The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 2

which usually accompanied the accesAion of an Oriental king. ·what is really remarkable is that Eli should be Israel's civil ruler. If he was strong enough to take this, no one would dispute with him the priesthood. And here- Scripture is absolutely silent. The whole tone, nevertheless, of the history sets Israel before us as enjoying under Eli a period of greater ease and prosperity than had been its lot under Samson. The hill land of Israel was so easy of defence, and the people so valiant, that u'.nder an able leader it repeatedly held its ground against the mail- clad Philistines, and in Eli's days they had lost the supremae,-y which made even, JuJah during Samson's judgeship obey their commands. It was only after a long period of slow decay, of which Eli's worthless sons were the cause, th:tt Israel lost its independence and had to submit to vassalage. It is an indication of the greatness of the reverse, that the minds of the people were so embittered against him that they have struck his name and the names of his race out of the genealogies, and have put the worst construction upon the prophecies to which the broken-spirited old man submitted with such touching humility. To this cause perhaps is also due the suppression of all account of his earlier doings. What we have is taken probably from "the Acts of Samuel;" for there is a curious humour and play upon words running through all Eli's sayings such as none but e. contemporary would record. Samuel, we may be sure, had a loving regard 'for Eli, but the people remembered him only in connection with the Philistine invasion and the cruelties which accompanied it, and of which the memory filled them with an intense horror. It was a calamity too great to be fully narrated in history, but the Psalmist speaks of it as the climax of Israel's degradation (Ps. lxxviii. 59-64), when God "greatly abhorred" them, and the mention of it by Jeremiah ( eh. xxvi) roused all Jerusalem to fury. It was thus from its deepest fall that Samuel raised the nation to a new life, and from its shattered ruins built it up into an orderly and progressive kingdom. The foundation of all his reforms was the restoration of the moral and religious life of the people. Without this nothing was possible. But in spite of all its faults, Israel was still sound at heart, simple-minded and primitive; oackward indeed in culture, but free from those debasing and effeminate vices which too often make sensuality the companion of refinement. It was no sickly, sentimental people among whom Samuel preached; and when his words had .brought conviction to them, with strong heart. they followed him; and so he won for them an alleviation of the Philistine yoke, and prepared the way for its final destruction. In a year when the elements wete greatly disturbed-for there was lightning during wheat-harvest-a-a violent thunder-storm enabled the Israelites, rushing down the steep hill of Mizpeh, to break the terrified ranks of the Philistines, and God by the great deliverance wrought that day set his seal to the prophet's work. But as long as a man's work depends upon his personal energy it has no enduring existence. Many men who in life have been all powerful have lcH a2 iv INTRODUCTION TO