CHAPTER III. FROM THE BIRTH OF SAMUEL TO THE DEATH OF SAUL. Ant Chris. THE HISTORY. i. to the end. DURING the time of Samson's great exploits, both the civil and ecclesiastical admi- From 1 San. &c. or $259. nistration seems to have been in the hands of Eli the high priest, in the beginning of 1116. &c. whose government Samuel was born. He was the son of Elkanah, a Levite, who dwelt or 1152. in Ramah †, a city belonging to the tribe of Ephraim, and (as the custom of those times was) had two wives, whose names were Hannah and Peninnah. *Thrice every year he used to go to Shiloh, there to offer up his usual sacrifice, and, as he was a pious and religious man, he generally took his two wives with him, that they in like manner might make their oblations. Now Hannah, though she had no children, was his favourite wife, and therefore, at †2 every feast upon the peace-offering, he usually sent her a separate mess, and of the choicest of the meat; which the other perceiving, was wont to + upbraid her with her sterility, or want of children. Ramah signifies an eminence or high situation, and is therefore an appellation given to several places that are built in this manner. This is said to have stood upon Mount Ephraim, thereby to distinguish it from other towns, in different tribes, of the same denomination; and the reason why it is here called Ramathaim, in the dual number, is (as some imagine) because it was built upon two hills, which made it appear as a double city, and because it was situated on high, and had a watch-tower built in it, it therefore had the title of Zophim added to it. It stood upon the road that led from Samaria to Jerusalem; and for this reason, as well as its advantageous situation, Baasha, king of Israel, caused it to be fortified, that there might be no passage out of the land of Judah into that of Israel (1 Kings xv. 17. and 2. Chron. xvi. 1.); but in St Jerom's days it was no more than a small village. Here it was that Samuel passed a great part of his time; for his mother's dedication of him to the service of God did not confine him to Shiloh, after that God had called him out to a public employ, and appointed him his residence in a place more convenient for the execution of it. The truth is, after the captivity of the ark, and the death of Eli, all religious ceremonies seem to have ceased at Shiloh; for which reason it is said, that Samuel built an altar at Ramah, the place of his residence, to the intent that the peoVOL. II. Hannah took this so sore to ple might resort to him, either to receive judgment, *The precept is exactly thus,-"Three times in The blood of this peace offering was shed at the foot of the altar, the fat was burnt, the breast and right shoulder was the priest's perquisite, and all the rest belonged to the person who brought the victim. With this he made a feast of charity, to which he called his friends and relations, and in several places of Scripture God reminds him to invite the Levite, the poor, the fatherless, and the widow. Calmet's Commentary. +3 Sterility was looked upon among the Jews as one of the greatest misfortunes that could betal any woman; insomuch that, to have a child, though the Ant. Chris. A. M. 2888, heart, that all the kind things which her husband said to her could not assuage or com&c. or 4259. fort her; but, as soon as she rose from table, away she hastens to the tabernacle, and 1116, &c. or there "pours out her soul before God," desiring of him to bless her with a son, which favour, if he would grant her, she promised to make him a Nazarite, and all the days of his life devote him to his service. 1152. Her prayers were heard, and in a proper time she conceived, and brought forth a son, whom she called Samuel, even because she had asked him of the Lord, (for so his name imports) and after he was grown to a competent age, she brought him to Shiloh, and in a very joyful and thankful manner, presented him to Eli, who gladly received him, and immediately clothed him with a proper habit, even with a linen* ephod, that he might attend on the service of the tabernacle. Eli himself was a very good man, but by much too indulgent to his children. He had two sons, Hophni and Phineas, who were mere libertines. They domineered over the men, and debauched the women at their devotions; and so far were they from being content with the portion which God had allotted them as priests, that they forced from the people (even before they had made their oblations) what part of the sacrifice they pleased; which gave so general a disgust, that religion grew into contempt, and the worship of God came to be disused. Eli was not unacquainted with his sons ill conduct; but instead of chastizing them, as his authority required, he contented himself with reproving them now and then, but that, in such gentle and mild terms, as rather encouraged than deterred them from proceeding in their wicked practices; till at length God, being provoked with this his remissness, † sent a prophet to threaten him and his family with utter destruction; to upbraid him with his ingratitude, in slighting the sacerdotal honour which he had conferred on him; to foretel the death of his two sons both in one day, +2 the removal of his priesthood into another and better family, and the extreme poverty which his posterity would fall into, upon their ejection from the sacerdotal office: Nor was it long before God discovered the same heavy judgments to Samuel, which was the first revelation he made to this young prophet, and which Eli (when he was told it) received with a mind fully resigned to the divine pleasure; (a)" it is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good." mother immediately died thereupon, was accounted a *The ephod which the high priest wore (as we have + Who this prophet was, commentators are at a loss to know. Some imagine that it was Phineas, the son of Eleazar; but Phineas very probably was dead long before this time; and, if he had been alive, he and not Eli must have been high priest, unless Phineas had forfeited the office, and with it the Spirit of prophecy. Others therefore will needs have it to have been Elkanah, Samuel's father; and