhibited in tlie history of the post-Mosaic times! But through all the gloom shines out continually the goal, the fulfilmtnt of the promise of the complete possession of the land ; and in the midst of the people's sin and misery the Theocracy stands fast unshaken, with its Mo- saic law controlling the popular life, and all its great objective institutions which, even in times of most wretched disorder, marked Israel as the chosen peojjle of the living God. The Mosaic period of development of the Theocracy in Israel up to the end of the period of the Judges is there- fore the time of its establishment in the chostn people by the institution of the covenant of the law and the geographical-historical realization of tlie idea of the Theocracy in the permanently acquired land of promise. But now came the task of bringing the peo- ple, they being at rest and permanently fixed in Canaan, face to face with their theocratic des- tination and their calling (Ex. xix. 6j in their whole inner and outer lil'e. The content of the revelations, which had produced the covenant of the law and the fulfilling of the promise in the ]\Iosaic Perioil, was to be inwardly appropriated and become the life of the peoi)le in knowledge, heart anel will. I'or this there was needed on God's side the progressive realization and an- nouncement of Ilis counsel of revelation ; and on man's side there was the unceasing obligation to penetrate witli the whole inner life, with under- standing and feeling, with mind and will, into God's revelation in .aw and i)roniise, and apjiro- priate inwardly its content. This task — the CHaP. I. 1-20. ■deep, inward implanting of the revelation of God in law and promise in the heart and feeling of in- dividuals and in the life of the whole nation — could be fulfilled neither by the judges, the lives of some of whom corresponded poorly to their theocratic calling, nor by the priesthood, which showed its fall from its original theocratic eleva- tion in the transition from the family of Eleazar to that of Ithamar and in the house of Eli, nor by the mere existence and use of the objective theo- cratic-liistorical institutions, national sanctuary, feasts, offerings. This impossibility is vividly set before us in the beginning of the Books of Samuel. But we are there at the same time pointed to the new element in the development of the Theocracy, the prophetic office, which was to be the instrument of fulfilling this task, and of realizing the idea of mediation between God and His people through their living permeation by* His objective revela- tion of word and promise; so Moses, as type of prophecy, represented it. The turning-ijoint from the Mosaic to the prophetic period of deve- lopment of the Theocracy falls in the beginning -of the Books of Samuel ; that is, in the first years of Samuel's life. ( Comp. Oehler, Prolegom. zur Tlieol. des A. T., 1845, pp. 87, 88; and W. Hoff- mann, Die giJttliche Stufenordnung im A. T. in Schneider's Deutsche Zeitschrift, 1854, Nr. 7, 8.) From Samuel's time Peter (Acts iii. 24) dates the prophetic office ; from then on the prophets, devoted to the service of the Theocracy, form a separate Order, and, as organs of God's revelations to His people, a continuous chain. (See Tholuck, Die Prophefen und ihre Weissagungen, 2 ed. 1861, p. 26.) 2. The end of the Period of the Judges, like its previous history, reveals a deep dis- order of tlie theocratic life, which neither judges nor priests could help, because they were them- selves affected by its corrupting influences, as is shown by the histories of Samson and Eli. The unimportance and weakness to which the .Judgeship was fallen may be inferred from its connection with the High-priesthood in the person of Eli, the latter office having evidently passed from Phinehas' family to Ithamar's, con- trary to the promise in Num. xxv. 11-13, because the condition of "zeal for the Lord" was not ful- filled. And the conduct of Eli and his sons, and especially God's judgment against his house, show how badly the High-priesthood was repre- sented in him. The political life of the nation was crushed mider the constant oppression of external enemies, the heathen nations on the east, and especially the Philistines on the west, and under internal national distraction ; the tribes ■were at enmity with one another, did not unite against foreign foes, and could gather together ■" as one man " only against one of themselves (Benjamin), and that was the last time ( Judg. xix.-xxi.).t And though individual men, called •of the Lord to be deliverers, exerted a mighty influence on the distracted national life, yet their influence was restricted to particular tribes, and was not permanent — was always followed by a sinking back into the old wretched condition. * [Germ: dnrch das Flussigwerden seines ohjectiven Offenba- ■rungsivortes. etc. — Tn.] t [This civil waroecnrred, however, so>)n after Joshna, since Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, was then High- priest (Judg. .xx. 28): whether there was afterwards a general national uprising, we do not know. — Tu.] The cause of this was the deterioration of religious life, which was wide-spread among the people ; tiie worship of the living Covenani-God was min- gled with the nature-worship of the L'anaanitish nations, not all of whom were completely con- quered, and especially with the Baal-worship of the Philistines; or it was suppressed by these heathen worships. Gideon's ephod-worship (Judg. viii. 27) and Micah's image- worship (Judg. xvii., xviii.) belonged also to this corruption of the religion of .Jehovah. With this moral decline and distraction of theocratic life was connected corruption of moral life, such as we see in some parts of Samson's history (he succumbs morally, as well as physically, to the Philistines), in the crime of the Benjamites (Judg. xix.), which calls forth all the rest of the nation against them in stubborn, bloody war, and in the unworthy cha- racter of the sons of Eli, who disgrace the sanc- tuary itself with their wickedness. The whole popular life had fallen into an anarchy in which " every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judg. xxi. 25). 3. The necessity for a reformation of the whole national life from within outward, that is, a re- newal of the whole Theocracy on a religious- moral basis meets us at the beginning of the Books of Samuel. The holy institutions, tlie or- dinances of divine worship, and the theocratic legislation of the Mosaic Period are present in- deed in the time of the Judges (comp. the exege- tieal explanations). The people had their na- tional central sanctuary in Shiloh as sign of God's abode among His people, celebrated their festi- vals, and brought their offerings there. The priestly service in the sanctuary was arranged ; the nazirate and the institution of holy women* in connection with the sanctuary were the special forms of consecration of life to Jehovah's service. It is a false view to regard the time of the Judges as a period of fermentation, out of which first arose fixed legal institutions and appointments. Bather the whole Mosaic legislation and the his- tory of the establishment of tlie Theocracy on the basis of the covenant of law is in many places presupposed in the Book of Judges antl in the beginning of the Books of Samuel themselves (comp. Hcngst., Beitr. HI. 40 sq. [Eng. transl., " Contributions to an Introd. to the Pentateuch," Clark, Edinb.]). But it is true (as is expressly stated in Judg. ii. 10 sq. ), that in the religious- moral life of the people there was a general defec- tion from the living God to strange gods. Though in particular circles and families (as Samuel's, for ex.) there was true service of God and piety, yet the national and political life of the distracted and shattered people was on the whole not in the least in keeping with its priestly calling. The gap between the people's religious-moral condi- tion on the one hand, and the theocratic institu- tions and the demands of the divine law on the other was become so wide and deep, that a great reformer was needed, wlio, by special divine call and in the might of the Spirit of God, should turn the whole national life to the living God again, and make Him its unifying centre. To this need of a reformation of the Theocracy by new revelations of the covenant-God, and by the return of the covenant-people to communion with [See note on 1 Sam. ii. il. — Tr.] 56 THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. their God answered the special divine working by which tlie prophetic office, instead of tiie priesthood, was united with tiie true theocratic Judgeship in the miglity God-tilled personality of Samuel. 4. Tlie special divine working shows itself in the providential plan by which God chose and prepared the great instrument for leading His people into the path, in which they were to find their huly calling and merge their whole life in the divine rule and communion. The refoi-mer of the Theocracy, the second Moses, sprang from a thoroughly pious family, faithful and obedient to the law of the Lord. In its very commence- ment his life is specially consecrated by the hear- ing which God vouchsafed to the prayer of his pious mother for a son. In the same Tribe, whence came the saviour of the people from the bondage of Egypt and the founder of the The- ocrac)^ through God's wonderful working, and which by divine appointment represented the whole people in the Sanctuary-service, was born the man of God, who in the highest sense as Prophet of tlie Lord, was all his life to do priestly service in renewing the theocratic life, and restore it from its alienation from the living God to communion with Him. Specially also it^was the energy and earnestness of his mother's piety which from the first gave to this great man's life the direction and determination by which he be- came God's instrument for the regeneration of His people, flannah, in devoting her cliild to the perpetual service of the Lord ( thus giving Him back wliat her prayer had obtained from Him), did imconsciously and silently, under the gui- dance of the Spirit of the Lord, a holy deed, which, taken into the plan of the divine wisdom, was the beginning of that series of great God- deeds by which, through tliis chosen instrument, a new turn of world-historical importance was given to the history of Israel. The name which she gives her son marks him out for the people as an immediate gift of God, through which, as Calvin says, " God in His mercy ordained a re- formation of His worship in the people." 5. In Samuel's early life we see again the im- portmice (even for the Kinydom of God) of the the- ocracy of a indij pious family-life in the Old Dis- pen.sation. There were still in Israel houses and families in which the children (who, according to the Law, were not usually carried to the great feasts celebrated at the Sanctuary), were intro- duced to the public religious life, and accustomed to the religious service of the people ; and this is a sign that, in spite of the desolation of the tlieo- cratic life and the degradation of the religious- moral life, there still lay hidden in domestic life a sound germ of true piety and fear of God. From this uncorrupted vigorous germ which ap- pears religiously in the earnest life of prayer of the parents, and ethically in their tender, con- siderate conjugal love, Samuel's life sprouts forth as a plant consecrated from its root directly to tiie Lord's special service. 6. Thus the religious-moral life was not so far gone that it could not, ))y God's power, produce from the narrow circle of tlie house and family sucii a person as Samuel ; nor, in spite of the general de- pravation and disruption of the theocratic-national life, was it impossible for Samuel, as God's in- strument sprung from tliis soil, to find positive points of connection and a responsive receptivity for his work of reform as Judge antl Prophet. The spirit which gave shape to his childhood and' youth from the first moments of his life, had shown itself, sporadically it is true, yet living and powerful in individual facts in the time of the Judges (comp. Deborah's Song, Judg. v.; Gideon's word "Jehovah shall rule over you" Judg. viii. 23 ; and especially the energetic reac- tion of the theocratic zeal of the whole people against the Tribe of Benjamin, who, contrary to the command " be ye holy," had refused to de- liver up the offenders, by whose execution evil was to be put away out of the midst of Israel Judg. XX.) The prophetic reformer, called by God out of the domain of a deeply pious family- life, found in that theocratical spirit, which was concealed under the general corruption, the re- ceptive ground on which he could plant himself in order to gather the whole people about the living God and His word, and press His revela- tions into their very lieart and soul. 7. The divine name Jehovah Sabaoth (miT' niXJif), which does not occur in the Pentateuch, or in the Books of Joshua and Judges, is found here for the first time, and seems to have come into general use particularly in the time of Samuel and David ?com]D. 1 Sam. xv. 2, xvii. 45- 2 Sam. vii. 8, 26sq.j_Ps.xxiv. 10). It seldom occurs in the Books of Kings, is found most frequently in the Pi-ophets, except Ezekiel and Daniel, and never in Job, Proverbs, the later Psalms and the post-exilian historical books, except in Chroni- cles in the history of David, where it is to be referred to the original documents. — The word 'Sabaoth' is never found in the Old Test, alone. The Sept. sometimes gives it as a proper name, 2a/5rtwi!^, as here, where it has also the full form KL)pi(j T(j ■&£(!) (Lord God), which answers to the proper complete expression of this divine name, Jehovah God of Sabaoth (niNOV'-'rlSx mn-" comp.Am. iii. 13; iv. 13; v. 14; or r\1kS'3i'n ''X'^')^ of which -lehovah Sabaoth is an abbreviation.* The signification "God of war" (see Ex. vii. 4; xii. 41, wliere Israel is called "the hosts of Je- hovah," mn' r\1X31.*) cannot be regarded as the original sense of this expression, though the latter includes the glory of God manifested in His vic- torious power over His enemies. If this were the proper and original signification, it would be inexplicable why the name is wanting precisely in the histories of those wars and battles, which were Jehovah's own (Num. xxi. 14), though * And as the combination niXIJi* DTlbx is not unfrequent (Ps. lix. 6; Ixxx. 5, 8, 15, 20; Ixxxiv. 9) and in the mas. text the mri', when ^}'Mi precedes, never has the points of ^JTX but always of D'Tl 7X — and further as the word niiT as a proper name cannot be construed with a Gen.— the combination niX!3i' 71171' T ; is not to bo taken as stnt. const., but as a brcviloqnence or ellipsis, tlio general notion "God" being supplied fioni the proper name Jehovah. So (against Gesenius ;um1 Kwalci) Uehler in Hcrzog s. v., tfi'iigstt'iiherg, Chris- lohigie I. 4:i() sq. [Eng. tr. I. :i7r)J and Keil, Cnmm. 10 (Eng. trails, p. 19]. [See Smith's Bih. bid., Am. ed., .Tseba- oili. — Tk.]. CHAP. I. 1-20. 67 Israel is expressly called His "hosts." Appeal is made in support of this signitication to pas- sages like 1 Sam. xvii. 45 (God of the armies of Israel), and Ps. xxiv. 8-10, (Jehovah strong and mighty, mighty in battle) ; but as these phrases are attached to the name " Jehovah of Hosts," they show (as Hengstenberg, on Ps. xxiv., and Oehler, v,bi sup. point out) that the latter means something ditferent, that "Jehovah of Hosts" means something liigher than "Israel's God of war." Its meaning must be derived from Gen. ii. 1, where DX3]f "the host of them" refers pro- perly only to " heavens" — and only by zeugma to "earth" (Oehler). Comp. Ps. xxxiii. 6; Deut. iv. 19; Neh. ix. 6, where Dn:::;-'73 "all the host of ' ' T T : T them " refers exclusively to the heavens. " The hosts are always the heavenly hosts, not created things in general" (Hengstenberg). They are of two classes, however, the material, the stars, and the spiritual, the angels. In reference to the stars as the "host of heaven" (Ps. xxxiii. 6) and the " host of God," praise is rendered to God's power and government of the world, by which He controls these glorious objects (Isa. xl. 26 ; xlv. 13), against the Sabian worship of the stars as divine powers, and against the danger to which Israel was exposed of perversion to such star- worship. This danger became great enough in the Period of the Judges and in the beginning of the Kingly Period to make the supposition allow- able tliat the expression, with the sense of oppo- sition to idolatry, came into use at this time. In Isa. xxiv. 23 this meaning of Jehovah Sabaoth comes out unmistakably in the reference to God's creative power which is loftier than the splendor of the stars, and in the contrast between His wor- ship and that of the stars. Tlie reference of the name "God of hosts" in Ps. Ixxxix. 8 sq. to the angels is equally certain. The angels are mar- shalled around Jehovah in heaven, awaiting His commands, ready to perform His will on earth, especially as His instruments for the execution of His will in grace and judgment, for the pro- tection of His people, for the overthrow of His enemies (1 Kings xxii. 19 sq.; Job i. 2); they go along with God in the revelation of His judicial- kingly power and glory (Deut. xxxiii. 2; Ps. Ixviii. IS); they form the Lord's heavenly battle- host (Gen. xxxii. 1, 2; Josh. v. 14sq.; 2 Kings vi. 17). By the reference to the two hosts, of stars and angels, which represent the creation in its loftiest and most glorious aspect, this expression sets forth the living God in His majesty and omnipotence over the highest created powers, who are subject to His control and instruments of the exercise of His royal might and power in the world. But God's glory, in Ilis majesty and power over the star-world, and in His lordship over the spirit-world which stands ready to do His bidding in the world, exhibits Him of neces- sity in His royal omnipotent control of the whole world; and so ".Jehovah Sabaoth" means in several passages the almighty controlling world- God, who has His throne in heaven, of whose glory the whole world is full, who "is called the God of the whole earth," who "buildeth His upper-chamber in heaven, and foundeth His arch on the earth." So Ps. xxiv. 8-10; Isa. vi. 3; liv. 5; Am. ix. 5, 6. In connection with the name "Jehovah" the expression indicates, with special reference to Israel, the almighty and vic- torious God, who overcomes the enemies of Hi* people and His kingdom, who is the protection and help of His people against all the powers of the world. — The name occurs frequently in connection with wars and victories, in which God helps and protects His people against hostile powers; 1 Sam. xv. 2; xvii. 45; 2 Sam. vii. 8, 2Gsq.;Ps. xxiv. 10; xlvi. 8, 12; Ixxx. 8, 15; Isa. xxiv. 21-23 ; xxv. 4-6 ; xxxi. 4, 5. This name of God, Lord of Hosts, first appears in the begin- ning of the Books of Samuel, near the end of the Judges, and just before the kingdom was estals- lished, and occurs most frequently in the time of the Kings ; and this fact has its deepest ground herein, that during this time God's royal jjower as almighty lord and ruler of the world and hea- venly king of Israel first unfolded itself in all its fulness and glory — in victories over the enemies of His kingdom in Israel, in the almighty protec- tion which He vouchsafed His people in the land of promise, and in the powerful aid which He gave them in establishing, fixing and extend- ing the theocratic kingly power.* 8. A characteristic mark of Hannah's sincere piety is the vow (v. 11) which she makes to the Lord. The vow, from the Old Testament-point of view, is the solemn promise by which the pious man binds and pledges himself, in case his prayer is heard or liis wish fulfilled, to show his thank- fulness for the Lord's goodness by the performance of some sjDccial outward thing. Hence vows are almost always connected with petitions, though never as if they were the ground for God's fulfil- ment of the request. The positive vow ("^]3?.)) the promise of a special offering as a sign of gratitude, includes also the negative element of self-denial, so far as it is a relinquishment of one's own pos- sessions, which are given to the Lord. This custom — namely, by a special promise making a I^articular act or mode of conduct a moral duty, and basing the obligation of performance not on the divine will, but on a vow made without divine direction — answers to the legal standpoint of the Old Testament and the moral minority founded on it. Forbearing to vow, was liowevcr, by no means regarded as sinful (Deut. xxii. 22); thus not only was the moral princijjle of volun- tariness brought out, but the idea that the vow was in itself meritorious, was excluded. The vow, as a custom corresponding to moral weakness and consciousness of untrustworthiness in obedience to the Lord, is never legally commanded, nor even advised (comp. Prov. xx. 25; Ecc. v. 4, with Deut. xxiii. 22); but it is required that a vow made freelv shall be fulfilled (Num. xxx. 3; Deut. xxiii. 21, 23; Ps. 1. 14; Ecc. v. 3). But, as the hearing of a prayer is conditioned strictly on true piety, so, that a vow should be well-pleasing to the Lord, presupposes an humble, thankful soul which feels itself pledged and bound to the Lord, to devote everything to Him. The ethical idea of the vow finds its realization and fulfil- ment, as well as its clear and true apprehension, from the New Testament stand-point also in the vowing and dedicating to the Lord for life in * [For a eood exposition of " Jehovah Sahaoth," see- riumptro's " Biblical S.udies.'' — Tr.]. 53 THE FIEST BOOK OF SAMUEL. baptism the personality renewed by the Holy Ghost, (who in the Old Testament also is recog- nized and prayed for as the source of sanctitica- tion, Ps. li. ). Hannah's vow is an analogue of Christian baptism in so far as it (the vow) conse- crates the life of the child obtained by prayer wlioUy to the Lord for His property and for per- manent service according to the stand-point of Old Testament piety, but this from the New Testa- ment point of view conies to full truth only in the free spiritual devotion of the heart and the whole life to the Lord. [There is no warrant for intro- ducing the lower Old Testament conception into an ordinance of the New Testament. Christian baptism, into the name of the Trinity, sets forth the free and full consecration of tlie believer to God, as Dr. Erdmanu points out, and is no other- wise a vow, is never so spoken of in the New Testament.— Tr.]. HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.* Ver. 2. Holy Scripture lets us see how not merely single sins in disposition, word and deed, but also general conditions and customs which .spring from sin — such as polygamy — are the ob- ject of God's patience and long-sufiering, and how there is in this no hindrance to the purjsoses of God's love and wisdom, but rather all such things are overruled by Him for good. [Hall: 111 customs, where they are once entertained, are not easily discharged : polygamy, besides carnal delight, might now plead age and example; so as even Elkanah, though a Levite, is tainted witli the sin of Lamech, like as fashions of attire, wliich at the first were disliked as uncomely, yet, wlien they are once grown common, are taken up of the gravest. Yet this sin, as tlien current witli the time, could not make Elkanah not re- ligious.— Tb.]. Cramer: God distributes His gifts in a wonderfid manner, to one He gives, the other He sutlers to want. Gen. xxix. 31. Tem- poral gifts God gives not only to the worthy, but also to the unworthy. Matt. v. 45. — Ver. 3. Starke : Worship stands Jirst, to sliow with what devout- ness and reverence he makes his ofl'ci"ing, and at the same time that praying is better than oliering. [Com p. Corxelius: "Thy prayers and thine alms," Acts x. 4. — Tr.]. — The oftering was tlie deed which established the truthfulness of the pray- ing word. Calvin : This subject-matter of adora- tion is to be referred to the tln'ce following lieads: jir.ft, that wlien about to adore God we recorjnize lliat ve owe all thiiKjs to Him, and in giving thanks for past blessings we implore a still further increase of His gifts, and help in difficulties and perplexi- ties; sernndly, that confessing our sins as suppliant and guilty, we pray Him to grant us true know- ledge of our sins and repentance, and to hare mercy on us who pray for pardon; thirdly and finally, that denying ourselves and taking His yoke upon our shoulders, we profess ourselves ready to ren- der Him due obedience, and to conform our allcc- tions to the rule of His law and to His will alone. [Ver. 4. The whole family take ))art in tbe feast of tlie peace-offerings. So as to the idol-worship in Jer. vii. 18, "The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of hea- * [la the German litprally "homiletical hints." — Tr.] ven." Both this passage and that, as to true religion and false, may impress upon us the im- portance of family worship and family religion. — Tr.]. — Vers. 4-8. Elkanah's love to Hannah is a model of the true inner love with which hus- bands should not merely love their wives in general, but as regards their special troubles and sorrows, instead of being worried and vexed at them should rather feel these as their own, and with them bear in patience and gentleness what- ever lies heavy upon their heart and weighs them down (ver. 5), and also protect them against pro- vocations and vexations, which in an unrighteous and ill-disposed way are inflicted upon them (vers. 6, 7), and refresh them with consolation and encouragement (ver. 8). — [Ver. 5. Children were regarded as a blessing, by Hannah and the women of Israel in general (comp. Gen. xxx. 23; Luke i. 25), and the lack of them as a sad deprivation ; and the correctness of this view is distinctly confirmed by the inspired writers, Ps. cxiii. 9; cxxvii. 3-5; cxxviii. 3. The contrary feeling which is now so rapidly growing in Amei'ica is evil, both in its causes and in its con- sequences. The subject would require delicate handling in public discourse, but is exceedingly important. — Tr.]. When the Lord refuses us a gift wliich we are begging Him to grant, and the heart is full of mourning at the deiJrivation, then the temptation lies near to grumble about it against the Lord and quarrel with Him. This temptation comes partly from our own lieart, which is a perverse and desjjonding thing, and will not reconcile itself to the dispensation of the Lord ; partly it conies in upon us from without, through men who by their unloving conduct ex- cite and embitter our hearts, and infuse into them the poison of discontent with those leadings of the Lord which contradict our desire and hope (vers. 6, 7). — In a devout marriage the love of the one party should not merely be to the other a fountain of consolation and of quieting as to painful dispensations of the Lord, but for what- ever by the Lord's will is lacking in good fortune and joy it should seek to offer all the richer com- pensation (ver. 8). — Every violation of the holy ordering of God upon which marriage and the family life should rest, has as a necessary con- sequence— as is true of bigamy here — its punish- ment in the grievous disorder of conjugal and domestic life, in the destruction of peace in heart and home by all manner of sins, such as envy and jealousy. — Hannah makes no reply to the bad words of her adversary, and bears her hosti- lity with patience. — Starke (ver.7) : A Christian must not requite evil with evil, railing with rail- ing, but bear all patiently and hope in God ; for His hand can change every thing (Ps. Ixxvii. 11 [Eng. A. V. ver. 10. Lx'tiier translates it: " But I .said, I must sutler that; the right hand of the most High can change everything," but this rendering is not authorized by the Hebrew. — Tr.] ). — Ver. 8. Seb. Schmid: For the lack of one good, God knows how to comix'usate the pious by a greater and more manifest good.— .1. Lange: As the mar- riage-liond is much closer than that l)etween ])arents and children, it follows that liusl)and and wife must hold each other nearer and dearer than all children. Each must help to bear the otlier's burdens, and seek to lighten them, Cial. vi. 2. CHAP. I. 1-20. 59 Vers. 1-8. The pricstbj calling of the man in his houi^e: 1) in the close connection of his whole house with tlie service in tiie house of the Lord (prayer and offering) ; 2) in tlie nurture and ad- monition of the children for the Lord ; 3) in expelling and keeping at a distance the evil spirit of unlovingness and dissension amid the members of the family ; 4) in the constant exhibition of faithful, comforting, helping love towards his wife. — A truly pious house is that which 1) is at home in God's house, 2) diligently performs divine service in prayer and ottering, in which 3) tender and true conjugal love dwells, and 4) the sufferings and de[irivations imposed by the Lord are borne with patience and resignation. — The preservation of genuine piety amid domestic iroublss : 1) in persevering prayer, when the Lord proves faith by not fulfilling particular wishes and hopes; 2) in enduring patience towards vex- atious members of the family; 3) in consoling and supporting love towards members of the family who are easily assailed. — Vers. 9-14. Amid vex- ations and assaults, ivhat should impel us to prayer? 1) The certainty that if men do us hiu't, it does not occur without Divine permission. 2) The feeling that even the best human consolation can- not satisfy the heart which tliirsts to be consoled. 3) Firm confidence in the help of the Lord, who in His faithfulness will help and in His power can help, when men will not Jielp or cannot. — ■ [CiiRYSOSTOM : When standing to pray she did not remember her adversary, did not speak of her revilings, did not say, " Avenge me of this vile and wicked woman," as many women do; but not often remembering those reproaches, she prayed only for things profitable to herself This do thoii also do, O man — do not pray against thy enemy, but beseech God to put an end to thy despondency, to quench thy grief By so doing this woman derived the greatest benefits from her enemy. For laer enemy contributed to the bear- ing of the child. And how, I will tell. When she reproached her and made her distress greater, from the distress her prayer became more intense, the prayer drew God's favor and made Him con- sent, and so Samuel was born. So then if we be watchful, not only will our enemies be unable to do us hurt, but they will even bring us the greatest benefits, making us more zealous towards every thing. — Tr.]. — The prayer of faith in heart- grief and trouble : 1 ) Its nature is that the heart (a) weeps itself out before the Lord, to whom tears wept before Him are well-pleasing, (6) pours out all its sorrow before the Lord, who wishes us to cast all outward cares upon Him; 2) Its reliance is (o) on the power of the "Lord of Sabaoth" to help, (b) upon His faithfulness, wherein He knows the special grief and woe of His children, and does not forget them; 3) It leads (a) to a firm hope that the request will be heard and granted, (b) to a joyful vow, that what_ the Lord graciously gives shall be thankfully given back to Him. — What parents, especially mothers, so rear their children as to honor and please the Lord? Those who 1) bear them, from the beginning of their life, prayerfully on the heart, 2) devote them, for their whole life, as an offering to tlie Lord. — The liir/ltest appreciation of children's souls consists in 1) regarding them as a gracious gift from the Lord, and 2) designing them as a grate- ful gift to the Lord. — [Hall : The way to obtain any benefit is to devote it, in our hearts, to the glory of that God of whom we ask it: by this means shall God both pleasure His servant, and honor Himself. — Tk.]. Ver. 12. Starke: A devout prayer must pro- ceed from the very bottom of the heart, and may be offered without outward words as with them. Psalm xix. 1-") [11]; xxvii. 8; Ixii. 9 [8], Isa. xxix. 13, 14. — Vers. 13, 14. A Christian should not be too swift in judging, Luke vi. 37 ; 1 Cor. iv. 5 ; Prov. xvii. 27. Even upon pious or in- nocent people there are often many unjust judg- ments passed. ,J. Lange : We must be very care- ful in deciding from appearances, lest we sin against our neighbor. Acts ii. 13. Even piou.g teachers may err and mistake in judging their hearers, and reganl some as ungodly who are truly pious. — Ver. 15. Cramer: He who is re- viled, let liim revile not again, but save his innocence with mild words. Pom. xii. 17. [Ciiry- SOSTOM speaks eloquently of the fact that Hannah did not scornfully neglect, and did not bitterly resent, the unjust accusation. — Tr.]. — Prayer serves to lighten the heart ; well for thee, O soul, if thou often seekest thus to lighten it, Ps. xlii. 5 [4]; Ixii. 9 [8].— Ver. 17. Osiander: God is certain to hear our prayer, proceeding from true faitli, and if He does not heliJ us at all according to our will and as seems good to us, yet this is done for our best good, as He knows that it is most profitable for us. — When one has erred he should confess it, and also recall his error. — [Hall: Even the best may err, but not per- sist in it. When good natures have offended, they are unquiet till they have hastened satis- faction.— Tr.]. — Ver. 18. J. Lange: It is a pro- perty of faith that it nialccs the heart happy and joyous for everything. — Ver. 19. Starke: A Christian must not only pray, but work ; both bring blessings, Ps. cxxviii. 2. — Cramer: Al- though God never forgets His own, yet He often acts as if a stranger, Ps. xiii. 2 [1] ; Jer. xiv. 8 ; Song of Sol. ii. 9. — Starke : When pious parents receive their children with calling on God and in His fear, then is every child a Samuel. — Osian- der : When we have received a benefit from God, we should not forget gratitude to Him. Vers. 12-20. The fervent prayer of troubled souls: 1) measures itself not by time, but exalts the soul above time into eternity; 2) troubles itself not about human observation and judgment, but is a pouring out of the heart before the living God ; 3) suffers not itself to sink into grief and sorrow, but has for its fruit a joy given by the Lord. — Defence against unjust accusations : 1) For what purpose? As a tribute to truth, for the honor of the Lord, for the maintenance of our own moral worth; 2) In what manner? In quietness and gentleness without sinful passion, in humility and modesty ; 3) By God's help, with what result ? Convincing the accusers of their wrong, changing their 1)ad words into blessings, lightening our own heart of a heavy load. — The naming of chil- dren no inditjercnt matter for pious parents : Thank- fully regarding the grace of the Lord, who has given tiiem ; 2) Earnestly regarding the destina- tion for the Lord, to whom they are to lead them. 60 THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. SECOND SECTION. Samuels Consecration and Restoration to the Lord. Chap. I. 21-28. I. Tlie child Samuel at home till he is weaned. Vers. 21-23. 21 And the man Elkauah aod all his house weut up to offer unto the Lord 22 [Jehovah] the yearly sacrifice, and his vow. But Hannah went not up ; for she said unto her husband, / will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord [Jehovah], and there abide 23 for ever. And Elkanah her husband said unto her, Do what seemeth thee good; tarry until thou have weaued him ; only the Lord [Jehovah] establish his word. So the woman abode, and gave her son suck until she weaned him. II. Samuel given hack by his mother to the Lord. Vers. 24—28. 24 And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a battle of wine, and brought him unto the house of 25 the Lord [Jehovah] in Shiloh ; and the child was young. And they slew a [the] 26 bullock, and brought the child to Eli. And she said, O my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying [to pray] unto the Lord 27 [Jehovah]. For this child I prayed ; and the Lord [Jehovah] hath given me my 28 petition which I asked of him : Therefore also I have lent [given'] him to the Lord [Jehovah] ; as long as he liveth he shall be lent [he is given] to the Lord [Jeho- vah]. And he worshipped the Lord [Jehovah] there. TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 1 [Ver. 28. Erdmann renders : I have made him one prayed for (asked, erbeten) to the Lord as long as he lives ; he is asked to the Lord (for the Lord). See Exegetical Notes in loco. — Tr.] EXEGETICAL AND CIUTICAL. Ycr. 21. And the man Elkanah and all his house -went up. This he did yearly, in order to present the offering of the days and tlie voir. The "offering of the days" is the annual offering, tlie offering which eyery Israelite was obliged and accustomed to present annually. "The offering of the days and the vow" is tlie brief statement of what is detailed at length in the Law. In going up with his whole house, Elka- nah did as is commanded in Deut. xii. 17, 18: "Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thy oil, or the firstlings of thy herds or of thy flock, nor any of thy rows which thou vowest, nor thy freewill- offerings, or offering of thine hand ; but thou must eat them before the Lord thy (xod in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, thou and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-ser- vant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates ; and tliou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God." The offering of the days " is, as it were, the yearly reckoning with the; Lord, the presentation of those portions of the i)roperty which fall to him in the course of the year." Hengstenberg, Beit. [Contributions to an Lit rod. to the Pent.] III., 89, 90.— The Sing, "his imv"' refers to the vow which Elkanah also had made based on the hearing of Hannah's prayer. The addition of the Sept., " and all the tithes of his land" is, like the plural "his vows," to be re- ferred to the translator's having in mind the above-quoted passage. Thenius {adlocuni) remarks that the corresponding words ''^"'^ n'ntJ'J,'D~7D) [and all the tithes of his land] were probably purposely omitted by transcribers who regarded Samuel's Levitical descent as certain, according to 1 Chron. vi. 7 sq. and 19 sq.; but Josephus, who expressly describes Elkanah as a Levite, and follows the Alexandrine translation, has the ad- dition also. It belongs to the category of expla- natory additions and changes of which the Sept. is so full. Ver. 22. After the child is weaned from his mother's breast, Hannah will bring him to the Sanctuary. Tliat the Heb. verb (^pJ) means here "to wean," and does not include the idea oi' educalion (Seb. Schmid) as in 1 Kings xi. 20, is plain from the "gave suck," (pJ'/?!) in ver. 23. The ground adduced fortius opinion, namely, that the child would otherwise be troublesome to Eli, CHAP. I. 21-28. 61 is of no force; for, apart from the fact that a cliild three years old (this was the term of weaning, according to 2 Mac. vii. 27*) is not troublesome in the East, his nurture and education could be committed to " the women that served at the door of the Tabernacle of meeting," (ch. ii. 22). — The " appearing before the Lord," for which Hannah will bring her son to Siiiloh, supposes the ex- istence there of the National Sanctuary institutetl by Moses, and answers to the law (Ex. xxiii. 17; xxxiv. 23): "Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord Jehovah." The ^' abide forever," all his life {p'^'^V~'^V_) indicates the life-long consecration to service in the Sanc- tuary from his weaning on, while otherwise this service was binding only from the 2;jth year to the 50tli. By the education which the boy re- ceived in the Sanctuary he was even as a child to grow into the service ; and moreover, as a cliild, he could perform little outward services (Tlien.), so that the objection, that, as a newly weaned child, he was unfit for the Temple-service, falls to the ground. Ver. 23. Only the Lord establish His ■word, that is, maintain, fullil ii, Ijring it to completion. The "word" (11^1) refers not merely to Eli's word, ver. 17, but to God's factual dis- course, which consisted in hearing Plannah's prayer, and in the real promise which he had given, by the birth of the child, in reference to his destination to the service of the Lord. Bun- sen excellently says : " Word, that is, may He fulfil what He designs with him and has promised by his birth, comp. vei-s. 11, 20. The words refer, therefore, to the boy's destination to the service of God, which the Eternal has in fact acknow- ledged by the partial fulfilment of the mother's wish." Similarly Calvin already: "Elkanah seeks from God, and suppliantly begs witli prayers, that, since God has bestowed on him male oflspring. He will consecrate him and make him fit tor His service, and direct him by the power of His Holy Spirit, by wliicli his service shall be grateful and acceptable to God." Since there is no express word of the Lord to which the " word " may be referred, the Sept. avoids the difiiculty by translating (groundlessly) to k^e.7idbv ek tov CTouaro^ gov " that which came out of thy mouth." The Heb. text is not therefore to be changed (with Then.), to accord with the Sept., into "onlv, let % word stand" G:^3-1-nx \D'pn :]«.) Clericus: "God had shown, not by words, but by very deed, that He approved Ilannali's vow, and had promised her a living son; and Elkanah prays that He will perform His promise. There is therefore no need to invent ivith the Rabbis an ora- ch^ uttered to the mother concerning the child about to be born." * [Rashi says 22 months; Kimohi and others 24 months. For other opinions see " Synopsis Critico- nun " in /oco.— Tk.]. t [Rashi: "The Bath-qol (' daughter of the voice') went forth, saying : there shall arise a Just one whose name shall be Samuel. Then every mother who bore a son called liim Samuel ; but when they saw his actions, they said, this is not Samuel. But when this one was born and they saw his manner of life, they said, this is that Samuel;" and this is what the Scripture means, when it says, ' the Lord confirm His word,' that Samuel may be th.at just one." — Tr.]. Ver. 24, sq. The case is the same here with the diverging translation of the Sept., " with a three-year-old bullock " [instead of " three bul- locks"], which is occasioned by the singular "the bullock" of ver. 25. The contradiction between "three bullocks" and "one bullock" cannot in- deed be removed (with Bunsen)'by regarding the sing, as collective, .Judg. vi. 25 being cited in supjiort of it ; but it may properly be said with Keil tliat " the l)ull()ck " in ver. 25 denotes spe- cially the ofiering with which the boy was re- turned to the Lord, " the burnt-oflering by which the boy was dedicated to the Lord for life-long service in His Sanctuary, the two other bullocks serving for the yearly offering." As it was un- derstood that the two others were for the yearly festival-offering, that is, burnt-ofiering and thank- offering, it was not specially mentioned that they were sacrificed. Further, three bullocks are required by the quantity [one ephahj of flour which Elkanah takes with him, since, according to Num. XV. 8-10, three-tenths of an ephali of flour was required for a burnt-oflering of one bullock. The peace-offering, like the burnt- offering, was connected with a meat- and drink- ofi'ering. — A striking example of the arbitrary fashion in which the Alex, translators got over difliculties in the text is found in their translation /xet' aiiTO)i> "with them" at the end of ver. 24 [the Heb. reads "the child was a child "] ; as if, instead of the difficult I^J ["child"], to which the sense requires the addition of the predicate "small," the text had read DDj; "with them." The addition of the Sept. to ver. 24, "and his father slew the offering which he made annually to the Lord, and he brought the boy near," and the translation in ver. 25, " and he slew the bul- lock, and Hannah the mother of the child brought him to Eli" are to be explained as eflbrts at exegesis, and give us no ground to correct the Heb, text, as Thenius supposes. Not the mother alone, but both parents gave the boy over to Eli, and thus presented him as an oflering to the Lord. Ver. 26 sq. Hannah makes herself known to Eli by reminding him of the circumstances under which she had prayed for the child (ver. 11 sq. )* — On "stood" (fl^p^jri) Clericus remarks: " they i)rayed to (lod standing.'' For the custom of standing in prayer comi3. Gen. xviii. 22 ; xix. 27 ; Dan. ix. 20. In time of deeper devotion and emotion a kneeling posture also was adopted, [1 Kings viii. 54; 2 Chron. vi. 13; Ezra ix. 5). Ver. 27. Three things move Hannah's soul deeply and joyfidly : 1 } The recollection of the moment when she stood here and called on God for this son ; 2 ) -the contemplation of the answer * '3 iu connection with ^JIX is an interjection, " hear," or " I heg." or " iruly, my lord," (Gen. xliii. 20 ; xliv.18 ; Ex. iv. 10, l:i; Num. xii.il; Josh. vii. 8; 1 Kings iii. 17, 2G). Many explain it as ==" per me obsecro," citing the corresponding Arali oath " per me." Another expla- nation (Ges.) supposes a contraction of ''^,'3 " request," since "in the .\ramaic translations !|j;33 stands for the Heb, '3, for which the Samaritans at least wrote I^O 'obsecro' without 3, Gen. xlii. 30." Ewald says : "Most probalily '3 i'^ sliortened from "3X (Job xxxiv. 3G ; 1 Sam. xxiv. V2), a .-implo Interjection." THE FIEST BOOK OF SAMUEL. to her prayer, and the granting of the thing asked, and 3) the determination now to rastore to the Lord what He had given her in this answer to lier prayer. Ver. 28. "And also I" ('3JX Djl) refers back to the words " and the Lord hath given me," and implies a requital, et ego vicissim, " and I in my turn," (Cler.). "It cannot be shown that 7'Nun means "lend" as is generally assumed; it occurs in 1 Sam. i. 28, in the sense of " grant," " give." Knobel on Ex. xii. 36. Further, the significa- tion " lend " is here inappropriate, because the "I also" expressly brings out the correspond- ence to the "gave," of ver. 27. rii, Samuel is a shining example of the full, nnselfislx devotion of the whole life to the Lord's service, which is the condition of great profound capacity to further the kingdom of God. 4. An important principle of education is herein contained : every child should be devoted to the Lord's service, from the beginning of his life on, with self-denial and prayer; and, in accordance with this destination, should receive his life-di- rection by education, selfish parental love yield- ing to the counsel of the divine will. Calyix: " Hannah, forgetting her own advantage, gives all the glory to God, thinking it would be well enough with her, if only God were glorified; and indeed it is right to yield to God all we have, whatever it may be." In the education of children the using them to the divine and holy must begin with the xceaning.'