The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 62

Yrs. assnrrdlY. Kot. from mankind as a should be left without an old man to guido whole, nor from the Chnrch as a whole, but its course onward to renewed prosperity. from each particular nation, or Church, or Ver. 33.-Themanofthine,&c. The mcnn- indiYidual. To rach separate person God's !ng of_ the Heb. is her~ again changed by the promises arc conditional, and human action mserti?n of words not m_ the original. 'fran~- e,·eryid1cre is n co-worhr with the Divine lated literally the sense 1s good but merciful Yolition, though only within a limited sphere, and this the A. V. has so rcnde;·ed as to mak~ and so as thqt the Di,ine purposes must it the most bitter of all denunciations. The finally be accomplished. Eli then and his Heb. is, "Yet I will not cut off every om Mm may suffer forfeit of the promise by not of thine from my altar, to consume thine eyes fulfilling the obligations which, whether and to grieve thy soul;" that is, thy punish- ,•xprcsscd or implied, arc an ossential con- ment shall not be so utter as to leave thee with dition of e-rery promise made by God to no consolation ; for thy descendants, though man. But the high priesthood will con- diminished in numbers, and deprived of the tinue, and "Iii!! perform its allotted task of highest rank, shall still minister as priests preparing for the priesthood of Christ. at mine altar. " But the majority of thy •• Them that honour me I will honour," house-lit. the multitude of thy house- states one of these conditions essential on shall die as n1en." This is very well ren- nrnn·s part to secure the fulfilment of God's dered in the A. V. "in the flower of their 11ron11ses. age,'.' only we must not explain this of dying ,-er. 31. - I will cut off thine arm. of disease. -They were to die in their vigour, The ar;,1 is the usual metaphor for strength. not, like children and old men, in their beds, ,\s F.li had preferred the exaltation of his but by violent deaths, such as actually befell sons to God's honour, he is condemned to them at Shiloh and at Nob. sec the strength of his house broken. Nay, Ver. 34.-With this the sign here given more ; there is not to be an "old man in exactly agrees. Hophni and Phinehas died liis house." The young men full of energy fighting valiantly in battle, and then came the and ngour perish by the sword ; the sur- sacking of Shiloh, and the slaughter of the n vors fade away by disease. The Jews say ministering priests (Ps. lxxviii. 64). Upon that the house of lthamar was peculiarly this followed a long delay. For first Eli's short-li.ed, but the prophecy was amply ful. grandson, Ahitub, the son of Phinehas, was filled in the slaughter of Ell's house, first at high priest, and then his two sons, Ahiah Shiloh, and then at Nob by Doeg the Edomite and Ahimelech, and then Abiathar, the son at the command of Saul There is nothing o( Ahimelech. It was in Ahimelech's days to warrant an abiding curse upon his family. that the slaughter took place at Nob, from The third or fourth generation is the limit which the house of Ithamar seems never to of the nsitation of the sins of the fathers have fully recovered. u pan the children. Ver. 35. - I will raise me up a faith- Yer. 32. - Thou she.It see an enemy. ful priest. This prophecy is explained in The translation of ver. 32 is very difficult, three several ways, of Samuel, of Zadok, and but is probably as follows: "And thou of Christ. St. Augustine, who considers the shalt behold, i. e. see with wonder and aston- whole passage at length in his 'De Civ. Dei,' ishment, narrowness of habitation in all the xvii. 5, argues that it cannot be reasonably ,,ealth which shall be given unto Israel." said that a change in the priesthood foretold The ,rnrd translated nainnonessoften means with so great circumstance was fulfilled in an ''enemy," but as that for habitation is Samuel But while we grant that it was an the most general term in the Heb. language essential characteristic of Jewish prophecy for a dwelling, being used e,en of the dens to be ever larger than the immediate fulfil- of "·ild beasts (Jer. ix. 10; Nahum ii. 12), ment, yet its primary meaning must neve1 the rendering an "enemy of dwelling" gives be slurred over, as if it were a questiCJn no sense. Hence the violent insertion of the of slight importance. By the largeness of pronoun my, for which no valid excuse can its terms, the grandeur of the hopes it be given. But 1wrrowness of dwelling means inspired, and the incompleteness of their distress, especially in a man's domestic rela- immediate accomplishment, the Jews were tions, and this is the sense required. In taught to look ever onward, and so became the. growing public and national prosperity a Messianic people. Granting then that. which was to be Israel's lot under Samuel, Christ and his Church are the object and Saul, David, and Solomon, Eli was to see, end of this and of all prophecy, the question not in person, Lut prophetically, calamity narrows itself to this-In whom was this ,,tt.,cJ,ing itself to his own family. His house prediction of a faithful priest primarily "·as to decay in the midst of the progress ol fulfilled 1 We answer, Not in Zadok, but in all the rest. Upon this denunciation of Samuel. Zadok was a commonplace per- pri,·atc distre8s naturally follows the repe- sonage, of whom little or nothing is said tition of the threat that the house of Ithamar after the time that he joined Davi<l with (JH II. 27- -36. J THE FIRST BOOK OJ<' 8AM UEL. 57