some Samuel himself: But we no where read, that the father was endued with the Spirit of prophecy, and the son was certainly then too young, and unacquainted with the voice of God. The safest way therefore is to own our ignorance of what the sacred historian hath not thought proper to discover to us. Calmet's Commentary. The high priesthood was originally settled upon Eleazar, the son of Aaron, by a Divine decree; but that decree being conditional only, it is reasonable to presume, that there was some great offence or other in Eleazar's family, (though not recorded in Scripture) which provoked God to remove it into the family of Ithamar, who was Aaron's youngest son, and from whom Eli descended; and here, for the abominable practices of his sons, which he was too negligent to restrain, God threatens to translate the priesthood back again, from the family of Ithamar, to that of Eleazar, which accordingly happened in the reign of king Solomon, who deposed Abiathar, the last of Eli's line, from the pontificate, and set up Zadock in his stead. Pool's Annotations. (a) 1 Sam. iii. 18. i. to the end. In those days † there were but few prophets, and revelations were very scarce; and From 1 Sat. therefore when the Israelites perceived, by the truth of his predictions, that God had, appointed Samuel to the prophetic office, they were not a little rejoiced and it was from the great expectations they had of God's favour in renewing this order of men among them, that they took up arms in order to rescue themselves from the Philistines yoke. The army of the Israelites encamped at a place which was afterwards called * Eben-ezer, and that of the Philistines at Aphek, a city of Judah; but when they came to join battle, the Israelites were defeated with the loss of four thousand men. The reason of this defeat was imputed by some to their want of the ark in the army, which, as the symbol of God's presence, would be a sure means of success; and therefore they sent to Hophni and Phineas to bring it with them; and when it arrived in the camp, received it with many a joyful acclamation. The Philistines at first were dispirited at the news, as much as their enemies were animated: But at length taking heart, and exhorting one another to act courageously, they repulsed the Israelites when they came to attack them; and having slain thirty thousand of their foot (among whom were Hophni and Phineas), they routed the rest, and put them all to flight, so that the ark of the Lord fell into their hands. This ill news, a soldier of the tribe of Benjamin, escaping from the field of battle, brought to Shiloh that very day, with the usual emblems of extreme sorrow, *2 his clothes rent, and earth upon his head; and then there was no small outcry and lamentation in the city. Eli, enquiring the cause of it, had the soldier brought before him; who gave him an account, *3 that the Israelites were routed, his two sons slain, and + Whatever revelations God might impart to some pious persons privately, there was at this time none publicly acknowledged for a prophet, unto whom the people might resort to know the mind of God; nay, so little acquainted were these ages with the prophetic spirit, that we read of no more than two prophets, Judg. iv. 4. and vi. 8. in all the days of the Judges. Patrick's Commentary. This place is here mentioned prophetically; for it had not this name till about twenty years after, 1 Sam. iv. 1. when Samuel fought with the Philistines, and gave them a total overthrow, and set up a monument of his victory (for the proper name signifies the stone of help) in the field of battle, which lay on the north border of Judah, not far from Mizpeh; and Aphek, where the Philistines encamped, must not be far distant from it. Wells's Geography of the Old Testament, vol. iii. #2 ** If we consult Josh. vii. 6. Job ii. 12. and Ezek. xxvii. 30. we shall find, that this was the manner of mens expressing their deep sorrow for any great calamity that had befallen them. And, accordingly, we find Virgil representing Latinus rending his clothes, and throwing dust upon his grey hairs, when he laments his private and public calamities: -It scissa veste Latinus Canitiem immundo perfusam pulvere turpans. ." And Eli said to the Benjamite, What is there done in the battle, 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, Hophni and Phineas, are dead, and the ark of God is taken," 1 Sam. iv. 16, 17. Madam Dacier highly commends the manner, wherein the sacred historian makes this messenger speak, and compares these words, "Hophni and Phineas are dead, and the ark of the Lord is taken," with those of Antilochus to Achilles, when he tells him the sad news,— Κεῖται Πάτροκλος νέκυος δὲ δὴ ἀμφιμάχονται Whereupon she quotes the glossary which Eustathius Eneid 12. 3 Who this Benjamite was that brought the ill news to Shiloh of the loss of the battle, the history is silent, and the conjecture of some Jews, that it probably was Saul, is very uncertain and precarious. But there is something very remarkable in the account which he gives of the action. The words are these: &c. or 4259. Ant. Chris. 1116, &c. A. M. 2888, the ark taken. Eli heard the defeat of the army, and the death of his sons, with courage and unconcern enough; but when he came to understand that the ark of the Lord was fallen into the enemy's hand, his spirits forsook him, and, being both heavy and or 1152. aged, he fell from his seat, and broke his neck and died, after he had been the supreme magistrate in Israel * for the space of forty years. And (what was a farther family misfortune) his son Phineas had a wife, then big with child, and near her time, who, hearing of her father's and husband's death, and (what was the worst of all) of the captivity of the ark, fell in labour at the news, and being delivered of a son, had just strength to name him Ichabod (i. e. no glory), before she died; because the ark, which was the glory of Israel (as she assigns the reason), "was departed from them.” The Philistines, having thus got possession of the ark, *2 carried it in triumph to one of their principal cities, named Ashdod, and there placed it in the temple of their