^ From the beginning of his life the child must be "about his Father's business." HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. Vers. 21-28. The presentation of Samuel for constant service in the sanctuary. 1) What pre- ceded it, according to Hannah's wish and Elka- nali's consent (vers. 21, 22). 2) How it was per- formed, in bringing up Samuel to Shiloli and in delivering him to Eli and in prayer to the Lord (vers. 24-28). Ver. 21. Osiander: After receiving divine benefits we should not be more slothful in per- forming divine service, but rather be so much the more diligent and industrious. — Pious mothers are performing acceptable divine service when they are rearing their children faithfully and in the fear of God. — It is no reproach to a man when lie prefers his wife's better opinion to his own. [Ver. 23. Matt. Henry: So far was he from de- lighting to cross her, that he referred it entirely to her. Behold, how good and pleasant a thing it is, when yoke-fellows thus draw even in the yoke, and accommodate tiiemselves to one ano- ther; eacii thinking Avell of what tlic other docs, especially in works of piety and charity. — Tr.] Ver. 24. Cramer: The rearing of children gives to parents, it is true, great toil and troulile, but when it is done in faith, it constitutes better works tlian when monks and nuns perform all their fasting, praying, castigations and indulgence- ceremonies; for those, not these, are enjoined by * FTho Oorninn is: mit Hor Fnln-Chnnvg pclion liat die fleif'.'hitun;/ . . . /.a lieginnoii. — Tii.] CHAP. 11. 1-10. God in His word. Accordingly they are true acts of divine service, and receive from God their reward. Ver. 25. Von Gerlacii : That a three-year old boy should be already given over to the temiale, was done in order that from the first awakening of his higher spiritual powers he miglit already be living amid these holy surroundings. — See. Schmidt: Children must at times be carried to divine service. — Starke (vers. 2G, 27): The wonders of God's goodness we should openly cele- brate, and not keep silent about them. Ver. 28. Parents give their children back to God when they advance them to holy baptism, present them to God in prayer, and rear them in a Christian manner. [There are many who think this can be, and often is, quite as well performed without ini'ant baptism as with it. — Tr.] — Cramer: We should devote to the ministry the best talents and dearest children. [Ver. 28. Glcinr) hack to the Lord: 1) All we have was given by the Lord. 2) All we have should be really consecrated to Him, and regarded and treated as His. 3) The Lord will then make all promote both our good and His glory. — Vers. 10, 26-7. Agonizing supplication and joyful thanksgiving. Look on the two pictures and learn the lesson. — Chap. I. Hannah, her sorrows and her joys: I. Her sorrows. 1) She was child- less. 2) She was derided and ridiculed. 3j She was unjustly accused by a good man. II. Her joys. 1) In the tender love of her husband. 2) In the answer to her agonizing prayer. 3j In being the mother of a prophet. — Tr.] [Ciiry- SOSTOJi has five sermons on Hannah, which are discursive as usual, but contain some passages in his best vein. Works, ed. Miqne, Vol. IV., p. 631.-TR.] ' ^ THIRD SECTION. Hannah's Song of Praise. Chap. II. 1-10. And Hannali prayed, and said : My heart rejoiceth in the Lord [Jehovah'], My horn is exalted in the Lord [Jehovah] ; My mouth is enlarged [opened wide] over mine enemies, Because^ I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none holy as the Lord [Jehovah], For there is none beside thee, Neither is there any [And there is no] rock like our God. Talk no more so exceeding^ proudly ; Let not arrogancy come out of your mouth ; For the Lord [Jehovah] is a God of knowledge,* And by him^ actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty men are broken, And they that stumbled are girded with strength. They that were full have hired themselves out for bread, And they that were hungry ceased [ins. to hunger^} ; So that [Even''] the barren hath borne seven, And she that hath many children hath waxed feeble. The Lord [Jehovah] killeth and maketh alive. He [om. He] briugeth down to the grave (underworld') and bringeth up. TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 1 [Instead of "Jehovah." 2S MSS., 3 printed copies, LXX. and Vulg., read "my God," which some prefer as St variatiTii ; Ryr. and Ar. omit the word. It is better to keep tlie Heb. text. — Ti:.] 2 ["Because" is omitted in Vat. LXX. (probably by clerical error), retained in Chald. and Syr.— Tr.] 3 [The Ileb. here repeats the subst. T\T\21 Hnij, "pride, pride," in a superl. sense. Wellhausen takes these words &-< a quotation, and the H as He local, "do not sav, hieh up! high up!" but this rendering has little in its fav.n-.— Tr.J * [Lit. "knowledges." Ewald and Erdmann render "an omniscient God." 6 [Kethih is K S, "not." and .«o Syr. and Ar.; the Qeri 'l'7, "by him," is found in many MSS., and LXX., Chald and Vnlg. See Dr. Erdmann's note. — Tr.] 6 [On these interpretations of l^nn and Ij? see exegetical note.— Tk.] 7 [Heb. VlXtl", Sheol. See exeget. note.— Tr.] 64 THE FIEST BOOK OF SAMUEL. 7 The Lord [Jehovah] maketh poor and maketh rich, He {om. He) bringeth low and lifteth up. 8 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, And [om. And] lifteth up the beggar [needy] from the dunghUl, To set them* among princes, And to make [And he makes] them to inherit the [a] throne of glory; For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's [Jehovah's], And he hath set the world upon them. 9 He will keep the feet of his saints,® And the wicked shall be silent® in darkness; For by strength shall no man [not by strength shall a man] prevail. 10 The adversaries'" of the Lord [Jehovah] shall be broken to pieces; Out of heaven shall [will] he thunder upon them. The Lord [Jehovah] shall [will] judge the ends of the earth, And he shall [will] give strength unto his king, And exalt the horn of his anointed. 8 [The Heb. has no pronoun here. Some MSS. have a Yod paragog. which may represent an original Waw in the text. The sense ia not atfected. — Tr.1 9 [Heb. has the sing, in Kethib, but the phir. of Qeri suits the connection better. (So Vulg.) The Kethib may be only a scriptio defectiva. (In Ps. xvi. 10 Kethib is plur.; Qeri, not so well, sing.) — T'DH is literally " a favored * T one," "beloved," rendered by Erdmann "fromm" (pious). — Erdmann renders " shall perish." The word means first "be silent," and then "perish," — silence being a sign of destruction. — Tb.] 10 [Here again Kethib is sing., and Qeri plur., and the verb is plur. Lit. "Jehovah— his adversaries shall be broken." LXX.: " the Lord will make liis adversary weak ;" Vulg.: '• dnnUniiiitJhrmidabunl adversarii ejus ;'' Chald.: "Jehovah will destroy the enemies who rise up to hurt his people." This simpler construction (reading the verb as sing.) is adopted by Wellhausen and the Bible Commentary — but there is not .sufficient ground for changing tha existing Hebrew text.* — Te.] EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. Ver. 1. The superscription, "and Hannah prayed," does not suit precisely tlie contents of the following Song, which is not exactly a prayer /n^pFI) but a thanksgiving-testimony to the Lord and the revelation of His glory. Clericus : " Hannah rather sings praises to God than asks anything of Him." So the word "prayers" _ T T : • •.■_ - : • :■ > is forcible in so far as we should expect Hf to introduce the clause (comp. Deut. xviii. 3); but the possibility of the omission of the pronoun, and of an apposition of the two clauses must be admitted. To the translation of ""O by " legal right " Wellhausen properly objects that the D^ (even) in ver. 1-5 introduces a graver outrage, and therefore the proceeding descrroed in ver. 13 must 'be illegal. — But against Erdmann's rendering it is to be said that the meaning assigned to ^n' (know) "trouble one' s-self about " is rare and difficult; it is found only in poetical passages. The phra.'e "to know the Lord" occurs, and always in the sense of intimate sympathetic apprehension ; but this sense will not suit the 'D. Moreover, if O here means " right " we should expect the ]irep. nxo "from" (as Deut. xviii. 3) instead of nj* * [For meaning of Heb. belial, " worthlessness," see on ch. 1. 16.— Tr 1. *[DL3Dtyn.' T T : • -Tr.]. 74 THE FIEST BOOK OF SAMUEL. " with ;" the latter must be retained here, though the former is read in 9 MvSS. and in LXX., Syr., Chald. Further, the narrative is, in this construc- tion, introduced very abruptly ("when any man, €te."). !D2\yo means not only "right," but also "custom, manner;" see 2 Kings xi. 14; Judg. xiii. 12. The "custom" here described was not the legal right, but wns in force under, apparently introduced by, the sons of Eli, the jjriests ('■^H) ; ver. 13 details one imposition of the priests, and a more serious imposition is proj^erly introduced (ver. 15) by "even" (DJ). — We retain, therefore, the rendering of Eng. A. V. (with Philippson, £ib. Comni. and others). — Tr.]. Then follows the statement of the priests' legal right. — The connection required that the people's part in the offering should now be distinctly set forth, in order to put the unseemly conduct of Eli's sons in its true liglit. Therefore the parti- ciple "sacrificing" in connection with the indefi- nite subject " every man," stands first in absolute construction, like the Lat. Abl. absolute (comp. Gesen. g 145, 2, Rem.), = " when any man of- fered, then came, etc." Ewald, § 341 e.: "If the .subject of the circumstantial sentence is wholly undefined, then the mere combination of the par- ticiple with the subject suffices to express a pos- sible case (Gen. iv. 15)." Here is vividly por- trayed the grasping selfish conduct of the priests in the preparation of the sacrificial meal after the offering was presented, wliich had already become the rule ("sotlieydid to all the Israelites"). — But still further. Ver. 15. Even before the offer- ing, before (in accordance with the law, Lev. iii. 3-5 ) the fat was burned tliat it might be offered to the Lord as the best portion, they committed a robbery on the meat, which they wanted only ""rii that is, raw, fresh, fidl of juice and strength, in order to roast it. [Bib. t'omm. points out that vers. 13-15 repeat tlie Language of the Law, and thus give evidence to its existence. See Lev. vii. 31-35, 23-25, 31 ; xvii. 5; also Ex. xxix. 28; Deut. xviii. 3. Philippson: "Roast was common in heathen sacrifices, and even now the Orientals do not like to eat boiled meat." — Tr.]. Ver. 16. The remonstrance of tlie offerer based on the legal regulation, of whicli they sliould be the guardians, is .set aside. Di'| = " at this time, now," as in Gen. XXV. 31 ; 1 Kings xxii. 5. The Qeri " not " is preferable to the Ketliib " to him :" " no, but now thou shalt give it ;" threats were combined witli violent seizure. Rude force was added to lawlessness. — Ver. 17. The "young men" are not the servants of the priests (Keil) but the priests themselves, the sons of Eli. Their arbitrary con- duct wa-i " a very great sin before the Lord," be- cause the fat burned on tlie altar pertained to the Lord, and their legal portion of tlie sacrifice-meat fell to tiiem only after the burning of the fat. What made tlieir sin so great was the fact that they l)rought the offerings into contempt with the people, in so far as tlie wicked conduct of the priests took away in the eyes of the people their true sig- nificance as offerings to the Lord. Minchah (Hn JO) " means here not the meat-offering as the adjunct to the bloody offerings, but the sacrificial gift in general as an offering to the Lord" (Keil). In the succeeding narrative Samuel's " service before the Lord " is contrasted with this wicked conduct of Eli's sons in relation to the offering. IL Vers. 18-21.— Ver. 18. The "Ephod" can mean nothing but a garment resembling in form the High-priest's epliod, consisting of two pieces which rested on the shoulders in front and behind, were joined at the top and held about the body by a girdle. Therefore it is said also: Samuel' was girded with the ephod, comp. Ex. xxviii; 7, 8. In tli&tinction from the material of the High-priest's ephod, it was made of the same material as the other priestly garments, white linen ("13). That the priests then all wore this ephod appears from ch. xxii. 18. It was the sign of the priestly call- ing, and was worn during the performance of the priestly functions. David was thus clothed, ac- cording to 2 Sam. vi. 14, when he brought back the Ark, and in connection with this ceremony performed quasi-priestly functions. As the men- tion of this priestly dress of Samuel is connected expressly and directly with the reference to his calling as minister in the Sanctuary before the Lord, it is thus intimated that he, called to this life-long service, received therewith an essentially j^riestly calling. [Bib. Comm. : The word jdmi'sto- is used in three senses in Scripture : 1 ) Of the service of both Priests and Levites rendered unto the Lord, Ex. xxviii. 35, etc.; 2) of the ministrations of the Levites as rendered to the Priests, Numb. iii. 6 ; 3 ) of any service, as that of Joshua to Moses, that of Elislia to Elijah, tliat of the angels in heaven, 2 Sam. xiii. 17 ; Ps. ciii. 21, etc. The application of it to Samuel accords most exactly with Jiis condi- tion as a Levite. — Tr.]. Ver. 19. While the ephod was the High-priestly dress, wliich the boy received on the part of the Sanctuary (Thenius), the little meil* (^'i'?) was his every-day dress, which his mother renewed for him once a year, when she came with her husband to the Sanctuary to present the annual offering. The unbroken connection which the household thus maintained with the Sanctuary prevented any estrangement between the child Samuel and the house of his pa- rents.— The Impf "made" (nti>'n) indicates a continued customary action, and thus answers to the Latin tense which is so called in a stricter sense. Ver. 20. Eli's blessivrj f refers to two things : to the act of consecrating the son to the service of the Lord, and to the compensation which Eli wished the Lord to make for the son who was of- fered to the Lord. Keil explains the vXtl^ (asked [Eng. A. V. "lent"]) as 3 pers. singular instead * [The me'il was the outer garment worn hy kings, no- bles and otlicrs, proliaMy a loose robe. The High- priest's we'il was peenliarin sliai)e and color (Ex. xxviii. .'UfF"). Bib. Cnmm.: " Tlio pointed mention of the ephod and robe, taken in conneetion with his after aets. seems tci point to an extraordinary and irrf^Kular priesthood to wliich he was called by God in an age when the provi- sions of the Levitieal'law were not yet in full npfra- tion."— Tr.] t 1DN1, not 'nON'"1 becnnso the saying as well as th-s - T : ■.' T blessing itself (hence also -113?) was rc/iento! every year-; and this is expressed by the Perf. eonsec. fP.ottcher). [The two Perfects indicate a rli-ilinction between tlie (>D) : 'the report which I hear incidentally (from people passing by) from God's people,' is against grammar ;" so savs Thenius. "But," says Bottcher rightly, "The- nius' own reading (made from Sept. and Arab., and therefore insecure) : 'you j)laque, oppress the people of Israel' C" D;^ DPIX DnbjrO) is ^vholly without ground. For 1'^^'n means only 'make to serve' ' enslave,' or ' make to work,' plague with work (Ex. i. 13; vi. 5). From the last in the later prophetic style (Isai. xliii. 23) has developed the meaning ' weary,' 'burden,' just as German: schaffen maehen [' to give trouble,' lit. ' to make to do'], Tvpnyiiara TrapexF/v ['to cause trouble '], and so always with the idea of ' work ' as fimdamental. Eli's sons, it is true, robbed and dishonored the people (vers. 13 sqq., 22) ; but they did not burden them in such a way that our term 'give trou- ble ' would suit. The expression does not come * 3 has a comparative force, Ges. §154, 3sq. — The following 1t?'J5 is a conjunction, and=not so much on ["because"] as (is ["as"], but, like the latter, goes over into the causative sense; it refers to " such things," and points out the occasion au'l cause of the rebuke I comp. Ew. §:i:!3, -j « with g33l eii; Ges. {; 155, 2 d). re THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. up to the reality, for it is too narrow for the re- buke. And tlie addition of ' ye ' ( O^)??) here is both violent, and cannot be inferred from the Arab, text, where it was a necessity of Shemitic construction." The view thus opposed by Bott- cher is maintained by Thenius (in his 2d ed. also) to suit the connection perfectly, though, on the other hand, he declares that Ewald's explanation, in which there is no change of text, must be ac- cepted ; this latter is held by Bottcher to be the only one permitted by the language and matter, and he gives it thus : " to send forth a cry (7lp 'n), thence to cause to be called out, and to cause to trumpet forth ("ISIC' Tl) are common ex- pressions, appropriate to the simplest style, Ex. xxxvi. 6 ; Lev. xxv. 9 ; Ezra i. 1 ; x. 7. Why then should not "send forth a report" (>MOU/ Tl) be said as well as 'send forth a voice' (7lD Tt)? ' Tlie report which (as) I hear, God's people are circulating,' is quite proper ; the plu. partcp. is joined to the collective ' people ' as in 1 Sam. xiii. 15." To this Thenius properly objects that it is a superfluous statement after ver. 23 ("which I hear from all the people"), and that Ave shoidd here expect a more significant word. The train of thought requires after the declaration " not good," etc., a statement of the ground of Eli's judgment. The usual rendering: "ye make the Lord's people to transgress," satisfies the demands of the connection of thought. Only, as the pers. pron. ( Di"\X, " ye " ) is wanting, the partcp. must be rendered impersonally : " people make ... to transgress" (comp. U'ul'dO, ch. vi. 3, and D'^px Ex. V. 16). The objection that the object of the transgression, which is elsewhere always found with this verb as exacter determination, is not here expressed (comp. ch. xv. 24; Isa. xxiv. 5; 2 Chron. xxiv. 20 ; Num. xiv. 41 ), cannot set a-ide the meaning : " cause to sin or transgress," " because the exact definition is contained in the context" (Keii). The sin of the sons was, ac- cording to the context, very great hfore the Lord (vers. 12-17), but was at the same time committed against the people of the Lord (vers. 13, 22) in reference to their holy calling, and had the de- structive effect of bringing the Lord's oflering into contempt (ver. 17). The "people of the Lord" not only knew and spoke of the wickedness of Eli's sons, but were made by the latter partakers of their guilt, were seduced into transgression of the Law by those who ought to have watched over its fulfillment. Ver. 2"). Pillel ( /^3) is used, in connection with wicked actions, in the sense "to give a deci- sivejudgment," and so between two contending parties, " to compose a strife by judgment ;" comp. Ezek. xvi. 52; Ps. cvi. 30. Tlie e/o/(/«i, however, cannot here mean the judge, or the authority that judges, but God is described as lie who composes by judging. The sense of Eli's discourse is : " When men sin against men, it is God (of course through the appointed human organs), who re- stores tlie disturbed relations by composing the strife; but when we have to do with the rehition, not between man and man, lint between man and God, when a man sins against God, offends against God's honor, wiio will interpose to arrange the matter?" Eli sets two things therefore before his sons: 1) that their sin is a sin inmiediately against God, from which point of view it has been regarded in the whole preceding narration (vers. 12, 17) ; 2) that the consequent guilt is so great, that divine punishment therefor is certain. [Wordsworth : A man may intercede with God for remission of a penalty due for injury to hi)ii- self; but who shall venture to entreat for one who has outraged the majesty of God? — Tr.] — ■ Eli's weakly mild words were too indefinite and general to check the bold wickedness of his sons. It was too late. They sinned against the Lord " with a high hand " [T\0^ T3), as it were, with hardened hearts. — And they hearkened not to the voice of their father. — As reason of this ("3, "because") is stated, "that it pleased God, was God's will, to slay them ;" that is, they were in a state of inner hardening, which exclu- ded the subjective condition of salvation from destruction, and so they had already incurred God's unchangeable condemnation. As hardened otlenders, they were already appointed by God to death ; therefore the word of instruction had no moral effect on them. — Ver. 26. In contrast with them, Samuel is now again presented, as he developed in his childhood as well physically as morally ; while the sons of Eli were a horror to God and men, he was well-pleasing to God and men. On ^^H, comp. Ges., ? 131, 3, Eem. 3. It is used frequently to express continuance in the sense "advance," "continue," and then also expresses advancing increase, the participial con- struction being not seldom employed in such cases, as here : " Tiie child Samuel grew con- stantlv in stature and goodness." [See Luke ii. 52.— Tr.] HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 1. Since Eli's judgeship rested on his high- priestly dignity, the High-priestsMp, thus con- nected with the judicial office, had so much the higher calling to establish the theocratic unity of the people with their centre, the national sanc- tuary at Shiloh. But, in the person of the weak Eli, it showed itself incapable of fulfilling this calling. The godless priesthood, represented by the sons of Eli, corrupted the inner religious- moral life of the people, whose external centre and theocratic unity were in the Sanctuary. The priesthood could no longer fulfil its calling^- of mediating between God and His people, be- cause its representatives, lacking the religious- moral conditions of the calling, were unworthy of it ; they were not servants of God, but servants, of sin. 2. The sins of Eli's sons were a symptom of their spiritual heart-hardening and ruin in alie- nation from God and in immorality. They sinned with "a high hand," boldly, presumptu- ously (comp. Num. xv. 22-31). To this internal judgment of hardening answered as necessary consequence the judgment of their rejection by God, which was a thing determined on in God's- will, because they knew nothing of God and His law (ver. 12). Their crime against the divinely established holy ordinances and the sanctuary, the visible sign of God's abode with His pco])le^ CHAP. II. 11-26. 77 ■vvas at the same time a crime against the people of the Lord, and cuhninated in the crime against God Himwelf, in which indeed was its root. o. Samnel, though not a priest, but only a Le- vite, is (by his repeated designation as " servant of the Lord" (vers. 11, 18 j, and by the reference to his priestly clothing) contrasted with the rep- resentation of the ofMcial priesthood as God's chosen instrument for truly fulfilling, in and by the prophetic calling which was to take the place of the priesthood that mediated between God and His people, the priestly 'mission,^ to fulfil which the existing priestly race had shown itself both jjowerless and unworthy. The condition of this theocratic calling of Samuel, the earnest, personal fellowship of life with the Lord, is pointed out in vers. 21, 26. The life of the youth, who was chosen and called by the Lord to restore the the- ocracy, develops itself in the service of the sanc- tuary before the Lord in conformity to his divine mission, in order that some day he may become in place of the desecrated sanctuary the living personal centre of the theocratic national life, and in place of the corrupted priesthood the conse- crated organ of God's new revelations for His people. HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. Ver. 12. Starke: Where the true fear of God is lacking in the heart, there ungodliness prevails in the life, and thereby the heart reveals itself. S. ScHMiD : It is a bad state of things, when those who teach others the fear of God, do not fear God themselves. — J. Laxge: Preachers should most carefully guard against scandal, and earnestly strive to pursue a course of life which shall be not merely without offence, but also edifying, 1 Tim. iv. 11. — Starke: He who in the office of teacher seeks only his own — namely, how he may become rich and have a good time — but not that which belongs to God and Jesus Christ, is a false pro- phet, a thief, and a hireling. Mark that, you who bear the vessels of the Lord, Phil, ii, 20, 21; iv. 17; 2 Cor. xii. 14; 1 Pet. v. 2sqq. [The misconduct of these leaders of worship may well suggest lessons for Christian ministers; but it should never be forgotten that the Christian mi- nister corresponds much more nearly to the Old Testament prophet than to the priest, and that all Christians are priests, 1 Pet. ii. 5, 9 ; Kev. i. 6 ; v. 10.— Tr.] Ver. 16. Starke: When hearers see something bad in him who has the care of their souls, they should duly remind him of it, and should not ap- prove and commend his bad deeds, much less imi- tate him therein. Ver. 17. Starke: Nobody makes more Athe- ists than godless teachers, and even if the people still remember so much as to do according to their words and not their works, yet they retain a powerful influence upon the furtherance of god- lessncss. That wicked teachers with their godless life make great their damnation, is beyond dis- pute; but it is irrational to infer from this that * [This statement is liable to misconception. The pro- phet could never take the plaee of the priest. The priest represented flie idea oi alonemeut hi/ hlnoii, a universal, fun- damental religions fact; the prophet expounded tlie spi- rilnalW/ of God's law and service. These complementary offices were equally necessary, and existed till they both culminated in Jesus Christ.— Tr.] there is no such thing as religion. ["The sin of the young men was very great" is the text of a sermon by Wesley (Sermon CIX., Vol. II. p. 368) on the question "whether God ever did bless the ministry of ungodly men." — Tr.] _ Ver. 18. Starke: And so he (Samuel) was a right pious lad ; for such piety is more acceptable to God than when one leads a good life among only pious people, since there is a greater victory and greater fidelity in living piously among the wicked. Comp. Enoch's example. Gen. v. 24 ; vi . 9. Ver. 19. Daechsel: Petty little histories, cries unbelief. What matters it whether one knows that Samuel had a little coat or not! Holy Scri}!- ture is not written for the wise, but for child- souls, and a child-like soul does not doubt that even the little coat which Hannah prepared for her Samuel has its history. If I think of Hannah as every year sewing this coat at her home in Ramah, I know that at every stitch a prayer for her Samuel rose up to the throne of the Lord. — The coat which she M'as sewing would remind her that she had given her Samuel to the Lord ; and when the coat was ready, and she brought it to Shiloh, then every time with the coat she anew gave Samuel to her God, and said : I give him to the Lord again for his whole life, because he was obtained from the Lord by prayer. ■ Ver. 21. Starke: Whoever gives to God what is God's, to him God also gives what his heart de- sires.— Osiander: Nothing is better invested than what is given to God the Lord and to His service; for He richly repays it all. — Daechsel: When our faithful God accepts from us poor crea- tures an offering of love. He takes it only to give it back five-fold, a hundred fold, and a thousand- fold ; from His iiilness we receive grace for grace. Look at our Hannah! It was grace, that the Lord taught her to pray for Samuel ; grace, that He gave her the promise; grace, that He made her willing to dedicate Samuel to him ; but what shall we say of the fact that in place of the one child whom He had caused to be given to Him- self, the Lord gave her five children, three sons and two daughters? When we in His service do for Him the least thing out of love, it is not enough that He gives to the act itself such blessedness, but, consciously or unconsciously to us. He crowns such an act with a rich blessing of grace, and this grace is completed when He blesses us with the greatest of all blessings, eternal life. — [Vers. 22- 25.] Starke: O, how often do pious parents, by indulging their wicked children, plait a scourge for their old backs! [Hall: I heard Eli sharp enough to Hannah, upon but a su.spicion of sin, and now how mild I find him to the notorious crimes of his own. The case is altered with the persons. With all the authority of an Oriental father, a high-priest, and a judge, he was solemnly bound to do more than mildly censure his sons, chap. iii. 13. — Tr.] Ver. 25. Cramer: The sins of the first table are much weightier and more perilous than the sins of the second table. — Osiander: Let no one sin purposely or wilfully and lieap sins upon sins; for if he does, the door of grace is at last closed to him, and he finds no more place for repentance. — Starke: The pur- pose of God was not the cause of their disobe- dience, but their disobedience Avas a sign that they 78 THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. were now ripe for destruction, and that the right- eous purpose of God in their case should now soon be executed. Ver. 26. Starke : The best way to make our- selves agreeable and beloved among men is to seek to please God in Chriat, act according to our conscience, and lead an exeaiplarv life. — S. ScHMiD : Whoever uses the grace of God aright, to him God gives more and more grace. — Daechsel : Our history is tliroughout a strong, firm consola- tion for parental hearts — for those Avho have to give back to the Lord in death a dear child which He has given to them in birth, for He can other- wise rejoice and bless them ( vers. 20 sq. ) ; and also for those who have to let their sons and daughters go out into the wicked world, full of evil exam- ples and corrupting influences, for He can even then shield and preserve their children, and carrv them on in faith and godliness (vers. 21-26). Vers. 18-26. Young Samnel the pattern of a pious life in youth in the service of the Lord: 1) Planted and rooted in the soil of tlie early habit during childhood of consecrating himself to the Lord, vers. 18, 19; 2) Growing and increasi7ig in the fear of the Lord under the care of godly parents and teachers, vers. 19-21; 3) Preserved, and proved amid the temptations and influences of an evil world, vers. 22-25; 4) Blessed with fmor in tlie sight of God and man. \"ers. 23-25. The judgment against obduracy irir sin against the Lord: 1) Wherein is it founded f (a) In persistent, conscious sinning on against the- Lord in spite of divine and human warning. (6) In the holy, unchangeable will of God, who does- not sutler Himself to be mocked. 2) How is it executed? (a) In that God gives up the sinner to the service of sin from one degree to anotlier. (6) In that the punitive divine justice gives over the sinner to the destruction to which he has con- demned himself. [Vers. 12-25. On wicked children of pious pa- rents. 1) The number of such cases is often greatly exaggerated, because luen are surprised at them, and notice, and remember; but it is in fact sadly great — in the Scripture histories — in our own observation. 2) The probable causes of this. (a) Piety is not properly hereditary — in what sense it is, and in what sense it is not. [b) Pious parents may, out of mistaken kindness, improperly indulge, and but feebly restrain — as Eli. (c) In other cases, they are too strict and severe. Ap- plication— to parents — to the children of tlie pious. — Tr.] Ver. 26. The fruit of a godly life: 1) The gra- cious api3roval of the Lord; 2) Becognition by God-fearing men. FIFTH SECTION. The prophecy of a Man of God of the divine judgment on Eli's house and of the calling of a faithful priest. Chapter II. 27-36. 27 And there came a man of God^ uuto [to] Eli and said unto [to] him. Thus saith the Lord [Jehovah], Did I plainly appear [reveal myself J unto [to] the house of thy father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house [in servitude^ to the house 28 of Pharaoh] ? And did I choose [I chose^] him [it] out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest [to do priestly service to me], to ofier* upon my altar, to burn in- cense, to wear an ephod before me? \om.. ?], and did I give [I gave] unto [to] the house of thy father all the offerings made by fire [the fire-offerings] of the children 29 of Israel? [om, ?]. Wherefore kick ye at [trample ye under foot] my sacrifice and at [om. at] mine [my] offering which I have commanded in my habitation,* and honorest thy sons above me to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the 30 offerings [the best of every offering] of Israel my people ?^ AVherefore [Therefore] the Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel saith, I said indeed^ that thy house and the house TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 1 [Ver. 27. Chald. "a prophet of Jehovah."— Tr.] * [Ver. 27. 7 often expresses possession, and is here so rendered by Chald. and Sept. — Tk.] 8 [Ver. 28. The following rUPXI makes it better not to carry on the interrogation here. Erdmann : " I chose it (thy house) to perform prieptly service." — Tr.] < [Ver. 28. The Heb. form here maybe Qal ("ascend") or llipliil ("offer") Imt the sense is the same in both cases. — Tr.] 6 [Ver. 29. See E.xeg. Notes.— Tr.] « [Ver. 29. The 7 is probatily repetition from tlie last letter of the preceding word; see .Josh. x. 21 for similar case.— Tu.] ' [Ver. 3U. "Indeed" is merely intensive, IIcli. Infin. Alisi.l.— Tu.] CHAP. II. 27-36, of thy father should walk before me for ever ; but now the Lord saith [saith Jehovah], Be it far from me; for them that h'^, the "dwelling," in pregnant sense is the Tabernacle, as the Lord's dwelling-place in the midst of His people. Though the word has not elsewhere in itself tliis meaning, yet it follows here and in ver. 32 i'rom the connection, which without difficulty permits tlie same addition that we find in Ps. xxvi. 8, " of tliy house." There is no need therefore here to suppose (with The- nius) either a wrong reading or in general any- tliing superfluous, particularly not the latter, because tlie Lord's abode with His people was in fact the scene of the priests' enormities, and their guilt thus appeared so much the greater. |1J??3 is Accus. of place "in the dwelling" (='TI "ii^ the house"). Bottcher proposes as a "faultless text " pi^ D'i?''?^ 'N, " why do ye trample under foot, . . . what I commanded them, sinfully," wliere the suffix "them" refers to the Israelites * [The Germ, has steigtn, "ascend," error for op/em, " offer."— Tr.] t [Germ, adixelkleid, " slioulder-dress," "amice." — Tr.] (ver. 28), and jU', "sin," is taken in the sense of I'lJ'^, "in sin," which is found in Ps. li.-7. But according to the preceding explanation there is no need for such a change, apart from the fact "that the 'sinfully' precisely speaking is already contained in the ' tram-pie under foot' " (Thenius). He says: " Avliy do ye trample," etc., because Eli was partaker in the guilt of his sons ; because he, not only as lather towards sons, but also as high- priest towards them as priests, was weakly lack- ing in the proper chastisement and in the en- joined holy strictness. Eli ought to have op- posed liis sons as a zealous contender for the Lord's honor ; since he did not do this, he not only made himself partaker of their guilt, but honored his sojis before the Lord, more than the Lord, because he spared them, and showed un- seasonable paternal gentleness. In the plu. pron. " make yourselves fat," Eli's guilt is again referred to ; what they did, namely, that tliey took (ver. 15) the first (iT'i^'NT) of the offering before the best of the offering (HnjDJ was presented to the Lord by burning it in the fire of the altar, that he did along with them; they made themselves fat. The wickedness of Eli and his sons in connection with the offering is also put here in two-fold form, namely, against God ( " my offering " ), and against the people as the people of the Lord (all the of- ferings of Israel, my people).* After the refer- ence to the guilt follows now the judgment, the announcement of punishment, which applies to Eli as well as to his sons and his whole house. Ver. 30. 'n"i3X=I had said. — The house of thy father in connection with " thy house," indicates the whole priestly connection in all its branches from Aaron down, to whom with his sons the same expression in ver. 27 refers. For this reason, if for no other, because " the house of thy father " must mean the same here as in ver. 27, we mu.st set aside the view that here only Ithamar's family is meant, to which the high- priesthood passed from Eleazar's family, and to which Eli belonged. But also the expression : should walk before me for ever, is in con- flict with this view. Tlie " walking before the Lord" would be understood in too narrow a sense, on the one hand, if it were restricted to the entrance of the high-priest into the Holy of Ho- lies, and in too wide a sense, on the other hand, if it were regarded as a general description of a pious walk before God, as in Gen. xvii. 1. Rather it points to the life in priestly .service before the Lord promised to the house of Aaron for ever (Ex. xxix. 9). The promise of the "covenant of an everlasting priesthood" was renewed to Pliinehas, the son of Eleazar (Num. xxv. 13) for his zeal for the LordJs honor. This fact and its motive contribute essentially to the explanation of what here follows. Tlie "and now" intro- duces a declaration opposed to that promise, not in the sense that the latter is annulled, but in reference to its non-fnlfihnent for tliose in wliom the condition of its fulfilment was lacking. — Far * ''?3J,'7 "is periphrasis for the Gen., and is chosen in order to make the 'my poople' more prominent" (Koil). On tliis periphrasis of the Gen. see E\v. (;r. ? •jOv;, a. 3.— [But tin's does not apply here. See Textual Notes in loco. — Tr.]. CHAP. II. 27-36. 81 Tae it from me, that is, this promise shall not lie I'nltilled unless the conclition be fulfilled which is expressed in the words : Those that honor me I will honor. — According to tiie priests' attitude towards God the Lord in their wliole -walk will be His attitude towards them in respect to the fulfilment of His promise. Vers. 31, 32. The general truth of the last words in ver. 30, which emphasize in the distinctest manner the ethical condition of the exercise of the holy sacerdotal office in the priest's bearing towards God, is applied to Eli and his house in ver. 31, and contains the standard by which he with his sons i>i judged. I Twrill cut off thy arm. — The "arm" signifies might, power, Ps. X. 15 ; Job xxii. 9. "There shall not be an old man in thy house." Thus will be shown that the strength of the family and the house is broken ; for strength is sliown in reaching a great age. No ■one in Eli's house shall attain a great age. This supposes that sickliness will early consume its members. "On the aged rested the consideration and power of famiJies" (Bottcher). As the AoMse ■of Eli will perish, so will also the house of God sufier affliction (ver. 32). t^'^H always means to look with astonishment or attention (Bottcher, Num. xii. 8; Isa. xxxviii. 11; Ps. x. 14); ")2f is only "oppressor" or "enemy," and is not to be Tendered "rival" or "adversary," as Aquila (avriCT/Aoc) and Jerome {cemulus), and also Luther and De Wette give it ; |ij^O "dwelling" is here to be understood of the dwelling-place of God, not of Eli. From these meanings it follows that Samuel cannot be here referred to, since he was not an enemy of Eli, nor the installation of Za- dok in Abiathar's place (1 Ki. ii. 27), for Zadok was not Abiathar's enemy. Something must be meant which Eli lived to see with astonisliment or consternation in the house of the Lord, and it can therefore only be the oppression of the house by the oppressor or enemy who met Israel in the person of the Philistines, carried away the ark, and thus robbed the Lord's house of its heart. We do not need therefore to alter the text to " rock of refuge" (nj^O "IV), as Bottcher proposes. "In all which" iy^^ 122) is not to be rendered with De Wette "during the whole time which." In i'L)'] "shall do good" we must not supply a " as name of Jehovah (Kennicott), nor, as is commonly done, make Jehovah the subject (De Wette, Keij, etc.). "There is no reason why we should not take "all which" itself as unpersonal subject; precisely where "* has an unpersonal subject, it has, as here, a simple Ace. after it, Pr. xv. 13, 20; xvii. 22; Ecc. xx. 9, while, with a personal sub- ject, a preposition follows, Ex. i. 20; Num. x. 32; .Tudg. xvii. 13" (Bottcher). The aflliction of God's house from the loss of the Ark remained, while under the lead of Samuel there came bless- ing to the people. This is the fulfilment of this propiiecy in reference to the affliction of God^s direiling. "Not an old man" is repetition of the threat in ver. 31, and return of the discourse to the judgment on Eli's honse. "All the days" [Eng. A. V. for ever], for ever, that is, as long as his family existed. [Both text and translation of ver. 32 offer great difficulties. Vat. Sept. omits it. Al. Sept. and Theod. : "Thou shalt see 6 strength" {Kparaiuiia), etc. The Syr. and Arab.: " and (not) one who holds a sceptre in thy dwell- ing," which involves a totally different text. Targ. has " thou shalt see the alfiiction which will come on a man of thy house in the sins which ye have committed in the house of my sanctuary." The omission in Vat. Sept. was probably occa- sioned by the similar endings of vers. 31 and 32 ; the other versions and all the MSS. contain the verse, one MS. only of De Eossi giving npro, "strength," instead of pj^C, "dwelling." We must therefore retain the Heb. text, and explain the repetition of the last clause as intended to give emphasis to the statement in question. But, as "IV frequently means "distress," and as the course of thought here suggests affliction for Eli's house rather than for God's, it is better to render : "thou shalt see distress of dwelling in all that brnigs prosperity to Israel," the contrast being between the national prosperity and his personal affliction, v.diich would thus exclude him from tlie national rejoicing, and so from the evidence of the divine favor. And we may regard the lat- ter clause of the verse: "there shall not be an old man," etc., as defining the "affliction" which is here brought out as a punishment additional to the "weakness" of ver. 31. — Tr.] _ Ver. 33. Bottcher declares De Wette's explana- tion : "and I will not let thee lack a single man," to be incorrect, and Thenius' reference to the definite one "Ahitub" (xiv. 3; xxii. 20) to be without ground, and then remarks (on N'S ly'NI): " There remains no other course but to regard it as an infrequent, but not unexampled exceptional case. In Heb., as is well known, a negative in a sentence with W'ii. ("man") and Sd ("all"), whether it stand before or after, negatives these words not alone, but in connection with the whole sentence, and thus JJ^'X N'S, C^'X Sx mean not "not every one," but "no one," and so too xS iy\S*, '?« K/'X, Ex. xvi. 19; xxxiv. 3; Lev. xviii. 6. But when the accent falls on the word expressive of universality by an adversative par- ticle, as here (^'X1), the following negation may affect this word alone, as in Num. xxiii. 13. Accordingly we render here : " Yet I will not cut off" every one from thee." The following words : to consume thine eyes and to grieve thy heart, or "that 1 may consume," etc., mark the highest degree of punishment which would befal Eli but for the limitation contained in the words " not every man." Thenius refers this limitation specially to Aliitub, son of Phinehas, and brother of Icliabod, against which Keil justly remarks that it cannot be proved from xiv. 3 and xxii. 20 that he was the only one wlio survived of Eli's house.* — The following words : the great ma- jority or mass shall die as men, not only an- swer to the repeated threat in vers. 31, 32," that there should be no old man in the house, but at * Bottcher: anxS is for :]\NtnS=3'NnriS, one of tlie nutneron? elerioal errors in these hooks. — (It is by no means clear that there is a clerical error here, since we may suppose a stem J1X=3NT as pJN=pXJ. — Tr.] I I THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. the same time explain the declaration of v^/. 31 : "I will break thine arm;" for "men" (D'C'JN) indicates the power and strength of the house, and is contrasted with "old man" (Luther: "when thev liave become men ;" Van Ess : " in mature age"). — On '3 'O, " midtitude," " majority," not "offspring," comp. 1 Chron. xii. 29; 2 Chron. XXX. 18.