The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 106

ing to fulfil the conditions according to which alone he can dwell among them. 2. H is often held out as a warning. 3. It has actually occurred (Ezek. x. 18). "Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner temple, as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that in the first place they felt a quaking and heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude, saying,' Let us depart hence.'" (Joseph., 1 Wars,' vi. 5, 3). The warnings given to the seven Churches of Asia (Rev. ii., iii.) were neglected, and the evils predicted came to pass. The candlestick was removed out of its place (Rev. ii. 5), and darkness and desolation succeeded. "But though particular Churches may fall, our Lord's promise will never fail the Catholic Church: 'Lo, I am with you nlway, even to the end of the world'" (' Sp. Com.'). Concluswn :-1. The presence of God should be accounted by us the grnatest blessing, and his departure dreaded as the greatest calamity. 2. Whatev_~~- con- tributes to his departure must be zealously renounced or corrected (Lam. 111. 40). 3. No condition is altogether hopeless. "If from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God thou shalt find him," &c. (Deut. iv. 29). The glory of Israel, which, it was tho~ght, bad gone for ever, was restored ; and out of the night of sorrow a new day was born.-D. EXPOSITION. people from utter demoralisation. But upon CH.APTER V. all this Scripture is silent, because it con- THE ARK OF GoD IN PHILISTJA (vers. cerns the history of Israel on its temporal 1-12). Ver. 1.-The Philistines took the side, and not as it exemplifies God's spirit- ark of God. The silence of Scripture is ual dealings with nations and men. From often as remarkable as what it tells us. Eben-ezer (see on eh. iv. 1) Ullto Ashdod. From Ps. lxxviii. 60-64 ; J er. vii. 12 ; xxvi. This town, the Azotus of Acts viii. 40, was 9, we gather that from Aphek the Philistines with Ekron and other Philistine cities, as- marched upon Shiloh, and having captured signed to the tribe of Judah (Josh. xv. 4i), it, put all whom they found there to the but never actually conquered. It lay near sword, and levelled the buildings to the the sea, about thirty-two miles north of ground. Especially their wrath fell upon Gaza, and is now an unimportant village, the priests, in revenge for the bringing of still bearing the name of Esd ud. Of the the ark to the camp, by which the war was five Philistine capitals Ashdod and Gaza made a religious one, and the worst feelings were of the most importance, as being the of fanaticism aroused. Of all this the his- keys of Egypt, and the former was also en- tory says nothing, nor of the measures taken riched by the sale of the produce of Arabia, by Samuel under these trying circumstances. of which it was the emporium. From his previous eminence, the government Ver. 2.-When the Philistines, &c. The would naturally devolve upon him, especially words are exactly' the same as those in as Eli's sons were both slain; and evidently ver. 1, viz. " And the Philistines took the he must have managed in some way to save ark of God, and brought it," marking the the sacred vessels of the sanctuary, and the simplicity of ancient narrative. Dagon is numerous records of the past history of the derived by Philo from dagan, "corn," and n~tion laid Uft di Shiloh. Whatever learn- is explained by him as nu emblem of the ing there was in Israel had its seat there; it earth's fertility ; but as the shape of this w~s probably the only school wherein men national deity of the Philistines wns cer- were initiated in the knowledge brought out tainly that of a man to the waist, ending in of Egypt ; and it is one of the worst and the body and tail of a fish, the true deriv- most barbarous results of war that it destroys ation is doubtless that from dag, '' n fish." so much connected with human progress and It represented, however, not so much the civilisation, overthrowing with its violent sea, on which the Philistines trafficked, as hand as well the means of a nation's culture the fruitfulness of water, which in the East as the results thereof. Samuel evidently did is looked upon as the active principle of life all that was possible to C()unteract these (comp. Gen. i. 20). In one of the sculptures evils ; and as the Philistine army withdrew brought from Khorsabad there is a representa- into its own country immediately after the tion of a battle between the Assyrians and the destruction of Shiloh, probably to carry inhabitants of the Syrian sea-coast, and in it home the ri Jh spoils obtained there, he was there is a figure, the upper part of which is apparently able to ward off the worst effects CL bearded man with a crown, while from the of the Philutine invasion, and by rapidly waist downwards it has the shape of a !lsh reoriranising the government to save the (Layanl's 'Nineveh,' ii. 466). Moreover, it ia  1()2 TIIE FIHSl' BOOK OF SAMUEL. [en. v. 1--12