The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 126

CHAPTER VII. tum of happier times. Even here it was the men of the city who sanctified Eleazar, and Ver. 1.-At Kirjath-jearim the people re- not a priest. verently undertook the charge of the ark, THE REFORMATION OF ISRAEL (vers. 2-6). and carried out their arrangements so care- Ver. 2. - While the ark, &c. The literai fully that no further calamity ,!Jccurred. On translation of this verse is, " And it came to its arrival they placed it in the houae of pass, from the day that the ark rested at Abinadab in the hill. More probably at Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long ; for Gibeah, as it is translated in 2 Sam. vi. it was twenty years." The words dwell 3, 4. In Josh. xv. 57 a village of this name• wearily upon the length of this mournful is mentioned in the tribe of Judah not far period, during which Israel was in a state of from Kir,iath-jearim (ibid. ver. 60), and pro- subjection.to the Philistines, with its national bably Abiillldab, who lived there, was 11 life crushed to the ground, am! its strength Levite, and so his house was chosen, and wasted by unjust exactions and misrule. his son Eleazar sanctified to keep the ark. For though the Philistines garn up the ark, The nan1es of both father and son are com- there was no restoration of the national mon in the Levitical genealogies, and none worship, nor did they abandon the political but a member of this tribe would have been fruits of their victory o.t Eben-ezer. llut selected for so holy a duty. If, however, quietly and calmly Samuel was 111.bouring to the translation in the hill be preferred, we put all things right. It was the principle may suppose that it was because lofty heights of the theocracy that Jehovah punishc,! his were still considered fit places for Jehovah's subjects for their sins by withdrawing his worship, or there may even have been a protection, nnd the.t on their rrpentance "high pince" there, of which Abinadab was he took ngain his place nt their he:ul as the keeper. What exactly were the duties their king, nnd delivered them. Snmuel's of Eleazar we cannot tell, as the word to keep whole effort, therefore, wns directc,l to bring- is very indefinite ; but probably, after tho ing the people to repentance. \\'hat me,uu (earful hiin at Shiloh, all regular services he use,i. we are not told, nor what was his and n· !'ifices were in abeyance •mtil tl,e re- mo,!e of life; but probably it W<\S that of a 122 THE FmST llOOK OF SAMUEL. [CH. VII. 1-17-.