^— [Sept. : " And every survivor of thy house shall fall by the sword of men." _ Vulg. : " and the great part of thy house shall die when thev attain the age of men." Targ. : "and all the multitude of thy house shall be slain young." Syr. : " and all the pupils (so Castle renders marbith) of thy house shall die men." Philipp- son: "and all the increase of thy house shall die as men." The Eng. A. V. probably gives the sense. The adj. "all" does not suit the render- ing "multitude," which Targ. and Erdmann adopt. In regard to the first clause of the verse, the rendering of Eng. A. V. seems to be possible, that is, the taking '^N N; as indef. rel. clause, Erdmann regards the reservation of the " man " as a limitation of the punishment ("consume, grieve") ; Eng. A. V. better, with most exiiosi- tors, as an element of the punishment. Mendoza (in Poole's Synopsis) : " I will take from thee the high-priesthood, which thou hast by privilege ; I will give thee or tiiy descendants the priesthood of the second order, which thou hadst by heredi- tary right." Grotius: "They shall live that they may be the greatest grief to thee." — Long afterwards this curse was held to cling to the family of Eli. Gill cites a saying of the Talmud that there was a family in Jerusalem the men of which did not live to be more than eighteen years old, and .Johanan ben Zacchai being asked the reason of this, replied that they were perhajjs of the family of Eli. — Sept. has "his eyes" and "his soul," instead of thy ; but there is no good ground for altering the Heb. text. — Tr.] Ver. 34. The fact announced, the death of his two sons in one day (iv. 11), was to be a sign to Eli, who lived to see it, that tliis threat affecting his whole house should be fulfilled. The reali- zation of this threat began with that event. Not all of Eli's descendants indeed perished in this judgment, and among his immediate posterity were some who filled the office of priest, namely, Phinehas' son, Ahitub ; Ahitub's sons, Aliiah (xiv. 3, 18) and Ahimelech (xxii. 9, 11, 20); Ahimelech's son, Abiathar (xxii. 20). Ahiali and Abiathar filled the high-priestly office. But Ahimelech and " all his father's house, the priests, wlio were at Nob," were hewn off from Eli's family-tree. And Abiathar, Ahimelech's eon, who escaped that butchery (xxii. 19), and as a faithful adherent of David enjoyed the dignity of high-priest, was deposed from his office by Solo- mon. The office of high-priest passed now for- ever from Ithamar's family, and went over to Elc>azar's, to wiiich Zadok belonged ; the latter from now on was sole high-priest, while hitherto Abiathar had exercised this office along with him. — Thus was to be fidfilled the negative part of the prophetic announcement (vers. 31-34) : gradually Eli's house went down in respect to tlie majority of its members [better, in all its increase. — Tii.] ; the office of high-priest, which the surviving members for some time filled, was at la»st taken awav from it altogether. Ver. 35sqq, Now follows the positive jiart of the prophecy. — But I will raise me up a faithful priest. — The priestly office, as a divine institu- tion, remains, though those that fill it perish be- cause they are unworthy, and because their life contradicts its theocratic meaning, and therefore falls under the divine punishment. The "faith- ful priest " is, in the first place, to be understood in contrast with Eli and his sons, to Avhom the above declaration of punishment was directed. We may distinguish the following facts in the announcement of this priest of the future, who i& to assume the theocratic-priestly position between God and His people in place of Eli and liis house: 1) he is to be raised tip by God directly, that is, not merely called and chosen, but (accord- ing to the exact meaning of the word) set up; liis priestly position is to be liistorically fixed and assigned by God directly and in an extraordinary manner ; 2) he will be a faithful priest, that is, will not merely be in keeping with the end and meaning of his calling, but, in order to this, will be and remain personally the Lord's ovm in true piety and in firm, living fixith, constantly and persistently devoted to the Lord his God, and seeking only His honor ; 3) he will do, act, accordivg to the norm of the divine will; as faithful jjriest of God, he knows what is in God's heart and soul, he knows His thoughts and counsels; these will be the rule by which ("^^^^) he will act as a man of God, as a servant after his heart; 4) and I -will build him a sure house, his family will continue as one well-pleasing to me and blessed, and will not perish like thine — this shall be the reward as well as the result of his faithfulness; 5) he shall -walk before my anointed for ever. The "anointed" is the theocratic king, whom the Lord will call. Walk- ing before Him denotes the most cordial life-fellow- ship with Him. In this reference of the prophetic announcement to the "anointed of the Lord" is expressed the same expectation of a theocratic kingdom as in the close of Hannah's song. In ver. 3(5 is added another featui'e in the por- traiture of the fiiithful priest : in this close con- nection with the kingdom, he will occupy eO' exalted, honorable and mighty a position over against the fallen house of Eli, that the needy and wretched survivors of that house will be dependent on him for existence and support. — On the 73 before "iriiin, where, on account of the following Article, it signifies cdl, whole, comp. Ges., § III., 1 Eem., Ew., | 290 c. "All the rest, all that remains." The <]p2 nnijK is "a small silver coin collected by begging" (Keil). The lower the remains of Eli's house sink even to beg- gary, the higher will the "faithful, approved priest," of wliom the prophet here speaks, stand. In the immediate future of the theocratic king- dom he will see far beneath him those of Eli's liouse who are still priests in humble dependence on him. Til is proi)hecy found its fulfillment from the stand-point of historical exposition in Samuel. That tiie author of our Books had him in view in his account of the man of God's announcement CHAP. II. 27-36. 83 is clear from the narration immediately following in ch. iii. ; here the voice of the divine call comes to the child Samuel at the same time with the revelation imparted to him of the judgment against the house of Eli. He is indeed expressly called by the divine voice to be prophet ; his first prophetic duty, whicli he performs as God's organ, is the announcement of the judgment on Eli in the name of the Lord ; it is true, it is said of him in ver. 20, that he was known in all Israel to be faithful and confirmed (pNJ) as a prophet. But the summary statement of his j)rophetical vigor and work in vers. 19-21, in which the epithet "faithful, confirmed," points back to the same expression in ii. 35, is connected with the reference to Shiloh and the constant revelations there, which had begun with the one made to Samuel ; by the express reference to Shiloh Samuel's projihetic character and work are at the same time presented under the sacerdotal point of view. An essential element of the calling of priest was instruction in the Law, the announce- ment of the divine will (Lev. x. 11 ; Deut. xxxiii. 10), and Mai. ii. 7, exjjressly declares the duty of the priest in these words: "the priest's lips shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law from his mouth, for he is a messenger of heaven;" and so that prophecy of a faithful priest is all the more fulfilled in Samuel (whose words to the people, iii. 19-21, had the pure and the practical word of God in the Law for their content), because the priesthood of liis time had proved itself unworthy and unable to fulfil this calling. The further sacred priestly acts which Samuel performed (iii. 19-21), and the mediating position between God and the people as advocate and intercessor expressly ascribed to him in vii. 5 characterize him as the faithful, approved priest who is announced here in vei's. 35, 36. The otlier single traits in the jaicture suit Samuel. In the list of theocratic instruments of the succeeding period there is none that surpasses him ; he sur- passes them all so far, that our gaze fixes itself on him in seeking for a realization of this announce- ment in connection with the fulfilment of the threat against Eli and his house. Samuel's bearing and conditct is everywhere such that the declaration "he shall c/o according to what is in my iieart and soul," is verified in no other theo- cratic-prophetic and priestly person so eminently as in him. A sure house the Lord built him according to 1 Chron. vi. 33; xxv. 4, 5. His grandson was Heman "the singer, the king's seer in the words of God," father of fourteen sons and three daughters. The intimate relation of Samuel to the theocratic kingdom under Saul and David, the Lord's anointed kings, is an obvious fulfilment of the prophecy "he shall walk before my anointed for ever." The raising up of the fore-announced priest was to follow immediately on the punishment of Eli and his house. In point of fact Samuel steps into the gap in the priesthood which that judgment made as priestly and high-priestly meiliator between God and the people, as is shown by the passages cited and by the whole character of his work. By the corruption of its traditional representa- tives the liereditary priesthood had come to be so at variance with its theocratic significance and mission, that the fulfilment of this mission could bo attained, in this great crisis in the develop- ment of Israel's liistory into the theocratic king- dom, only in an extraordinary way, through direct divine calling, by such an instrument as Samuel. The statement, in the concluding words, of the walking of the faithful priest before the Lord's anointed is fulfilled exactly (according to the above explanation) in Samuel's relation to this kingdom. — It is held by some that the prophecy in vers. 30-36, (compared with 1 Kings ii. 27, and Joseph. V. 11, 5 ; VIII. 1, 3), refers to the transition of the priestly dignity from the house of Ithamar to the house of Eleazar, and therefore that this prophecy, in whole or in some parts, was composed in or after the time of Solomon, (De Wette, Einl. U78 6.; Bertholdt, Einl. III. 916, and Ewald, Gesch. I. 190) ; against which Thenius (p. 15) properly points out that even after this change the high-priesthood remained still in the family of Aaron, while the words "and the house of thy father," (vers. 30, 31), clearly shows that the prophecy does not speak of a change in the family, and that in vers. 27-36 we have a genuine ancient prediction of a prophet. Against the view that the jjrophecy of the "faithful priest" was, according to 1 Kings ii. 27 fulfilled in the complete transference of the high-priesthood, by the deposition of Abiathar, to the family of Eleazar, to which Zadok belonged, we remark: 1) that (if the advocates of this view mean this family and its succeeding line of high- priests) the words of the prophecy speak of a single person, not of several, or collectively of a body; and 2) that, if Zadok is held to he the "faithful priest" in whom the prophetic word was fulfilled, his person and work have no such epoch-making theocratic significance in the his- tory as we should expect from the prophecy ; the expectation is satisfied only in Samuel's priestly- prophetical eminence. For the rest, the words of 1 Kings ii. 27 give no ground for the opinion tliat the prophecy in ver. 35 is in them referred to Zadok (Thenius), since the passage, having in view Abiathar's deposition, is speaking merely of the fulfilment of the threatened punishment of Eli's house, and not at all of the fulfilment of the positive part of the prophecy ; there is, there- fore, no occasion to speak (with Thenius) of a false conception of this jsrophecy as early as Solomon's time. The loi'ty priestly position, which Samuel took in his calling as .Judge and Prophet before the Lord and His people, the priestly work, by which (the regular priesthood completely re- tiring) he stood as mediator between Jehovah and His people in sacrifice, prayer, intercession and advocacy, and the high theocratic-reformatory calling, in which his " important, sacred duty was to walk before the anointed, the king, whom Israel was to receive through him, while the Aaronic priesthood fell for a good time into such contempt, that, in the universal neglect of divine worship, it had to beg honor and support from him, and became dependent on the new order of things begun by Samuel," (O. v. Gerlach), — these things prove that, from the theocratic-historical point of view, in him is fulfilled the prophecy of the faithful priest. [Four different interpretations explain the "faithful priest" to be Samuel, Zadok, Christ, or a line of priests, including Samuel and Zadok, 84 THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. and culminating in Christ ; the hist seems to be the only tenable one. I. We cannot restrict the prophecy to Samuel, for 1) the "established house" "promised the faithful priest is clearly a prid^tly house, as is evident from a comparison of ver. 35 witii vei-s. 30, 31, where the everlasting official sacerdotal character of this house is con- trasted with the tail of Eli's priestly house ; and Samuel founded no such house. 2) Eli's house was not immediately deprived of the high-priest- hood, nor was it at all excluded from the priest- hood. Up to Solomon's time descendants of Eli were high-priests, and the Jews held that his family continued to exist. Nor did Samuel suc- ceed Eli immediately as Priest and Judge. 3) It is an important fact that Samuel is nowhere called a priest, and it is an exaggeration of his position to ascribe to him a complete sacerdotal character. His mediatorial work belonged to him largely as a man of God, and similar work was performed by Moses, David, Solomon, none of whom acted as priests. It is doubtful whether Samuel sacrificed at all, still more whether he usually performed this service. The people are said to have sacrificed (1 Sam. xi. 15), where is probably meant that they did it through the priests, and one passage (1 Sam. ix. 13), seems to exclude Samuel from the act of sacrifice. At any rate his performance of sacrificial service may be regarded as extraordinary and unofficial like that of Gideon (.ludg. vi. 20, 27) and Solo- mon (1 Kings iii. 4). But it is true that Samuel's life developed the conception of the thcocratically pure and faithful priest in contrast with the self- seeking and immorality of Eli's sons. He was the first protest against their profane perversion of the holy office, the first exemplification after Eli's time of pure-hearted service of God. II. Baslii, Abarbanel and the majority of modern commentators suppose the reference to be to Zadok, Christian writers usually adopting also the Messianic interpretation. And, though 1 Kings ii. 27 mentions only the deposition of Abiathar as the fulfilment of the judgment on Eli's house, yet this, taken with ver. 35, can hardly be dissevered from the installation of Za- dok as sole high-priest; the final exclusion of Eli's representative is followed immediately by the elevation of the Zadokite family, wliich con- tinues in an unbroken line to Christ. That the Zadokites were the true divinely-appointed priests, is assumed throughout the following books of the Old Testament, and especially in such passages as Ezek. xliv. 15, (quoted by Keil). Erdraann's objections to this view do not seem conclusive. He urges: 1) that the prophecy (vers. 27-37) speaks not of a change within the Aaronic family, but of a setting aside of that family in ftivor of a non-Aaronic priest. — But this is not the declaration of the proitliecy, (ver. 30 speaks of the exclusion of unworthy members, and the reference is plainly to Eli's immediate family), and is contradicted' by the facts of his- tory ; for tlie Aaronic priesthood did continue to the end, while tlie change announced (ver. 36) was to take j)iace in the history of Israel. Samuel founded no priestly family, and the restriction of the prophec'y to him alone is not in keeping with the broadness of its declarations. 2) That Zadok was not sj>ecially jirominent, and does not exhibit a commanding character cannot be urged against this view, since the prophecy promises not intellectual vigor in the "faithful priest" but theocratic official purity and personal godliness, which Zadok and his descendants in the main exhibited. III. Augustine (De Civ. Dei 17, 6) explains the priest here announced to be Christ alone, basing his view on the breadth and fulness of the statements made about Him. The text does not allow this exclusive reference to Christ, looking plainly, as it does, to the then existing order of things (as in ver. 36, which Augustine interprets of .Jewish priests coming to worship Christ), but it may include Him, or rather point to Him as the consummation of the blessedness which it promises ; and the remarkable fulness of the terms in ver. 35 naturally leads us to this explanation. IV. If the prophecy finds a partial fulfilment in Samuel and Zadok, and also points to Christ, then it would seem best to regard it as announcing a line of faithful men who would do God's will in full official and personal sympathy with His law. First comes Samuel, not indeed an official priest, but a true representative of the spirituality of the divine service (see 1 Sam. xv. 22). He is followed by Zadok, the father of a long line of priests, who (with many defects) in the main preserve among the people and in the presence of the king the fundamental ideas of the sacrificial service, and are a type ( Ez. xliv. 15) of the perfect priesthood into which they are finally merged. To this Erdmann objects that the reference is plainly (ver. 35) to one person, and not to a body of men ; but he himself under- stands the " anointed," in which the expression of singleness is not less distinct, of Saul and David. If the anointed is to be understood of a line of kings, why not the priest of a line of priests ? — This last view then seems best to meet the demands of this confessedly difficult passage. See Keil and Wordsworth in loco. — Te.]. HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 1. The "man of God" who, by divine com- mission, predicts the punishment of Eli and his house is a proof that the prophetic gift, which ap- pears sporadicaUi/ in the Period of the Judges, had in this its gloomy close not yet disappeared. After it had been said : " there arose not hence- forth a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face " (Dent, xxxiv. 10), never- theless in the time of the Judges, by whose word as spoken according to the divine calling and commission, the people had to govern themselves, we see prophecy reappearing in the following in- dividuals: Judg. ii., the messenger of the Lord,* who comes up from Gilgal to Bochim, and ex- horts the Israelites to repentance in the name of the Lord; chap, iv., the Judge Deborah, who, expressly described as " proplictess," combines the offices of Judge and Prophet, being the organ of Jehovah's communications; cha]). vi., the Prophet who was sent by the Lord as His messenger, to rebuke Israel for their idolatry, and to call Gideon to deliver Israel from the Midianitish bondage. The content of the prophetic decla- rations, in keeping with the history of the times, * |"It is doubtful whether the malal; can be considered other than an ansel. — Tr 1. CHAP. II. 27 85 is: announcement of divine punishment for the people's idolatry through the oppression of enemies, exhortation to repentance, promise of help. 2. The internal decline of the theocratic life of God's people showed itself in the close of the Pe- riod of the Judges principally in the corruption of the sacerdotal office as cause and effect. In regard, therefore, to the priestly mediation between God and the people, there was needed a thorough reformation and a re-establishment of the proper inner relation between them by a true priestly mediation. For this reason the prophetic an- nouncement of the "faithful, true priest" stands at the beginning of the new period, and, at tlie commencement of the new theocratic develop- ment, has an epoch-making fulfilment in Sanuiel's person and work, in which the priestly side is chiefly prominent. 3. Samxiel is in this respect a type of Christ ; the idea of the priesthood, as here in vcr. 35 ex- pressed, found in all respects its completest and most universal fulfilment in Christ's higli-priestly office of mediator between God and man. 4. The conception of the honor of God and of hioiving Him is impossible, without tlie idea of the personal living God, and witliout the ex- istence of a relation, esta))lished by Him, between Him, the living God, and man, in which the consciousness of absolute dependence on Him is connected with that of the oblir/ation to be heartily consecrated to Him and in fellowsliip with Him. The declaration " he who knows Me," etc. [ver. 30] expresses God's righteous procedure in regard to the recognition or non-recognition of His honor by men. 5. When the guilt of the corruption and decline of the religious-moral life of the people rests on "the house of the Lord," "it is time that judg- ment should begin at the house of God," 1 Pet. iv. 17. 6. [The walking of the priest before Jehovah's anointed indicates a definite separation between the sacerdotal and judicial or governing offices, and a certain subordination of the first to the second. This was a condition of the developed Israelitish state, and appears in proper form first under David. Saul seems to liave exercised au- thority over the priesthood, but in David's time the relation of political subordination was first united with sincere religious unity of lieart and purpose, and thus one step taken towards the perfl-ct and complete form (king, prophet, priest), which was to shadow forth the office and work of Christ. — And, as of Hannah's anticipation of the king, so we may say of tlie prediction by this man of God of the united Idng and priest, that it had its root in the felt need of the times, which, as it existed in its distinctest and intensest form in the most spiritual minds of the nation, was guided and elevated and intensified by tlie Spirit of God into prevision and prophecy. — Tr.]. HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. [Ver. 27. A man of God. 1) Hia office is to come to the people with "Thus saith the Lord." Though inspiration cannot now be expected, he mav be " thoroughly furnished " from the Scrip- tures (2 Tim. ii'i. 17). 2) AVhen called to give I rebukes and warnings, he should do it with faith- fulness, solemnity, and tenderness. — Tr.]. Vers. 27-36. llie prophet's sermon of censure, [German Strafpredigt] against Levi and his house. 1 ) Looking back to the past, it recalls the mani- fold exhibition of tlie benefits of God's grace, vers. 27, 28; 2) Looking around upon the pre- sent, it holds before Eli his sins and those of his house, vers. 29, 30; 3) Looking out upon the future, it proclaims the divine judgment, vers. 30-36. Vers. 27-30. To ivhat are ice bound by the ex- perience of overf owing manifestations of God's grace ? 1) To be always thankfully mindful of them; 2 ) To proclaim everywhere the praises of God ; 3) By a sober and holy walk to promote the honor of His name. Vers. 27-3G. God's righteousness and grace in union with each other. Ij Grace in union with righteousness, vers. 27-32 ; (a) The actual proofs and gifts of God's grace (vers. 27-29) contain serious demands by the holy and righteous God ; (6) The prouiiscs of grace are in respect of their fulfilment conditioned by the conduct of man to- wards God, which is weighed by his rigliteous- ness, ver. 30; (c) In proportion as man in view of the revelation of divine grace gives God the honor or not, he is requited by God according to his righteousness, ver. 30. 2) The severity of God's righteousness does not exclude grace, vers. 30. (a) It suflfers itself to lean upon forbearing, soft- ening grace, in order that justice may not execute complete destruction, vers. 33, 36 ; (b) It does not take away tlie arrangements which grace has es- tablislied, but guards and preserves them against the sin of men, vers. 27-29 ; (c) It does not cause the promises of grace to fall away, but makes room for their fulfilment in another way, ver. 35. Ver. 30. God the Lord, according to His right- eousness, remains no man's debtor: 1) Whoever honors Him, will He also honor ; 2) He who despises Him shall be despised in return. — To honor God the loftiest task of liuman life: 1) Wherein it consists; 2) How it is performed; 3) What promise and threatening are here con- cerned.— [I. Some of the ways in which we may honor God. (1) By speaking His name with reverence. (2) By keeijing the Lord's day holy to Him. (3) By propriety of behaviour in public worshij?. (4) By practically recognizing our de- pendence on His Providence. (5) By perform- ing all the duties of life as to the Lord (Col. iii. 17). II. Some of tlie ways in which He will honor us. ( 1 ) In causing us to be respected by our fellow-men (Prov. iii. 16). (2) In making us the means of converting others. (3) In re- ceiving us to glory, honor and immortality in lieaven (Rom. iii. 7). — Baxter: Never did man dishonor God, but it proved the greatest dishonor to himself. God will find out ways enough to wipe off any stain upon Llim; but you will not so easily remove the shame and dishonor from yourselves. — Tr, ] . Ver. 35. The exercise of the priestly office, which is well-pleasing to God: 1) Its personal condition and pre-supposition, fidelity, firmness, steadfast- ness, " I will raise me up a faithful priest ;" 2) Its ride and measure, " according to that which is in my heart and in my soul ;" 3) Its blessing and reward, " and I will," etc. [Upon the phrase THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. "he shall walk before my Anointed forever," comp. above on ii. 10, Horn, and Pract. — Tr.]. Vers. 27-30. The heavy guilt of neglecting the office of household-priest in the rearing of children : 1) It wrongs the ivclfare and honor of the house, so far as in earlier times God has in grace and com- passion crowned it with blessings, vers. 27-29 ; 2) In indulgent and weak love to the children it robs God of the honor which He demands, ver. 30 ; 3) It thereby prepares for the children a sure destruction, ver. 34; 4) It often thereby brings a curse and ruin upon succeeding generations, vers. 31-33, 3G. [Hall: Indulgent pai-ents are cruel to them- selves and their posterity. Eli could not have devised which way to have plagued himself and his house so much, as by his kindness to his children's sins I do not read of any fault Eli had but indulgence ; and which of the no- torious ofienders were plagued more! — Tjb.]. SECOND SECTION. Samuel's Call. Chapters III. — IV. 1 a. 1 And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord [Jehovah] before Eli. And the word of the Lord [Jehovah] was precious^ iu those days ; there vras no open 2 vision [vision spread abroad"]. And it came to pass at that time, when [that^] Eli was laid down [lying down*] in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim that he 3 could not see. And ere [o??i. ere^] the lamp of God went out [was not yet gone out] in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was \_om. in the temple was®] and Samuel was laid down [lying down^] to sleep [om. to sleep, ins. iu 4 the temple of Jehovah where the ark of God' was], That [And] the Lord [Jeho- 5 vah] called lins. to] Samuel, aud he answered [said]. Here am I. And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I, f r thou calledst me. And he said, I called not; 6 [ins. go back and] lie down again [o»i. again]. And he went and lay down. And the Lord [Jehovah] called yet again, Samuel. Aud Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said. Here am I, for thou didst call [calledst] me. Aud he answered [said], I 7 called not, my son, [ins. go back and] lie down again [om. again]. Now Samuel did not yet know® the Lord [Jehovah], neither was the word of the Lord yet [and 8 the word of Jehovah was not yet] revealed unto him. And the Lord [Jehovah] called Samuel again the third time. And he arose aud went to Eli, and said, Here TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. ^ [Ver. 1. = " rare," see Isa. xiii. 12; Chald. renders " hidden." — Tr.] 2 [Ver. 1. This word (VTs33) is variously rendered: Sept. Siaa-reWova-a, "distinguishing," "explaining," whence some would (without ground) change the text to T*"i3 (which perhaps the Alex, translator read, the Nun omittrd from preceding Nnn); Chald. "revealed " ^ "broken open;" Syr. as Heb. ; Arab., "the Lord h.ad de- prived the children of Israel of rcvel/ition in those d.ays, and there was no revelation to .anyone of them, and notliiii'j; ajipcared to him ;" Vulg. " nianifesta;" others, " broken." "diffused," "multiplied;" the Jewish inter- preters ( liashi, Kimchi, Ralbag) follow the Targ. : Lutlier, icerdgveissagung, " little prophecy ;" Erdmann. verbreitH, '■ spread al)road ;" Cahen, " rtpandu." This last is probably the correct sense, see 1 Ghr. xiii. 2 ; 2 Ohr. xxxi. 5. — Tr.] 3 [Ver. 2. Erdmann renders " when " (as Eng. A. V.) In order to show that the description from this point is introductory to ver. 4; but the literal translation, given a'>ove, clearly indicates the connection of thought, and avoids the interpretation of a construction into the text. — Tr.] * [Ver. 2 and ver. 4. Or, " was sleeping." — Tr.1 6 [Ver. 3. D"^D with Impf. following the subject = "not yet." — Tr.] * [Ver. 3. The Eng. A. V. in making this unwarranted inversion of clauses, was probably controlled by the same motive which led the Masoritcs to separate 2D^ (" was lying ") from 7D'n3 (" in the temple ") by the Ath- nach. namely, to avoid the seeming assertion that Samuel was sleeping in the sacred building. The Targnm accdi-dingly renders " was sleeping in the Court of tjie Levites," borrowing this term apparently from Herod's temple. For explanation see Exeg. Notes, in hen. — Tr.] T [Ver. 3. This is the only place where 'Sx ("God") in the phrase 'Sx tUN (" the ark of God "; occurs with- out the Art. ; OX often occurs with the force of a proper name, but no reason is apparent why the Art. is omitted here in this standing phrase. For discussion of the difference between OX and OXH see Quarry's "Genesis and its aiuhorship," pp. 27(i sqq. — Tn.] 8 [Ver. 7. Erdmann : " had not yet learned to know," which is substantially the same as Eng. A. V. On point- ing of yv see Exeg Notes, in loco. — Te.] 12 13 14 CHAP. III.— IV. 1 a. 87 am I, for thou didst' call [calledst] me. And Eli perceived that the Lord [Jeho- 9 vah] had called [was calling] the child. Therefore, [And] Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down, and it shall be, if he [one^"] call thee, that thou shalt say. Speak, Lord [Jehovah], for thy servant heareth. So [And] Samuel went and lay down 10 in his place. And the Lord [Jehovah] came, and stood," and called as at other times [as before], Samuel, Samuel. Then [And] Samuel answered [said], Speak, 11 for thy servant heareth. And the Lord [Jehovah] said to Samuel, Behold, I will [om. will] do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it s'nall tingle [the which whosoever heareth, both his ears shall tingle]. In that day I will perforjn against Eli all things [om. things] which [that] I have spoken con- cerning his house, when I begin, I will also make an end [from beginning to end]. F.)r [And] I have told [I announced to] him that I will [would] judge his house for ever for the iniquity'^ [sin] which he knoweth, because [that he knew that] his sons made themselves vile [brought a curse on themselves'^], and he restrained them not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged [expiated] with sacrifice \_ms. of blood] nor [ins. un- 15 bloody'*] offering forever. And Samuel lay until the morning,'^ and opened the doors of the house of the Lord [Jehovah]. And Samuel feared to show Eli the 16 vision. Then [And] Eli called Samuel, and said, Samuel, my son. And he an- 17 swered [said]. Here am I. And he said, What is the thing that the Lord [om. the Lord, ins. he] hath [om. hath] said unto thee ? I pray thee [om. I pray thee'*] hide it not from me. God do so to thee and more also, if thou hide anything from 18 me of all the things [om. the things] that he said unto thee. And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said. It is the Lord [He is Jeho- vah] ; let him do what seemeth him good. 19 And Samuel grew ; And the Lord [Jehovah] was with him, and did let none of 20 his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew 21 that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord [Jehovah]. And the Lord [Jehovah] appeared again [continued to appear] in Shiloh ; for the Lord [Jehovah] revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by [in] the word of the Lord [Jehovah]." Chap. IV. 1 a And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. 8 [Ver. 8. The " didst " might now suggest an emphasis not given by the Heb. — Tr.] 10 [Ver. 9. The impersonal .=ubject is proper, as Samuel did not know who the caller was. — Tr.] 11 [Ver. lo. Chald. softens this anthropomorphism into " revealed himself," and the Ealibis add, by a yoice from the Holy of Holies.— Tn.] 12 [Ver. 13. |'l^3 is difficult. It can be understood here only as in stat. const, with the following clause ; Eli's sin was " that he knew, etc." So the Vulg. The Targ. and Syr. render as Eng. A. V. ; Sept. gives " the iniquities of his sons," and omits "that he knew;" Wellhausen omits T^O- — Tr.] 1* [Ver. 13. Dn? is here taken as reflexive. The true reading here is not clear ; the old translators and critics treated it variously. Sept. has 6eov as if it read D'H/X, which Geiger (Urschrift, p. 271) and others adopt. See Erdmann's remark on this in Exeg. Notes, in loco. Chald. reads as the Heb. (Targ. renders 77p by JJI here and elsewhere) ; Syr. has " his sons brought ignominy on the people," reading apparently DJ^7. This is one of the eighteen cases" of the " correction of the Scribes " (see Buxtorf's Lex. s. v. f-lpri), wlio are said to have changed the original reading '7 " me " to 'Will " themselves," to avoid the blasphemy, for which reason also Geiger holds that "•X " God " was changed. Others suggest that the 'l stood for mri"' 7 " Jehovah." But it is hard to say how much reliance is to be put on these alleged corrections of the old Jewish critics, and here (as Wellhausen remarks) we expect the Ace. TlIX not '7 after i7p. Tlie external critical evidence is in favor of the reading D'n /X " God," but, the objection to this urged by Erdmann being strong, we can only, with him, retain the pre- sent text.— Te.] 1* [Ver. H. It seems desirable to express in an Eng. translation the differen^'O between riDI and nnjTD. — Tr.] 15 [Ver. 15. Sept. here adds " and rose in tlie morning," which Thcnius and Wellhausen think stood originally In the text, and fell out by similar ending. On the other hand, it is a natural filling out of a terse account, quite in the manner of the Sept. — Tr.] i"* [Ver. 17. Tlie Eng. " I pray thee " is too strong for the Heb. XJ. for whieii we have no good equivalent. — Tk.] T " [Ver. 21. On the addition of the Sept. here see Thenius an the same verb is connected with a subst., Gcs., ?l-]2, 4, Rem. — or Inf. Qal flini) (comp., Isa. iii. 7 ; Gen. xxvii. 1 ; Deut. xxxiv. 7 ; Job xvi. 8 ; Zech. xi. 17), " which the pimctuators avoided only because they had not clso- wherc met with it" (Bottch.). [This whole note, quoted by Erdmann and Thenius from Bottcber. is somewhat unclear. The passages cited for the Inf. hardly bear beginning of ver. 2 is added in ver. 3 an exacter and more definite statement in the words : And the lamp of God was not yet gone out ; — no doubt this indicates ?i(V//i^f/?)ie, near the morning, .since the seven-lamped candelabrum in the Sanc- tuary before the curtain, which (Ex. xxvii- 20, 21 ; xxx. 7, 8) was furnished with oil every morn- ing and evening, after having burnt throughout the night and consumed its oil, usually, no doubt, got feebler or went out towards morning (comp. Lev. xxiv. 2, 3). The words " and S. was sleep- ing" are not to be regarded, as the Athnach un- der the last requires, as a parenthesis sejmrated from " in the temple " (as is usually done), if the latter expression is understood to mean sanctuary in distinction from the most holy place ; for we cannot suppose that Samuel slept in this Sanc- tuary. But hekal (^yX\) is here, as in ch. i. 9 ; Ps. xi. 4, the whole sanctuary, the entire space of the tabernacle, as the j^alace of God, the King of His people, who has His throne there. This tlirone is the " ark of God," for above the ark was the symbol of the presence, yea, of the royal dwelling and. enthronement of God in the midst of Jrlis people (iv. 4). Samuel's sleeping-place was in one of the rooms, which were built in the court for the priests and Levites on service (Keil). The name Jehovah stands after " temple," because it is the Covenant-God, who descends to His peo- ple and dwells with them, that is brought before us. On the other hand, in connection with the lamp and theark " Elohim " is used " in the sense of the dirine in general," (Then.), that is, God is viewed in His loftiness and power over the whole world, as He who is to be feared and venerated, as lofty majesty (which conception is made clear by the plural). In vers. 2, 3, is described the situation in which Samuel received the call of the Lord, — it is night, the High-priest lies in his place in the sanctuary, the lamps of the candelabrum are still burning,* the morning is near, it is the time when dream- life rises to its height; near Samuel was the ark of Ciod, whence the revelations of God came. Vers. 4-10 give the whole history of tht call, with the attendant circumstances, in its individual ele- ments.— Samuel hears the call of a voice, wliich has awakened him from sleep, but takes it to be not the call of a divine voice, as it was, but a call from Eli. Eli, to y/hom he hastens, sends him back to his couch with the answer: "I did not call thee." This is repeated in ver. 6. — Ver. 7 gives the reason Avhy Sanmel thought he heard not Ood's voice, but Eli's.f Knowing God means here not the general knowledge of God which every Israelite of necessity had, but the on the question. Wellhausen declares the Inf. here without 7 impossible ; but see Deut. ii. 25, 31. Winer makes it'Piel. Inf.— Tr.] *|The Sept. has "before the lamp was prepared," which may point to the custom of keeping one light l)urning during the day, and thus indicate the late night or early morning. — TrJ. + D'^tJ 's seldom used, as here, with the Per/, of past time; c(imp. Ps. xc. 2 ; Ew. ? 337, :^, c. We might how- ever pnint also j^T with Botteher, and thus read, "in ai'cordance with the following n7il', a Fiens [Impf] with D1£3, as is usual." CHAP. III.— IV. 1 89 special knowledge of God, which was given by extraordinary revelation of God. The experience whicli now conies to Samuel is marked as the first of the sort. The word of God had not yet been revealed to him. He had not yet re- ceived such a special revelation of God through His word ; therefore he did not yet know tlie God who revealed Himself in this way. — " It was a gloomy time, poor in revelation, as in exemplary religious life. For Eli, the High-priest, was weak, his sons defiled the sanctuary, the people served idols (vii. 3sq.), and the Philistines ruled oppressively. Hence it came that Samuel did not yet know how the Lord was used to reveal Himself to the prophets, the announcer of His word to men (iii. 1, 7|" (Niigelsbach, Herz. R.-E. .XIII. 395 sq.). Afterthe third repetition of the call (ver. 8), Eli observed the divine oric/in oi the call, and showed Samuel (ver. 9) how he should dej^ort himself towards the divine voice. His answer was to be : " Speak, Lord, for thy servant hear- eth." — Up to this point the medium of the divine revelation was the tlirice reijeated call of a voice, which so strongly impressed Samuel's hearing, that he was awakened out of sleep. This is the meaning of the narrative; it does not mean a voice, which he tliought he heard in a dream merely. In ver. 10 a new factor is introduced: the divine revelation by means of a voice be- comes a vision: Jehovah came and stood, that is, before Samuel. That an oljjective real apjjearance is here meant is clear from ver. 15, "the vision" (nX"lO). Three factors are to be combined : the dream-state of Samuel's soul (the internal sense), the Aearmgr a voice on awakening, the seeing an appearance. Vers. 11-14. Plere follows the divine annovnce- ment of the judgment on Israel and the house of Eli. The Pres. (HK'J^ partcp.) brings the act, though still in the future, before us as near, imme- diately and surely impending.* The titu/linr/ of both ears is the mark of dread and horror, which comes suddenly on a man, so that he well nigh loses his senses. Clericus' reference to the Lat. attonitus is excellent, comp. Jer. xix. 3. The unheard of hor- ror Avhicli was to make both ears tingle was (chap. iv.)>the frightful defeat of Israel in battle with tlie Philistines, and the loss of the ark to this heathen people. — As in ver. 11 the horror, which is to come vpon Israel, is announced, so in vers. 12-14 is declared the judgment of the house of Eli. In ver. 12 the Infs. Abs. (H^DI ShH) serve to explain and define the verb fin., "beginning and ending," that is, from beginning to end, lully, entirely. Not one icord of the minatory propliecv (ii. 27 sq.) is to remain unfulfilled. (See Ew. 1 280, 3 a). — In ver. 13 this announcement is recapitu- lated. The declaration was a threat, no longer a warning. Judging is in sense (comp. Gen. xv. 14) identical with ■punishing. This punishment will be inflicted on Eli's house "forever;" the judgment will never again be removed from it. In what did Eli's sin consist? In tlie neglect of the duty which lie ouglit to have performed to liis sons as father, high-priest and judge, by tlie em- ployment of severe chastisement and punishment. * On the intrans. nj'bvn see Ew. ? 196 d [oomj). Green's Heb. Gr. ? 141, 2.— Tr.]'. He knew their crimes, but let them go unpun- ished, on 7 D''77pO " cursed themselves " is very hard to explain, unless with Sept. and Then., we read DTJvX for DPI; and translate " they brought God into contempt," the Pi. being taken as causative, and Qal=" to come into con- tempt." Certainly this rendering would agree with chap. ii. 17; but — a^side from the untrust- worthiness of the Sept. in relation to the Heb. text, which also may here liave been arbitrarily treated on account of this difficulty — against this reading is the fact that God Himself here speaks. The conjecture adduced by Grotius, '/("the Hebrews wrote that for Dp? 'themselves' for- merly stood 'S 'me,'") must be rejected on ac- count of the difference in the letters. There remains no other course than to translate " curs- ing, bringing a curse on, themselves," according to the usual explanation.* Luther gives the correct sense : " that his sons behaved shame- fully." [So Eng. A. V. "made themselves vile," but this is not exactly correct. See translation and textual note. — Tr.] — Ver. 14. The announce- ment that the punishment is imposed for ever (ver. 13) is here marked by the divine oath as irrevocable. (ON, in view of the ellipsis, with negative force, Ges. § 155, 2 sq,). The transgres- sion of Eli's house is here spoken of because not only did Eli's sins of omission and his sons' sins of commission prove them personally ■wcrtliy of punishment before God, but the religious depra- vation that issued from tliem atlcctcd the whole fomily, even their posterity. ("^SDr)'' Pass, for the usual "^33). Because the guilt can never be ex- piated, therefore the sentence will never be re- called, but, agreeably to the Lord's true word, will be carried out on Eli's house. The double "forever" at the end of the two declarations (vers. 13, 14) expresses the terrible earnestness of the divine justice. [As to the relation between this announcement (iii. 11-14) and the other (ii. 27-26), the latter is founded on and supposes the earliei", but does not exactly repeat it. The first message seems (strangely enough) not to have produced the desired efiect, namely to rouse Eli and save his house ; for, though it is ex- pressed absolutely, we have to suppose that the doom might be averted by repentance and obe- dience, as in the case of Nineveh. But the old man was too weak, and his sons (who must have heard of the prophet's threatened punishment) too far gone in sin. Ko moral change occurs to remove the implied moral condition of the doom, and the sentence is to be executed. Still God will not leave His old servant without another appeal ; He sends another message by Samuel. The first prophecy (chap, ii.) reviewed the his- tory of the sacerdotal house of Eli, exposed its unfaithfulness, announced its deposition, and looked beyond to tlie glory of a new and faith- ful priestly house. The second prophecy, given througli Samuel, reaifirms the punishment, em- * nriD Pi- here trans. " to make faint, weak, frighten " T ■ by threatening, terrifying conduct, as elsewhere 1j?i|, with 3, incrcpare ah'ipiem. 90 THE FIEST BOOK OF SAMUEL. phasizes Eli's personal guilt, and declares the sentence on the priestly house to be irrevocable. Its object, then, would seem to be two-fold: 1) to rouse Eli and his sous to repentance and quickening into spiritual life, (see Eli's response in verse IS, whereas no answer of his to the first threat is recorded) ; 2) to accredit Samuel as a prophet by making him the bearer of a message that the whole nation Avould hear of, and to develop his spiritual-prophetic earnestness and faithfulness by bringing him into personal con- tact with the most serious events. It is liardly to be supposed that tlie conduct of Eli and his sons had been unobserved by tSamnel. Kather they must have occasioned him (in connection with the man of God's announcement) much serious thought, so that his message to Eli was not some- thing apart from his own intellectual and spiritual life. We must notice, also, the difference in breadtli and maturity between the declaration committed to the (doubtless) fall-grown man of God, and that delivered through the youth Samuel.— Tr.]. Vers. 15-18. Samuel before Eli as called prophet of the Lord in liis first prophetic fimction. Althougli Eli had already received from the " man of God" (ii. 27) the prediction of punishment, yet his c(jn- duct gives occasion to the repetition (through Samuel who had a direct call from the Lord) of the prophetic announcement of judgment on liis liouse as a word of immediate revelation from the Lord. — Vers. 15 sq. describe with such psycho- logical and historical minuteness, such clearness and truth to life Samuel's external situation and tone of mind after the revelation and appearance, and the conduct of Eli who was roused to earnest interest* by the thrice-occurring call to Samuel, that neither liere nor in the preceding description (vers. 1-14) is there any ground for Ewald's opinion that this is not an original tradition. After this revelation Samuel sleeps in his bed till morning. Opening "the doom of God's house" was a part of his duty in the sanctuary. By the Ix'on supplipii by the transljitor, somethirii; amounting to this havins fallen out of the text, pro- bably by typographical error. — Tn.] ver. 17 observe the climax in the words with which, in three sentences, Eli demands information from Samuel ; it expresses the excitement of Eli's soul. He asks for the word of the Lord ; he demands an exact and complete statement ; he adjures Samuel to conceal nothing from him. God do so to thee and more also, if, etc., is a frequent form of adjuration,* which threatens punishment from God, if the request is not com- plied with, comp. xiv. 44; xx. 18. — Ver. 18. And Samuel told him every v^hit. His fear was overpowered by Eli's demand. In obeying Eli he was at the same time obeying the Lord, whose command to enter on his prophetic calling before Eli he must liave recognized in the latter's demand. And he (Eli) said. Two ^/;mr/.s Eli says: It is the Lord! This is the utterance of submission to the Lord. He sees confirmed what the man of God announced to him, and recognizes the indubitable revelation of the Lord. Let Him do ■what seemeth Him good. This is the expression of resignation to the unchangeable will of the Lord. To the over- whelming declaration of God Eli shows a com- plete resignation, giving liimself and his house into God's hands, without trying to excuse or justify himself, but also, it is true, without ex- hibiting thorough penitence. Vers. 19-21. Tlte result of Samuel's call to the pro- phetic office, and, at the same time, transition to the description of his prophetical work in Israel. 