god Dagon hard by his image. The next morning the people of *3 Ashdod, going into the temple, found Dagon fallen down upon his face before the ark; but, supposing this to be an accident, they set him up again; and again next morning found him not only fallen down, but his head and the palms of his hands broken off, and lying upon the threshold; whence there arose a superstitious use among the Philistines, that neither priest nor people would ever † tread upon a threshold. The Septuagint, and some ancient manuscripts, make the term of Eli's magistracy to be no more than twenty years; and, to reconcile this with the Hebrew text, some suppose, either that he had Samson joined in the government with him for the first twenty years of his administration, or his sons for the last; but there is no reason for the solution of a difficulty, which arises from nothing else but a fault in the text of the Septuagint. Calmet's Commentary. **It was a custom among the heathens to carry in triumph the images of the gods of such nations as they had vanquished. Isaiah prophecies of Cyrus, that in this manner he would treat the gods of Babylon:-" Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth; their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle,-and themselves are gone into captivity," Isaiah xlvi. 1, 2. Daniel foretels of Ptolemy Euergetes, that he would "carry captive into Egypt the gods of the Syrians, with their princes," Dan. xi. 8. And the like predictions are to be met with in Jeremiah xlviii. 7. and in Amos i. 15. We need less wonder, therefore, that we find Plutarch, in the life of Marcellus, telling us, that he took away, out of the temples of Syracuse, the most beautiful pictures and statues of their gods; and that afterwards it became a reproach to Marcellus, and raised the indignation of other nations against Rome, "That he carried along with him, not men only, but the very gods captive, and in triumph." Saurin, vol. iv. dissert. 24. *3 The Philistines were descendants from Mizraim, the father of the Egyptians, and so, in all probability, having their first settlement in Egypt, or the parts adjoining, lay to the south-west of the land of Canaan. In process of time, however, they made inroads upon Canaan, and, in Abraham's days, had got possession of a good part of the territories which lay along the western coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. This tract of ground was divided into five principalities, or little kingdoms, viz. Gaza, Askelon, Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron; which, for the better understanding of some particulars related of the ark during its stay in this It It is somewhat strange, that when the Philistines saw their Dagon cast down before the ark of God with his head and hands broken off, they should not thence infer that he was no more than a vain idol; but instead of that, we find them honouring the very threshold whereby he received these maims, as if they had been consecrated, or some divinity infused into them, from the mere touch of this idol. This is a sore instance of blindness and infatuation; but it is no more than what other heathen nations fell into By this means the people of Ashdod could not but perceive that their Dagon was far From 1 Sam. inferior to the God of Israel, who, to make them still more sensible of this, smote them i. to the end. and the inhabitants of the places adjacent with emerods, and destroyed the fruits of their grounds with swarms of mice; so that (to redress their complaints) the princes of the Philistines ordered the ark to be removed to Gath, where the same judgments befel the people of that place; and when from thence it was carried to Ekron, not only the † plague of the emerods, but a wasting pestilence likewise went along with it; so that the people were resolved to send it away, and to that purpose called their priests together to advise with them in what manner they might best do it. The priests advised them to provide a new cart, and to yoke to it two milch kine that had never drawn before, but to keep up their calves confined. In this cart they ordered them to place the ark, and (because it was proper to make some trespass-offering to the God of Israel) to have five * golden emerods, and as many golden mice (according to the number of the principal cities of the Philistines) made, and put in a coffer by the side of the ark. But, above all, they cautioned them to take notice which way the *2 kine went; for, if they took towards Judea, they might conclude that these and that other passage in Tibullus,- Lib. i. eleg. 5. Nay, at this very day, there are some mosques in Persia whose thresholds are covered over with plates of silver, and which the people are not allowed to tread on; for that is a crime which cannot be expiated with out undergoing very severe pains and penalties. Calmet's Commentary. The word apholim, which only occurs here and in the xxviiith chapter of Deuteronomy, is by different interpreters supposed to signify different things. Some take it for a dysentery, others for what they call procidentia ani; some for a cancer, and others for something venereal in that part. The Scripture tells us expressly that God "smote his enemies in the hinder parts," Psal. Ixxviii. 66. And therefore our translation is not amiss, which supposes their malady to have been such painful tumours in the fundament as very frequently turn into ulcers. Patrick's and Calmet's Commentaries. * It was a prevailing opinion among the heathens, that the only way to appease their gods, when offended at them, was to offer them presents ;Munera, crede mihi, capiunt hominesque deosque, Placatur donis Jupiter ipse datis. Ovid, de Arte, lib. iii. And therefore no wonder that the Philistines priests hit upon this thought: And why they sent, along with the ark, the images of the parts which were afflicted with this sore disease, might proceed from a common custom likewise among the heathens of consecrating to their gods such monuments of their deli verance as represented the evils from whence they ** It was no bad policy in the Philistines to take Bos tibi, Phoebus ait, solis occurret in arvis, |