1 Samuel 2:32

And thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation,.... Either the Philistines in the land of Israel, where God chose to dwell, who quickly after made war against Israel, and pitched in Aphek, 1 Samuel 4:1

And thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel: and there shall not be an old man in thine house for ever.

So the sense is, Thou shalt see, not in thy person, but in thy posterity, (it being most frequent in Scripture to attribute that to parents which properly belongs to their posterity only; as ,40) an enemy, i.e. thy competitor, or him who shall possess that place of high trust and honour which now thou enjoyest, (such persons being through man’ s corrupt nature esteemed as a man’ s worst enemy,) in my habitation, i.e. in the sanctuary. And then he adds by way of aggravation, that this sad accident should happen in all the wealth when God shall give Israel, i.e. in a time when God should eminently bless Israel, and make good all his promises to them, which was in Solomon’ s days, when Abiathar of Eli’ s race was put out of the high priesthood, and Zadok was put in his place, ,35, when the priesthood was most glorious, and most profitable, and comfortable, and therefore the loss of it more deplorable. But the words may be otherwise rendered, as is noted in the margin of our English Bibles: Thou shalt see, to wit, in thy own person, the affliction, or oppression, or calamity of my habitation, i.e. either of the land of Israel, wherein I dwell; or of the sanctuary, called the habitation by way of eminency, whose greatest glory the ark was, ,22, and consequently, whose greatest calamity the loss of the ark was; for, or instead of all that good wherewith God would have blessed Israel, or was about to bless Israel; having raised up a young prophet, Samuel, and thereby given good grounds of hope that he intended to bless Israel, if thou and thy sons had not hindered it by your sins, which God was resolved severely to punish. So this clause of the threatening concerns Eli’ s person, as the following concerns his posterity. And this best agrees with the most proper and usual signification of that phrase, Thou shalt see. For ever, i.e. as long as the priesthood continues in thy family, or as long as the Levitical priesthood lasts.

1 Samuel 2:32 And thou shalt see an enemy [in my] habitation, in all [the wealth] which [God] shall give Israel: and there shall not be an old man in thine house for ever.Ver. 32. And thou shalt see an enemy,] i.e., A rival, another high priest, viz., Zadok, set up by Solomon. "Thou shalt see it"; i.e., thy posterity shall, to their grief and regret: In all the wealth.] In the time of Solomon’ s most flourishing reign, the most gallant of that kingdom.

(32) And thou shalt see an enemy.—Some—e.g., the Vulgate—understand by enemy a “rival”: thou shalt see thy rival in the Temple. The words, however, point to something which Eli would live to see with grief and horror. The reference is no doubt to the capture of the Ark by the Philistines in the battle where his sons were slain. The earthly habitation of the Eternal was there robbed of its glory and pride, for the ark of the covenant was the heart of the sanctuary. In all the wealth which God shall give Israel.—“The affliction of God’s house from the loss of the ark remained while under the lead of Samuel there came blessing to the people.”—Erdmann.There is another explanation which refers the fulfilment of this part of the prophecy to the period of Solomon’s reign, when Abiathar, of the house of Eli, was deposed from the High Priestly dignity to make room for Zadok, but the reference to the capture of the ark is by far more probable.

Verse 32. Thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation] Every version and almost every commentator understands this clause differently. The word tsar, which we translate an enemy, and the Vulgate aemulum, a rival, signifies calamity; and this is the best sense to understand it in here. The calamity which he saw was the defeat of the Israelites, the capture of the ark, the death of his wicked sons, and the triumph of the Philistines. All this he saw, that is, knew to have taken place, before he met with his own tragical death. In all the wealth which God shall give Israel] This also is dark. The meaning may be this: God has spoken good concerning Israel; he will, in the end, make the triumph of the Philistines their own confusion; and the capture of the ark shall be the desolation of their gods; but the Israelites shall first be sorely pressed with calamity. See the margin. There shall not be an old man] This is repeated from the preceding verse, all the family shall die in the flower of their years, as is said in the following verse.

32. thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation] Or, a rival, the same word as that rendered “adversary” in 1 Samuel 1:6. The best explanation of this difficult passage appears to be this: ‘Thou, in the person of thy descendants, wilt see another take thy place as priest in my habitation (cp. 1 Samuel 2:29), at the time when the nation shall be most prosperous and the office most honourable;’ the reference being to Abiathar’s deposition by Solomon (1 Kings 2:27). The words might also be translated “Thou shalt behold the distress of my habitation” (cp. E. V. margin), and would then refer to the neglect which the tabernacle suffered owing to the loss of the Ark, even while the nation was prospering under Samuel and Saul. Such neglect would be a punishment on the house of Eli, because the High-priest for the time would lose his position and influence. The Sept. however omits 1 Samuel 2:32, and there are other grounds for suspecting that the present Heb. text of this verse as well as of 1 Samuel 2:29 is corrupt. wealth] Here in the sense of “weal,” “well-being,” as in the Litany ‘In all time of our wealth.’

The original text is rather obscure and difficult of construction, but the King James Version probably gives the sense of it. The margin gives another meaning.

32. Thou shalt see an enemy — There can be given no satisfactory exposition of this verse as it stands in the authorized version, or by understanding either Samuel or Zadok to be the enemy referred to.