1) In ver. 19 a the divine principle in his develop- ment into a man of God in his prophetic office is exi)ressly emphasized, his growth from youth to manhood ( '1^]']) being set forth under the highest theocratic point of view, which is marked by the words: And the Lord vyas ^with him. — To him were imparted God's revelations for Israel, because he was a man after God's heart, who, amid the temptations to evil that surrounded him in Shiloh, was now as a youth mature and tried in true fear of God and sincere fellowship with God ; and his growth rested on a childhood consecrated to the Lord. "The Lord was with him." This re- fers not merely to the general proofs of God's goodness and mercy, to the blessing which he re- ceived from the Lord throughout his life, but also to the special revelations and gifts of the Spirit which the Lord imparted to liim as His chosen instrument. For 2) in ver. 19 6 in the words And he let none of his v^ords fall to the ground is emphasized the diriiie dcmonstrafinn of Samud' s prophetic character liy (xod's fiilfilment of what he prophetically announced as the word re- vealed to him. The expression "did not let fall" indicates that the word was not spoken in vain, but was fulfilled,! comp. .losh. xxi. 45; xxiii. 14; 1 Kings viii. 56; 2 Kings x. 10. 3) Ver. 20 ex- hibits his general recognition in Israel as a tried instrument for the Lord in the projihctic office. The geographical indication of the extent of this recognition supposes that Samuel was made known * [This means not, " may God do to yon as yon do to Tne," hut "may Ood visit your refusal with a,ppropriato punishment."— Tr.] t [The origin of the figure has been soutrht for in various ocourronees, as the spilling of water, the fall of an arrow, or any weapon of war, or of a house. Init it is better understood in a general way as signifyinr; "fail- ures," in contrast with a firm, ui-iright posit on. — Tii.] CHAP. III.— IV. 1 a. 91 to the whole people from Da7i on the north to Beershcba on the south (Judg. xx. 1) as a prophet of the Lord by his declaration of the word of God. tf^.>?A, "found trustworthy," "tried," Num. xii. 7j. From this it is evident that the people of Israel, in spite of their disruption, yet formed religiously a unit. In spite of the general lack of the declaration of God's word, there was ni\\\ altogether a I'eceptivity for it; notwithstand- ing the decline of the religious-moral lil'e there was not lacking a sense for the self-revelation of the living God through His chosen instrument, the prophet Samuel. It is no doubt intimated in ver. 20 "that Samuel, in contrast with the hitherto isolated appearances of pi'ojjhets, was known as a man called to a permanent proi)hetic work" (Nii- gclsbach, Herz. B.-E. XIII. 26). For the factual ground of ver. 20 is given in the closely connected V. 21, where 4) are stated the continued direct reve- lations of God to Samuel in Shiloh. "Jehovah con- tinued to appear in Shiloh." This points to visions as the form of revelation for the internal sense, and as the continuation of the mode of appearance which is set forth in vers. 10, 15 as "vision." The words "for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord" leave no doubt that that revelation in visio7is also was made to Samuel; and that the word was the heart and the guiding star of these revelations of the Lord made to him that they might be imparted to the people. As the people had hitherto had its centre in Shiloh in the Tabernacle with the ark as the symbol of God's indwelling and presence, so now it found in the same place a new centre in the continued revelations of the Lord to Samuel through His word. From now on God made known His will to the people by the revelation •of His word to Samuel, the first representative •of the permanent prophetic order.* Thus, then, the beginning of the fourth chapter: And the •word of Samuel came to all Israel — is •closely connected with tlie preceding. The word of Samuel is in content "the word of the Lord," which was directly revealed to him, he being from now on favored with this revelation (ver. 21) in the form of the i>ision (nX"^0) ; thus the declaration "God revealed Himself to Samuel" is by no means superfluous (Then.); for it is not "the re- velation mentioned above" which is here meant, but that which was constantly repeated in vision, Tsy virtue of which Samuel was the Boch (riNI), seer. Inform the word of Samuel was prophetic announcement, as organ of which he was Nabi (NO J), God's spokesman, interpreter.! His word came "to all Israel." In these words is comprised 5) his prcq)hetic work in all Israel, and the perma- nent efiect of his call to the prophetic office (made by the first revelation) is indicated. The word which came to him from God went liy him to the whole people. This close connection of these Avords with the preceding context, and their closingand comprehensive character shows plainly how incorrect is the ordinary view which connects * [It ii3 an old opinion that there is here a reforenoe to the personal Word, the penond Person of the Trinity. The Tnrg. has "the word of Jehovah was his lielp." and so .«ome" modern (^Hnmentators, as Gill. But plainly there is no ground for this. — Tn.] f [On Boeh and Aabi see on chap. ix. 9. — Tr.] them with the following, and regards them as a call by Samuel to battle with the Philistines. They are the sunnnary description of his prophetic work, on which his judicial labors rested, the transition to these latter being made in the follow- ing narration of Israel's public national calamity. HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 1. Samuel's person and labors as prophet. "So the Lord's training had borne its fruits. Samuel had been preserved amid the temptations of Sh iloh. He had grown up to be a consecrated man and faithful proi^het of the Lord— a man of God in the midst of an apostate race — a light in the dark- ness, and much was gained when God's word M'as once more to be found in the land." (Schlier, Die Konige in Isr., 1865, 2 ed., p. 5.) "The vigorous and connected ministry of the proijhets begins with Samuel, who is therefore to be regarded as the true founder of the Old Testa- ment prophetic order (comp. Acts iii. 24). It was that extraordinary time when, with the re- moval of the ark, the Tabernacle had lost its sig- nificance as centre, the high-ijriest's functious were suspended, and now the mediatorship be- tween God and the people rested altogether in the inspired prophet. While the limits of the old ordinances of worship are broken through, Israel learns that Jehovah has not restricted His saving presence to the ancient symbol of His indwelling among the people, rather is to be found every- where, where He is earnestly .sought, as God of salvation." Oehler in Herz. B.-E. s. v. Prophet- enthum des A. T. XII. 214. 2. The time of Samuel's appearance in Israel as prophet was the time of an internal judgment of God, which consisted in the preciousness of God's word, that is, in the lack of intercourse of God uith His people by revelation. It was a theocratic interdict'^ incurred by the continued apostasy of the people from their God, and inflicted by God's justice. It had the disciplinary aim to lead their hearts back to the Lord, who liad long kept silence, had long suspended His revelations. Such a judgment of the cessation of all revelation-intercour.se of God with man came upon Saul, xxviii. 6, 15; comp. the complaint in Ps. Ixxiv. 9, "there is no longer any prophet," and the wail in Am. viii. 11 sq. over the famine of God's word. The same law presents itself in all periods of the kingdom of God ; men lose the source of life, God's revealed word, by a divine judgment, when they withdraw from intercourse with the living (iod, and will not accept His holy word as the truth which controls their whole lite. 3. TJieform of God's revelation in prophecy is, as Ave see in Samuel, internal sight, the vision, to whichthe original apiiellation iJoeA (HXT or i^jH) f (according to 1 Sam. ix. 9, the earlier usual desig- nation of the prophet) points. " Vision and word of God are in iii. 1 parallel expressions for pro- l)hecy." "The vision is nothing but the inner in- corporation, and therefore also symbolization of what is felt in the mind — whether it be in visible * [The Papal Interdict forbids the celebration of di- vin-' service, the administration of the sacraments, ec- clesiastical buriMl and iniiriiasre (by Romish ministers), and enjoins fastinu: and prayer. — Ti:.] t [On the relation between PIN"! and Hfll see below, chap. is. 9. — Tk.] THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. phape for the inner eye, or vocally for the inner ear." (Tholuck, Die Prophefcn mid ihre Weissa- f/un{/en, 18(31, p. 5-i.) The internal sight, by means of which the prophet knows that the content of the prophecy, the matter of the announcement to be made, has been imparted to him by God directly, altogether independently of his own activity, is the insion in the wider sense. For this reason Samuel, like all other prophets, is called a Seer. After his soul, detached from the outer world of sense through the medium of tlie dream, has thus been brought into a state of more concentrated re- ceptivity for the rev'clation of God, he sees with the internal sense the matter of the prophetic de- claration directly imparted to him by God. "But when the revelation presents its content in visible shape before the prophet's soul, there results the vision in the stricter sense." (Oehler, Herz. R.-E. XVII. 637.) 4. In the history of Samuel's call to tlie pro- phetic office are united prototypically all essential momenta* of theocratic prophecy : 1) the ethical con- dition of the absolute consecrcdion of the person and the whole life to Ood's service on the basis of sincere life-coramunion with Him, and of mutual inter- course between God and the prophet — ("Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth;" comp. Jer. xxxiii. 2 sq.: "call unto me, and I will answer tliee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not"); 2) the definite, direct, clearly re- cognized and irresistible call of God to be the in- strument of His revelation, tlie declarer of His word which is to be imparted to him, connected with the gift of inspiration and capacity therefor by the controlling poiver of the Spirit of God; 3) the reception of God's special revelation by word inde- pendently of human teaching and instruction and his own investigation and meditation, together M'ith the consciousness of having been fiivorcu with a disclosure of God's objective thoughts; 4) the internal sight as the subjective medium of the reception of the revelation of God, the psychical form of prophecy; 5) the declaration of the reve- lation received, with the certainty and confidence (produced by the Spirit) that the announced word will be confirmed by the corresponding divine deed. Corap. Oehler, Weissagwng, Herz, R.-E. XVII. 627 sqq.f o. The triple repetition of the divine call to Samuel betokens God's holy arrangement for pre])aring His inner life, that he might become an exclusive organ of divine revelation (comp. vers. 7, 8), freed from human authority, his soul open only to the utterances of the living God, as is shown by Samuel's answer to the divine voice: "Speak, Lord, thy servant hearetli" (vers. 9, 10); for by this answer Samuel assumes the position of one who has direct converse with the Lord, that lie may, as his servant, licar what the Lord will say to him by His revelations, and therein' tlic end of the threefold preparative call is fuliilled. 6. That the light of the ilivine word may illu- minate the inner life, the latter must be open to this light, as it is given by divine revelation. The humble readiness to hear and accept God's coun- sels with the ear of faith is called forth by the * [Momeiititm. translation of Germ, "momont," "essen- tial or importiuit. olemcnt." — Tr.1 t [See also Fairhairn on Prophecy, Chap. I., and Lee on Inspiration. — Tn.] awakening ccdl of God's voice, and leads to the clear knowledge of His word. The way to fellowship with the living God and service in His kingdom is opened and prepared only by God's act of grace in calling men bv the voice of His word; and so living and abiding continually in fellowship with the Lord is conditioned on the word of revelation, in wliich the Lord speaks to the soul that stands fast in the obedience of faith. Thus the individual elements of this history of Samuel's call present a picture of the grace of God that calls us, as all they learn or experience, who, like Samuel, occupy such a position towards God's word, that to God'.'j call tliey answer with him: "Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth." 7. Pardoning grace* (ver. 14) is open to every sinner, and is denied by God for no sin, if there be, on the man's part, honest, hearty repentance for sin as enmity against God and violation of His holy will, and confident trust in His grace and mercy, that is, if tliere be a thorough conversion to the Lord. In Eli's house, in spite of the pre- ceding divine warnings and threatenings, there was continued, persistent sin, and Eli did not summon the resolution to make an energetic cleansing of his house and thorouglily to remove his sons' wickedness, which he ought to have felt especially bound to do as high-priest; such sin makes it impossible that God's grace should be shown in the forgiveness of sin, puts a limit to God's patience and long-suffering, and draws down on itself His punitive judgments as necessary proofs of His holiness and justice. [The Mosaic Law had no offering for presumptuous sins; but underneath the Law (which was civil-political in its outward form) lay the fundamental principle of the forgiveness of the penitent sinner, deve- loped, for example, in Ps. li. and others. This prin- cii)le, however, though doubtless part of the spiri- tual thought of ancient Israel, did not find full cx- jiression till it was announced that the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin. But in the New Testament, as in the Old Testament, there is no pardon without rejientance. — Tr.] 8. The true permanent unity of Israel, dismem- bered, as the nation iras, during the Period of the Judges, was establislied by Samuel by means of the word of God which, in his prophetic procla- mation, embraced all Israel. Even in times when the national, political and religious-ecclesiastical life is most sadly shattered and disruj)ted, the divine word, if it is only preached lovingly by preachers that live in it, shows its purifying and unifying power, the receptivity for it being jare- sent, and only needing to be called forth. HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. Ver. 1. Cramer: That is the greatest and most perilous scarcity, wlicn God causes a dearth, not of bread but of His word. — Wuert. Bible: f Jod does not give His holy word to every one and at every time in great abundance, but causes at certain times also a scarcity therein to be suflered, Ezek. iii. 26 ; Amos viii. 11, 12. [Vers. 3-14. Stanley: The stillness of the night — the sudden voice — the childlike miscon- ception— the venerable Eli — the contrast betweeu * fin tlie Germ. versUhnuiigs-gnade — "grace of expia- tion."— Tj{.] CHAP. III.— IV. 1 a. 9;j the terrible doom and the gentle creature who ha;5 to announce it — give to this portion of the narra- tive a universal interest. It is this side of Sam- uel's career that has been so well caught in the well-known pictures bv Sir Joshua Reynolds. — Tk.] Vers. 3-10. Steinmeyeu (Testimonies to the glory of Christ, Berlin, 18-17): The call of Samuel the Prophet, as an ima SECOND DIVISION. SAMUEL'S WOEK AS PROPHET, PEIEST AND JUDGE. 1 Sam. Chapter IV. 1 b — Chapter VII. FIRST SECTION. Infliction of the Punishment prophesied by Samuel on the House of Eli and on all Israel in the unfortunate Battle with the Philistines. Chap. IV. 1 6— VII. 1. I. Israel's double defeat and loss of the Ark. TV. 1 b — 11. 1 Now' [And] Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside 2 Ebenezer^ ; and the Philistines pitched in Aphek. And the Philistines put them- selves in array against Israel, and when [om. when] they joined battle^, {ins. and] Israel was smitten before the Philistines, and they slew of the army in the field 3 about four thousand men. And when the people were come [And the people came] into the camp, \jins. and] the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the Lord [Je- hovah] smitten us to-day before the Philistines ? Let us [We will] fetch the ark of the covenant* of the Lord [Jehovah] \_ins. to us] out of [from] Shiloh unto us \_om. unto us], that, when it cometh [and it shall come] among us [into our midst] 4 it may {om. it may, ins. and] save us out of the hand of our enemies. 8o [And] the people sent to Shiloh that they might bring [and brought] from {om. Irom] thence the ark of the covenant of the Lord [Jehovah] of hosts, which dwelleth hetiveen the cherubims [who sitteth upon the cherubim^] ; and the two suns of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, wei-e there® with the ark of the covenant of God. 5 And [ins. it came to pass], when the ark of the covenant of the Lord [Jehovah] came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang 6 again^. And when \om. when] the Philistines heard the noise cf the shout [ins. and] they said, What meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the He- brews ? And they understood that the ark of the Lord [Jehovah] was come into 7 the camp. And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God* is come into the camp. And they said. Woe unto us ! for there hath not been such a thing hereto- 8 fore. Woe unto us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods ? these are the gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues [every sort of TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. * [Ver. 1. The LXX here insert : " and it came to pass in those days that the Philistines gathered themselves together against Israel to battle," a natural introduction which we should expect iu this place, but for that very- reason suspicious, since it might easily be added by a copyist to fill out our brief and abrupt text. It is not un- likely, as Bib. Coram. sua;gests, that the account is taken from a fuller narrative, and is introduced here chiefly to set forth the fulfillment of the prophecy against Eli's house, that is, from the theocratic-propiietic point of \\v\%. See Erdmann's Introduction to this Comm. g 4. The Vulg. here agrees with the Sept., the other vss. with the He- brew.— Tk.] 2 [ Two articles as in Jo. iii. 14; 2 Sam. xxiv. 5, to give prominence to each word. — Tr.] * [Ver. 2. Chald.: " The combatants spread themselves out," Syr.: "there was a battle," Sept.: iKKivtvb iroXefio^ " the battle turned (against Isr.)," Vulg.: inito certamine, Erdmann : " der Kampf ging los." The stem lyi^i means "to put away, scatter;" here literally "the battle spread out," of which the rendering in Eng. A. V. is prohably a fair equivalent. Thenius suggests that the Sept. read tyom, but Abarbauel also renders the verb by 3Jj? T T " "leave," as if the defeat of the Israelites was referred to.— Tr.] * [Ver. 3. Sept. omits "covenant," and had a different text from ours, but it has no claim to reception.— Tr.] 6 [Ver. 4. Sept. (ca^rj/ieVou xepov(3i'/x, Chald. and Syr. " on " (as in 2 Sam. xxii. 11\ Vulg. " super." — Tr.] « I Ver. 4. Sept. omits "there " and thus gives a very good sense ; Vulg. supports Sept., and Heb. is supported by Ch. and Syr. W^pllhausen thinks the worle, and its force is strengthened by reference to tlie dej)end- ency, on the other lianl, of the Israelites on them. Coinp. Judg. xiii. 1. It is a martial, curt, energetic word, which is in striking contrast with the wide lamentation just heard, and therefore cannot have come from the same mouth as that. The false, secure, superstitious reliance of the Tsr;K'lites on the present ark, their advance to battle not in the fear of the Lord and in proper trust in Ilim, and the newly-kindled courage of the Philistines re- sulted in terrible defeat of the former ; the defeat was very qreaf, especiallv in comjjarison with the first, in which 4UU0 fell.' The result of the battle was 1 J for the Israelitish army a complete disper- sion ("every man fled to his tents") with the terrific loss of 30,000 footmen (the Israelitish army consisted at this time of footmen only) ; 2) for the ar/c, its capture by the Philistines, and 3) for the sons of Eli, death. Thus a terrible divine judg- ment was executed on Israel and its whole religious system, dead, as it was, and void of the presence of the living God. The priesthood was judged in its unworthy representatives ; the loss of the ark to the heathen was the sign that the living God does not bind LTis presence to a dead thing, and withdraws its helpfulness and blessings where covenant-faithfulness to Him is wanting ; the mighty army was destroyed, because it hatl not the living, Almighty God as leader and pro- tector, and He gave Israel, as a punishment of their degeneracy, into the power of the enemy.* HISTOraCAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 1. The Tabernacle was, according to the divine arrangement, to be the consecrated place, where the covenant-God, dwelling among His people, would be enthroned in the revelation of His holiness, mercy and majesty ; according to its designation, it was "the place where God met with the people." It contravened, therefore, this sacred ordination of God, that Israel should with- out authority separate the sacred tent and the ark that belonged to it, and drag the latter into the tumult of battle, under the superstitious impres- sion that, removed from the quiet holy place whore the people assembled, and where they mot with God, it would secure the mighty intei'ven- tion of God. Thereby was God's holy method of meeting with His people disturbed and destroyed. For the space outside the Holy Place and the Most Holy was the appointed place where the people assembled and drew near to God through the priesthood ; and the place of the priests, sym- bolizing their mediating ofiice, was between the court and the Must Holy Place; and the Most Holy Place, symbolizing God's dwelling enthroned amid His jjeople, did this for the whole sanctuary and for the theocratic people only through "the ark of the covenant or of the testimony," and through its symbolic representation of God's gra- cious presence; and therefore the removal of the ark of God from this consecrated place, and its separation from what was intimately connected with it l)y the idea of the indwelling of God in • His people and their meeting together, not only stripped the Holy of Holies of its holy meaning, but also destroyed the whole order and compre- hensive aim of the sanctuary. According to this divine order and aim, the people were here to draw near to their God. The jieople here, on the contrary, demand that God shall come to His people with His helj), while tiny have not ap- proached Him with penitence and humility, with prayer and sacrifice. Herein is set forth the deepest inward corruption of the priestly office, which not only did not prevent, but positively * rThp«e two battle's arp tho first anrl spcond battles of Ebenezer ; for thu third, see 1 Sam. vii.— Tk.) CHAP. lY. 1 6— VII. 1. 99 permitted such an inversion of tlie theocratic order. 2. The arh, as the most essential part of the sanctuary, whose signification as "dwelling of God" it alone fully expressed, was the symbol of God's prssence with His people in the chief aspects of His self- revelation as covenant-God: fikt in His holiness and jx^fice, the testimony of which in the covenant record of the Law as the revelation of the holy and righteous will of God to His people, formed the content of the ark; secondbj, in His grace and mercy, indicated by its cover, the kapporeth [mercy-seat], as the symbol of God's merciful love, which covered the_ sin of His penitent people; and thirdly, in His _ roya^ mijesty and glory, whose consoling and terrifying presence over the cover of tlie ark was symbolized bv the cherubic forms. These forms are to be regarded, not as a symbolical representation of real personal existences of a higher spirit-world (Kurtz, Keil), but, both in the simpler shape in which tlie human form is the prominent and governing one (Ex. xxv.l, and in the more ela- borate compo-ite form, as in Ezekiel (ch. i.), as the symbolical representation of the majesty of God (presented in full glory to the covenant-peo- ple), as it is set forth in the completest creaturely life of the earthly creation. The people of Israel, ei')7-counselled by their elders (ver. 3), Mncoun- selled by their high-priest, perverted now the saving covenant-order syml)olized by the ai'k thus con^itituted, in that, by the external conveyance of the ark into the battle, they severed the mighty unfolding of God's majesty and glory against His enemies and His saving presence from the ethical condition necessary on their part — that is, in that they did not observe covenant-fidelity in obedience to the law of God, nor sought His grace and mercy in sincere penitence, but rather, in fleshly security and in dead, superstitiously degenerate religious service, deluded themselves into believing that God's presence would secure protection and help without the moral condition of obedience to His holy will, without penitent approach to Him, and without free appropriation of His offered grace, and that it was, in its essence and working, connected with the sensely and natural. This was in open contradiction to the fundamental view of the religion of Israel, by which the idea that God dwelt above the ark amid His people in a sensely way was excluded. 3. The unauthorized, self-determined inversion of the holy order,* in which is founded the fel- lowship of God with man and of man with God, is followed by the opposing manifestation of God's punitive justice. It does not suffice to see and confess, like the elders of Israel, under the pain of self-incurred misfortune and miserv, the reve- lation therein of the smiting hand of the almighty God; but there must be joined with this the penitent, sorrowful recognition of our own sin as its cause, and the penitent seeking after God's mercy and help, of which there is no trace in the * [We rnnst guard, however, acain^t layins; too much stress on the eeremoniat symholieal ' order, wliieh David violated d Sam. xxi.) witliont wrong. Tlie Israelites were punished, not beeause they violated symholie, logic in removing the ark from the sanctuary, hat because their whole religions life was perverted and disobedient. This was only the occasion of the "lesson. — Tb.] people and their elders. He who does not, by penitence, living trust in His mercy and obe- dience, make himself absolutely dependent on God and su'uject to Him, comes by his own fault into this inverted relation to Him, that he seeks to make Him, the holy and righteous God, sub- ject to himself, and to secure His helping grace according to His own perverse will. Theodorct says in Qurrst. in I. Reg. Interrog. X.: "By the loss of the ark God taught the Hebrews that they could rely on His providence only when they lived obedient to His law, and when they trans- gressed Plis law, could rely neither on llim nor on the sacred ark." — Berl. Bibel on ver. 2: "The elders were right in recognizing the fact that the Lord had smitten them (Am. iii. 6). Bat they were arch-hypocrites in that they did not lay the blame on themselves, and make a resolution to cleanse themselves from sin and idolatry (vii. 3, 4), and turn to the Lord in downright earnest and with the whole heart, but only coanselljd to carry the ark of the covenant into battle, put their trust in the outward, and so directed the people. If only the ark were with them, thought they, the Lord must help them. Very differently did David, and in his deep need would hold directly on the Lord; therefore he had the ark of the Lord carried back into Jerusalem (2 Sam. xv. 24 seq.). But they had to learn also that, as they had let obedience to the Lord go, so the Lord would let these outward signs go, with which He was not so much concerned as with obedience. — Out of God we seek in vain for help; nothing can protect us against His wrath. We must give ourselves up to Him, and that is the best means of quieting His anger. And we must so give ourselves up to Him, that we do not once think of trying to quiet His anger." 4. There is a merely fleshly natural joy in the external affairs and ordinances of religious life and service, in that we think of and use these, not as means of glorifying God and furthering His honor, but as means of satisfying vain de- sires, selfish wishes and earthly-human ends. The Lord punishes such pretence, not only by thwarting these ends, but by sending the oppo- site, ijrivation and distress, and even taking away the outward supports and forms of hypo- critical godliness and piety, as the ark was taken from the Israelites by the Philistines. "He who has, to him shall be given; and he that has not, from him shall be taken what he has." ["Wordsworth refers, for a similar state of things, to Jer. vii. 4 sq. — Tk.] 5. It is one of the weightiest laws in the King- dom of God, that when His people, who profess His name, do not show covenant-fidelity in faith and obedience, but, under cover of merely exter- nal piety, serve Him in appearance only, being in heart and life far from Him, He gives them up for punishment to the world, before which they have not magnified the honor of His name, but have covered it with reproach. HOMTLETICAL AND PRACTICAL. Vers. 1, 2. Berlcnb. Bible: Israel smitten before the Philistines, is to-day also the spectacle pre- sented by the condition of God's people. The enemies of the Divine name, the hostile powers of darkness have for the most part the upper 100 THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. hand. Anxiety about sustenance or love for earthly things everywhere plays the master, and even the best Israelites are thereby overcome and made to fall. — Starke: It is indeed not wrong to defend ourselves against the enemy who attacks us ; but such defense must be undertaken in true penitence, that we may have a reconciled God and His assistance. Vers. 3. 4. Starke: In the punishments of God men seldom th'uk of their sins committed, but onlv of outward means of turning away the punisliments, Deut. xxvi. 18 ; Ps. Ixxyiii. 56-62. Schmid: Ilyijocrites leave the appointed way, and wish to prescribe to God how lie shall help them. [Ver. 3. Failure in relif/ious enterprises, as in efforts to evangelize a particular community, or in some field of home or foreign missions. We are prone to see only the external causes of such failure, instead of perceiving and lamenting our lack of devotion and spirituality, and to ask, as if surprised or complaining, "Wherefore has the Lord smitten us before the Philistines ?" And in seeking remedies, we are apt merely to hunt out striking novelties in outward agencies, instead of forsaking our sins and crying for God's mercy and help. Such novelties may be employed, provided a) they are lawful in themselves, and 6) we do not take it for granted they will be accompanied by God's presence and blessing. — Ver. 4. The taber- nacle and its leading contents, 1) as symbols of God's manifested presence. His majesty, justice, and mercy, and of the need of purification, sacri- fice, and priestly intercession in approaching Him ; and 2) as foreshadowing the incarnation of God's Son, and His work of atonement and in- tercession.— Tr.] Ver. 5. OsiANDER : So joyful are the ungodly in their carnal security that they let themselves dream of a happy issue, while yet they do not think of repentance and reformation of life. [Hall : Those that regarded not the God of the ark, tliink themselves safe and happy in the ark of God.— Tr.].—Berlenb. Bible: The holiest things and the most precious institutions of the Lord may, as Ave here see, be most horribly mis- used contrary to God's intention, and bring on men tlie utmost ruin, if tliey are not handled and read in a holy way and according to the will of God. How clearly is here depicted that false confidence of hypocritical Christians, which they place in outward signs, yea, in Christ Himself, witiiout true repentance and reformation of life. Vers. 7, 8. Schmid : Even the mere rumor of God and of His works fills the ungodly with fear ; how much more God's written Word. God con- vinces even unbelievers of His majesty, that they may have no excuse, Kom. i. 20. Ver. 9. Starke : O ye children of God, do learn here by the example of the Philistines, that as they encourage one another ibr the conflict against God's jjeople, you, on the contrary, may encourage yourselves for the conflict against the children of Satan, Eph. vi. 10 sq. — Sciimid: So desperately wicked is the human heart, that it opi3oses itself to God in perfect desperation rather than submit itself to Him in repentance. Vers. 10, 11. Starke: When the ungodly have filled up the measure of their sins, God's anger and pmiishmcnt is sure to strike them. — Schmid : When unbelievers show themselves so brave that it appears as if they had overcome God and His people, they gain nothing by it except that they at least experience God's heavy ven- geance.—W^uektemberg Bible: The outward signs of God's grace are to the impenitent utterly unprofitable, Jer. vii. 4, 5. — Tuebingen Bible : God often punishes a people by taking away the candlestick of His word from its place. Rev. ii. 5. — Schlier : The Lord's arm would first chastise the secure and presumptuous people, before help could be given ; the blows of the Philistines were the Lord's rods of chastening. But there also was help near to tliose who would only open their eyes, for the Lord's chastisements are meant to be unto salvation. And Israel was soon to be able to see that with their eyes. The Lord had chas- tised His people ; but they were not to despair or to perish. — [Hall: The two sons of Eli, which had helped to corrupt their brethren, die bv the hands of the uncircumcised, and are now too late separated irom tlie ark of God by Philis- tines, which should have been before separated bv their father. They had lived formerly to bring God's altar into contempt, and now live to carry His ark into captivity; and at last, as those that had made up the measure of their wicked- ness, are slain in their sin. — Tr.] IT. The Judrpncnt on the House of Eli. Chap. IV. 12-22. 12 And there ran a man of Benjamin^ out of the array, and came to Shiloh the 13 same day with his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head. And when [om. when] he came [Im. and] lo, Eli sat upon a [his"'] seat by the wayside' watching ; for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when [om. when] the man came into the city and told it [came, in order to tell it in the city] [ins. and] all the city TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 1 rVor. 12. Inst.-:ul of th(^ Gon. constniotion, as here, the Hoh. has more commonly the tribal name as Adj. (gentilie), as in -Tudg. iii. 15; 2 Sam. .xx.l ; but for ex. of this form see .Indu; x. 1.— iR.J 2 f Ver. 13. The Art. hero points to some well-known or afniistonicct scat —IR. I _, . , , . _, i ,,( *],„ atver.ia. It is generally agreed that we must here read, with the (^en and Syr., T instead of y. but the CHAP. IV. 12-22. 101 14 cried out. And when l_om. when] Eli h'^ard the noise of the crying, he [om. he, ins. and] said, What meaneth the noise of this tumult ? And the man came in 15 hastily [hasted and came] and told Eli. Now Eli was ninety and eiu;ht* years old. 16 and his eyes were dim [set] that he could not see. And the man said unto Eli, I am he that came out of the army, and I fled to-day out of the army. And he said, 17 What is there done, my son ? And the messenger answered and said, Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there hath been also a great slaughter among the people, and thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the a'k of God 18 is taken. 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 [the man was old], and heavy. And he had judged 19 Israel forty" years. And his daughter-iu-law, Phinehas' wife, was with child, near to be delivered f 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 tra- 20 vailed, for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her death the women that stood by her said. Fear not ; for tliou hast borne a sou. But she answered 21 not, neither did she regard it. And she named the child Ichabod, saying " The glory is departed from Israel," because the ark of G'' {/i/(r;Aou 8p6t'ov) would here be not so good as "seat."- Tr.] t [The messenger prohablv entered the city by the gate where Eli was sitting. — Tr.] 10-2 THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. blindness, the result of old afje. — Eli was 98 years old, and his eyes were set. (The Fern. Sins. HOD with vyj^ is explained, accord- ing to Ewald, § 317 a, by the abstract conception which connects itself with the Pin. of the Subst. by the combination into an abstract idea of the individuals embraced in it, "especially in lifeless objects, beasts, or in co-operating members of one body, in which the action of the individuals is not so prominent — and so in the Dual," as here). For " icere set " comp. 1 Kings xiv. 4, where occurs the .same expression for blindness caused by old age. It is the vivid description of the lifeless, motionless appearance of the eye quenched by senile weakness, " a description of the so-called black cataract, amaurosis, which usually ensues in great old age from the feebleness of the optic nerves" (Keil, in loco). In iii. 2 the process of this blinding is indicated by the word nilD as " waxing dim." Ver. 16 sq. The sorrowful ticliiu/s. The remark in ver. 15 concerning Eli's senile weakness and blindness explains both the preceding ver. 14 and the statement in ver. 16 as to the way in which the messenger personally announces and intro- duces hims'df with the words : I am he that came out of the army. — But he says, " I am he that came" not merely on account of Eli's blindness, but also on account of the importance of the announcement with which he approaches the head of the whole people. It is not allowable, therefore, to translate : " I come " ( De Wette ) . At the same time the messenger declares himself a fugitire, and so intimates that the army is com- pletely broken up. iJ/fs question refers not to the Hoiv (how stood the affair? De Wette, Bunsen), but to the What: " What was the affair?" (The- nius), Vulg. : quid actum est f — The answer of the messenf/er to Eli's question (ver. 17) contains no- thing imt facts in a fourfold grade, each statement more dreadful than the preceding. There is a power in these woi'ds which comes out in four sharp sentences, with blow after blow, till its force is crushing : Israel fleeing before the Philistines, a great slaughter among the people, Eli's sons d?ad, the aric taken. The double " and also " (DJ1) is to be observed here as characteristic of the lapidary style of the words, and the excitement with which they were spoken. — The narrator remarks ex- pressly that the fourth blow, the news of the cap- ture of the ark l)v the heathen, led to Eli's death. This is again a sign of the fear of God, which was dee])ly rooted in his heart; the ark represented the honor and glory of the (xod who dwelt in His peoi>le ; the ])eople's honor and power might perish; the destruction of his house might be ir- retardable, unavoidal)le ; prej)ared beforehand for it, he had said : " It is the Lord, let him do as seemeth him good !" But the loss of the ark to the heathen was his death-blow the more surely, the firmer had been his hope that, as of old in the time of Moses and Joshua, the host of Israel would win the victory over the Philistines under tlie lead of the ark whicli lie, a weak guar- dian of the Sacred Vessel, liad sent oli'to the battle without Divine command, weakly yielding to the elders of the people whose trust was not in the living God. His judicial and high-priestly office, lacking as it was in honor and renown, lie closed >vith honor ; though the manner of his death was terrible, and bore the mark of a divine judgment, he nevertheless died in the fear of God. Berl. Bib. : " It is besides an honorable and glorious death to die from care for God's honor." His judgeship had lasted 40 years. The iSept. reading, 20 years for 40, results, according to Thenius, from the confusion of the numeral letters O and D, as the reading 78 (Syr., Arab.) for 98 in ver. 15, ac- cording to the same critic, may be due to the con- fusion of V and ]?. Further, our text " is sus- tained by the fact that Eli hardly became Judge in his 78th year" (Thenius). Vers. 19 sq. Here follows the pathetic nar- rative of Eli's daughter-in-law, in which is shown how the judgment on Eli's house is still farther fidfilled in his family.* The wife of Phiuehas was so violently affected by the hor- ror and sorrow that her pains came prematurely on her. Literally it reads: "her j)ains turned upon her," or " began to turn themselves witiiin her." This expression is suggested by the ground- meaning of the word (D'l^^), "something turn- ing, winding, circling." — Ver. 20. The comfort- ing word of the women who stood by : " thou hast borne a son " does not rouse the mother's joy in her heart, and cannot overcome or soil:en its sor- row at the loss of the ark, which is more to her than the loss of husband and father-in-law — and this is set forth by two expressions in the narra- tion : " she gave no answer, and laid it not to heart," did not set her mind on it. Comp. Ps. Ixii. 11 ^1? Q'^- What is commonly for a mo- ther's heart at such a time the greatest joy (Jno. xvi. 21), was for her as if it were not; so is her soul occupied and taken up with sorrow for the lost ark. This shows the earnest, sincere piety, in which she is like her father-in-law. Eli's house, made ripe by his weakness for so frightful a judgment, was not in all its meml)ers jjcrsonally a partaker of the godlessness and immorality of those who certainly, before the Lord and the whole nation, stamped it as ripe for God's right- eous punishment. " The wife of this deeply cor- rupt man shows how penetrated the whole people then was with the sense of the value of its cove- nant with God" (O. V. Gerlach).t— Ver. 21. She gives expression to what fills her heart by naming the child Ichabod. This name is not " where is * Tlie S before flS =• mS is that of time, our towards, on, about; comp. Josh. ii. 3,"the gate was for closing," that is, was to be closed immediately ; E\v. Or. 217, 2 h. So hero : towards bearing, near to bearing. On the con- traction of rrh into nS comp. Ew. Or. § 23G, 1 h, and § 80.— 7X is often used, as here, to point out the object to which the narration relates — with the verbs "say, re- late." Comp. Gen. xx. 2; Ps. ii. 7; Ixi::. 27; Is. xx.xviii. 19 ; Jer. xxvii. 19 ; .Job xlii. 7. It is explained by the fact that, in narrating or speaking, tlie iiinid is directed to the object, stands in relation to it. Cdinp. 7 Isa. v. 1. That it here depends on a subst., and not, as usually, on a verb, does not atfeet the principle, since a verbal con- ception lies in this subst. t [We can hardly dr.iw a conclusion coneerniiig the whole nation from the example of one person, and Ger- lacli'a inference ia, for other reasons, doubtful. — Tk.] CHAP. IV. 12-22. 103 glory?" (O -N), that is, nowhere, but it = "not glory."" She explains the name Not-glory, Un-glory by saying ("^f^xS) : "the glory of I;rael is carried into captivity." (The />?, as in verse 19, is '" iii reference to," " having regard to," and belongs to 'i^i'*?. as the conti- nuation of the -words of the narrator, not of th-3 dying woman). The narrator has in mind her words, on which she based that ejaculation, but does not state them as hers till afterwards ; hzre he states beforehand the fact contained in them as a historical explanation. We must note, however, the difierence between his explanation and her reason for that exclamation in ver. 22. "While he mentions the reference (^X) to the two dead, sAe bases the name ("3) on the one thing only, the capture of the ark. The honor or glory is the divine majesty, the glory of God, which is •enthroned above the ark. Grotius : "The ark above which God was accustomed to appear in glory." With the capture of the ark "Israel's glory is carried into captivity ;" "with the abandonment of the cai'thly throne of His glory, the Lord seemed to Iiave annulled His covenant of grace with Israel; for the ark, with the ta- bles of the law and the happorcth [mercy-seat], "was the visible pledge of the covenant of grace which Jehovah had made with Israel" (Keil). Eli's son's wife dies, as Eli himself, in consuming sorrow over what was the core of this national and domestic misfortune, over the judgment of the turning away of the almighty living God from the ■covenant-people, the outward sign of which was the removal of the ark, on which, in accordance with His promise given in the law, He would sit as Israel's God and dwell in the midst of His people. Comp. Ex. XXV. 22; xxx. 6, 36; xl. 35 ("the glory of the Lord filled the dwelling"), 1 Kings Tiii. 10, 11. \_Bih. Comni. refers to Ps. Ixxviii. 61, C4 as containing allusions to this incident. Words- worth: " With God there is no Ichabod." — Te.] "The necessary result of this national view of the ark is that there was only one sanctuary, so that all those passages which affirm it may be cited as direct testimony to the fact that there was only one sanctuary." {Jlengst. Beit. [Omtrib.'