The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 90

EXPOSITION. smitten us 1 expresses snrprisc. The elcler3 CHAPTER IV. had evidently expected victory, and there• Ver. ].-And the word of Samuel . .. all fore the domination of the Philistines could Israel. This clause is rightly connected with not have been so complete as it certainly the foregoing verse of the previous chapter was in the days of Samson. There must in the Syriac and Vulgate. Attached to have been an intermediate period of success- the fourth chapter, it gives a wrong sense, ful warlare during which Eli ha,! been their n:tmely, that Samuel gave the command for leader. Let us fetch the ark of the covenant the assembling of all Israel for battle with of Jehovah. This, the reme,ly suggested 1,y the Philistines. This is so plainly erroneous the elders, was to employ their Go,] as a that the A. V. dissents from it by trans- talisman or chann. The ark was the symbol lating the and in the next clause by iww. of Jehovah's presence among them, ancl of Joined to the previous chapter, it gives the their being his especial people, and by ex- true meaning. Because Samuel spake by the posing it to danger they supposed that they word of Jehovah, therefore his word came would compel their God to interfere in their to all Israel, that is, it was a binding anu behalf. They would have done right in a, authoritative command throughout the whole pealing to their covenant relation to Jehova~ land; or, in other words, when Samuel was and had they repented of the sins which ha,l acknowledged to be Jehovah's prophet he also grown up among them, fostered by the e,·il became the virtual judge of Israel, though example of Eli's sons, he would have shown probably he did not act with full authority them mercy. But for God to have given until after Eli's death. Israel the victory because of the presence of DEFEAT OF ISRAEL AND CAPTURE OF THE his ark in their camp would have been to ARK (vers. 1-11). Now Israel-rather, And overthrow all moral government, an,l woulu Israel- went out against the Philistines. have insured their spiritual ruin as inevitably During the declining years of Eli, the yoke as would the granting to any order of men of the Philistines, which apparently had been now the power of working miracles or of shaken off in his manhood, began once again infallibly declaring the truth. to press heavily upon the neck of Israel. Ver. 4.-Which dwelleth between the But Israel was still strong enough to make cherubims. Literally, "which sitteth, i.e. is valiant .r~si~tanc~, pr~voked apparently by enthroned, upon the cherubim." The idea is • the Ph1hstmes mvadmg the land, as we not that of Jehovah's habitcttion, but of his find that they had pitched, i. e. enc:imped, seat in state as Israel's King. In bringing in Aphek. As Aphek means afort1·ess, many the ark they brought to the camp the throne places bear the name; but the position of the of Jehovah, as their theocratic Ruler; but Philistine camp is fixed by its being near the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, both to Eben-czer and to Mizpah, nnd pro- were there with the ark, representing the bably, therefore, it was the Aphek in Judah immorality of the nation, whose ,·ery priest~ (Josl1. xii. 18). Eben-ezer, the stone of help, were abandoned men. \Ve are not to suppose hnu not as yet received this name (see eh. vii. that there was any fault in the m:mner of 12); and apparently it wns not a town, but a bringing, because it is said that the people monument set up in an open plain fit for the sent that they might bring the ark from pmposes of war, and which up to this time Shiloh. Levites may have curried it, anu had 110 specific appellation. priests with the Urim aml Thummim ham Ver. 2.-In the field means "in the open hau the charge of every detail. l\ut ther,, r.ountry." By a grndual change of language was the ill-omencu conjuncture of personal it now signifies cultivated ground, und even immorality with superstitious reHrcncc r,,r an enclosure, wh~reas in the A. V. it retains mere material symbols, and thcrcuy the prl'- its old meaning of unenclosed and uncul- sence of the nrk only insuretl, in the mutA tivated land (see 2 Kings iv. 39). government of God, Isrnel's defeat. Ver. 3. - "R'hen the people were come into Ver. 6.-But they, sure of its talismani~ the camp. Before the battle Israel had en- influence, shout fo1· joy as they sec its a['· trenched itself, so that upon its defeat it proach, ant! the Philistines ask the meaning had a pliv:e capable of defence into which to of the great shout in the oamp of the retire. We find also that their communica- Hebrews. This name is constantly gil'en tions were open, so that they could send to to the Israelites by those not belonging to Shiloh. The army is called the people be- them, and probably has a certain amount of cuuse b:1ttles were not fought in those days unimosity in it, us showing that they wero by mea specially trained, but by all the foreigners ; literally, passers over, people inhabitants of the country of the proper age. who in the person or Aumham ha,l L'ume The question, Wherefore bath Jehovah from the other side of the Enpht'1\<'s, an,\  8G THE FIRST DOOK OF S,UlUEL. L':n. 1v. 1-22.