The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 32

CHAPTER II. P!· being intensil"C, nnd signifying every kmd of knowledge. As too he weighs and HANNAH';; SO~G OF rRAISE (vcrs. l-'-' judges human actions, how can men venture 10 ). Yer. 1. -And Hannah prayed and to· talk so arrogantly before him, lit. so said. Like the Magnificat, Hannah's hymn prowlly, proudly. The last clause is one of of t11anksgivin" bct!'ins with the temporal . thoso numerous places in which thern is a mercies accorded to ''herself, but rises imme-. doubt whether the Hebrew word lo means <liately into the realms of prophecy, fore- not, or by' liirn. If the negative sense bo telling Christ's kingdom and the triumphs taken, whtch_ the Hebrew spelling favours, ·of the Church. From this prophetic element, the ren<lerrn will be "though actions be common more or less to all the hymns of the not weighed.9' Though wicked actions be Bible, most of them have been used in Chris- not immediately punished, yet Jehovah is tian worship, and still merit a place in it, cognisant of them, and in due time will though we in the liturgy of the Church of requite. England now use only two, taken both from In vers: • 4-8 Hannah illustrates the tbeN e1, Testament. In ver. 1, in four strophes working of this attribute of the Deity by enu- -of equal length, Hannah declares how, first,. merating the vicissitudes of human_ events, her heart, the centre with the Helirews, not which are not the result of cbauce, but of merely of the physical, but also of the moral that omniscience combined with holiness and intellectual life, rejoices iu Jehovah; which she has .claimed for Jehovah in vers. while the exaltation of her horn, the symbol 2, 3. S~ie begins. with the vicissitudes of of strength and vigour, signifies that this war; but these are not more remai·kable than inward joy is accompanied, or even occa- those of peace, by which the full, the rich sioned, by the changed circumstances of her and wealthy, have to descend to the position -outward lot. Her mouth, therefore, is opened of a l1ireli1ig ; while those previously hungry wide over her enemies, yet not for cursing have .ceased, 1·. ·e. from· 1abour, aml keep and in bitterness, but for joyful praise of the holiday. •In a nation of small proprietors, ·God who has answered her prayers. It is where the land was tilled by the owner his salvation, the being delivered by him, and those "born in his house," the r,ositiou that makes her thus burst forth into thanks- of the hfreling, the "mean white ' of the gnrng. It is a proof too of her faith and, , .southern States of America, -was lower than .spirituality that she thus refers all to. that of the slave, es_pecially i':1 _J udrea, where .Jehovah. . . the slave was more m the position of a vassal In ver. 2 she gives her reasons for thii; th.an of a serf or forced labourer. .In the next noly joy. The first is God's absolute holiness; clause the translation may either be, "She the second his absolute existence, in which that was long barren hath borne seven," oi; .,be finds the proof of his holiness. Hannah ,.. Untff the barren" &c.; i. 'e. these vicis- may have meant to express only the language situdes nYay even· reach so far rui to ·:mnke a -0f piety, but she also stated a primary ·barren woman the mother of seven, 1. e. of philosophical truth, which was early grasped a perfect number of children, happily gencr- by the deeply religious instinct of the He- -alised in Ps. cxiii. 9 into " a joyful mothe1 brews, that outside of God is no existence. of children." But see Ruth iv. 15; Jer. xv. Many necessary deductions follow from this 9. In this there is also a typical reference fundamental truth, that God alone absolute- to the long ba1Tenness of the Gentile world, lv exists, and that all other existence is to be followed by a fruitfulness far exceeding sr,condary and derived; but no deduction is tl,Jat of the Jewish ChurGh, while it, prolific more certain than Hannah's own, that such once in patriarchs, and prophets, and saints, a Being must be absolutely holy. In calling is now comparatively sterile. 111 ver. 6 "the him a rock she assigns to him strength, grave," H~b. Sheol, is "the pit," the hollow -calm, immovaLle, enduring, but a strength vault underground, which is the dwelling of which avails for the safety of his people the dead. Lit., therefore, Hannah's words /comp. Deut. xxxii. 4, 15; Ps. xviii. 2). might seem to imply a belief in the resurrcc-. For rocks, as being capable of easy defence, tion; but her meaning rather was that God formed the nucleus of most ancient towns, brings a man to the very brink of the grave, ,md continued to serve as their citadels. and then, when all hope seems past, raises him In ver. 3 she appeals to God's omniscienee, up again. fo ver., 8 beggar is simply needy1 ' for Jehovah is a God of knowledges," the but the expressions duat and dunghill ada f;IT. 11. 1-10.] THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. 2i'