} III. 65.) HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 1. In the history of His kingdom on earth God the Lord often permits times to come, when it seems as if the victory had been forever borne away from His people by tlie hostile world, and the holy ordinances of His kingdom, and its gra- cious beneiits forever abandoned to the power of nnbelief. Such times are times of judgment on the house of the Lord, the purpose of which is to make manifest all who truly belong to the Lord's people, to put an end to the hypocrisy of dead be- lief and of the unbelief which is concealed under outward forms and the appearance of godliness, to lead to earnest, honest repentance, and bring men to seek again God's mercy in true living faith. * ''X is not ""^X contracted, as in IIJ^'X, Nu. xxvi. 30; Ew. ? 84 c, but = " not." " without."' Ew. ? 273 6, A. 1, p. i6G7, comp. § 200 c, to which the context points. 2. Outcry over inbrealdng outward and inward corruption, in which God's judgments are inHicted, is nothing but an expression of the sorrow which flesh and blood feels, a sign of the distance and alienation of the fleshly heart from God, unless therein the cry is heard: "It is the Lord, this the Lord hath done," and the confession is made: "We have deserved it by our sins," and unless recourse is had in penitence and faith to God's grace and mercy. And all this was lacking in the outcry of that whole city and its loud tumult. 3. "Being in God" — that is, the union of the heart with ilim in the deepest foundation of its being, reveals itself in times of great misfortune and sufiering in this, that the sorrow and mourn- ing is not restricted to the loss of earthly-human l^ossessions, Init directs itself chiefly to the loss and lack of God's gracious presence, and thus shows that for the inutr life the glory of God and bless- edness in communion with Him is become the highest good. So here in this refraining from grief over the loss of what to the flesli was the nearest and dearest, and in the outspoken sorrow only over the violence done to God's honor and the contempt cast on His name, is verified the Lord's word: "He who forsaketh not father or mother, or brother, etc., is not worthy of me." 4. Eli and his son's wife are shining examples of true heartfelt piety in the gloom of the corrup- tion that reigned iii the high-priestly family and the judgments that came on it, in that they are not taken up with their own interests, but bewail the violation of the sanctuary, the contemi^t put on God's honor, as the highest misfortune ; ai^d so in times of universal confusion and degradation which God the Lord lets befall His kingdom in this world, He lias always His people in secret, who look not on their own need and tribulation as most to be lamented, but sorrow most deeply and heavily tluxt the ends of His grace are thwarted, the honor of His name violated, and the aflairs of His kingdom in confusion. 5. Even a sudden terrible death under the stroke of a merited judgment of God may be a blessed death in the living God, if the heart breaks with the cry: "To God alone the glory!" HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. Ver. 12. The outward signs of mourning, such as were usual among the people of Israel — rending the garments and putting aslies or dust on the head — ought to be a symbolical rexiresentation of godly sorrow for sin, in which the heart is broken to pieces by the word of the holy and righteous God, and the whole man casts himself humbly and penitently into the dust before his God. [Very fanciful. — Tr.] But, as then under the oppression of Philistine rule in Israel, there is nowhere a trace to be found of such repentance, when the misfortune over which men mourn and lament is not regarded and felt as a punishment of God for sin, and the smiling hand of the right- eous and holy God is not therein recognized. Ver. 13. S. Schmid: We must take care not to do any thing with a doubtful conscience, that we may not have always to .stand in fear, Rom. xiv. 23.^Tliose who will not cry out over their sins 104 THE FIEST BOOK OF SAMUEL. in true repentance must at last cry out over the punishment and their misfortune. Vers. 17, IS. Starke: When men sin without distinction, God also punishes Avithout distinc- tion, and regards no person, dignity, age, nor con- dition, Wisdom vi. 7. — S. ScnMiD: The honor of God and the true service of God must lie more on our hearts than our own children and parents. — Berl. Bible : It is a wonderful thing that whereas the people were so powerful and had gained so many victories, as long as God protected them, thej now fly and let themselves be overcome al- most without a struggle, as soon as ever God ceases to be on their side. If God protects us in a special way, we are a match for our enemies; but if He leaves us only for a little to ourselves, into what weaknesses do we not then fall ! So that we unite with our enemies in contributing much to our downfall. — We must, however, regard it as an effect of God's compassion when He permits us to be smitten. For if this did not happen, we should not sufficiently recognize our weakness, and our great need of His assistance. — It is an hono- rable and glorious death to die from concern for the honor of God. — Vers. 21, 22. Berleb. Bible : As soon as we lose this presence (God's), we fall into the utmost weakness and into jjowerlessness, so that we can no more do what we have done be- fore. We also cease to be a terror to our ene- mies; for these, on the contrary, now rejoice over our defeat. — Wunderlicii (in Daechsel): So prevalent' in Israel was a regard for the glory of God, which streamed down upon the people, so deeply implanted was the theocratic national con- sciousness that a woman in travail forgot her pains, and a dying woman the terrors of death, a mother did not comfoi't lierself in her new-born son, and sorrow for the lost jewel of the nation outweighed even sorrow for the death of a father and of a husband, and tliis in a family and in a period which must be regarded as degenerate. Vers. 12-22. A terrible and yet an honorable end — if 1 ) With the humble confession " It is the Lord " the hand of God as it smites down is held back; 2) In complete unselfishness one's O'wn misfortune and ruin is quite forgotten over the shame brought upon the honor and the name of God ; and 3) The hidden man of the heart, with all his striving, turns himself alone towards the honor and glory of God as his supreme good. — The defeats of God's people ill the conjiict u-ith the world which is hostile to Ilis kinr/dom. 1) Their causes: a) on tJteir side: unfaithfulness towards the Lord, arbitrary, self- willed entrance into the strife without God, cow- ardice and flight; b) on God's side: punitive jus- tice, abandonment to the hands of their enemies. 2 Their necessary consequences: deep hurt to the yet remaining life of faith, injury to the honor of God, and shame brought upon llis glorious name. 3) The results contemplated by God in permitting them, or their design: sincere repentance, all the more zealous care lor the Lord's honor, glorifying His name so much the more. — Without honor to God no honor to the people: 1) In the Mi7!er life of the people-terror and heterodoxy, where the light of His revealed truth does not shine, sin and unrighteousness, where there is a lack of faithful obedience to His holy will, spiritual-moral wretchedness and ruin, where God must with- draw His gracious presence; 2) In the outer life of the people in relation to other peoples, oppres- sion and subjection, introduction from without of godlessncss and immorality, loss of their good name. — The cry, Jchabod, the glory is departed from Israel, is a cry which 1) as a lamenting cry, is grounded in the proper recognition of the cause, greatness and significance of the ruin and wretched- ness which come from being abandoned by God, and 2) as an a»'a^-e?H'n(7c;-y is designed to admonish to earnest repentance and I'etnrning to the Lord, that the light of His glory may again break forth out of the gloom. [Vers. 19-22. The pious wife of Phinehas. 1) Pious, though living in an age of general corrup- tion. 2) Deeply pious, though the wife of a grossly wicked husband. 3) So pious, that in her devout grief all other strongest feelings were swal- lowed up: a) maternal feeling, b) conjugal and filial feeling, c) patriotic feeling. — Tr.] III. The Ark and the Philistines. Chap. V. 1-VII. 1. 1. The Chastisement of the Philistines for the Eemoval of the Ark. Chap. V. 1-12. 1 And the Philistines took the ark of God, aud brought it from Ebeuezer unto 2 Ashdod. When [And] the Philistines took the ark of God,^ they [and] brought 3 it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagou. And when [om. when] they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow,^ [ins. aud] behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord [Jehovah]. Aud they took Dagon, and 4 set him in his place again. And when [om. when] they arose early on the morrow TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 1 rVers. 2 and 4. This vcrb.il repetition is quite after tlio manner of Hebrew historical writins;. — Tr.] 2 [Vcr. 3. Here Sept. inserts: "and went into Damon's lioiise and saw,"— a very natural exiilanatiou, but, for that very reason, suspicious as the probable addition of a copyist or annotator. — Tk.] CHAP. V. 1-12. lo.> morning/ [ins. and] behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground [earth] before the ark of the Lord [Jehovah], and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold ; only the stump of [om. the stump of''J 5 Dagon was left to him. Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon's house, tread on the threshold of Dagon unto this day. 6 But [And*] the hand of the Lord [Jehovah] was heavy upon them of Ashdod,. aud he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods [boils^], even \_om. even] Ash- 7 dod and the coasts" thereof. And when \_om. when] the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, [_ins. aud] they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us, for his hand is sore upon us, aud upon Dagon our god. [i».s. And] they sent there- 8 fore \_om. therefore] aud gathered all the lords of the Philistines uuto them, aud said. What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel ? And they answered [said]. Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about [removed] unto Gath. A'kI they carried [removed] the ark of the God of Israel about thither [om about 9 thither]. Aud it was so [Aud it came to pass] that, after they had carried it about [removed it], the hand of the Lord [Jehovah] was against the city with a very great destruction [ ; there was a very great consternation''] ; and he smote the men [people] of the city, both small and great, aud they had emerods in their secret parts [and boils broke out^ on them]. Therefore [And] they sent the ark of God to Ekron. 10 Aud it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekrouites cried out, saying, They have brought about [om. about] the ark of the God of Israel to 11 us [me**], to slay us [me] and our [my] people. So [And] they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again [return] to his [its] own [om. own] place, that it slay us [me] not, and our [my] people ; for there was a deadly destruction [consternation] 12 throughout [in] all the city ; the hand of God was very heavy there. Aud the men that died not were smitten with the emerods [boils] ; and the cry of the city went up to heaven. 3 [Ver. 4. It seems better to omit this explanatory phrase, which is not found in the Heb., and to leave the word "Dagon" to be explained in the exposition ; 'for, though the phrase is probably correct (see Erdmann's account of Daaon), it is still an interpretation rather than a translation. — Tr.] ■t ! Ver. 6. The text of the Sept. here deviates decidedly from the Heb.: for attempts to reconcile the two see Thenius and Wellhausen, in loco. There is no good ground, however, for departing from the Heb.— Tr.] 6 [Ver. (). The versions here all follow the Qeri tehorim, which word most of them take to mean a p.irt of the body (posteriora), and not a disease. Chald. and Syr. have this very word. Chald. "mariscse," Syr. "posteriora," Arab, "sedes," Vnlg. "in secretiori parte natium," Philippson "schambeulen." Geiger thinks that the Kctbili means "posteriora," and the Qeri a disease of that part of the body, the cliange of reading having been made for decency's sake. This was probaljly the reason of the change, but the Ketliib seems to mean the disease, wliiio the Qeri means both a disease and'a part of the body. No explanation has yet been given of the reading of the Sept. "ships" (vavi); it may be simply an error of transcription for kSpaq, which is found in ver. 9.— Tr.] 6 [Ver. 7. The word "coasts," not now used in its original sense of "sides," has here been retained because of the difficulty of finding another equally good rendering of the Heb. word (D'/^^J)-— Tk. 7 [Ver. 9. Erdmann: "«« grossem schreclceu," but it is better, with the versions, to take it as an independent sentence. — Tr.] 8 [Ve'-. 9. Eng. A. V. takes the verb intJ? as="iriD5 " concealed," but the connection does not favour this. Gesenius.' suggestion " broke out " is adopted by Erdmann, and seems best, but Philippson, from the Arab, root which Gesen" compares, shnlara, '^ ruptns fuit," prefers "broke," as indicating the culmination of the disease — anfiirechen instead of hervorbrechen. Philippson's rendering is etymologically better founded, but does not so well siiit the connection. — Tr.] 9 [Ver. 10. The Sing, here points to the prince or other person who was spokesman for the people.— Tr.] EXEGETIOAL AND CRITICAL. Vers. 1-5. JehovahJs demonstration of potrer afiainst the Philistine henthenhm. — Vers. 1 yqq. From Ebenezer to Ashdod. — On the antici- patory use of the name Ebenezer, with reference to ch. vii. 12, see ch. iv. 1. Ashdod, 'A(^wroc, one of the capital cities of the five Philistine princes (.Josh. xiii. 3), named in ch. vi. 17 as that seat of Dagon-worship, which comes first to be considered really held by the Israelites, though the Philis- tines \vere at times .subject to the Israelites (Josh, xiii. 3) — a mile from the sea, now the little vil- lage Esdud, on an elevation on the road from Janmia to Oaza, nine miles south of Jamnia, and aliout thirty-two miles north of Gaza. — Ver. 2. The house of Dagon is the temple of one of the chief Philistine deities, for which there were places of worship not only in Ashdod, but also, according to Jerome on Isa. xlvi. 1, in the other Philistine cities; but, according to .Judg. xvi. in the course of this narrative — according to 23 sqq., there was certainly a central sanctuary in Jos. Ant. V. 1, 22 a border-city of Dan ; accord- Gaza, where, after the capture of Samson, the ing to Josh. XV. 46, 47, assigned to the Tribe of princes and the people assembled to hold a sacri- Judah ( Judali was to receive " from Ekron on lice and feast in honor of Dagon as the supposed and westward all that lay near Aslulod, and their bcstower of their victory over Samson. Along [Ashdod's and Ekron's] villages"), but never with the wiaZe deity, a corresponding /c?«afe deity 106 THE FIEST BOOK OF SAMUEL. was, according to Diodorus, worshipped, called by the Syrians Derceto (^AtargatisJ. As this itlol-image had the lace of a woman, and termi- nated below the waist in the tail of a fish, so the statue of Dagon, which in vers. 3, 4, is expressly represented as male, had a human head and hands, and a fish-body ; he is thus characterized as a marine deity, the symbol of the fruitfulness which is represented in the element of water by the tish, like the Babylonian 'i2(5aK(ji'. Comp. Movers, Rdirjion der Phoniz. I. 143 sq., 590 sq.; Stark, Gazd und die philistdische KUste, Jena, 18o'2, p. 274 sq. The name is to be derived, not from pi, "grain" (Philo Bybl. in Eus. Pra^p., pp. 26, 32, Bochart, Hieroz. T. 381, Movei-s in Enntij. 1, 10, Sanchon., fragm. ed. Orelli, Erscli, Phoniz., p. 405 b) with Bunsen, Ewald and Diestel iJahrb. fiirdeutsche ThcoL, 1860, p. 726), according to which Dagon was the god of land-fruitfulness, of agriculture, but from dag J^, "fish" (Winer, s. v.). Compare Kimchi's reference to an old tradition : " it is said, that Dagon had the form of a fish from the navel down, and was therefore called Dagon, and the form of a man from the navel up." Comp. J. G. Miillcr in Herzog, M.- E. III. 255 sq. Thenius and Keil recognize this personage in a figure found by Layard at Khor- sabad, the upper part of whose body represents a bearded man, adorned with a royal crown, the lower part of the body from tlie navel on running into the form of a fish bent backwards ; that this is a marine deity is beyond doubt, since he is swimming in the sea and surrounded by all sorts of sea-beasts (Layard, Nineve und seine Ueberreste, Germ. ed. of Meissner, p. 424 sq. [Nineveh and its remains]). Keil rightly remarks: "As this relief, accord- ing to Layard, represents a battle between tlie inhabitants of the Syrian coast and an Assyrian king, probably Sargon, who had a hard struggle witii the Philistine cities, especially Ashdod, it is scarcely doubtful that we here have a representa- tion of "the Philistine Dagon" (Comm.in loco).* — The Philistines ascribed their victory over the Israelites to Dagon ; tlierefore they brought the ark as votive offering to his temple, Avliere, by its position near his statue, it was to set forth for the Pliilistines the subjection of the God of Israel to tlie power of their "god" (ver. 7). — But the over- throii: of the image, and its recumbent position on its face before the ark ( — Theodoret: they saw their God showing the form of worship, 7//c Tipoa- Kvr/'/aeu^ ETrnhiKvbi'Ta rij oxfjnn — ), was to be a sign to them that the God of Israel was not the oon(iuered, but that before Him, who had tempo- rarily delivered Israel into the hands of their enemies, every other power must sink into the dust. They set up the statue again under the impression that the cause of the overtlirow was an accidental one. But in tlie following niglit not only is the prostration of tiie image at tiie feet of the ark rei)eated — it is liesides mutilated ; the head and the hands are cut off (not " broken oti""). They did not lie "towards the threshold ;" it is true, this is the proper meaning of ^^f, but it also signifies rest, instead of movement, and is * [D.aeon was prolmljlv originallv an old Babylonian fish-deitj'.— Tr.]. ^" on," " at ;" comp. 1 Sam. xvii. 3 ; Deut. xvi. 6 ; 1 Kings viii. 30. From ver. 5 it is clear that the parts cut off' lay on the threshold, and this was not only destruction, but contempt, since what lies on the threshold is exposed to be trodden on, the extremest act of contempt. " 2h him," that is, to the whole represented in the image, was left only the fish-stump, since what was human in him, head and hands, was cut off^ Kimchi : " Only the form of a fish was left in him." The "threshold" is without doubt the door-sill of the chamber in which the image stood. Nothing is said directly of a divine miracle. But the matter is so represented by the narrator that we must recognize a special arrangement of the God of Israel for the exhibition of the powerlessness and nothingness of the god of the Pliilistines. — Ver. 5 gives an account of a ceremonial custom derived from this occurrence : the threshold of Dagon was not trodden on by his priests, etc. The "threshold" of Dagon, that is, of the place where his statue was set up, is distinguished from the house of Dagon, into which they went. This threshold Avas considered as made especially holy to Dagon by that occurrence, because his head and hands had lain on it. Sept.: viTFpftaivovreq vTrepi^alvoi'ai, " they carefully step over it." Comp. Zeph. i. 9. According to this passage and ch. vi. 2, there was a special body of priests for the wor- ship of Dagon. The word kohen (|n3) is used in the Old Testament also of heathen priests, Gen. xli. 45. The formula " to this day " usually indicates a long time (comp. vi. 18; xxx. 25; xxvii. 6; 2 Sam. iv. 3; vi. 8; xviii. 18), and establishes the remoteness of the narrator from the time of tlie occurrences described. Vers. 6-12. God's chastising manifestation of power against the Philistine people by plagues and stc/i»e.ss. Ver. 6. The hand of the Lord is here figuratively put for God's might and power, as it made itself felt by the Philistines in the infliction of grievous severe sufferings as chastise- ment for the violation of His honor. The suffer- ings are viewed partly as an oppressive burden, in which God's hand is felt to be heavy (comp. v. 11; vi. 5; Ps. xxxii. 4; xxxviii. 2; .lob xxiii. 2), partly as a grievous blow, in which it is felt to be hard (ver. 7, comp. Job ix. 34). — In tuv icays the hand of the Lord was heavy on the inhabi- tants of Ashdod : 1 ) it wasted, destroyed them, and 2) it smote them with boils. The one cala- mity fell on their land (De "Wctte: wasted their land); the other was a bodily disease which ex- tended over Ashdod and all its district. The Sept. adds to ver. 6: "and mice were produced in the land, and there arose a great and deadly confusion in the city;" but this does not furnish, as Thenius maintains, "the original, though somewhat corrupt, text, which contained this statement;" rather, as a .second translation of this ver. 6 has been wrongly inserted at the end of ver. 3 by a copyist of tlie Greek, so the second part of "til is addition is taken word for word from ver. 11, and the first had its origin in an explana- tion (in itself api>roj)riate cnoiigii) of vi. 4 sq. For from vi. 4, 5, 11, 18, where, besides the expi- atory or votive offering referring to the bodily disease, a second, the golden mice, is expressly mentioned, it is clear that, in addition to the cor- CHAP. V. 1-12. 107 poral plague, another, a land-plague, had fallen oil the Philistines. Taking into view the pas- sages in ch. vi. the words: "he destroyed them" (like "destruction" [desolation] in Mic. vi. 13, used of persons) denote a wasting of the land, that is, of the produce of the fields, as the support of human life, by mice, " which destroy the land," ch. vi. 5. There is no gap in the Heb. text ; but the expression " he destroyed them " is a brief description of the univeriial land-plague, the na- ture and cause of which appears from the after lueution of the votive and expiatory present brought by the Philistines. "The most promi- nent characteristic of the field-mouse, especially in southern countries, is its voracity and rapid increase. At times these animals multiply with frightful rapidity and suddenness, ravage the fields far and near, produce famine and pestilen- tial diseases among the inhabitants of the land, and have not seldom forced whole nations to emi- grate" (see examples, cited from Strabo, Diodo- rus, Aelian, Agatharchides, and others, in Bo- chart, Hieroz. III., cap. 34). Soramer, Bibl. Ablinndl., p. 263. The ravaging of the land by field-mice probably stood in causal connection with the second plague, the boil-sickness. — And he smote them -with ophalim (D'SiJJ,'), which, from the connection, must have been a bodily ^lisease. The points of the word belong to the Qeri tehorim (D'^'lFltp), which was substituted for the Ketliib (and in ch. vi. 4, 5, has even gotten into the text), because the word, which i)roperly signifies "swelling," "elevation," "hill," was supposed to designate the anus, and in its place tehoriin, " posteriora," as a more decent expres- sion, was read. It was thence rendered: "He smote them on the anus;" and this view seemed to be supported by Ps. Ixxviii. 60, where, in refe- rence to God's judgment on the Philistines after the removal of the ark, it is said : " And he smote his enemies ahor" (linJ^), which was taken in the above sense particularly from the following word "reproach;" for ex. Vulg. : "and he smote his enemies in posteriora;" Luther: "in the hin- der parts" [so Eng. A. V.]. But this rendering of tlie Psalm-passage is incorrect; the proper translation is: "And he smote his enemies back; and put everlasting reproach on them" (Geiger, Hengstenberg, Hupfeld). The above rendering has occasioned on the part of the expositors the suggestion of various affections of the hinder part of the body; some think of diarrhciea (Ewald), others of tumors, mariscse, chancres (Keil), others of hemorrhoids [the "emerods" of Eng. A. V.], and the like. But, apart from the fact that no definite local disease of the sort is indicated, the verb (H^n with 3), as Thenius conclusively shows, never means "to strike on something" (lor ex., on a part of the body), but means in this iionnection "to strike with something" (with a disease or jilague). According to the radical meaning of the word ophalim, we must render: lie smote them with a skin-disease, which con- sisted in painful boils or large swellings, and was perhaps caused by the plague of field-mice, which Oken (cited by Thenius in loco) calls "the plague of the Jiekls, often producing scarcity, and even famine." This explanation is sup2:)orted by Deut. xxviii. 27, where the word in question stands along with the names of two skin-diseases, of wliich one (pn^) is the Egyptian leprosy-like botch, and the other (3"iJ and D^n) "scab and itch." Only by supposing such a plague-like disease, which became infectious on the breaking out of the boils (ver. 9), can we explain its imme- diate universal spread (indicated by the words "and its coasts"), and its deadly effect (vers. 11, 12; vi. 19), facts not explained by the other sup- positions. Comp. Win., Bealw. II., s. v. Philister. — Ver. 7. In consequence of "its being so," under such circumstances (|3 here as Gen. xxv. 22), the people of Aslidod recognized the fact that the power of the God of Israel was here manifested on them and their god, and resolved to get rid of the medium of this manifestation, for so they regarded the ark. — Ver. 8 furnishes a contribu- tion to the history of the political constitution of the Philistines. The princes (D^Jlip^ seranini) of the Philistines are the heads of the several city- districts (Josh. xiii. 3), which formed a confede- ration, each one of the five chief cities holding a number of places, "country-cities" (ISam. xxvii. 5), "daughter-cities" (1 Chron. xviii.l), as itsspe- cial district. The constitution was oligarchical, that is, the government was in the hands of the College of princes, whose decision no individual could oppose, comp. xxix. 6-11. Grotius: "the Phil, were under an oligarchy." The resolve of the princes is: "the ark shall be carried to Gafh," and is forthwith executed. According to this there was no Dagon-temple in Gath ; for the jjur- pose was to remove the ark from the sanctuary of Dagon, who, in their opinion, called forth the power of the God of Israel, without being al)le to make stand against him. The location of Gath, also one of the five princely cities — Gitta (Joseph.), Getlia (Sept.), Getha (Euseb.) — is doubtful. In tliis passage (vers. 8-10) the connection points merely to the fact that it is to be sought for in the neighborhood of Ashdod and Ekron ; but it does not thence necessarily follow (Ewald) that it lay between these two. Jerome's statements indicate a location near Ashdod and near the limits of Judea: "Gath is one of the five cities of Pales- tine, near the border of Judea, on the road from Eleutheropolis to Gaza, and still a very large vil- lage (on Micah i. ) ; Gath is near and bordering on Ashdod (on Jer. xxv.)." Comp. Pressel in Herzog, It. E. s. t>.* The Sept. takes Gath as subject, inserts "tons" (""^X or 'J/N) after Israel, and translates : "And the Gittites said, Let the ark of God come to us." But this addition is uu- called for. Thenius indeed prefers this reading on the ground that such a voluntary offer to receive the ark in order to show that the calamity was merely accidental, is completely in accordance with the whole narrative; but, on the other hand, we may conclude from ver. 6 that they regarded * [Eusebius (Onom.) mentions two places called Gath, one between Antipatris and Jamnia (which cannot be the place here meant), the other five miles from Eleu- theropolis (identified by Bobinson, II. flosq., with Beit Jibrin) towards Diospolis. Mr. J. L. Porter, Art. " Gath," in Smith's Bih. Dirt., accordinsrly identifies Gath with tlie hill called Tell-es-Safieh, ten miles east of Aslidod, and about the same distance south by east of Ekron. -Te.] 108 THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. as the cause of tlie evil tlie relation of the God of Israel to their god Dagon, and the object of the transportation of the ark was to remove it from the region of Dagon-worship. — Ver. 9. The same scourge was repeated in Gath; the plague of boils fell upon all, small and great. Its painful and dangerous character is here more precisely indi- cated by the once-occurring word (hapaxleg.) sa- iliur (T^t^) which means, following the corre- sponding Arabic verb (Niph. jindi, erumpi), the burstincj of the plague-boils. The Ace. "great consternation" ('"IJ 'Ha), giving a sensible repre- sentation of tiie direction and motion, in which an action reaches a deiinite aim or end, sets forth the final eflect or result in the minds of the Philistines of this new manifestation of God's power; gene- rally, where the point reached is to be indicated, the pref. "to" (/) is used (as in cliap. iv. 9). "The hand of the Lord was on the city unto great consternation."-"- — Ver. lUsqq. Farther removal of the ark to a third princely city, Ekron, according to^Eobinson [Pal. III. 229 sq. [Amer. Ed. II, 227 sq.]) three miles east of Jamnia and five miles south of Ramleh on the site of the present village Akir, that is, in a northerly direction from Gath. Comp. Tobler, 3 Wand., 03; Josh. xiii. 3. "Although first assigned to the Tribe of Judah (Josh. XV. 45), and for a time held by it ( Judg. i. 18, on which see Bertheau), then made over to Dan (.Josh. xix. 43), it could not be retained per- nianently by the Israelites, but, when the Philis- tines advanced, fell again into their hands, and continued in their possession ( Josli. xv. 11 ; 1 Sam. vi. 17; vii. 14)." Eiietschi in Ilcrzog s. v. In ver. 10 is related how the inhabitants of Ekron, when the ark was brought to them, thinking of the late occurrences, made complaint and protest against its entrance. — Vers. 11, 12. The failure of their protest is here silently assumed, and the universal prevalence, and particularly tlie deadly effects of the plague described. There was every where a "deadly consternation," that is, a consternation produced by the sudden death of many persons from the plague, which was connected with the boil-sickness. Observe the climax in the triple description of tiie plague; in Gath it is severer than in Ashdod; in Ekron it has readied its greatest height. The wf)r(ls at tlie end of tlie de- scription— And the cry of the city went up to heaven — assume that the Philistines saw clearly that in this plague the almighty hand of tiie God of Israel was revealed. A second council of princes, it is expressly stated (ver. 11, begin- ning), was called to consult in reference to the re- storation of the ark to the Israelites. The projiosition of Ekron (as yet undecided on) is indeed based on tlie deadly effects of the plague on its inhabi- tants (ver. 11), but at the same time it takes for granted that the removal of tlie ark to other Phi- listian places would be attended with the same re- sults, and tliat the punishment of tlie God of Israel would of necessity continue so long as the insult offered Him by the abduction of tiie ark was not done away with. \_Bib. Comm. compares this scourge in its object and effects with the plagues of Egypt. See Ex. xii. 33, and also Numb. xvii. 12. With the phrase "went up to heaven" Bp. * [But on tlie rpading of this verse see "Textual and Grammutical " note. — Tij.J Patrick compares the classical expressions (Virg, ^-Eiicid. II. 223, 338, 488); Clamores simul horren- dos ad sidera toUit ; Sublatus ad cethera clamor/ I'\'rit aarca sidera clamor. — Tk.] HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 1. Though God brings the judgment on His house and people through world-powers without His kingdom and hostile to His name. He yet shows Himself towards these hostile powers a God tliat judges righteously in the punishment of the evil they do to the honor of His name in their purpose (though it be by His will or His permis- sion) to oppose His kingdom and hinder its coming. The Philistines, by His counsel and will victorious over the children of Israel, had with His permis- sion taken away the sign of His presence with His jjeople, and brought it into the presence of the idol, that Israel might be right sorely humbled and punished ; yet they are chastised as having refused to honor Plim as the living God, though the manifestation of His might and glory was set before their eyes. 2. The downfall of the idol-image before the ark and the excision of its most important parts (head and hands) is not merely a symbol, but also a type'^- of the truth which is illustrated in the his- tory of God's kingdom, even in its gloomiest pe- riods, namely, that the powers of the world must sink again into the dust before His glory, after they, in truth taken into His service, have done their work, and that the time appointed by Him comes, when His enemies are made Plis foot stool. Comp. tlie declarations in Ex. ix. K) and xiv. 18 in reference to Egypt. "Where God conies witli His ark and Plis testimony, there He smites tiie idols to the ground ; idolatry must fall, where His gos- pel finds a place" {Bcrlcnb. Bible). 3. The heavy pressure and the hard blows of the hand of God, to which repeated and significant reference is made in connection with the severed hands of the idol-image, was intended not only as a deserved punishment for the Philistines, but also as a disciplinary visitation. All suflTering is punishment, but also (as a chastisement of God's hand) an instrument of correction; that is, under suffering and affliciion, as the outflow and result of sin, man is not merely to recognize the causal connection between His sin and tlie divine puni- tory justice on the one .hand, and the affliction on the other, but also to have His eyes opened to the purposes of God's holy love, wliich by adversity and tribulation will draw him to itself, and hum- ble him under God's powerful hand to reverence His name. * [Dr. Erdmann here uses the word type, not in the scionti(i(^ tliculnsrical sense of a fact of the Old Dispen- sation, wliic'li i.'< intended to set forth tlic corresponding^ (spiritually identical) fact of the jS'ew L>i.'eople or ser- vice. The ark .s.ymbolized God's presence in law and mercy, but was not in it.'sclf a ty)ic, except as a part of the Tabernacle which typifie. Km Ill's peoiile. The lesson from the punishment of the I'hilistincs, tlien. is the sniiic as tliat contained in the slaughter at Samson's death, the plagues of Kitypt, the destruction of liabyloa (I'salm cxxxvii. 8), and other cases in which Ciod lias intcrfcreil to save His cause; only here the procedure is more dramatically striking. — Tb.] CHAP. V. 1-12. 109 4. When man's heart will not give up its worth- less idols, though God's liand draws it to Him- self by atiliction and suffering, then tlie distance between Him and the God tiiat ofttirs to be with him becomes greater in proportion to the severity and painfulness of tiie suffering felt by the soul alienated from God and devoted to idolatry. We shall at last desire to be entirely away from God, as the Philistines at last resolved to carry the ark over the border, that they might have nothing more to do with the God of Israel, while, on the contrary, the ark should have warned them to give glory to the God of Israel, who had so un- mistakably and gloriously revealed Himself to them. 5. The cry that ascends to heaven over suffer- ings and afflictions that are the consequences of wickedness is by no means a sign that need teaches prayer; it may be made from a wholly heathen point of view. The cry tliat )ienetrates into heavenis "Against ^Aee have I sinned," and is the expression of an upright, earnest penitence which is awakened in the heart by the chastisement of God's hand. 6. The Philistines do not deride and scorn the sanctuary of the Israelites, but from their stand- jioint show it reverence and treat it with forbear- ance and awe ; and herein is exemplified the truth that even the enemies of God's kingdom and the opponents of the honor of His name in the afTairs of His kingdom stand involuntarily and uncon- sciously under the influence of His power and glory, and a restraining higher power is near, fi'om which they cannot withdraw. " They cannot ad- vance, whom the Lord's greater power restrains. The supreme controller of affairs so orders all things that the wicked are restrained by fear — though their souls are haughty and they swell with pride and arrogance ; and they cannot exe- cute what their minds purpose. For God fetters and holds captive, as it were, their hands, and suffers not His glory to be obscured" (Calvin). 7. Often in the history of His kingdom, amid frightful viotories by the hostile powers of the world, God's hand seems bound, and His people fall into the deepest affliction, so that even the most sacred possessions seem to have fallen into the rapacious hands of the world, which is con- tending against God and His kingdom ; yet even then He knows how to maintain His honor invio- late, and His hand is yet free, and (as in the his- tory of tliis war between Israel and the Philis- tines) in secret makes the preparation for the li- beration and redemption of His people, and the restoration of the sanctuary and the possession of His kingdom, while human eyes do not see it, and human thought does not suspect it. The Lord is mighty and powerful even in the sorest defeats of His kingdom in the battle with the world. He brings every thing to glorious accomplishment. 8. Calvin : '' The Philistines seek hiding-places from God's presence. Let us learn tliat the same tiling happens to all God's enemies when they are given over to a reprobate mind. I^or though they are under the dominion of the lethargy of sin, yet, when God urges them more closely, and their own conscience presses them, they seek hiding-places against the majesty of God, and would save them- selves by flight." 9. [This chapter, with the following, strikingly illustrates the non-missionary character of the Old Dispensation. For centuries the Israelites were near neighbors of the Philistines, and had some acquaintance (apparently not much) with their political and religious institutions. Yet the Phi- listines had at this time only a garbled and dis- torted account (iv. 8 1 of the history of the Israel- ites, derived probably from tradition, and seem- ingly no particular knowledge at all of their re- ligion, nor did the Israelites ever attempt, though, they were in the times of Samson and David in close connection with Philistia, to carry thither a knowledge of what they yet believed to be the only true religion. This religious isolation was no doubt a part of the divine plan for the develop- ment of the theocratic kingdom, guarding it against the taint of idolatry, and permitting the chosen people thoroughly to apin-ehend and ap- propriate the truth which was then to go from them to all the world. But if we look for the natural causes which produced this moral isolation in ancient times, we shall find one in the narrow- j ness of ancient civilization, where the absence of means of social and literary communication fos- tered mutual ignorance and made sympathy al- most impossible, and another in the peculiarly national local nature of the religion of Israel, with its central sanctuary and its whole system grounded in the past history of the nation, pre- senting thus great obstacles to a foreigner who washed to become a worshipper of Jehovah. These might be overcome, as in Naaman's case, but it was not easy to throw ofl" one's nationality (as was necessary for the convert) either at home or by going to live in the land of Israel. All this may palliate the unbelief of the ancient heathen peo- jjles — palliate, but not excuse it, for Jehovah re- vealed Himself in mighty works which ought t^ have carried conviction (comp. vi. 6) and led to obedience and love. On the other han-^, the Israelite ought to have tried to bring the heathen to the true God, and indeed in the Pss. we find exhortations to them to come and acknowledge Him. But the Jews, as a nation, never freed themselves from the narrowness to which their institutions trained them. — Tr.] HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. [Henry : God will show of how little account the ark of the covenant is, if the covenant itself be broken and neglected ; even sacred signs are not things that either He is tied to, or we can trust to.— Tr.] Vers. 1-5. The ruinous folly of the idolatrous mind: 1) It places God beside the idols, as if one could serve two masters (vers. 1, 2; Matt. vi. 24) ; 2) It does not allow itself to be pointed to the living God by the nothingness of its idols in con- trast with Him (ver. 3); 3) In spite of the de- struction of its idols through the power of the Lord before its eyes, it always sets uji again the old idolatrous service, and carries it still further (ver. 4); 4) Sinking from one degree of supersti- tion to another, it gives itself up, and is given up by God ever deeper and deeper into selfish idola- try.— Dagon before the ark; or Heathenmn conquered at the feet of the living God : 1) In the domain of its power, its own abode (vers. 1, 2); 2) Througli the secret demonstration of the power of the Lord (vers. 3, 4) ; 3) Amid the destruction of its power and 110 THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. glory (the /ace as a sign of its worthless glory' and vain beauty struck down to tiie earth, the liead also as the seat of the wisdom which is alienatetl from (jod and opposed to God, the hands as a symbol of the powers of darkness wliich work tiierein, cut ofi') (vers. 3-5). — The fall of heathfii- ■mii : 1 ) It is thrown down before the jiower of God manifesting Himself as present in His word (the law and the testimony in the arkj (vers. 1-3); 2 1 Its power (head and liandsj is broken and destroyed through the secretly working power of the Spirit of God (vers. 3, 4) ; 3) There is an ever more and more glorious revelation of the power of Goci ■which casts down heathenism in the light of the day of salvation, which overcomes the darkness of heathenism. — The defeat which the kingdom, of the world suffers in its victory over the kingdom of God: 1) In quiet concealment; 2) Through the miraculous action of God ; 3) In open publicity. Vers. 6, 7. Calvin : Here it is clearly shown how great is the stitl-neckedness of luiljclievers in their error, that when the manifest signs of the divine judgments press ever nearer, and there is no more room at all for excuses, and when they can no longer conceal their fear of the judgment and the power of God, yet they do not recognize their contumacy, and lay aside their hardness of heart, but only seek hiding-places and places of refuge, in order to withdraw themselves as far as possible from the divine power that it may not reach them. What sort of efiect do unbelievers let the experience and apprehension of the infi- nite power of God produce in them ? Not a change of disposition, not a zealous striving after the knowledge of the truth in His word, and wil- lingness to give Him the honor which belongs to Him, not humility of heart in subjection to the majesty of God, but rather fear and terror at His presence, and the striving to fly as far from Him as ijossible, and to keejj God removed as far as possible from them. — God avenges Himself on the enemies of His people, in that, even when they have obtained a victory over the people of God, it yet turns out worse for them than ior the people of God who are defeated, Job xx. 5-7. — Cramer : God can even with ease constrain His enemies to confession. Yer. 8. Starke: Foolish men, to think that the almightiuess of God can be thwarted by change of place. — See. Schmidt: Against God the devices of men, even the wisest, avail nothing. [Yer. 9. "Boils." There are many other pas- sages in our English version of the Bible in which an apparent indelicacy is due to erroneous translation. — Hall: They judge right of the cause ; what do they resolve for the cure ? . . . . They should have said : Let us cast out Dagon, that we may pacity and retain the God of Israel ; they determine to thrust out the ark of God, that they might peaceably enjoy themselves, and Dagon. — Tr.] Yer, 10. God has the hearts of all men in His hands (Prov. xxi. 1), and can speedily turn tlmii to change their will and purposes, so as to pio- mote His honor and the best interests of the Church. — Yer. 12. Calvin: We should not imi- tate the Ekronites, who fill heaven with their cry, but with their heart are far h'om God; rather should we, when the ark of God comes so near us, come with our heart to God. To Him should we cry, when He comes in His judgments, and beg Him for help without complaining, while we confess to Him our sins, and acknowledge that we receive from Him righteous punishment, and that the sufferings which He has intlicted on us are wholesome for us. — Schlxer: Then coidd Israel clearly see what an almighty God they had, stronger than the gods of all the heathens and that this strong God wished to be their God, and had interested Himself in behalf of His people. 2. Restoration of the Ark with Expiatory Gifts. Chap. YI. 1-11. 1 And the ark of the Lord [Jehovah] was in the country of the Philistines seven 2 months. And the Philistines called for [together^] the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do to [with] the ark of the Lord [Jehovah] ? Tell us 3 wherewith^ we shall send it to his [its] place. And they said, If ye^ send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty, but in any wise [om. in any wise'*] return him^ a trespass-offering ; then ye shall be healed,® and it shall be known' to TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 1 rVer. 2. So the verb is not nnfrcquentlv nsecl, as in Josh, xxiii. 2.— Tr.] 2 rVer. 2. Or. " how.