Ver. 15.-Eli we.a ninety e.nd eight years He ha~ jndged Israel forty yeara. The old. Until the invention by the- Arabs of Septu~gint reads twentv, but these differ- the present system of numerals, all ancient ences rn numbers occur constantly. In either nations had e. most cumbrous sysfem of ex- case he would have been well advanced in pressing numbers. The Hebrew method was years before he reached the judgeship and to attach a value to each of the letters of the probably he attained to it slowly ; not by one alphabet, and then add them together, and great act, but by the qualities of a statesman thus the eighth and nineteenth letters would by which he lightened the yoke of the Phil is'. between them make up ninety-eight. Such tines, and rendered the people for a Ion" a system led to constant mistakes in copy- time a match for them in war. His charac~ ing, and thus the numerals in the earlier ter is not that of a hero, but of a wise, patient, parts of the Old Testament are beset with a~d prudent_ruler, but one whose good quali- uncertainty. Here the Septuagint has ninety, ties were spoiled at last by his,, ,ak partiality and the Syriac seventy-eight. But as Eli for his unworthy sons. was described already as "very old" in eh. Vers. 19-21.-Hia daughter-in-law. The ii. 22, the Hebrew text is the most probable. tleath of Eli's daughter-in-law is equally Instead of dim the Hebrew has set, i. e. Eli tragic with his own. The news of the ter- was now absolutely blind, as the word ex- rible calamity that had befallen the ark of presses the motionless state of the eye when God brought on a premature delivery; but obscured by cataract. In eh. iii. 2 e. differ- when she had given birth to a son, the ent word is used, rightly there translated attendant women naturally hoped that the "dim," as the disease is one which comes on good tidings would cheer the mother's heart. gradually. In I Kings xiv. 4 we read that They haste, therefore, to tell her; but she Ahijah was blind from the same cause, and answered not, neither did she regard it. This the word is there correctly rendered "set;" does not mean that she was already dead; if Vers. 16, 17.-Whe.t is there done, my so, the women would not have told her. It son 1 Literally, What is the thing 1 Or, as means that no private joy could compensate the phrase is translated in 2 Sam. i. 4, '' How her for the loss of the outward sign and proof went the matter 1" Eli must have gathered that the covenant of Jehovah was with her from the words of the messenger that Israel and her people. The loss of the ark seemed had been defeated ; for he expressly says, I to her to signify the overthrnw of her national fled, and his haste, as testified by the added religion. But she heard, for immediately words to day, showed that the defeat was a ahe named the child I-cha.bod. There is severe one. Eli, therefore, anxiously asks some doubt as to the exact meaning of the what has happened, and the answer piles word. It may mean Alas! the glo1-y; bm misery upon misery, rapidly heaping together more probably it signifies ~\'o-glo,-y-the four crushing catastrophes. For Israel had glory of Israel is no more. In the reason fled before the Philiatinea ; there had been given by the narrator for her sorrow, as a gree.t alaughter; among the slain were summed up in the name given to her chiltl, Eli's two sons ; and, worst of all. the ark of the deaths of Eli and of Phinehas are included, God was taken. but her own words refer only to the ark. Ver. 18.-At this last sac! news the old Literally they are, "The glory is gone into man's spirit failed; and though it was his captivity from Israel." There is possibly a own want of a firm sense of duty that had reference to this in Ps. lx.wiii. 61, where, prepared the way for this satl ruin of his speaking of the fall of Shiloh, the Psalmist country, yet we cannot but respect his deep says, "Their priests fell by the sword, and attachment and reverent love for the symbol their widows made no lamentation." Others, of his faith. The rest he could have borne ; it may be, like the wife of Phinehas, felt but that the ark of God, especially intrusteu that there was no rnom for private grief to his care, was now captive in heathen at a time of so gre,tt national distress and hands was a calamity that brnke his heart. humiliation.
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1 - 11. - JIoral ea uses of discuter. Assuming that the first sentence prope:ly belongs to the third chapter, am.I refers generally to the acceptance of Samuel as prophet by the whole nation, the section (vers. 1-11) sets forth the followino- facts :-1. Israel, suffering from subjection to the Philistines, enters on war for the recovery of freedom and suffer8 defeat. 2. Ordinary means failing, re- cour1r5 is had to the ark of God in order to insure sncce3s, 3. The visible presence of th5 ark nt once raises the courage and hope of Israel am! fills the Philistines with fear. 4. As a counter-stimulus to conflict, the Philist.1.es stir up their own love of freedom. 5. The battle i8sues in the heavy defeat of Israel, the death of 8J '111,~ FllG1' B,JOK 01<' SAi\lUJ<.:L.