— Tr." 3 [Ver. 3. Tlio Pron. is not in tlie present Heh. text, hut is found in 7 MPS., in S 'pt., Syr.. ChaUh, Arab., and apparently in Vnl.e. It may have fallen out, as Tlouliiu'ant sntrccsts, from similnnty to the lollownig word (HN ohX). Others (so Errimann) take the construction as impersonal, and render: "if one sends back, etc. fpif 1 * rVer 3 This phrase in Eng A. V. is intended to express tlie Heb. Inf. Abs.; but where tlie proper shade of intensity or emphasis cannot be given in Eng., it is better to write the verb simply, and not mtroduce a loreign sulistantive idea. — Tr.] „ , . , , , , „i -i.,, , • ^i 6 rVer :'. Some ancient vss. and modern expositors refer this to the ark, and render "to it, relying on the prammatieal connection, and on ver. 9; but the Phili.stines tiironghoiit .«eem to regard «od and not the ark, as tlie author of their sufferings. Yet it is possible that, even with this view, their idolatrous ideas might Have lea them to appease the instrument or visible occasion x)f the divine infliction.— Tr.] CHAP. VI. 1— VII. 1. Ill 4 you why his hand is not removed from you. Then said they [And they saidj^ What shall be [is] the trespass-offering which we shall return to him ? [Lis. And] they answered [said], Five golden emerods [boils] and five golden niice,^ according* to the number of the lords of the Philistines ; for one plague was [is] on you'" all 6 and on your lords. Wherefore [And] ye shall make images of your emerods [boils], and images of your mice that mar [devastate] the land ; and ye shall give glory to the God of Israel ; peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, 6 and from off your gods, and from off your land. [Ins. And] wherefore then [om. then] do [will] ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? [ins. Did they not], when he had [om. had'^] wrought wonderfully among them, did they not [oh?, did they not] let the people go, and they departed ? 7 Now therefore [And now] make'^ a new cart, and take^'"^ two milch kine, on which there hath come no yoke, and tie [yoke] the kine to the cart, and bring their calves 8 home from them. And take the ark of the Lord [Jehovah], and lay it upon the cart, and put the jewels of gold [golden figures'^], which ye return him^ for a tres- pass-offering, in a [the'*] coffer by the side thereof, and send it away, that it may 9 go. And see, if it goeth [go] up by the way of his [its] own coast to Beth-Shemesh, then he hath done us this great evil ; but if not, then we shall know that it is not 10 his hand that smote us ; it was a chance that happened to us. And the men did so, and took two milch kine, and tied [yoked] them to the cart, and shut up their 11 calves at home ; And they [om. they] laid the ark of the Lord [Jehovah] upon the cart, and the coffer with [and] the mice of gold [golden mice] and the images of their emerods [boils]. '^ 3. Keception and Quartering of the Ark in Israel. Chap. VI. 12 — VII. 1. 12 And the kine took the straight way [went straight forward'^] to the way of [on the road to] Bethshemesh, mid [om. and] went along the highway [on one highway they went], lowing''' as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left ; and the lords of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Betbshe- ^ [Ver. 3. Erdmann and others take this sentence as conditional (which is here possible, but somewhat hard) on- the jrrouiid tliat tlie priests are not sure that the atonement-offering will be successful, but propose an experi- ment (as in ver. !)). Yet in vers. 5 and G they are sure, and the experiment in ver. 9 seems an afterthought. — Tk.] ' [Ver. 3. The Heb. text is here supported by Syr., Arab, and Vulg., nor is there any variation in the MSS. (De Rossi); but Sept. has " expiation shall be made for you" (^33 J), and Chald. "healing shall be granted you" (nnn^). To the first of these the repetition is an objection, to the second the order of ideas (healing, expiation). It does not appear whether they are loose renderings of our text, or represent a different text.— Tr.] 8 [Ver. 4. Philippson renders "tumors" {(icschwiihie). setting aside the supposed plague of field-mice. See Exeg. Notes in loco. The Sept. here departs from tlie Heb. text in the order of statements and in the number of mice ; see the discussion in the note on the passage. — Tr.] • [Ver. 4. This clause stands first in the original. — Tr.] 10 [Ver. 4. Heb.: "them all," and so Erdmann and Philippson. But all the VSS. and 10 MSS. read "you," which the sense seems to require. — Tr.] " [Ver. fi. The verb (7 7j?r\n) is Aor., rendered "wrought" in Ex. x. 2 by Eng. A. V.; Sept. and Vule. render freely " smote ;" but Syr. has " they mocked them, and did not send them away, and they went," where the wrong number of the first vb. required the negation in the second. — Tr.] 12 [Ver. 7. Or, "take and prepare" (so Erdmann). But the verb !|np niay properly be taken as expletive or pleonastic here, as in 2 Sam. xviii. 18 (see Ges. Lex. s. v.), though it must be understood before the second accu- sative " kine." — Tr.] 13 [Ver. 8. The word "'73 means any instrument or implement, and is used of utensils, implements, armor, weapons, vessels and jewels ; here, however, it is none of these, but figures, copies or works: Luther, bilder, Erdmann, geriithe, D'Allioli, figures. Cahen, empreintes, and the other modern VSS., of Martin, Diodati, D'AImei- da, De S. Miguel, have "figures;" only the Dutch has "jewels," Vulg. vasa^ Sept. axeuTj. — Tb.] 1^ [Ver. 8. The Art. here points out the coffer which belonged to the cart; but as this is not otherwise known or mentioned, the insertion or omission of the Art. in Ens. makes little or no difference. The Al. Sept. inserts a neg. before the word "put" in this vei'se, perhaps to avoid a supposed difficulty in the number of golden mice. — Tr. I 15 Ver. 11. The Vat. Sept. (but not Al.) omits the words "and the images of their boils," perhaps in order to indicate that the mice were not in the argas or box, and thus avoid the difficulty above-mentioned (see ver. IS). AVellhausen, taking exception to the inverted order here (mice, boils), to the word trhorim., and to the ambiguity of the phrase, omits all of ver. 11 after "coffer," reenrdine the Heb. as a gloss on the already corrupt Greek. But this is improbatile, and the Heb. is sustained by all the \'SS. The tehorim is not improbably a marginal explana- tion of nphalim which has crept into the text (so Geitier and Erdmann); but the text, though not perfectly clear, must, on critical grounds, be retained, since there would have been no special reason why a scribe should insert it, but on the other hand ground for its omission, as the Greek shows tampering with the text to avoid a diffi- culty.—Tf.] 16 [Ver. 12. On the form of the Heb. word see Erdmann in loco. — Tk.] 17 [Ver. 12. Ges. Gram. (Conant's transl.), g 75, Rem. I. 2.— Tr.] 112 THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. 13 mesh. And they'^ of Bethshemesh were reaping their wheat-harvest in the valley ; 14 and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see'® it. And the cart came into the field of Joshua a Bethshemite [the Bethshemeshite], and stood there, where [and there] there was a great stone ; and they clave the wood of the 15 cart, and offered the kine a burnt-ofiering unto the Lord [Jehovah]. And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord [Jehovah], and the coffer that was with it, wherein [ins. were] the jewels of gold [golden figures] were [om. were], and put them on the great stone ; and the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt-offerings, and 16 sacrificed sacrifices the same day unto the Lord [Jehovah]. And when [om. when] the five lords of the Philistines had seen [saw] it, they [and] returned to Ekrou 17 the same day. And these are the golden emeruds [boils] which the Philistines returned for [as] a trespass-offering unto the Lord [Jehovah] : for Ashdod one, for 18 Gaza one, for Askelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one. And the golden mice \_ins. were] according to the number of all the cities of the- Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fenced cities and of country villages,^" even unto the great stone of Abel whereon they set down the ark of the Lord, ivhich stone remaineth unto this day in the field of Joshua the Bethshemite [And^^ the great stone, on which they set down the ark of Jehovah, remaineth to this day in the field of Joshua the Bethshemeshite]. 19 And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had [om. had] looked into [at'^] the ark of the Lord [Jehovah], even [and] he smote of the people fifty thou- sand and three-score and ten men [70 men, 50,000 men'^^] ; and the people lamented, because the Lord [Jehovah] had smitten [smote] v^caiy of [om. many of] the people 20 with a great slaughter. And the men of .Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before [ms. Jehovah], this holy Lord \_om.. Lord] God ? and to whom shall he go 21 up from us? And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim, say- ing, The Philistines have brought again [back] the ark of the Lord [Jehovah] ; come ye down, and fetch it up to you. Chap, VII. 1 And the men of Kirjath-jearim came, and fetched up the ark of the Lord [Jehovah], and brought it into the house of Abinadab in [on] the hill, and sanctified [consecrated] Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lord [Jehovah]. 18 [Ver. 13. The Heb. has simply " Bethshemesh," the place put for its inhabitants.— Tr.] 19 [Ver. 13. Sept.: "to meet it" OnSTpS), error of copyist.— Te.] 20 [Ver. 18. The first clau.se of this verse (and along with it ver. 17) is stricken out by Wellhausen on the ground of its incompatibility with ver. 8. The external evidence for the clause is complete ; on the internal evi- dence see the Coram, in loco and Translator's note. — Tr.] 21 [Ver. 18. Or: "witness is the great stone," etc., omitting the word "remaineth;" so Erdraann, see Comra. in loco. The simpler translation given aljove is that suggested in Bib. Coram. — Tr.] ~ [Ver. 19. This is the common meaning of the verb (DXT with 3). — Tr.] 23 [Ver. 19. These numbers, though probably incorrect, are left in tlie text, because no satisfactor5' reading has been settled on. The clause should be braclieted. See discussion in Comra. — Tr.] EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. T. Vers. 1-1 1. T/ie ark is sent back with expiatory gifts. The designation of place: in the field is here to be taken in tlie wider sense of territory, country, as in Ruth i. 2. — The seven months, during which tlie ark was in the country of tlie Philistines, was a time of uninterrupted plagues. In addition to the disease of boils came the plague of tiie devastation of the fields i)y 'iidce. That the plague of mice was something over and above the disease is plain from vers. 5, 11, 18; in ver. 1 the Sept. adds, " and their land swarmed with mice," which the narrator has not expressly mentioned. Tiieniu.s' supposition that, from similarity of final syllables ((^V)) ^ clause has fallen out of the Heb. text, is too bold a one. Maurer remarks cor- rectly: "it is generally agreed that the Hebrew writers not infrequently omit things essential, and then afterwards mention them briefly in succes- sion."— Ver. 2. After it had been determined in the council of the princes to send back the ark to the Israelites, the jyriests and soothsctyers are now to tell how it shall be sent back. Alongside of an honorable priestly class appear here the soothsayers [diviners] (that is, the organs of the deity, who reveal his counsel and will through the mantic art) as authorities, whose decision is final. The princes had to consider the political-national and serial side, these the religious side of the ques- tion.* Inasmuch as it has already been deter- * [The word here eraployed for "priests" (kohanim) is the same as that used to designate the priests of the true God, th(> distinctive word for idol-priests (keraarira) occurring only three times in O. T., though frequent in the Syriac and Chald. translations. The Arabic here renders "chiefs" or "doctors" (ahbara), probably to avoid a scandalous application of the sacred name. For etymology oi kohfn see Ges., Thes., and Fiirst. Ilcli. Lex. —The word rendered "soothsayer" (qoseiii) is probably from a stem meaning "to divide, partition, assign for- tunes," and seems to be <'mi)loyed to denote divination liy processes such as shaking arrows, consulting tera- phim, inspecting livers (I\z. xxi. 20-28 [21-231), perhaps differing thus from the m.antic art proper, which involved possession or inspiration by the deity (whicli two me. CPIAP. VI. 1— VII. 1. 113 mined to send the ark back, the question " what shaxl we do in respect to the ark of God?" is only introductory to the succeeding question, " where- with or how shall we send it to its place ?" The n^3 may mean either, but the rendering "how, in what way " (Vulg. quomodo) is favored by the ■connection, since the priests would else not have answered that the ark was not to be sent back without gifts. — Ver. 3. We must here not supply the pronoun "ye" to the Particip. (D'HlKfOj, but must render (as in ii. 24) impersonally* : "if one sends, if they send." The ark must be restored, not empty, but with gifts. These gifts are to be an •asham ( DE'X), a debt-otiering or expiatory ofiering ; the gift is thus designated, because it is a question ■of the payment of a debt.f Satisfaction must be made to the angered God of the people of Israel i^.' t'le contempt put on Him by the abduction of the ark. The word "return, make compensation" O'E'rij refers to the unlawful appropriation ; it is a matter of compensation. Vulg. : cjuod debetis, reddite ei pro peccato. w [" to him," "to it"] is to be referred not to the ark (Sept.), but to God. Send Him a "gift, by which His anger shall be appeased, lest He torment you more" (Cleric). According to Ex. xxiii. 15 no one was allowed to appear empty-handed (Op"'?.) before God. Whe- ther, as Clericus supposes, this was known to the Pliilistine priests, is uncertain. The words IN ■^NplJI may be taken either as conditional or as for Jl. On this form comp. E\v. § llU b, and Gesen. ?47, R. 3. great stone, a sacred act which pertained to them alone. Since the ark betokened the presence of the Lord, it could be said that they, namely, the Bethshemeshites, otiered the kine to the Lord by using the wood of the cart for the burnt-oflering. Witli this they joined a blood-offering. It was lawful to offer the sacrifice here, because, wherever the ark was, oHering might be made. Though the people of Bethshemesh are expressly said to be the offerers [vei-. 15], this does not exclude the co-operation of the priests, especially as Bethshe- mesh was a priestly city. From the single burnt- offering in ver. 14, which was offered with the cart and the kine, the burnt-offerings [ver. 15] and the slain-offerings, which were coimccted with a joyful sacrificial meal, are to be distin- guished as a second sacrificial act, which, in its first element (the burnt-offering), set lorth the re- newed consecration and devotion of the whole life to the Lord, and in its second (the meal ) expressed joyful thanksgiving for the restoration of God's enthronement and habitation amid His people, of which they had been so long deprived, ^'er. 16. The five lords of the Philistines saw in this occur- rence, in accordance with the instruction of their priests, a revelation of the God of Israel ; they re- turned to Ekron the same day. — Vers. 17, 18. A second enumeration of the expiatory gifts, comp. ver. 4. The statement here made varies iiom that of ver. 4 only in the fact that, while the priests had advised the presentation of only five golden figures of mice, here a much greater number, " according to the number of all the cities of the Philis- tines," are offered; because, from the expression "from the fenced city to the village of the inhabitants of the low land" {"t^^BT}^ Deut. iii. 5) [rather "fenced cities and country* villages"], Avhich shows that every Philistine locality was rej^re- sented in the mouse-figures, we learn that the mouse-plague extended over the whole country, while the boil-plague prevailed only in the largest cities.f In the second clause, instead of "^^P [" and unto"] read ^J^'^ ["and witness"], and instead of 73N r"Abel"l, we must, on account of the attached ..y L -1' Adj. and the repeated reference to the "field of Joshua" (vers. 14, 16), read f^X ["stone"], and translate: " and, a witness is the great stone (IJt^l is found in the same sense. Gen. xxxi. 52) . . . to this day." Kimchi's explanation of /^X as the name [the Heb. word means "mourning"] given to the stone on account of the mourning made there * [The word HT'^S is explained by the Mishna and T T : the .Tews generally, and by Gesenius, to mean "open country," and this signifioa"tion for the adj. form in the text is required bv the contrast with "fenced cities." See Ges. Thcs. s. V. The Arab, stem pharaza is " to separate "— and the derived nouns have the sense of "planeness," whenee the rural districts may have been called " plane," that is, "unwalled."— Tk.] t [On the supposition that there was no mouse-plague, the mousc-tigures equally represented the whole coun- trv. In tills cnnneetion the Greek text of vers. 4, 5 is worthy of attention. It reads : " (ver. 4), five golden he- dras (ophrtliiii. 'boils'), according to the number of the lords of the rhilistines; (ver. 5), and golden mice, like the mice," etc.: thus separating the two statements, and omitting the second number five. If this reading were adopted, it would relieve the Heb. text, which, in seve- ral places in this chapter, shows traces of corruption. See note under " Textual and Grammatical."— Tr.] 116 THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. (ver. 19) is a fanciful expedient, which has also no support in the context, since nothing is after- wards s;ud of a mourning at tliis stone. Vers. 19-21. The ark in Bcthshemeah. A ■pun- ishment is inliicted by God on the Betlisheniesh- ites because they had sinned respecting the holiness of God, which was rejiresented before their eyes by the ark. Wherein this sin consisted is stated in the words "because they looked," &c. ('3 =IN1 '3), which are to be connected with the : T • ' question in ver. 20. From ver. 13 (if we retain the text) it coukl not have been the mere looking at the ark, which stood on the cart, and was ne- cessarily visible to every body, but, as the 2 shows, consisted only in the manner of looking at it. As the unauthorized touching (Num. iv. 15; 2 Sam. vi. 7), so the profane, pryhig, curious looking at the ark, as the symbol of the holy God who dwells amid His people, is forbidden on pain of death. The fundamental passage, to which we must here go back, is Num. iv. 20. The deepest ground of the strict prohibition to touch and look at the ark lies in the opposition which exists be- tween man, impure through sin, and the holy God, which cannot be removed by immediate and unmediated connection with God on man's part, but only through the means which God has by special revelation ordained to this end. Against Tlie- nius, wlio holds that this explanation cannot be based on Num. iv. 20, it is to be remarked that this passage speaks expressly not only of unau- thorized intrusion, but also of a similar looking at the inner sanctuary. There is no contradiction between this verse and ver. 13, if we regard the Ace. in the latter, and the Prep, "at" (3) here; this difference in the designation of the object in- dicates a difference in this connection in the see- ing. In Num. iv. 20 also the seeing is more ex- actly defined by an added word. Other exjjlana- tions, as: "because they were afraid at the ark" (Syr., Arab.), or: "looked into it" (Rabb.), are entirely imtenable. It is true, however, that the words of the text (according to which the above would be the only tenable explanation) present great difficulties, which Thenius expresses in the remark: "One does not see why 'and he smote' C^iy is repeated, and why we have 'the people' (D>'3) again after 'the men of Bethshemesh'' XT. '^ ('2 'tl/JXa)." Moreover, the following words of this verse, which give the number of the slain, undoubtedly offer an incorrect, or rather a corrupt text; whereby the preceding words would be in- volved in the corruption. The supposition of a defective text being here so natural, we should be inclined to adopt (with Thenius) the reading of the Sept.: "And the children of Jechoniah among the Bethsheraeshitcs icere not glad (chaj). v. 13) that they saw the ark, and he smote of them," etc.; but that the objection "that we elsewhere find nothing at all about the race of Jechoniah " is by no means so unimportant as Thenius thinks it. The reading "70 men, 50,000 men" is evidently corrupt. If a process of addition were here in- tended, then "and" (1) must necessarily stand before the second number. If a partition were meant (70 out of 50,000 men), then, besides the grammatical difficulty, there is the objection that the city of Bethshemesh (and it alone is here spoken of), could not possibly have had so many inhabitants. The last objection applies with still more force to Ewald's iransiaiion, " beginning with 70 and increasing to 50,000 men," — which would require us to suppose a still larger popula-' tion. The words "50,000 men" are wanting in Jos. {Ant. 6, 1-14), and in some Heb. MSS. (Cod. Kenn. 81, 210, 418), and are [to be rejected],* since they give no sense, and probably "came from the margin into the text as another solution of the numeral sign which stood there (in the original text stood >' [70], while in another J [50,000] was found)" (Thenius). — The ground of the sudden death of the 70 of the race of Jechoniah is their unsympathizing, and therefore unholy bearing towards the symbol of God's pre- sence among His people, which showed a mind wholly estranged from the living God, a symp- tom of the religious-moral degeneracy, which had spread among the people, though piety was still to be found.f Ver. 20. Who can stand before this holy Ood f — This question expresses their consciousness of unworthiness, and their fear of the violated ma- jesty of the covenant-God of Israel. The people of Bethshemesh recognize in the death of die 70 a judgment of God, in which He punishes the violation of His majesty and glory, and defends His holiness in relation to His people. God is called the holy in this connection, in that He guards and avenges His greatness and glory, Avliich He had revealed to Israel, when they are violated and dishonored by human sin, by un- holy, godless conduct. — From the connection only " God" can be the Subj. of "shall go up" (HS;*:). The question "/o whom shall he go up from us?" * [The words in brackets are not in the German — omitted probably by tyiJOgraphieal error. — Tk.] t [On the criticism of thi'i verse see De Rossi, Var. Lcct., and a good note in Bib. Coinm. As to tlie uum- liers, it seems impossible to ileiermine anything with certainty, and the conjecture of Thenius (that we read 70, omitting the 50,000) is as probable as any other. That the first part of the verse is corrupt is evident from the variations in the VSS. and the confused cha- racter of the Heb. text itself. Two hints for the recon- struction of the t'-ue text appear to Vie given us, one by the Chald., the other by the Sept. The former reads: " and He slew among the men of Bethshemesh, because they rejoiced when they saw the ark," etc. (where the "rejoiced" is apparently taken from ver. 13); the latter reads: "and not pleased were the sons of Jechoniah among the men of Bethshemesh, that they saw the ark," etc. Combining these, we may perhaps infer 1) that the "rejoice" or "pleased" was inserted by a translator or copyitit, and 2) that a phrase of several words preceded the words "with the men of Bethshemesh." The verse then, may have begun somewhat so : XWTV 'IX "IH^I O 'tyjiO, and read "and Jehovah was angry with the Rethshemeshites, because, etc., . . . and smote among them" (reading 0713 for DJ-O)- From this the present Heb. text might have come by substituting 'V'\_ (by homoeoteleuton or otherwise) for the first words, and omitting " or mri'. and the Sept. text might be ex- plained as a duplet, in which the ^iT'JD"' ''J3 is a cor- T : T : •• : rnption of the Hob., and the "displeased" taken from the same source as the Chald. — Wellhausen tran.slatos the Sept. into Heb. by the words ^H'JD" '':3 ^pj N^l, t:t : •■ : I • : and adopts this as the true text. But this is not in itself very satisfactory (" and the sons of Jechoniah were not J;uiltless," etc.), and does not answer the de- mands of the VSS. and the context. — Tr.] CHAP. VI. 1-VII. 1. 117 refers then indeed to the ark, in connection with which the sin and the jjunisliraent had occurred, and supposes that the Bethshemeshites were un- willing to keep it among them, from fear of far- ther judgments which its stay might occasion. A superstitious idea here mingles with the fear of God, since the stay of the ark is regarded as in itself a cause of further misfortune. Ver. 21. Kirjath-jearim, that is, "city of forests" [Forestville, Woodville], in the tribe-territory of Judah, belonged at an earlier period to Gibeon (Josh. ix. 17; xviii. 25, 26; Ezra ii. 25; Neh. vii. 29), and is the present Kuryet el Enab= "city of wine" [literally "grapes"] (Eob. II. 588 sq. [Amer. ed. II. 11], and Bibl. Forschung. 205 sq. [Am. ed. III. 157], Tobler, Topogr. II. 742 sqq.).* The embassy to the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim had two objects: the announce- ment of the return of the ark, and the demand that they should take it. They are silent as to the misfortune which was connected with its restoration, and as to their reason for not wishing to keep it. Ch. vii. 1 mentions the safe trar^spor- tation of the ark by the Kirjath-jearim ites to their city. The ark is placed in the house of Abinadab n;'3J3, "on the hill," not in "Gibeah" (Vulg., Luther), as if the latter were a suburb of Kirjath- jearim. The house of Abinadab was on a hill, and for this reason probably was chosen as the resting-place of the ark. " They consecrated Elea- zar" the son of Abinadab, that is, they chose and appointed him as a person consecrated to God for this service : he had to keep watch and guard over the ai'k. It is hence probable that the ark found shelter in the house of a Lerite. "Nothing is said of Eleazar's consecration as priest He was constituted not priest, but watchman at the grave of the ark, by its corpse, till its future joy- ful resurrection" (Hengst., Beitr.Tll. &Q [Con- tributions to Int. to O. T.]). Why it was not carried back to Shiloh, is imcertain. The reason may be, that the Philistines aftei- the victory in ch. iv. had conquered Shiloh, and now held it, as Ewald (Gesch. II. 540 [Hist, of Isr.]) sup- poses ; though his conjecture that the Philistines had destroyed Shiloh together with the old sanc- tuary, is to be rejected, since it is certain that the Tabernacle afterwards moved from Shiloh to Nob, and thence to Gibeon, and that the worship in connection with it was maintained (1 Sam. xxi. 6; 1 Kings iii. 4; 2 Chron. i. 3). Or, it may be that, without a special revelation of the divine will, they were unwilling to carry the ark back to the place whence it had been removed by a judgment of God in consequence of the profa- nation of the Sanctuary by the sons of Eli (Keil) ; or simply that the purpose was first and provi- sionally to carry it safely to a large city as far off as possible, inasmuch as, in view of the sentence of rejection which had been passed on Shiloh, they did not dare to select on their o^vn authority * [Mr. Grove (Srnith's Bib. Dkt., Art. " Kirjath-jearim ") suggests that the ancient sanetity of Kirjath-jearim (it wasealled Baalah and Kirjath-Baal, and may have been a seat of worship of the Canaanitish deity Baal) was tlie ground of the ark's being sent thither. 'He points out also a difficulty in its identification with Kuryet el Enab from the dif.ent of the lamentation is more precisely stated by the context. The succeeding ad- dress of Samuel (ver. 3) "if ye return" (properly, " if ye are returning," " arein astate of conversion") and the mention of the sincere penitence of the people (ver. 6), presuppose a very deep sorrow and suffering, in which the foreign Philistine rule was felt to be a judgment of God, there being through- out the whole people a tone of feeling, which led them to return humbly to God, and to sigh and long after Him, now that He had turned away from His people : a return back to the living God, on whom they had often turned their back,* to whom, however, they now, in consequence of His continuing judgments, again turned, just as, in the period of the Judges, return so often alter- nated with apostasy. The " lamenting after the Lord" therefore expresses the penitent disposi- tion and decided direction of the innermost life of the people to their God, in which, with sorrow and pain over the self-incurred national misfor- tune under the rule of the Philistines, they seek God's mercy and saving help. He having hitherto turned His back on them, and forsaken them. The image is that of a child that goes weeping after its father or mother, that it may be relieved of what hurts it. An allusion to such a relation might perhaps be found in the expression " the whole house of Israel." S. Schmid : " The phrase ' la- ment after God ' is taken from human affairs, when one follows another, and entreats him with lamentations till he assents. An example of this is the Syrophenician woman. Matt, xv." — After the lapse of tlie twenty years occurred this decided return of the whole people to their God. As, be- sides the constant pressure of the Philistine rule, no special calamity is mentioned, we must suppose a gradual pi-eparation for this penitential temper of the people, which now, after the lapse of twenty years from the return of the ark, was become uni- versal. The preparation came from within. By what means ? by the prophetic labors of Samuel, from the summary description of which, according to their intensive power, their extensive manifesta- tion, and their results in the whole nation (iii. 19- 21), we may clearly see, that Samuel without ceasing proclaimed to the people the word of God. And as in ch. iii. 19 it is said that "none of his words fell to the ground," we shall have to recog- nize this penitential temper and tliis following after God with sighing and lamentation from the consciousness of being forsaken and needing help, as a fruit of Samuel's prophetic labors, which were directed to the relation of the innermost life of the people to their God. So by his influence the way was secretly and gradually paved for a refor- mation of the religious-moral life from within outwards. Certainly the lamentation of the people after the Lord was already the turning-point to a better God-ward direction of the inner life (against Keil); the important tiling was only that the people should maintain this following after God, should anew devote tiiemselves in he^iri firmly and decidedly to the living God, and should give an outward confirmation of their resolution by com- pletely breaking with idolatry. This it is to which * [Germ. : rurkkehr zu . . . Gott, dem man . gekehrt hatte. — Tb.] den rucken Samuel will yet further lead the people ; on this it depended whether the help of the Lord should be obtained, and the true covenant-relation re- stored ; in this was first thoroughly completed the reformation of the innermost life of the people ; therefore the narrator describes this in detail in ver. 3 sqq., while he sets forth that preparation for the reformation only in its last stage of develop- ment, and even then merely by hints. In ver. 3 Samuel's word of exhortation is in the first place described as addressed to the whole peo- ple (comp. iii. 20) ; we see him here in the per- formance of his prophetical work, which embraces all Israel. The content of this word is first a con- ditionally expressed preliminary : " If ye return to the Lord with all your hearts." Ikvo things are here assumed and recognized as facts: 1) That a conversion to God had already taken place in the whole nation, and 2) that this conversion was a permanent condition, and that a permanent ten- dency towards God existed, as we may see from the Particip. " if ye are turning." He thus points back to what is said before of Israel's sighing and lamenting o//er the Lord. The phrase "with all the heart " involves an exhortation to what must be inseparably connected with conversion, if the latter is to be true and thoi-ough, demands, that is, an internalizing and dee^x^ning of what is de- scribed in ver. 2 as lamenting after the Lord, in order that the right attitude of soul towards God may exist. Since the heart* is the centre and source of all movements of the inner life, as the bodily heart is the centre of the bloodflow and the life thereon founded, to turn "with all the heart" is so to turn one's self to God, from the central innermost kernel of the personal life, that is, of all thinking, feeling, desiring, willing, that the whole life shall be controlled by the fellowsliip with Him. To this deeply and thoroughly heart-felt turning, conversion of the whole inner life to the holy God, must now correspond the external confinna^ tion of such a disposition. The demand is in conformity with the condition: "Put away the strange gods from among you," which is exactly the same with the demand that Jacob (Gen. XXXV. 2) once made of his house, and Joshua (Josh. xxiv. 23, comp. ch. xiv.) of his people. "After the return of the ark an earnest longing after the Lord arose among Israel. Samuel, availing himself of this, exhorted them to remove all idolatry from their midst" (Hcngst., JSeitr, [Contrib.'] I. 153 sqq.). The strange gods here spoken of, and called Ashtaroth and Baalimf (comp. ver. 4) are the gods of the Philistines, whose worship had gained entrance during the decline of the theocratic life and of the worsiiip * [In the Old Test, (as in the New) the word "heart " (hS) means not merely the seat or faculty of feeling, but the whole spiritual incorporeal nature, thinking, feeling, willing.— Tr.] I" [Baalim and Ashtaroth are the plurals of Baal and. Ashtoreth (the pki. form signifying different deities of the name, or gods in general, or statues of tlie gods), ancient deities of Babylon and Assyria, and tlience adopted by the Canaani'tish nations. Baal, Bil, Bel, is "lord" or supreme deitv. Ashtoreth, Astarte, Istar, WHS the goddess of war. and probably also the Assyrian Venus; the origin of the name is uncertain (it is not aa-Trip). See Rawlinson, ^'Ancient Monarchies" 1. 138, Schrader, "Die Kcilinschriften u. das A. T.," p. 79 sq., Bunsen, " Egypt's Place in tlniv. Hist.," Eng. Tr., IV. 34» sq.— Tu.l CHAP. VII. 2-17. 121 of the living God, as indeed during the whole Period of tlie .Judges the idol-worship of the hea- then nations was constantly forcing its way in, wherefore tiie Lord gave them again and again into the hand of the latter (Judg. ii. 11, 13; x. 6, 7). The fellowship witli the living God, to which conversion witli all the heart leads, is in- compatible with idol-worship, the putting away of which is tiierefore the sign of an upright and thorough conversion. As to the "from among you," comp. Gen. xxxv. 2; Josh. xxiv. 23. — To this negative side of the renovation of the reli- gious life is to be added the positive, which is stated in the following two-fold demand. '^ Fix your hearts towards or in trust in God." The fix (lyjni) is opposed to the wavering, vacillating state of mind, which may always co-exist with sighing and lamenting, and sets forth, as an in- dispensable condition, the energy of religious- moral life, with which the man who turns heartily to God must put away everything opposed to God. The " to Jehovah " expresses the fact that movement and tendency towards God must be the aim, as it is the centre and source, of the whole inner life. In this tendency and move- ment it is required that there be stability, fixed- ness, steadfastness, proceeding from a heart which is immovably and unshakably fixed on Him alone. Thereby is the second requirement ful- filled : serve Him only ; for the heart fixed firmly on Him excludes completely everything, conse- cration to which might bring it into opposition with God, and cause the surrender of the whole inner life ; it attaches itself to God alone, and excludes all other gods. — The following words "and He will deliver you," etc., suppose that the hand, that is, the might and power, of the Philis- tines was on Israel, and that the foreign rule continued ; they contain the promise of deliver- ance from the Philistine power, holding it out as the consequence of the previously described con- version. The foundation-thouglit here is this : Re-establish your covenant-relation to God by honest and thorough conversion, manifested by the putting away of all idol-deities, and then God also will turn to you, so that you shall no longer have to lament after Him, and will again announce His relation to you as your covenant- God by saving you from your enemies. — Ver. 4 witnesses tliat, in these circumstances also, no word of Samuel fell to the ground. Two things are stated : the complete removal of the worship of the strange gods, and the restoration of the exclusive worship of the living God. On the one hand, the designation«of the strange gods is here enlarged (see ver. 3) by the addition of Baalim to Ashtaroth ; it is thus intimated that there was a complete and comprehensive purification of the religious life and service. On the other hand, the word "only" is repeated from ver. 3, and it is thus expressly said, that the covenant- God alone and exclusively became the object of worship, while it is at the same time involved that the general service of Jehovah had not ceased, but that the worship of strange gods had existed only along with Jehovah-worship. According to the preceding explanation of the section, vers. 2-4, its particular parts stand in close connection with one another, and there is nothing at all which compels us to suppose either a gap in the narrative, or interpolations of foreign mat- ter, in order to make a connection. The second supposition is adopted by Ewald, who conjtciures that vers. 3 and 4 are interpolated, assuming without ground that they break the connection ;, the first is adopted by Thenius, who assumes a gap between ver. 2 and ver. 3, of which he liiui- self, however, says, that it is possibly as old as our Book, since it is not filled up by any of the old translations. Since, now, he throws the al- leged defect back on the original authorities which are here used, the question is, whether his grounds for its existence are tenable, apart from the fact that the context and the narrative exhi- bit no gap in any essential point. When the Philistines brought back the ark, their dominion over Israel, as Keil properly remarks, was not thereby given up ; its continuance is assumed in the words "He will save you," and did not need to be expressly mentioned. As little need was there for express mention of an apostasy to idola- try, when it is stated that Samuel exhorted them to give it up ; for in this period, as in that of the Judges, it was a usual thing for idolatry to make its way into Israel, and besides, there had been no complete apostasy from the living God. On the incorrect presupposition that, in consequence of the unmentioned apostasy, Israel had again been given into the hand of the Philistines, The- nius supposes that Samuel, in this time of stress, had been chosen Judge, and that the account of this choice, which, however, is implied in the words: "And Samuel judged Israel in Mizpah," has fallen out. Against which Keil remarks well: "The appearance of Samuel as Shophet [Judge] does not imply that the assumption of this oflice must have been before mentioned. In general there was no formal assumption of the office of Judge, least of all in the case of Samuel, who had already been recognized by all Israel as an authenticated prophet of Jehovah (iii. 19 sqq.)." Bunsen : " There is no gap here, but a chronologi- cal statement." Vers. 5, 6. TJie day of penitence and prayer in Mizpah exhibits the whole people there assembled as sincerely penitent, and Samuel as their repre- sentative with his petition in the presence of the Lord. The content of these verses is the carrying on further of what is related in vers. 3-5. After idolatry has been expelled, and the worship of God alone restored, Samuel takes another step forward : he calls at Mizpah an assembly of the whole people, through their elders and represen- tatives, for an exclusively religious purpose ; they are to declare and set forth as a body the sincere, hearty conversion of their individual members, wliile he, Samuel, as their head chosen by God, will perform the priestly function of prayer for them before the Lord. "His purpose in this," as Keil well remarks, " could be only to bring the people back to the proper relation to their God, and so to pave the way for their deli- verance from the bondage of the Philistines." This assembly was, however, by no means in- tended, as Keil supposes, to make immediate preparation for the war of deliverance against the Philistines. That the people did not regard the assembly as a military one, and that Samuel therefore had not spoken of such a one, is clear from ver. 7, where it is said, that the children of 122 THE FIKST BOOK OF SAMUEL. Israel were afraid of the Philistines, when they heard that their lords liad marched forth to fight with them. The Philistines, indeed, thought the assembly a military one, and opened hostilities in the opinion that the assembly was called to make an attack on them, so that Samuel was compelled to consecrate the pe> pie to battle against the Philistines, though they had been called together for a purely religious end (ver. 8 .sq. ), and to go out with them to battle against the Philistines. The place of assembly is Mizpah ("watch-tower") in the Tribe of Benjamin on its western border, north of Jerusalem, and to be distinguished from Mizpeh in tJie lowland of Judah (.Josh. xv. 38). According to Robinson, Tobler, V. d. Velde, Furrer, it is the present ^Veiy&tHiwi/ ("Prophet Samuel"), five hundred feet above the elevated table-land, two thousand, four hundred and eighty-four feet above the level of the sea, near Ramah and Geba (comp. 1 Kings XV. 22;__2 Chron. xvi. 6), visible from Jerusalem, 1 Mac.iii.46 (naTeravTi ' lepovaalr/ii^ "over against Jerusalem," comp. Jos. Ant. XI. 8, 5), afibrd- ing an extensive prospect as far as the sea and the transjordanic mountains. The present place is, however, neither the ancient Shiloh, as some hold, nor Ramah of Samuel, as others suppose. The latter view, which Ewald also {Gesch. II. 583) is inclined to maintain, has been completely set aside by Robinson (II. 356-362 [Amer. ed. I. 458-460]).* Samuel chose this place for the •assembly of the people, not, as Keil supposes, because, "being on the western border of the mountains, it was the fittest place at which to begin the struggle against the Philistines," but because it was one of the holy places of the land, and, being in the middle" of the territory on an extensive plateau, and thus protected against the attacks of enemies, was specially suited for such assemblies. While Shiloh, from Joshua's time on, was the permanent seat of the Sanctuary, the Tabernacle remaining there, even after tlie removal of the ark, till its transference to Xob (xxi. 6), there were, especially in the cen- tral part of the land, several other places, " which, for various reasons, from before or after the time of Moses, had a certain sanctity, and where smaller altars were found" (Ew. tl. 583); thus, Shechem (.Josli. xxiv. 25, 26), famous from the Pa- triarchal time on account of its conquest by Simeon and Levi, and as the resting-place of Joseph's bones (Gen, xxxiv.; xlvii. l)~Gilgal, sacred as * [Stanley iSin. and Pal., Cli. IV.) irlentifies Nebv Sam- wil with the "high place of Gibeon" (1 Kings iii.4), and Mizp:ih with Scopus, which, he savs, meets all the re- quii-.'incnts of the notices of Mizpah, "the assemblies hel I there by Samuel— the fortification of it by Asa with the stones removed from 'the Mount' of Benjamin (1 Kin-i-; xi. 22)— the seat of the Chaldean governor after the (>apture of .Jerusalem (Jer. xl. 6)— the Wailing place of thn Maccabees (1 Mac. iii. 46)." Mr. Grove (Smith's Bib. Diet, Art. Mizpah) also adopts this view, laying .stre-. See on chap. i. 1.— Te.] against their oppressors ; this he does indeed ia quite a different manner, not sword in liand, hut wielding the weapons of prayer, and gaining for his people a victory, from wliicli dates the history of Israel's deliverance from the hands of the Phi- listines.— Ver. 7. Tlie Philistines hear of the as- se7iMy of the children of Israel. Either they sup- posed it to be a military one, knowing nothing of its real end {Berl. Bib.), or they well_ knew this end, and wished to surprise the Israelites in their unarmed condition (Joseph.). Their princes went up, since tlie assembly was held on the high land, and on Mizpah, which was still higher than this. — The following description of the behaviour of the children of Israel and the conduct of Samuel, there being no hint of arming ^igainst the Philis- tines, or of an attempt by Israel to niake a mili- tarv movement against the advancing foe, shows clearly that the Israelites were not in readiness for such an attack, and had made no military preparations. Not the arm.'< of hrael put the Phi- EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. Vers. 7-14. Israel's victory over the Philistines un- der the lead of Samuel.— The last words in ver. 6 referred to HamneV a judicial work in Mizpah, after the general assembly for repentance and prayer had Ijeen hold with the whole people. The ex- press mention of this judicial work at the end of the narrative in vers. 2-6 confirms the view (which is besides suggested from the whole connection) that this popular assembly was not concerned witli military preparations for an attack on the Pliilistines, but only with arranging the internal affairs of the national life, the religious-moral and civil, according to the divine law. We have seen how Samuel there acted at the same time as pro- phet and judf/e, and liow the function of priV.s? con- nected itself immediately with tliat of prophet. It now falls to his lot, like tiie earlier judges, to fulfil his judicial mission against foreign enemies also, and' show himself the leader of the people listines to flight, l)ut the pray r.^ of Samuel, and CHAP. Vir. 2-17. 127 the thunders above their heads manifesting the miglit of the Lord, the terrors of which tlie Phi- listines had not forgotten since their experience with the ark. — When the Israelites heard of the advance of the Philistine jjrinces with their hosts, they were afraid of them. This is inconceivable, if the assembly was held to equip themselves in- wardly and outwardly for the war of freedom against the Philistines. In ver. S tlie people press Samuel to beseech (iod with unceasing and instant crying for their deliverance out of the hand of the Philistines. The solicitude corresponds with Sa- muel's previous promise to pray to the Lord for the people in this assembly (ver. 5). The object of the petition, salvation out of the hand of the Philistines, had already been promised by him on the condition of sincere return to the Lord (ver. 3). Now the moment of fulfilment has come. The condition is complied with, the children of Israel beseech Samuel : " cease not to cry to the Lord, our God." They have found their God again, after whom tliey had till now sighed and mourned. Samuel, having by his intercession first restored the covenant-communion between the penitent people and the pardoning God, now intercedes for the deliverance of the people, and thus performs the judicial act which, for the ear- lier judges, was coincident with their entrance into their office. Samuel had first, as prophet and judge, to lead the people to a thorough refor- mation of tlieir inner life, before he could begin the work of external deliverance. He began it as judge and as priest at the same time, as is fur- ther related in ver. 9. Samuel represented the people in twofold priestly function before the Lord, with offering and prayer. The oflx.'i-ing consisted of a young tender lamb, which was still nourished with milk ; though, according to the Law, Lev. xxii. 27, it must have been seven days "with its mother." A burnt-offering (H '1^^) is offered as sign of the complete consecration of the whole man, here of the whole people, to the Lord in the consecration and devotion of the whole life to Him, as is set forth by the fact that the whole animal ( /^O Lev. i. 9) was burnt in the fire of the altar, and so ascended [the Heb. word means "that which ascends"], in distinction from tlie offerings which were only partially burnt on the altar. This is expressed by the addition of the word " wholly " {';^) which is also used of the vegetable and meat-offerings which were to be wholly burned (Lev. vi. 15). In poetic language (Deut. xxxiii. 10) it stands for n'?!;;, burnt offering, whilehere, asinPs. li. 21 [19] (there connected by 1 "and") it is an explanatory addition to indicate that the burnt-oflering is a w/iofe-ofFering, the offer- ers not receiving a part of it, as in the Shelamim [peace-offerings] or Zebachim [slain-offerings] . The idea of the wAofe-offering is thus specially again expressed, because the resolution to devote them- selves to the Lord fully and undividedly, a devo- tion conditioned on the whole-hearted conversion and the purpose to serve the Lord alone (ver. 3sqq.) is expressed by the presentation of the burnt-of- fering. In accordance with the people's demand (ver. 8) Samuel combined with the offering ear- nest, instant p'a?/er for them. — And the Lorci. answered him, is the declaration that the prayer for help and deliverance was heard, comp. Ps. iii. 5; iv. 2. [See also Ps. xcix. 6; Jer. xv. 1, for the estimation in which Samuel's power in prayer was held. — Tr.]. The answer of the Lord is given in the occurrence related in ver. 10 sqq. in the factual help of the Lord, not merely in the thunder (Keil), though the latter was tlie cause of the consternation and confusion of the Pliilis- tines. The vividness of the description is notice- able : Samuel is engaged in offering the sacrifice, during which the Philistines approach nearer antl nearer, Israel is waiting on Samuel's j^rayer i'or the Lord's help, terrific peals of thunder "follow one after another, thereby the Philistines are con- fused and confounded (comp. Jos. x. 10), they take to fiight, their plan is frustrated. — Ver. 11. The men of Israel now advance from Mizpah, and pursue them as far as under Bethcar = " House of the lamb or of the meadow, the field." Jos. An(. VI., 2, 2 : Corra. A place called Corru;. lay between Jericho and Bethshean; V. Eaumer (4 ed., p. 178, E. 158 sq.) thinks that it could not be this place. It remains at least doubtful. — After this victory was won, a monument was set ujj in remembrance of the help of the Lord there expe- rienced. Samuel set a memorial stone between Mizpah and Shen (" Tooth," either a prominent rock-formation (comp. cli. xiv. 4) or a place situ- ated on a crag near Mizpah). The name Ebenezer ["stone of help"], which he gives it, is at the same time explained : Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. — This was the thanksgiving in the name of the whole people as answer to the Lord's answer, the accompanying explanation of the act of thanks. The " hitherto " points to the fact that this victory did not complete the deliverance from the yoke of the Philistines. [Wellhausen would explain Ebenezer as ^ "this be witness (1.P') that Jahveh hath helped us."— Tr.].— Vers. 13, 14, state the happy results for Israel of this victorv over the Philistines, gained without arms, the wonderful gift of God's hand. First is mentioned the humiliation [Eng. A. V. "subdued"] of the enemy, in consequence of the manner in which this victory was gained.* It is then declared that, in consequence of this victory, the Philistines made no more such incursions into the coasts of Israel. The following words : " and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel," are improperly restricted to the period of his active judgeship (Lyra, Brent, Niigelsb., Ilerz. XIII. 403 sq.); since Samuel, according to ver. 15, judged Israel all the days of his life, thev must be iniderstood of his whole life-time. During this time the Philistines continued to occupy the land (ix. 16 ; x. 5 ; xiii. 5, 13), though the occu- pation was territorially restricted. "The continu- ance of the Philistine oppression is presupposed in these words themselves : " the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines," comp. xiv. 52. After the victory at Mizpah they could gain no more * [The word here employed (^' JD). meaning originally "to humble," is also frequently used in the sense of "subdue," and it is better so to understand it here, and not, as Erdmann takes it, in the sense of a humiliation from their perception of the miraculous intervention of God. — In this sentence the words "of the enemy" are not in the German, probably from typographicarerror.- the sense requires some such insertion.— Te. J. 128 THE FIKST BOOK OF SAMUEL. territory, and in Israel's battles with them, how- ever much of the land they still lield, the hand of the Lord was mighty against them so long as Sa- muel lived, tlierefore during Saul's reign also, since Samuel died only a short time before Saul ; the help of the Loi-d against these mightiest foes ■of the land continued during Sanuiel's life-time. See Introduction, p. 9 i-q. Thus is intimated the mediating position which Samuel in this respect also assumed between God and the people of Is- rael astlieir representative and intercessor. Ver. 14. A/uriAe/'conseg'Me/iceof the victory was the regaining of the cities which belonged to the land of Israel with the territories appertaining to them, lying on the Philistine frontier from Ekron to Gath. These two cities are not included, but indicate on the Philistine side tlie direction and limits of the space in which the Israelites regained the lost cities and territories. The sense is : " Is- rael recovered their cities wliich lay on the Phi- listine borders, reckoning those borders from Ekron to Gath" (Seb. Schmid). Finally, a con- sequence of the abasement of the Philistines was the peace between Israel and the Amorites. These '' are mentioned here, because they were in the region in question next to the Philistines the mightiest enemies of Israel, comp. Josh. x. ; Judg. i. 34sqq." (Thenius). According to the latter passage (Judg. i. 31) they " especially forced the Danites back out of the plain into the mountains" (Keil).* Vers. 15-17. Summary view of Samuel's judicial loorh. Ver. 15 gives the duration of his office ; that the latter dates from tlie day of Miz- pah (Keil) is by no means certain; but its pre- cise commencement is not stated. All the days of his life denotes the period up to his death. His sons were his assistants up to the establish- ment of the kingdom. During Saul's government he kept unchanged the position of a prophet, who employed the authority of the divine will for the direction of the national life, the media- ting priestly position between God and the peo- ple ; but he also, as last Judge, held in liis hands tlie highest control of the theocracy and the kingdom. Ver. 16 sqq. The way in which he fulfilled the dnties of the office. He went round every year, holding court at three places : Betliel, Gilgal and Mizpah. These were at the same time holy places, in which Jehovali was worshiped, where therefore the people could be more easily brought together in large assemblies, and those who de- sired legal decisions could more easily meet Samuel. Ewald's supposition that Samuel visited one of these places at each of the great annual feasts is properly objected to by Thenius, with the remark " that at that time there was hardly a regular feast." The question whether this Gilgal was the old place in the .lordan-valley between the Jordan and Jericho (Josh. iv. 19), or the one southwest of Shiloh near the Jerusa- * [The name "Amorite " is given to various tribes on both sides of the Jordan, and cither the race was a widely extended one, or the name is sometimes used in a general way for the inliabitants of Palestine. The word is now generally held to mean "mountaineers" (Mum. xiii. 29), and is l)y some supposed to be a local, rather than a trilial designation, but in Judg. i. M the Amorites seem to be dwellers in the plain. Apparently they had been at war with the Israelites before Samuel's victory. — Tii.J lem-road, now Jiljilia (Deut. xi. 38 ; 1 Kings ii, 1 ), must be decided in favor of the former, for the reason that Samuel would certainly choose for such assemblies the place which was conse- crated by its liistorical association and its reli- fious importance. The order of the names here oes not warrant us in deciding (Keil) in favor of the other, the northern Gilgal. — 'SH-^^ r>X [Eng. A. v.: "in all those places"] must be taken as local Accus., and n4< as Ace. particle. It cannot here mean "near;" "it is used indeed to express the proximity of one place to another (Judg. iv. 11 ; 1 Kings ix. 26), and still oftener of things or persons to persons, but not that tilings or persons are close by places, for which we tind only DJ? or 3 (Josh. xxiv. 26 ; Judg. xviii. 3) " (Bottcher). — Ver. 17. From his circuits Samuel returned always to Ramah. Here was his perma- nent residence as householder. In respect to his work there, we have two brief statements : 1 ) he acted as judge, when he was not absent on hia circuit. (On D3'^, Ew., Gr., I 138 a: "the a of the Perf. becomes a only in pause, except once in 1 Sam. vii. 17.") His jtidicial labors were therefore uninterrupted. 2) There he built an altar to the Lord. — The priesthood had de- clined, the central sanctuary was broken up; instead of the local and the institutional-personal uniting point in the high-priest, Samuel forms from now on for the religious life and service also of Israel the personal centre consecrated by God's choice and guidance. His priestly work continues along with his judicial, both embraced and supported by the prophetical. Besides the already-existing holy places, where prayer and sacrifice were offered to God, he makes his resi- dence a place of worship. The direction and fur- therance of matters of religious life and worship is in his hands. Having effected a thorough reformation of the deep-sunken theocratic life on the basis cf the renewed relation between God and the people, he now proceeds vigorously, as judge, priest and prophet, to build it up and finish it on this foundation. HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 1. On the significance of the burnt-offering as a whole offering, see on ver. 8. It is the sacriflcium latreuticum [latreutic sacrifice, or sacrifice of ser- vice], since, by the complete consecration of the animal, it denotes, for the individual and the nation, the complete consecration and devotion of the whole life to the Lord. The burnt-ofl'ering has a propitiatory significance for the offerer in a general way (not, however, in respect to particu- lar offences which require special expiation), on which see Oehler in Herz., B. E. X. 635. The fresh, tender, sucking lamb, which was used in the offering at Mizpah, was intended, perhaps, to set forth how the people, new-born by their con- version, sliould, in the first fresliness of their new life, dedicate themselves wholly and undividedly to the Lord, to be His property and serve Him. The conjunction of the burnt-offering with prayer is founded on the fact, that both exjiress the same disposition of complete consecration of the heart to God. CHAP. VII. 2-17. 129 2. The sacrificial service, together with prayer, was conducted for the whole people by Samuel (as formerly by Moses, Ex. xvii. 9 ; xxxii. 25 sqq.), though he was simply a Levite, and not a priest ; for he acted as mediator between God and His jjeople by virtue of His prophetical character and work alone. He therefore tilled the office of priest in an extraordinary way, sentence of rejection having been passed on its legal incum- bents. On Samuel's further priestly work in offering sacrifices at the holy places of the land, comp. ix. 12 ; x. 8 ; xi. 15 ; xiii. 8 sqq.; xvi. 2 sqq. Samuel exercised tiie priestly function of prayer and intercession elsewhere, xii. 10 sqq.; iv. 11, 35. 3. In the period of the Judges the prophetic work was completely (with the single exception of Deborah, Judg. iv. 4 sqq.) separate from the judicial, and the former was as good as absorbed in the latter; both are again united in the person of Samuel, in that he thus shows how the external guidance of the covenant-people can and ought to rest essentially only on an internal, religious-le- gal foundation. "As he is tlius the founder of the kingdom in its genuine theocratic form, so is his priestly work also the preparation for the flour- ishing condition to which the cultus attained in the Davidic-Solomonic period ; it was necessary to break with the law-opposing priesthood of Eli and his race, in order that the establishment of a true priesthood, as it was new-formed under David and Solomon, might become possible" (Havern., Vorles. iiber hibl. TheoL). The basis for this was given in the Law itself by its teaching of the ideal priesthood, which was to find its realization in the whole people, conqi. Ex. xix. 6: "Ye shall be to me a kingdom of priests." Like Moses, who during the seven days of the consecration of the ordinary priests, acted as priest (Lev. viii.), and with priestly petition in- terceded for the people with the Lord (Ex. xvii.; xxxii. 31, 32; Ps. cvi. 23), so Samuel also, on the ground of this ideal priesthood, whose essen- tial elements were sincere union and communion with God, the might of foith, and the gift of the Holy Spirit and the power of prayer, had the divinely-given right, under existing circum- stances, when the institution of the priesthood had sunk and left a terrible gap, to discharge the duties of the ordinary priesthood in sacrifice and prayer; and the first exercise of this priestly calling, to represent the people before God with intercession and prayer, was at the request of the people themselves who through him had been turned to God. See the two-fold testimony of the Scripture to Samuel's power in prayer, Ps. xcix. 6; Jer. xv. 1, and comp. Sir. xlvi. 19 sqq. As to his subsequent praying, see viii. 6; xii. 16-23 ; XV. 18. 4. The monument between Mizpah and Shen represents an important epoch in the history of Samuel. What he, and through him the Lord, had hitherto done for Israel stamped him as the great reformer of the Theocracy, and secured the restoration of a united national and theocratic life in its fundamental characteristics, and on the most essential foundations. The victory over tlie Philistines supplied the capstone. In all that happened up to this victory and the conse- quent freer position of the people over against 9 the world without, he recognizes the Lord's help, setting forth this recognition in the humble acknowledgment " hitherto," etc., while he at the same time points to the future, and shows the need for further help from the Lord in respect to what is still to be done. The stone Ebenezer is a monument of those revelations of the might and the grace of the living God, occasioned by sin and penitence, wandering and return, which are the impelling power in the whole political history of the Old Covenant. [Wordsworth : What a contrast between the event now recorded at Ebenezer, and that recorded as having occurred a few years before at the same place (1 Sam. iv. 1)! At that time Israel had the ark witii them, the visible sign of God's pre- sence ; but the Lord Himself had forsaken them on account of their sins ; . . . . the priests were slain, and the ark was taken. Now they have not the ark, but they have repented of their sins, and Sanuiel is with them, and the Lord hearkens to His prayers, and the Philistines are smitten. .... Hence it appears that outward ordinances are of no avail witiiout holiness, and that God can raise up Samuels, and endue them with ex- traordinary graces, and enable them to do great acts, and give comfort and victory to the Church of God by their means. — Tr.] 5. On the total significance of Samuel's posi- tion and work at this epoch of the development of the Old Testament history, see the remarks in the preceding exegetical elucidations. HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. Vers. 7-14. Need teaches to pray: 1) Whom? Only him who (a) lets himself be drawn by need with penitent heart and believing mind unto God, in order to seek help from Him, and (b) despairs of helping himself by his own power, and relies only on God's hand ; 2) How? (a) heartily, (b) unceasingly; 3) With ivhat result? (a) God hears, (b) God delivers from the need. [Ver. 7. Henry: 1) How evil sometimes seems to come out of good. The religious meet- ing of the Israelites at Mizpah brought trouble upon them from the Philistines, which, perhaps, tempted them to wish they had staid at home. . . . So when sinners begin to repent and reform, they must expect that Satan will muster all his force against them. 2) How good is at length brought out of that evil. Israel could never be threatened more seasonably than at this time, when they were repenting and praying . . . bad policy for the Phi- listines to make war upon Israel at a time when they were making their peace with God. . . . Thus He makes man's wrath to praise Him. — Tr.] Vers. 8-10. The power of helieving prayer in threatening 'peril: 1) As an earnest pressing to the heart of God in view of the greatness of the peril ; 2) As a constant supplication for His help in view of the tardiness of help in the midst of peril ; 3) As a perfect self-devotion to the Lord in view of the ever-increasing peril. Vers. 7-12. The life of prayer in communion u>ith God: 1) Calling on the Lord; 2) Answer from the Lord ; 3) Thanksgiving to the Lord. [Ver. 9. ("And Samuel cried . . . and the Lord answered him"). Samuel's power in prayer. 1) Asking such great things ; 2) Answered so 130 THE FIEST BOOK OF SAMUEL. promptly. Note that Samuel was himself the child ofprayer. Also that " the forty years' do- mination of the Pliilistines over Israel (Judg. xiii. 1) could not he overthrown by the superna- tural strength of Samson, hut was terminated by the prayers of Samuel " (Wordsworth). As Abra- ham was the great pattern of faith and Job of patience, so Samuel appears to have been always afterwards regarded as a grand example of power in prayer, Ps. xcix. 6 ; Jer. xv. 1. — Tr.] Ver. 12. The cry, Ebenezer, Hitherto hath the Lord helped lis, a cry 1) Of thankful recollection of past experiences of the Lord's help {hitherto!); 2) Of humble testimony before the Lord, that no- thing has been done by our power, and that His help alone has maintained and preserved our life ; 3) Oi confident hope, in view of further need of help to the same end. " Here I raise my Ebenezer, Hither by Tliy help I'm come ; And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, Safely to arrive at home." [These well-known lines are given as equiva- lent to a German hymn which Erdnumn refers to but does not quote. — Te.] [Samuel a pattern to religious Reformers: (1) In early life, amid evils he could not cure, he yet gained the eoniidence of all (chap. iii. 19-21 ; iv. 1; xii. 2-4). (2) After long waiting he saw and seized the opportunity of effecting a reformation (vii. 2, 3). (3) He put the inward tirst, but in- sisted also on outward reform (vers. 3, 4). (4) He did not rely on preaching alone, but was much in prayer (vers. 5, 8, 9). (5) He gave all the glory to God (ver. 12). (6) He strove by wise and faithful administration to make the reformation permanent. — Tr.] SECOND PART. SAUL. Chs. VIII.-XXXI. FIEST DIVISION. ESTABLISHMENT BY SAMUEL OF THE ISRAELITISH KINGDOM UNDEE THE EULE OF SAUL. CnAP.s. VIII.— XII. FIRST SECTION. The Preparations. Chapters VIII. IX. I. TJie Persistent Desire of the People after a King conveyed through their Elders to Samuel. Chap. VIIL 1-22. 1 And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over 2 Israel. Now [And] the njme of his first-bora was Joel, ^ and the name of his [the] 3 second Abiah^ ; they were judges in Beersheba. And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre,' and took bribes, and perverted judgment. 4 Then [And] all the elders of Israel gathered themselves togeiher, and came to 5 Samu'^l to Ramah, And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk 6 not in thy ways ; now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But [And] the thing displeased Samuel when they said. Give us a king to judge us. And Sa- 7 muel prayed unto the Lord [Jehovah]. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee ; for they have not rejected thee,^ but they have rejected me, that I should not reisrn over them. 8 According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken [forsaking]^ me TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 1 [Ver. 2. That is "Jehovah is God"— the only God (V = in" = in' = in"_for niiTS Jahveh), a name borne by peveral persons in O. T., and said by Rohrader to occur on the Assyr. inscriptions as name of a king of Hamath, Jalu, borrowed, no doubt, from tlic Israelites. — Te.] 2 [Ver. 2. That is, " my father (or, simply, father) is Jah, Jahu. Jahveh, Jehovah." The word -inru/D means the "second," not of Samuel, but of Joel. — Tk.] 8 [Ver. ;5. );ii2 is sometimes "profit" in general, as in Gen. xxxvii. 20, but usually "unjust gain," as here. The Targ. renders "mamon (mammon) of deceit," see Luke xvi. 0. In Talmud and Targ. mammon moans "mo- ney," "riches." and Augustine (Qurrst. Evan. 34) says that it was the Punic word for "money." It is not found m Hob., and its origin is oViscure. — Te. ) * [Ver. 7. Hetter: "not thee have they rejected, but me have, efc." — Te.1 s [Ver. 8. Literally: "according to all . . . they have done . . . and have for.saken me and served, etc." The 1 eonsec, according to Heb. usage, introduces an apposition.al explanatory phrase, properly rendered by Bng. particip. On the Sept. insertion of "to mo" after "have done," see Exeg. Notes in loco. — Ta.] CHAP. YIII. 1-22. 131 and served [serving] other gods, so do they also \_om. also] unto thee [ins. also]. 9 Now therefore [And now] hearken unto their voice; howbeit [om. howbeit] vet protest solemnly unto [solemnly warn]*' them, and show them the manner^ of the king that shall reign over them. 10 And Samuel told all the words of the Lord [Jehovah] to the people that asked 11 of him a king. And he said. This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you : He will take your sons, and app >int them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen [put them in his chariot and on his horses^], and some [they] 12 shall run before his chariots [chariot]. And he will appoint^ him captains over thousands and captains over fifties, and xvill set them [some he tvill set~] to ear [plough] his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war and \_ins. 13 the] instruments [equipment] of his chariots- And he will take your daughters to be confection aries [perfumers],^" and to be [om. to be] cooks, and to be [om. to be] 14 bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, 15 even [om. even] the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will taLe the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to hie officers, and to his 16 servants. And he will take your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and your 17 goodliest young men [oxen]," and your asses, and put them to his work. He will 18 take the tenth of your sheep; and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which [whom] ye shall have chosen you, and the Lo'-d [Jehovah] will not hear you in that day. 19 Nevertheless [And] the people refused to obey [hearken to] the voice of Samuel. 20 And they said. Nay, but we will have a king over us ; That [And] we also may [will] be like all the nations, and that [om. that] our king may [shall] judge us, 21 and go out before us, and fight our battles. And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord [Jehovah]. And the 22 Lord [Jehovah] said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city. • [Ver. 9. "nx is restrictive-adversative, "yet," "nevertheless;" '^ is the subst. conjunct, "that," introducing the following: affirmation. The verb means literally "testify to them," the word "solemnly" well expresses ~the force of the Inf. Abs. — Tb.] 7 [Ver. 9. D£3D'0 is "judgment," then "law," then "right, privilege," but also " manner," and this last is pre- T : ■ ferable here, because Samuel states what the king will do, not what he will have the right to do. His "manner" will 1)0 the "law" as determined by himself. — Tii.] 8 [Ver. 11. The word signifies either "horses" or "horsemen;" the former better suits construction and context. — Tr.] * [Ver. 12. Lit. "and to appoint," Inf. dependent on the verb "take" in ver. 11. The vss. vary greatly in the designation of t!ie officers here mentioned, and some critics would read (with Sept.) " hundreds " instead of " fifties," as being the more usual and natural. This is, however, a ground of objection to the change (from the harder to the easier), and there is no sufficient reason for abandoning the Heb. text. — Tr.] 10 [Ver. 13. The word np'1 is used to express tlje preparing of fragrant ointments (Ex. xxx. 22-35), and the nonn is hore best rendered " ointment-makers," so Sept., Vulg., Erdmann, Philippson, and others. The Syriac renders "weavers" (websters) as if it read Dp^, and the Chaid. has the general designation "servants" (comp. Arab, raqaha, "provide for"). The Heb. text is to be maintained. TheEng. word "confectionary" (^confectioner) formerly included the making of ointments and spiced preparations, see Ex. xxx. 35, Eng. A.V., but would now convey an incorrect idea here. — Tr.] 11 [Ver. 16. The reading "oxen" instead of "young men" (Tp3 for ^n3) seems required by context, and is given by .Sept., and adopted by Erdmann and others. Maurer admits the bearing of the context, but keeps the text on the ground of the D''Dia ; but 31C3 is applied to oxen in Gen. xli. 26, and to flesh of beasts in Ez. xxiv. i (in ver. 5 Ezek. uses inU of the flock), and may be here understood of oxen. — Tb.] EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. Vers. 1-3. Samuel's sons, Joel and Abiah, a.sso- ciated with him as judges over Israeh — The rea- son here given, why Samuel made his two sons judges, is his ar/e, for which his work, as sketched in vii. 15-17, had become too liard. The two sons, Joel and Abiah, are also mentioned in 1 Chr. vi. 13 [Eng. A. V. ver. 28], where, however, in the masoretic te.xt, the name of the fii'st has fallen out.* [These names may be taken as indi- * FThe Vashni in 1 Chr. vi. 13 (2,S) is the same word as that rendered " second " in this passage. — Tb.] cations of the father's pious feeling. The first, Joel, " Jehovah is God," was, not improbably, a protest against tlie idohxtry of the Israelites. He- brew names thus frequently serve as historical finger-signs, pointing out prevailing tendencies or modes of feeling at certain times. Comp. Icliabod (1 Sam. iv. 21, 22), Saul's 'sons jMeribbaal {Me- pliibosheth) and Ishbaal (Ishbosheth), David's sons (2 Sam. iii. 2-5), ]Manasseh the King, ]Ma- lachi. The name of Samuel's second son, Abiah, " -Jehovah is father," expresses trust in the father- hood of God, an idea which hardly appears in O. T. except in proper names. " It records, doubt- les.s, the fervent aspiration of him who first de- 13: THE FIKST BOOK OF SAMUEL. vised it a^s a name, and, we may hope, of many who subsequently adopted it, after that endearing and intimate relationship between God and the soul of man, which is truly expressed by the words 'father' and 'child.' It may be accepted as proof that helievers in ancient days, though they had not possession of the perfect knowledge of 'the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ,' or of the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, nevertheless 'received the Spirit of adoption,' that God 'sent forth the Spirit of His Son into tliL'ir hearts, whereby they cried, Abba, Father' " (Wilkinson, Personal Names in the Bible, page 169 sq.). — Tr.].— They acted as judges in jBeer- aheba, " Well of the seven (that is, lamhs), or of the oath " (Gen. xxi. 28-33), the spot consecrated by the Patriarchal history (Gen. xxii. 19; xxvi. 23 ; xxviii. 10), in the extreme south of the coun- try, on the border of Edom, now Bir-es-seba [" Well of the seven, or of the lion"] (Robins. I. .337 [Amer. Ed. I., 204 sq.]).* Josephus {Ant. VI., 3, 2) adds, "in Bethel" after "judges," thus intimating that one son acted in the North, the other in the South, both together comprising the whole country in their judicial work, according to which Samuel had wholly retired; but against this is the previous statement that Samuel exer- cised his office " all the days of his life," and there- fore his sons could only have been appointed by him assistants in the performance of duties which his old age rendered too arduous for him. Ewald's opinion that this addition of Josephus " siUfs so well," that "he must have gotten it from a still better account in the histories of the Kings," is a mere surmise, over against which we may put with equal right tlie opinion that .Josephus was indebted for tliis addition (Niigelsb.) to his "very lively fancy" (Then.), and that the Masoretic text fits in so well with the whole historical situa- tion, that the integrity of the passage cannot be assailed. Since, on tlie one hand, our attention is directed to Samuel's age,f which compelled him to make his sons judges, while yet he did not lay down his office, and, on the other hand, the desire after a firm and energetic royal power was based on the dangerous condition of the country by reason of foreign enemies, it appears that Samuel, in order to lighten the burden, set his sons as judges in a part of the land, and in the part which occasioned the greatest difficulties and exertions, that is, the southern. Vcr. 3 affirms that this measure was a failure. In con- sequence of the division of the judicial power between the father and the sons, tJie authority of the office was so debased in the eyes of the people by the crimes of the latter, as the sacerdotal dig- nity was by the sons of Eli, that the desire for a higher authority to guide the people found utter- * [Beershehafa more watoring-place in tlio Patriarchal time) was proljably at this time a place of some impor- tance from the trade between Eeypt and Asia. It was re-.siettled after tlie exile, was a large villaee with a Ro- man garrison in Jerome's time, and now exhibits only scattered ruins. Two large, and five small wells are still to be seen. The name does not occur in the New Test. See Robins, iihi .sup., Smith's Bib. Diet., ,s. r.— Tr.] t [If Samuel was born B. C. 1146, he would bo sixty years old at the third battle of Ebenezer, 1086, and now, say ten years later, seventy years old. This would leave twenty years for Saul's ivign up to B. C. 1050, when David" was made king in Hebron. — But it is possi- lile that these dates may have to be put forward some years.— Te.] ance. — They took bribes and perverted judgment. — They thas transgressed the laiv of the Lord (Ex. xxiii. 6, 8; comp. Deut. xvi. 19), and destroyed the foundation of the judicial office as the office for the administration of right and justice. Their official unfaitlifulness is contrasted "with their father's walk: they walked not in his w^ays. — ^This fact or judgment alone is given, and Samuel is not, like Eli, charged with the blame of his sons' misconduct. The words: they incliued or turned aside (namely, from the ways of their father-) after lucre, exhibit the roots of their wicked official procedure in a mind directed to gain. Luther gives the correct sense: "they turned aside to covetous- ness." Vers. 4-9. The demand for a king — vers. 4, 5, how it was made, ver. 6, how it was received by Samuel and carried before the Lord, vers. 7-9, liow he, and through him the people, was in- structed concerning it by the Lord. Vers. 4, 5. "All the elders of Israel" assemble in Ramah, Samuel's judicial seat. Thus the whole nation is in motion against the existing condition of things; it appears before Samuel officially and formally in the body of its repre- sentatives. Two things they adduce as ground of the demand which they wish to make : 1 ) Sam- uel's age, that is, the lack of vigor and energy in the government, which, with his advancing age, made itself perceptible to the whole nation, and was not supplied by the assistance of his sons, which he had for that reason (ver. 1) called in; 2) the evil walk, the misgovernment of his sons, the moral and legal depravation which they pro- duced. The demand is: Make us a king" (Acts xiii. 21); and two things are added: 1) in refer- ence to his judicial work: he was to judge; the royal office was to take the place of the judicial, and so the meaning of the demand is a complete abrogation of the hitherto existing form of go- vernment under judges; 2) in reference to the royal-monarchical constitution of the surrounding nations: the Israelitish constitution is to be like that (3). After the words "as all the nations," we must supply "have such a one." Israel will not be behind other nations in respect to the splendor and power of royal rule. The accord- ance of the last words: "like all the nations" with Deut. xvii. 14 is to be noted. — In ver. 6 two things are said of Samuel's conduct in reference to this demand. First, that he received it with dis- plca.sure {}^2''.l, properly: "the thing was evil in the eyes of Samuel"). But the cause of his dis- pleasure is expressly said to be, that they made the demand: "Give us a king to judge us." He did not, therefore, take it amiss that they blamed the wrong-doing of his s(ms, nor that they referred to his age, and thus intimated that lie was no longer able to bear the whole burden of the office, while his sons did evilly. What displeased him was the expression of desire for a king as ruler. How far and why this demand was the occasion of his displeasure appears from the connection. From the words of Samuel (xii. 12) we see 1) that the people, pressed anew by the Ammonites, demanded a king who should give them the pro- tection against enemies, which was not expected [Or, from the ways of truth.— Tn.] CHAP. VIII. 1-22. 133 from the aging Samuel ; 2 ) that, in this demand, they left out of view the kingdom of God in their midst, turned away their heart from tlie God who had liitherto as tlieir almighty king so often saved them from the power of the enemy, and put their trust in an external, visible kingdom as means of safety and protection against their enemies, over against the invisible royal rule of )heir God, whose instrument, Samuel, they re- jected. The same thing is expressed in the words of Samuel, cli. x. 18, 19. In both passages, however, Samuel's discourse is an echo of the word of God Himself, imparted to him in an- swer to the question which he had asked God in prayer. This, namely, is the second important factor in Samuel's procedure : He prayed to the Lord. Deeply moved by the sin which, in this demand, the people committed against the Lord as their king (and this was the real occa- sion of his displeasure and unwillingness in refe- rence to the desired I'evolution in the political constitution, which was connected with the rejec- tion of himself as representative and instrument of the divine government), he carried the whole matter before the Lord in prayer, and, in this important crisis also of the history of his people, who would no longer be guided by him, showed himself the humble, consecrated man and hero of prayer. — In vers. 7-9 we have the declaration, in which the Lord mstnicts Samuel as to the question of his prayer, and at the same time de- cides on the demand of the people. Prayer was the best means by which Samuel could learn the purpose and will of God in reference to this de- mand of the nation. The words : Hearken to the voice of the people, express the divine fnltillinent of the people's request. Here a dis- crepancy might be supposed to exist between this statement and Samuel's reception of the request in ver. 6. But tlie appearance of such a discre- pancy vanishes before the following considera- tions. An earthly-human kingdom could not at all, merely as such, stand in opposition with the revealed theocratic relation of the covenant-God with His people, in which the latter (Ex. xix. 5 sq.) were to be His property and a "kingdom" of priests, and He was to be their king (comp. Ex. XV. 18: "Jehovah is king forever," with Ps. xliv. 5; Ixviii. 25; Ixxiv. 12; x. IG). For, if hitherto under the Theocracy chosen instruments of the Lord, like Moses, Joshua and the Judges, vrere the leaders of the people, governing them by His law, in His name and according to His will, then also a leader and governor of the peo- ple, depending solely on God's will, governing solely in His name, and devoted to His law, intended and desiring to be nothing but the instrument of the invisible king in respect to Plis people, might rule over them with the power and dignity of a king. A king, as God's instru- Tnent, chosen by God the royal ruler of His peo- ple out of their midst, could no more stand opposed to the fundamental idea of the theocracy, than all the former great leaders and guides of the people, who were chosen by Him for the realization of His will. This conception of the absolute dependence of an earthly-human king- dom in Israel on the invisible King of the nation is expressed in the so-called law of tlie king in Deut. xvii. 14-20. As to the theocratical idea of a king, comp. Gen. xvii. 6, 16; xxxv. 11; Num. xxiv. 17. There is little occasion to sup- pose a contradiction between this idea of a theo- cratically-conditioned Israelitish kingdom and the Theocracy in Israel, when we consider the need of a unitying power for the whole national life within and without, as in Gideon's time against the Midianites (Judg. viii. 22, 23), and now, in the time of tlie aged Samuel, both against the arbitrary rule and legal disorder of his sons, and against the Ammonites (xii. 12) and the Philis- tines (ix. 16). If Israel's desire for a king had been in itself opposed to the theocratic principle, Samuel would not have carried the matter to the Lord in prayer, but would have given a decided refusal to the Elders, and the divine decision would not have been : " Hearken to the voice of the people, make them a king" (ver. 22). But the reason of Samuel's necessary displeasure at this desire clearly appears from the judgment passed on it in the divine response : they have not rejected thee ; but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. — In their request for a king, they did not assume the attitude of heart and of mind to the Lord, which was proper for them as His people, towards Him as their sole and exclusive ruler. They put out of sight the divine rule, to which, in view of its mighty deeds in their history, they ought to have trusted implicitly, that it would extend to them the oft-verihed protection against external enemies and maladministration of the office of Judge; this protection they expect from the eartiily-human kingly rule, instead of from God ; insteail of crying to' God to give them a ruler according to Hiswill, they demand from Samuel that a king be made according to tlieir will and pleasure; instead of their holy civil constitution under the royal rule of their covenant-God, they desire a constitution under a visible kingdom, as they see it in the heathen nations. This was a denial of that highest truth which Gideon once (Judg. viii. 23), in declining the royal authority offered him, held up before the people : " The Lord is your king." In rejecting Samuel's government, they rejected the rule of God, and, straying from thefoundation of covenant-revelation to the stand- point of the heathen nations, they put themselves in opposition to the royal majesty of God revealed among them, and to the high calling which they had to maintain and fulfil in fidelity and obedience towards the holy and almighty God as their king and ruler. In ver. 8 is shown how this disposi- tion and conduct had been exhibited in the history of the people from God's first great roval deed, the deliverance out of Egypt, till now, and how this new demand addressed to Samuel was only the old sin showing itself, the faithless and apostate disposition which had exhibited it- self again and again up to this time. "With such a disposition the desire for a kingdom was a despising and rejecting of Jehovah's kingdom, and no better than forsaking Jehovah to serve other gods" (Keil, in loco). (It is not necessary to insert a Pron. "to me" after "they have done" (Thenius), since this is involved in the following words: "they have forsaken me"). In ver. 9 Samuel is again expressly instructed to yield to the desire of the people"; but there is added the twofold injunction : 1) bear witness against 134 THE FIEST BOOK OF SAMUEL. them, that is, attest and set before tliem their sin and guilt against me, and 2j announce to them what kind of right the king, who according to their desire shall rule over them like the kings of the heathen nations, will claim in the exercise of un- limited and arbitrary power, after the manner of those rulers. By the tirst the people are to be made to see how, in the disposition of heart in which they demand a king, they stand in oppo- sition to the absolute, holy royal rule of their God, and to their own theocratic calling. The fultiimi'nt of the people's desire after a king which had its root in an apostate and carnally proud temper, is in accordance with the same funda- mental law of the Old Covenant, by which the holy God, on the one hand, judges Israel's sin as a contradiction of His holy will, but at the same time, on the other hand, uses it as a means for the realization of the ends of His kingdom, as an oc- casion for a new development of His revealed glory. The other injunction, to set befoi'e the people the right [or, manner] of the king they demanded, is intended to exliibit to them the hu- man kingdom apart from the divine rule, as it exists among the other nations, with all its usual and established despotism, as the source of great misfortune and shameful servitude, in contrast with the freedom and happiness offered to the people under the despised Theocracy. Comp. ver. 18. Vers. 10-18. The right of the king. Ver. 10. And Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people.— This declaration of Samuel was therefore essentially an exhorta- tion to repentance, which set before the people that, by their desire for a king, they had princi- jjially rejected God's sole rule over them. Clcricus : * Therefore God declares that He was despised by the Israelites, inasmuch as they were not con- tent with the theocracy, which had heretofore ex- isted."—The ?7itsA;pa? {^2pp, "right," "manner") is here what pertains to the king in the mainte- nance of courtly state, and what he claims from his subjects, according to the custom of heathen rulers and to kingly usage ; for it was with their eyes on the kings of other nations that the people had demanded a king. .Joseph.: to. nnpa tov fta- ai71uc t-fJuiiEira, morem regis et agendi rationcm [" the manner of the king"]. Maurer: id quod rex sno arbitrio vivens impnne faciet ["what the king, following his own will, would do with im- punity"]. Clcricus: "It signifies the manner of his life (ii.l3; Gen. xl. 13'; Judg. xiii. 12),— not legal right (jus), for several unjust things are afterwards mentioned, such as were practiced by tiie neighboring kings, whom in fact the He- brew kings afterwards imitated." Sept. 6/Ka!(j/m ["legal right or ordinance"]. Tlie words: he ■will take your sons . . . his chariot, present a single comprehensive statement of the employ- ment of the young men of the people in the royal court. The iirst sing, of the text " in his chariot " is to be retained (against Then., who, after Sept., Chald., and Syr., reads the Plu., and refers it to war-chariots), and the chariot is in both cases to be understood as the court and state-chariot, the service of which is described in accordance with the actual manner of oriental courts. In this there were Ij Chariot-drivers, who are referred to in the words "he will put them in his chariot;" 2) Itiders, indicated by the phrase " on his horses" (ti'tD is here " saddle-horse," as in 1 Kings v. 6 [Eng. A. V. iv. 26'']) — " he will put them on his saddle-horses," and 3) Runners — " and tiiey will run before his chariot." It is a description of the usual royal equipage of chariots and horses. Comp. 1 Kings V. G [iv. 26], 2 Sam. xv. 1. — Ver. 12 re- fers partly to military service, partly to agricultural service. "And to set" -f depends on "he will take;" the twice-used 17 ["for himself"] indi- cates his purely selfish aim. The " captains over thousands and tifties"j represent the whole army in all its grades between these highest and lowest positions. For the charge of the "captain over lifty " comp. 2 Kings i. 9-14. — All the tillage of the royal possessions must be performed by them ; it is described by its beginning and end (plough- ing and reaping). To this is added the work of the royal artificers for war and peace. — Ver. 13. The daughters of the people will be employed in the service of the royal household. [Women were, in ancient times, cooks, bakers, and preparers of ointments and spices. This last work embraced the preparation of highly-seasoned food, meats and drinks, and of perfumed oils for anointing the body. The household of oriental princes is even now organized on a gigantic scale, and there are indications that a similar luxury was prac- ticed by the nations who lived about the Israel- ites. All this, as well as the use of horses and chariots, though not absolutely forbidden in the Law, was contrary to its spirit. — Tr.]. Vers. 14 sqq. describe the arbitrary dealing of the king with the property of the people in order to enrich his courtiers. D^']^ is properly " a eunuch," then any court-officer.— Vers. 16 sqq. The king will use the serving-classes also, men-servants, maid-servants, and cattle, for himself, and will take the tenth of the small cattle [sheep, etc.^. For "young men" (in:3j we must read "cattle" ("^p^j with Sept. [ra pnvK6/\ta], since the young men are already included in the sons in ver. 11 [and the men- sermnts in ver. 16. — Tk.], and here both the jux- taposition of servants and animals and the corres- pondence between the two clauses, men, maids — oxen, asses (comp. Ex. xx. 17) would be destroyed by this inappropriate word. Small cattle are liere named in addition to large cattle, to show how completely the king would claim their property for his own uses. — And you shall be his ser- vants. These words include all that is .'■aid be- fore ; the loss of political and social freedom is con- nected with the kingdom which the ])eople de- mand " as among the heathen nations." Thus the folly of their reference to the example of other nations is held up before them in contrast with the freedom and blessing, which they en- joyed under the rule of their invisilde king, the living God. — Ver. 18. Their jiainful condition under such a government will be matter of un- availing lamentation before the Lord. "-O 'J-^/P is not "because of your king," but properly "from your king," that is. to the Lord. It is herein * [Eng. A. V. has hero, not so woll, "horsemen." — Tk.] + [This is the literal translation. Eng. A. V. gives the sense more freely. — Tn.| X [On the variations in the vss. as to these numbers, SCO " Text, and Gram." in lucu. — Te.] CHAP. YIII. 1-22. 13.3 hinted that they will wish to be delivered from the oppressive royal government. But the Lord will continue to shut His ears. Clericus: "God will not for your sake change the government of u master into the free commonwealth which you have hitherto enjoyed. The yoke once assumed you must bear forever." The evil which their own sin has brought on them they must bear — so divine justice ordains. Vers. 19-22. Tlte result of the transactions be- tween Samuel and the people. — Vers. 19, 20. 27(6 reply of the people (through the elders). Tliey "refused to hearken to Samuel's voice." The voice or address of Samuel contained enough to detach the people from their desire. Instead of this there follows, with a decided "no,"* the repetition of the demand: "There shall be a king over us." The dehortatory description of the royal privilege and custom among tlie sur- rounding nations is met with tlie declaration : "And we also will be «.s all the nations." In this there is an ignoring and denying the lofty position which God the Lord had given His peo- ple above all nations by choosing them as His people, and establishing Plis royal rule among them. The demand for a kingdom like that of other nations was an act of sin against the Lord, who wished to be sole king over His people, and had sufficiently revealed llinisclf as such in their former history. "Juch/inr/" and "leading in war" are summarily mentioned as representing the duties of the king to be chosen. Without and within, in war and in peace, he was to be leader and governor of the people. — Ver. 21 sqq. Samuel's intermediation. As mediator between God and the people he had hitherto striven with God in prayer, and with the elders of the people in ear- nest dealings and warnings concerning this im- portant and eventful question. We see him "wrestling anew with God in prayer; again he carries before the Lord in prayer the whole mat- ter, as it now stands after the unsuccessful dealing with the i^eople. God's answer is: Make them a king. The demand, made in sin, from a dis- position not well-pleasing to God, is fulfilled. The element of sin and error must, in the history of the kingdom of God, aid in the preparation and realization of the divine plans and ends. Samuel dismisses the men of Israel to their homes. We must here read between the lines, that Samuel communicated the divine decision to the people, and, dismissing the elders of the people, took into consideration, in accordance with the Lord's command, the necessary steps for the election of a king. Following the sense, Josephus adds to the words of dismissal the fol- lowing: "And I will send for you at the proper time, when I learn from the Lord whom he will give you as king" [Ant. VI. 3, 0]. HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 1. The demand- for a human kingdom like the kingdom in other nations, and its fulfdment, is one of the most important turning-points in the development of the Kingdom of God under the Old Covenant. Historically occasioned by constant danger from without, against which there was no one sufficient leader, and by the arbitrary and il- * On the doubling of the S iw Jw see E\v. Gr.,^ Old. legal procedure of the judges, it was more deeply grounded in the need (felt by the people and sup- ported by public opinion) of a sole, continuous, and externally and internally firm and energetic rule. And this rule, even if it took the shape of royalty, needed not to be in conilict witli the mo- narchical rule of God over His people (Ex. xix. 5sq.; Judg. viii. 23; 1 Sam. xii. 12); for 1) the human king, if his relation to God's kingdom were rightly apprehended, need be nothing more than the instrument and representative of the theocratic kingdom; 2) from the Patriarchal time on, through the Mosaic period and that of the Judges till now, there had been defined hopes of and allusions to the rise of a mighty and glorious kingdom within the nation under the lead of the Divine Spirit Himself (Gen. xvii. 6, IG; xxxv. 11; Numb. xxiv. 17 ; comp. Dent. xvii. 14-20; Judg. viii. 23, ix. 22; 1 Sam. ii. 10, iii. 35); and 3) the existing government was no longer able to perform the duties incumbent on it. Ew. Gesch. [History of Israel, 2, GOGsq.]: "As, then, even under Samuel, in his latter years, the judicial of- fice showed itself without and within too weak and unable to give permanent security, the time was at last come when the people must either submit to a more perfect human government, or perish irretrievably." The unfavorable decision on the demand given nevertlieless by Samuel and in the divine declaration, refers to the sinful disposition of mind out of which the demand sprang — a dis- position not trusting unconditionally in God's power, anticipating the plans of His wisdom and His chosen time, controlled by vain and proud desire to imitate the royal magnificences of the heathen peoples. "In this there was a two-fold ungodly element. 1) They desired a king instead of the God-established and nobly attested Judge Samuel The scheme is characterized as an injustice against Samuel, and therefore a sin against the Loi'd, who sent him, vers. 7, 8. 2) At the bottom of the people's desire for a king lay the delusion, that God was powerless to help them, that tlie reason of their subjection was not their sin, but a fault in the constitution, that the king- dom would be an aid m addition to God. This point of view appears oftener in the narrative than the first. Is. x. 18, 19; xii. The kingdom de- sired in such a mind was not a form of God's kingdom in accordance with revelation, but op- posed to His kingdom." (Hengst. Beit. 3, p. 256 sq.) Calvin: "They ought to have waited pa- tiently for the time predetermined by God, and not have given place to their own designs and methods apart from God's word. They ought not, tlierefore, to have anticipated God's purpose, Ijiut ought to have waited till the Lord Himself should show by induljitable signs that the foreor- dained time had come, and should direct their counsels. Moreover, though they recognized Samuel as a prophet, they not only did not inquire of him whether they were to liave a king or not, but wanted him to aid in carrying out their de- sign. They do not think of invoking God; they demand that a king be given them; they adduce tlie customs and institutions of other nations." Nevertheless, Samuel yields to the desire of the people, " because he knows that now God's time has come ; but, at the same time, he docs all that he can to bring the people to a consciousness of 133 THE FIEST BOOK OF SAMCEL. their sin." (Hcngst. ib. 258.) The fulfilment of the demand for a human kingdom is distinctly granted by God, because, though as a human factor in the movement it is rooted in sin, yet, foreseen by God, it fits into His plan, and is to be the means of elevating and confirming the Theocracy in His people, and of laying the foimdation for the fur- ther development of the nation's history, till the preparation should be complete for salvation in the i^erson of Him, of whom the kingdom of Israel in L)avid was to be the prefiguration and type. "Herein the law, which runs through the whole history of the development of revelation, repeats itself: by the guilt of the covenant-people God's arrangements for salvation reach a point where they no longer serve ; then their guilt is revealed most strongly in open disobedience to God ; but, in permitting what the people sinfully wish, God grasps the reins and directs events to a point, of which the people in their sinful blindness had thought nothing, so that He only the more glori- fies Himself by the elevation of His revelation to a higher place." (O. v. Gerlach.) 2. We are not to think of the relation between the theocracy and the kingdom established through Samuel, as if the latter were an addition to the former " to aid it in accomplishing its task, and to supply what was lacking to the times," as if a "mixed constitution and rule" had arisen, and "out of a divine government" had come a "royal- divine government," a Basileo-TIieocracy. Ew. Gcsch. \_IIid.'] 3, 8. This conception of a co-ordi- nate relation does not agree with the governing principle of the theocracy, that God is and re- mains king of His people, that God's law and truth is the authority to which the kingdom must unconditionally submit, in dependence on which it is to govern as visible instrument of the theo- cracy in the name and place of the invisible king. The rejection of Saul, who would not pay uncon- ditional obedience to God's rule, and the divine recognition of David's government as one which was thoroughly in unison with the rule of Israel's true king, their God and Lord, and which conti- nued to prepare the way for its realization in the people, laying the historical basis for the future manifestation of the Messianic kingdom, confirm the view that the relation of the Israelitish king- dom to the Theocracy (as Samuel, under God's direction, founded it) was one of unconditional sub- ordination ; it was to be the instrument of the latter. The statement that there was an encroachment on the pure Theocracy in the fact " that Jehovah could no longer be the sole Lawgiver, that the earthly king must execute his will with unrestrained au- thority" (Diestel, Jahrb.fur deutsche TheoL, 1863, p. 554) rests on an incorrect presupposition, since, according to the principle of the Theocracy, even the established monarchy was expressly subject to the legislative authority of the covenant-God, and both king and ])eo])le must unconditionally con- form their will to the will and law of God. 3. Tliis history of the people's desire for a king and its fnllilnicnt ))y God exhibits the relation of the divine will to the human will, when the latter stands sinfully opposed to the former. God never destroys the freedom of the Inmian will. He leaves it to its free self-determination, but when it has turned away from His will, seeks to bring it back by the revelation in His word. If this does not succeed, human perversity must never- theless minister to the realization of the plans of His kingdom and salvation, and also, in its evil consequences, bring 23unisliment, according to His righteous law, on the sin which man thus freely commits. 4. Samuel appears, in this crisis of Old Testa- ment history, among the men of God whom the Bible represents as heroes in prayer, as Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah. Speaking to the people, he represented God as his prophet ; pray- ing to God, he represented the people as their priestly mediator. Comp. Schroring, Samuel als Beter ("Samuel as a praying man"), in the Zeitschr. fur luth. Theol. u Krlt., 1856, p. 414 sq. 5. [The relation between this narrative of the demand for a king and the " law of the king," Deut. xvii. 14-20, requires a brief notice. It seems strange that Samuel, if he was acquainted with this law, makes no mention of it. There is no difficulty in his characterization of the demand as a rejection of the divine rule over them (Jeho- vah Himself (vers. 7, 8) does the same thing), for the sin was in their feeling and j^urpose, not in the demand -per se, as Dr. Erdmann well brings out ; and Samuel might have so spoken, if he had known that the Law contemjslated the possibility of a regal government. The real difficulty lies in the fact that the narrative in 1 Sam. viii. — xii. seems to be unconscious of the law in Deuteronomy. Allowing much, it might be said, for the simple, unscientific, historical method of the times, in. which quotations are rare, and things omitted which are commonly known, it would yet seem that there should be in the addresses of the people, of Samuel, and of Jehovah, some recognition of the fact that this was a thing which did not make its first appearance now, and some reference to the obligations im2:)osed on the king in the Mosaic Law. But, is there no recognition in the later transaction of the earlier law '/ If we compare the two, we shall find the relation between them to be the following: the form of demand in Deut. xvii. 14 is given almost verba.tim in 1 Sam. viii. 5, but the former adds "about me," while the latter adds the groimd of the desire, " that he may be judicial and military head;" for choice by Jehovah in Deut. (ver. 15), we have choice by the people in 1 Sam. (ver. 18) ; and by Jehovah (x. 24) ; the refe- rence to horses is nearly the same in form in both, but in tone quite different, Deut. ver. 16 ; 1 Sam. viii. 1 1 ; on the other hand, the mention of re- turning to Egypt, of wives, silver and gold, and the study of the law ( Deut. vers. 17-20) is not found in Samuel. It will be seen from this comparison, and still more from a comjjarison of the whole tone and drift in the two, that the act described here was probably performed without reference to the statute in Deut.; that the desire of the people was a natural, historical growth, and the course of events was determined by the circumstances of the time. So in the history of Gideon we see a similar unconsciousness of the Deuteronomic sta- tute (though there is recognition of the theocracy), and a similar determinjition of action ])y existing circumstances. Where, then, was the Mosaic law all this time? and was Samuel ignorant of it? The answer to these questions seems to be sug- gested by the statement in 1 Sam. x. 25, in which there are three distinct affirmations: 1) "that Sa- CHAP. VIII. 1-22. 137 mnel told the people the law or manner of the kincjdom, ■\vhioh is plainly diilerent from the law of the king in chap, viii., and is most naturally to be identified with Deut. xvii. 14-17 ; 2) that he wrote this law in a book ; and 3 ) that he put it somewhere in safe keeping. It seems probable, therefore, that we have here the political adoption of the essence of the Mosaic " law of the king " (which, in its prohibition of a return to Egypt, for example, has the stamp of Mosaic times). The law had been announced by Moses, transmitted through the priests, and was known to Samuel (though pcrliaps not generally known among the people). But it was a permission of royalty merely, not an injunction, and its existence did not diminish the people's sin of superficial, unspi- ritual longing for outward guidance, nor prove at first to Samuel that the time for its application had come. He therefore says nothing about it. But when the transaction is concluded, the king actually chosen, then he announces the law, and with obvious propriety commits it in its constitu- tional form to writing, and deposits it before Je- hovah as a part of the tlicocratic constitution. Thus the history seems to become natural and in- telligible when regarded as exhibiting Samuel's doubts as to whether the proper time had come for the historical realization of what Moses puts merely as a possibility. Apparently Samuel was not in sympathy with the movement, and seems to have felt after this that he had outlived his time. — Tr.] IIOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. Vers. 1-3. Starke : Even good intentions do not always turn out well, but often fall through. — Upright parents cannot always be blamed for it, if their children turn out badly. — Avarice is a root of iiU evils, 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10; earnestly to avoid it is a great part of the wisdom of the righteous.— Calvin : Parents should feel the duty laid x.pon them, amid great anxiety and sorrow, to piay to God for the prosperity of their children, and with earnest admonitions diligently to hold them to the task of making their life holy. They should earnestly beg God to lead and govern by His Holy Spirit the children whom He has given them, and to let the mercy which has been their own portion pass over to their children also, and to grant them the gift of per- severance and constancy. For if so holy and exalted a prophet was not spared the having such wicked and corrupt sons, how will it be with those who are far removed from his piety. Vers. 4-C). Starke: Even good things may sometimes be ill desired. A pious government is greatly pained when it traces among its subjects nothing but mere ingratitude. — Cramer: When something disagreeable and repugnant befalls us, we can better bring it home to no one than to God; for He consoles the lowly, 2 Cor. vii. 6. — Calvin: We ought, when anything is done or said against the honor of God, to be aroused and zealous, but not to suffer ourselves to be provoked when in regard to ourselves or ours an injustice is done us. Vers. 7-9. Starke : What is done to servants of God, God accepts as done to Himself, Acts ix. 5. — Berleb. Bible: God hears in manifold ways when we cry to Plim for human guidance, and then we imagine we have obtained a great favor. But what a great misfortune it is when one draws himself off from the richly instructive guidance of the Lord, to allow Hims'elf to be led by creatures which withdraw us from the gui- dance of God! Then from freemen, which we formerly were, we become mere bondmen, and can also rightly say, if only we are so happy as to forsake the human guidance: "O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us ; but by thee only will we make mention of thy name" (Isa. xxvi. 13). An upright guide like Samuel does not appropriate to himself the souls of men, but guides them to Cjod, and serves only tlie purpose of bringing them to Him. — WrERTEMB. Bible: Old sins are not forgotten with God, if they are all the time kept up, and not repented of (Ex. xxxii. 34). — Schmid: The fountain of all sins is in not fearing God ; and he who fears not to sin against God, also fears not to sin against men. — Ver. 9. Schmid: If God has cause enough to punish, yet out of His long-suf- fering He will also have cause enough merely to chide and admonish (Hos. xi. 8, 9). Vers. 15, 16. Berleb. Bible: If we owe so much to the earthly king, Avhat do we not owe to the heavenly king? O Thou King of Glory, do but come and reign over us! Let Thy kingdom come to us ! Lift up your heads, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. — [Ver. 18. Cries that u-iUnot be heard : 1) Self-will often brings us into distress. 2) This distress makes us cry to the Lord. 3) Such cries the Lord does not promise to hear. — Tr.] — Ver. 19. SciiMiD : Among wretched men there is no con- stancy save in wickedness (Isa. v. 18). — Calvin: We learn here how God, according to Plis right- eous judgment, blinds men and gives them up to error, when they persistently go after their fool- ish and perverse desires. Therefore we ouglit to learn from this example to be wise, that when we are entangled in sore ttniptations, we may not give too much mom to our own plans and thoughts, as if they rested on a firm foundation and were wholesome. We will beg God to rule us by His Spirit, and not to give us over to ourselves, and not even in the least to sufi(?r us to depart from Plis Word, but rather work in us that that Word may maintain its dominion over us, and we nmy rejoice in its guidance. — Ver. 21. Starke : A Christian should bewail and tell liis need to no one rather than to the faithful God, and learn from Him how he shall rightly behave himself. — Ver. 22. S. Schmid: God's forbearance should not confirm men in Avickedness, as if it were Avell done, but should lead them to repentance, that thev mav at last recognize their unrighteousness (Ps. 1. 21). 138 THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. II. Samuel meets Saul and Learns that he is Destined by God to be King over Israel. Chapter IX. 1-27. 1 Now [And] there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah/ \jins. the son of^] 2 a Benjamite, a mighty man of power.^ And he had a son whose name was Saul, a choice young man and a goodly [young and goodly*] ; and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he ; from the shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people. 3 And the asses^ of Kish, Saul's father, were lost. And Kish said to Saul, his 4 son, Take now one of the servants with thee, and arise, go seek the asses. And he passed through^ mount Ephraim [the hill-country of Ephraim], and passed through the land of Shalisha, but [and] they found them not, then [and] they passed through the land of'Shalim [Shaalim], and there they were not, and he passed through the 5 land of the Benjamites,^ but [and] they found them not. And [om and] when they^ were come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant that was with him, Come and let us return, lest my father leave caring for the asses and take thought 6 for [be anxious about"] us. And he said unto [to] him, Behold, now, there is in this city a man of God,^" and he is an honorable" man [the man is honorable] ; all that he saith cometh surely to pass ; now let us go thither ; peradventure he can 7 [will] show us our way that we should go.^^ Then said Saul [And Saul said] to his ser- vant, But, [And] behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? for the bread is spent in our vessels, and there is not a present to bring to the man of God ; what have 8 we ? And the servant answered Saul again and said. Behold, I have here at hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver, that will I give [and P^ will give it] to the 9 man of God to tell [that he may show] us our way. (^Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he spake. Come and let us go to the seer; for he 10 that is now^* called a prophet was beforetime called a seer.) Then said Saul [And Saul said] to his servant, Well said ; come, let us go. So [And] they went unto the city where the man of God was. TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 1 [Ver. 1. These names are arivpii dittorently in the Sept. See Exegesis, in loco. — Tr.] 2 [Ver. 1. This phraie is a sonirwlint strange one. Tlie word "son" is found in Heb., Gr., Lat., Chald., omitted in Syr., Arab., and is probably a pari ni the text; but it is strange that it is not followed by a proper name, and suggests an omission or error in thu lollowing words, which, however, cannot now be determineol. Before tiie first " Benjamin" Wellhausen suggests the insertion of "Gibeah of." — Tr.] 3 fVer! 1. By Erdmanii and others rendered "wealth," but not so well. See Exposition. — Tr.] * I Ver. 2. The word inD is often used of youth merely, so that the rendering; "choice young man" (Erd- mann, auserlesen), is hardly warranted. But, as it seems to ditfer from 1J,?J (whic^i is the word here used of the servant! in designating the vigorous time of youth, the phrase might be translated: "in the prime of youth and goodly."— Tk.] s [Ver. 3. Properly "she-asses." — Tr.] * I Ver. 4. Ur : " he passed over into," and so in the other cases. — Tr.] ' fVer. 4. " The land of Jemini or the Jeminites," no doubt for " Benjaminites," the compound being resolved. -Tit.] * [Ver. 5. The remarkable variation of grammatical Number here and in ver. 4 has produced vai-ions readings in the V.SS. anil in a few MSS. The Sept. and Vulg. write plural throughout, while Chald.. Syr. and .Arab, make all the verbs "passed tludusrh" Sing., Iioth apparently assimilations for the sake of simplicity. The harder read- ing of the Heb. is better retained.— Tu.] 9 [Ver. 5. The English phrase: "take thought for" (as in Matt. vi. 34), has now lost its sense of trouble and anxietv. — Tr.] 10 [Ver. 6. Elohim, without the Art., but here evidently for the true God of Israel. On the supposed difference between the artlirous and anarthrous use of the word, see Quarry on Genesis, and Bib. Corrmi. in loco. — Tu.] 11 [Ver. 6. Properly, " honored," " esteemed." — Tr.] 12 [Ver. (>. Perhap-s better : " on which we are going," or : " in respect to which we are going." To " go away " is usually "IIT "jSn, and "I^in h}? is " on the side of the way ;" in any case, however, the verb (which is a Perf.) is better taken as Pres. or Fut., and not as Past, as Erdrnann renders. The VSS. also translate it past. — Tr.I !•* [Ver. 8. Sept.: "thou shalt give," which Wellhausen pri'fcrs; Chald., Syr., Vulg., Arab.: "we will give.' These are proViably variations for the sake of propriety. — Tr.I 1* [Ver. 9. Sept.: "for the people (D>'n fur DITI; formerly called the prophet the seer," an obvious and un- fortunate misreading. — Tr.J CHAP. IX. 1.-27. 139 11 And [om. and] as they went up [were going up'*] the hill to [on which was'*] the city, they found [came upon] young maidens going out to draw water, and said 12 unto them, Is the seer here? And they answered them and said, He is; behold, he is before you [thee] ; make haste," now, for he came to-day" to the city, for 13 there is a sacrifice of the people to-day in [on] the high place; As soon as ye be come into the city, ye shall straightway find him, before he go up to the high place to eat ; fur the people will not eat until he come, because he doth bless the sacrifice ; and lorn, and] afterwards they eat that be bidden. Now therefore [And now] get 14 you up, for [ms. he'*j, about this time ye shall find him. And they went up into [to] the city ; and '[om. and] when they were come [As they were going] into the city, behold, Samuel came out [was coming out] against [towards] them, for \_om. 15 for] to go up to the high place. Now [And] the Lord [Jehovah] had told Samuel 16 in his ear [had informed SamueP*] a day before Saul came, saying, To-morrow, about this time [About this time to-morrow] I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be captain [prince] over my people Israel, that he may [and he shall] save my people out of the hand of the Philis- tines ; for I have looked upon my people,'" because their cry is come unto me. 17 And when [om. when] Samuel saw Saul, [i?js. and] the Lord [Jehovah] said unto [answered] him. Behold the man whom I spake to thee of! this same [the man of whom I said to thee, he] shall reign over ray people. 18 Then [And] Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate,^' and said, Tell me, I pray 19 thee, where the seer's house is. And Samuel answered Saul, and said, I am the seer ; go up before me unto the high place, for [and] ye shall eat with me to-day, and to-morrow I will let thee go, and will tell thee all that is in thine heart [and I 20 will let thee go in the morning, and all that is in thy heart I will tell thee]. And as for thine asses, that were lost three days ago, set not thy mind on them ; for they are found. And on whom is all the desire of Israel [And to whom belongs all that is desirable^^ in Israel] ? is it not on [does it not belong to] thee, and on [to] .21 all thy father's house? And Saul answered and said, Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? and my family the least of all the families of the tribe^^ of Benjamin ? \_ins. and] wherefore then [om. then] speakest thou so to "22 me? And Samuel took Saul and his servant, and brought them into the parlor [eating- room], and made them sit in the chiefest place among [and gave them a place at the head of] them that were bidden, which [and they] were about thirty'^* '23 persons. iVud Samuel said unto [to] the cook. Bring the portion which I gave 24 thee, of which I said unto thee. Set it by thee. And the cook took up the shoulder, and that which was upon it, and set it before Saul, and Samuel [om. Samuel, ins. he**] said. Behold that which is left ! set it before thee [what was reserved is 15 [Ver. n. A peculiar construction (nDH with Partep.), which occurs no less tlian six times in this chapter. — Te.] 16 [Ver. 11. Literally: "the ascent of the city." — Tr.] " [Ver. 12. Sept. : " Behold, he is before you, now on account of the day he is come to the city." They there- fore attached the first letter of "inO to the preceding word, and omitted the rest, and instead of ' Dm '3 read OTn3 as in the latter part of the verse. Wellhausen urges the adoption of this second reading on the ground that we thus avoid the statement that Samuel had that very day come to the city from abroad, which seems in- consistent with vers. 23, 24, and says that the " hasten " of "the maidens is unintelligible, based, as it is, on the fact that Samuel had .just come. The '• for," however, must not lie jn-essed ; it simply introduces the explanation -of the eager maidens^ and such usage is frequent in Heb. The other variation of the Sept. commends itself as natural and appropriate: "he has just gone into the city." The Sin.c of the address in ver. 12 need not surprise us: the maidens direct their discourse cliiefiy to Saul, "who was evidently the master (the Blidrash says, because they were attracted by his beauty). — Tr.] 18 [Ver. 13. The Heb. inserts an emphatic Accus., which it is desirable to retain in the translation, Eng. idiom, however, requiring the Nom. — Tr.] 19 [Ver. 15. Literally: "uncovered the ear of Samuel," made a disclosure to him. — Ta.] 20 [Ver. 16. Sept.: "the afHic.tion of my people," a natural but unnecessary insertion. — Tr.] 21 I Ver. IS. Instead of "gate" O},*^), Sept. and one MS. of De Kossi read "city" (Tj;), which suits the con- nection better. — Tr.] 22 [Ver. 20. So all ancient VSS. and modern interpreters ; Philippson, wiinschcnsiverth, Erdmann, hcgchrenswerth, Cahen, ohjet disirable. — Tr.] 23 [Ver. 21. In the Heb. " tribes," which is generally regarded as an error of copyist, though it might be under- stood as referring to families, see Num. iv. bS^ Judg. xx. 12. — Tr.] 24 [Ver. 22. Sept. has 70, instead of ."0.— Tr.] 25 [Ver. 24. The subject of the verb may be Samuel or the cook, and, on gramm.Ttical grounds, is more proba- bly the latter, into whose mouth the words may be very well put, the "since I said" below not being in the Heb. •text. Erdmann holds a different opinion; see Exposition, in loco. — Te.] 140 THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. ore thee] ; and [pm. and] eat, for unto this time hath it been kept for thee said,^' I have invited the people. So [And] teaul did eat with Samuel that set^® befoi since I said, dav. 25 And wlien they were come [And they came] down from the high place unto [to] the city, ISamuel [om. Samuel, ins. and he] communed [spake] with Saul upon tlie 26 top of the house [the roof]. And they arose early;'* and it came to pass about the spring of the day [at day-dawn] that Samuel called [ms. to] Saul to [on] the top of the house [roof], saying, Up [Rise], that I may [and I will] send thee away. And Saul arose, and they went out both of them, he and Samuel, abroad [on the 27 street]. And [om. and] as they were going down to the end of the city, Samuel said to Saul Bid the servant pass on before us (and he passed ou'^j, but [and] stand thou still a while, that I may [and I will] show [tell] thee the word of God. 26 [Ver. 24. This word (D'tJ') is taken by the ancient VSS. and Eng. A. V. as Impv., but better, witli Erdniann, as Partcp. — Te.] . , _ - 27 [Ver. 2-1. On tlie text of this obscure passage see Exposition in ?oco.— l R.J 28 [Ver. 20. The Sept. text of vers. 25, 2ij. commends itself by its simplicity and eoncinnity: "into the city. and they spread (a bed) for Saul on the roof, and he lay down. And it came to pass," etc. See discussion in Ex- position.— Tr.] , . , , . , ■ , 29 I Ver. 27. This remark is lacking in Sept. Vat. (but not Alex.), Syr. and Arab., and is probably a gloss. The Syriac (as Wellhausen points out) adds a similar remark at end of ver. 3 : " and Saul arose and departed, and took with him one of the servants, and departed to seek the asses of his fatlier."— Tb.J EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. Vers. 1, 2. Saul's /a??ii?(/ and person. — The state- ment that Kish was the son of Abiel is oppo.sed to that of 1 Chr. viii. 33 ; ix. 39, according to which Ner was the fatlier of Kish, but agrees with 1 Sam. xiv. 51, according to wliich Ner was the father of Abner and the son of Abiel, and tliere- fore the brother of Kish. This dificrcnce is not to be set aside by the arbitrary assumption that Ner in Chron. is not the father, but the grand- father, or a still remoter ancestor of Kish (Keil), but the statement in Chron is to be corrected by this and xiv. 51. [Keil's supposition of an omit- ted name in the list is scarcely " arbitrary," since such omissions are elsewhere found in genealo- gical records. To construct Saul's genealogy it is natural to compare the various statements in the Scriptures, and attempt to make them accord. Bringing together Gen. xlvi. 2 ; 1 Sam. ix. 1 ; xiv. 51 ; 1 Chr. vii. 6-8; viii. 29-33; ix. 35-39, the following line may be made out: 1. Benjamin. 2. Beeher. 3. Apiiiah — perhaps same with Abiah. 4. Bechorath. 5. Zeror or Znr. 6. Abiel or Je- hiel. 7. Ner. 8. Kish. 9. Saul, in which, how- ever, some links may be omitted, as Matri, men- tioned 1 Sam. chap. x. 21. Abner is thus Saul's uncle, as in xiv. 50. If Eliud in 1 Chr. vii. 10 be the judge of that name (.Judg. iii.), he was not of the same family with Saul. In 1 Clir. ix. 35 Je- hiel, tlie ancestor of Saul, is said to have been the father, that is, the first settler of Gilieon; but it is uncertain how far back we liave to put him. The name "Saul" was liorne by others, see Gen. xxxvi. 37, 38, xlvi. 10; 1 Chr. vi. 24; Acts vii. 58. See Bib. Diets., s. v. Ner and Saul, and Covuns. on "Chronicles." — Tr.]. The phrase Vn 113: [Eng. A.V. "amighty man of poAver"] here means a rich well-to-do man (Ges., Dc Wette) and not as in xvi. 18, a strong, valiant man (Vul- gate, Cier., Then.); for it undonljtediy refers to lUsh, who is, indeed, "not represented in the his- tory as specially wealthy" (Then.), but is all the more distinctly described as in easij circumstances and prosperous. It is intended to state that Saul came from a substantial family. This accords much better with the connection than the repre- sentation of him as a man of vigor and strength by the statement that his father was a valiant man. — The genealogical statement about Saul's descent is Ibllowed (ver. 2) by a short description of his person. The name Saul means the " asked " (comp. Gen. xlvi. 10) ; " it occurs frequently, and was, probably, usually the name of the desired (asked) first-born" (Tlien.). Saul was a choice and handsome man. 1in3 is to be rendered electus T (Vulg.),* not only because he had a groum son (xiii. 1-3), but also because it is expressly said (x. 24) tiiat the Lord elected and chose him, be- cause his like was not to be found in all the peo- ple, that is, in respect to his distinguished personal ajipearance; in spite of the first-mentioned fact, he might else still have ranked as a young man. He excelled all other Israelites both in warlike beauty and in height, according to the vivid de- scription " from the shoulder upward ;" his per- son was in keeping with the lofty position to which, as ruler over Israel, he was chosen by God, as is expi'cssly said in x. 24.t Vers. 3-10. The occasion of Satil's meeting with Samuel: The loss of and search for the asses of Kish. — Ver. 3. Kish's preparations for recovering the lost asses show him to be a substantial and propertied man. His command to his son "take a servant, arise, go, seek," gives a vivid descrip- titm of what occurred. Vers. 4sqq. contain a simi- larly frc'sli and animated description of Sanl'.s wandering search with liis servant. The mention of the hi/l-cotnitry of Ephrahn first as scene of the search is explained by tl\c fact that these hills stretched from the north down into the territory of Benjamin, and Gibeah, Saul's home and start- * [The rendering "in the prime of youth" (wliich might be forty years) wiits the first of these two facts, and the second" cannot be pressed, because the word is ()ft(>n used where this fact does not exist. See Text, aiul <;r;mi. — Tk.] t ['hi the ancient regard for physical greatness, sea- Sijnopsis Crit.; Kitto, BaUy Bib. III.'— Ta.] CHAP. IX. 1-27. 141 ing-point (cornp. x. 26; xi. 4; xv. 34; xxiii. 19; ' XX vi. 1) lay on theii' slope. The land oi i^halislui, wliicli they next traversed, probably takes its uame from ^'^U ["three"], because there three val- leys united in one, or one divided into three = ■ Threekmd (see Then, in Kiiutfer's Stud. d. sacks. Geistl. II., 142) ; it is tlie region in wliicli, accord- ing to 2 Kings iv. 42, Baalshalislia lay [15 miles north of Diospolis or Lydda. — Tr.]. Thereupon they traversed the land of Shaalim, according to Then,, " perhaps a very deep valley (comp. ^^ii* ' the hollow of the hand,' and 'i/^O ' a liollow or narrow way ' "), probably the region which lay eastward from Shalisha, where on the maps of Robinson and Vandevelde the Beni Mussah and Beni Salem are marked (comp. Keil iVi loco).* The next statement that they traversed the land of Benjamin, indicates that from Shaalim they go from north-east to south-west. Thence they came into the land of Zuph, which, as Keil supposes, lay on the south-west of the tribe-territory of Ben- jamin, since " Saul and his follower on the return home pass first (x. 2) by the tomb of Rachel, and then come to the border of Benjamin." — [Kitto remarks that Saul's tender regard for his father's feelings (ver. 5) is a favorable indication of cha- racter.—Tr.]. — Ver. 6. The servant prevents Saul from returning home immediately, pointing out to him the city before him standing on an emi- nence, where they would find the man of God, who would perhaps tell them how they might at- tain the object of their search. The way, on which they came,! is the way on which they now are, that they may find what they are seeking; the seer will now jierhaps tell them the direction in which they must go on this way, in order to find the asses. From the connection of the whole his- tory of Samuel the city can be no other than his residence, Ramathaim (or, Ramah) Zophim (ch. i. 1), that is, in the district of Zuph, in the Tribe of Benjamin (Josh, xviii. 25). Keil is wrong in pressing against this general assumption the fact that the servant does not say " here dwells," but " here is " a man of God, Avhich is plainly far- fetched. Equally forced is his explanation of the answer of the maidens (ver. 12): "He came to- day to the city, for there is a great sacrifice of the people on the high-place," from which he infers that the seer's house was not in the citv, but that he had only come thither to the sacrificial feast ; their answer rather confirms the former view, since the question " is the seer here ?" referred to the city, while the place of ofl'ering was on the eminence behind the city, where Samuel in those days worked and dwelt. Sanuiel has his resi- dence in this city (comp. ver. 25 with ver. 18) ; Keil's supposition of a temporary residence, which he occupied during his presence at the festival, is wholly untenable. As Samuel had btiilt an altar to the Lord at Ramah (vii. 17), it is more natural to think of this residence of Samuel than of any other place, the name of which would no doubt otherwise have been given. Finally, it is to be added that Samuel is known to the servant, and * [Others render " iaekal-land," and refer to Shnal (X Sam. xiii. 17), orShaalbim (.Tiidg. i. :;.')) in the territory of Dan. The geoprajihy is altoetetlier iineertain.— Tr.] t [On the rendering see Textual and Grammat.— Tr.] the latter knows that he is here. On the other supposition, how should he know that Samuel was here precisely at this time, if it was not his residence? [These arguments are replied to in various ways by expositors who hold that this city was not Ramah. But Erdmann is undoubt- edly right in saying that the impression made by this narrative is that it was Sanmel's residence to which Saul came. The difficulty lies in recon- ciling this statement with the itinerary in ch. x. 2-5. See the exposition and translator's note on ch. i. 1. As Rachel's tomb was near Bethlehem, and Saul was going towards Bethel, one would suppose the city in ch. ix. to be south or south- west from Bethlehem, that is, not in the territory of Benjamin at all. And if it was not Ramah it is impossible to say what it was. — It is worthy of note tliat Saul seems to know nothing about Sa- nuiel ; it is the servant that knows and does every- thing. Saul rather appears as a simple-minded rustic youth, who has rarely left his pastoral oc- cupations, and knows little of the political and religious elements of the time. — Tr.].— From this passage it appears (comp. ver. 9) that the earliest prophets were consulted by the people about or- dinary matters of life, of which they were looked on as having superior knowledge. It is, however, undetermined, whether Samuel would have an- swered the question about the asses, if the loss of and search for them had not been, according to the revelation made him from above, the divinely- appointed means for bringing him into connection with the person of the designated king. Vers. 7, 8. Those who went to question the prophets carried them presents (comp. 1 Kings xiv. 3). These are in the first place to be re- garded as honorary gifts, intended to show respect. But this does not exclude the supposition that they depended for support on these voluntary giffs oftered in return for information desired. Saul fears that he has no gift worthy of the man, but the servant, who is drawn to the life, is ready with the reply: "There is in my hand (I have here at hand) the fourth of a shekel of silver" (called zuz (I=IT) by the later Jews, see Targ. Jon. in loc). The silver shekel and its parts {^r, i, i), are not pieces weighed in transference, but already of determined weight and value, coins " current with the merchant" (Gen. xxiii. 16), which were " counted." The Shekel was in German money about 26 silbergroschen, the quarter, therefore, about 6.\ silbergroschen. [There is no means of determining precisely the value of the shekel in Samuel's time. In our Lord's time a stater = shekel seems to have been about 70 cents United States currency, and a quarter about 18 (equiva- lent perhaps "to two dollars now). A German Silbergroschen is about 21 cents in our currency. There'is no evidence that coined money existed in Israel before the captivity, and the first native coins were })robablv struck some centuries after the Return.— Tr.]." The Prelerites give an admi- rably true picture of the animated manner of the servant, who is intent only on the object of their search, and willinglv makes the sacrifice of the mo- ney for the asses.— Ver. 9. "The man" (i^'^H) is the indef. subject (Germ, man [Eng. one]), though the .4rf. makes the individual personality more pro- minent. Ew. Gr. 1 294 d. An express difierence is made here between the ancient designation of the 142 THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. prophet Roeh {^^^), for which later in the solemn, poetic language the synonymous Chozeh (Hin "gazer") was used, and the term in use in the author's time Nabi i^'^^)- The former (Eoeh, seer), points only to the form in which "the in- sight " into what was hidden came to them, the hitter (Nabi), on the contrary, " to the source of the divinatory insight, to God" (Tholuck, Die Propheten, p. 21). The remark in ver. 9 belongs accoixling to its content to ver. 11. \_Note on Roeh. — The statement in ver. 9 has special interest in connection with the history of proplietic work in Israel. Tlie three terms named above have each its peculiar meaning and its special use, though to a certain extent employed interchangeably. Besides in this chapter, Boeh occur.s three times of Samuel (1 Chron. ix. 22; XX vi. 28; xxix. 29), twice of Hanani (2 Chron. xvi. 9, 10), once with a general application (Isa. XXX. 10), and once apparently of Zadok the priest in a passage (2 Sam. xv. 27) where the text is somewhat involved in suspicion ; it is used, that is, c. B. C. 1100-700. Qhozeh is found in 2 Sam., in the prophets, and in Ciiron., about B. C. 80U-400. Nabi occurs from Gen. to Mai., in nearly every book of the Old Testament. As to tlie meaning, Nabi is clearly one wlio speaks for God (see the general meaning in Ex. vii. 1), annonncin