1 Samuel 1

1. Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim, of the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite : and he had two wives ; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah : and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. And this man went up out of his city from year to year to worship and to sacrifice unto the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, priests unto the LORD, were there. And when the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions : but unto Hannah he gave a double portion : for he loved Hannah, but the LORD had shut up her womb. And her rival provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb. And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her ; therefore she wept, and did not eat. And Elkanah her husband said unto her, Hannah, why weepest thou ? and why eatest thou not ? and why is thy heart grieved ? am not I better to thee than ten sons ? So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon his seat by the door post of the temple of the LORD. And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head. And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the LORD, that Eli marked her mouth. Now Hannah, she spake in her heart ; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard : therefore Eli thought she had been drunken. And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken ? put away thy wine from thee. And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit : I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I poured out my soul before the LORD. Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial ; for out of the abundance of my complaint and my provocation have I spoken hitherto. Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace : and the God of Israel grant thy petition that thou hast asked of him. And she said, Let thy servant find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad. And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the LORD, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah : and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife ; and the LORD remembered her. And it came to pass, when the time was come about, that Hannah conceived, and bare a son ; and she called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD. And the man Elkanah, and all his house, went up to offer unto the LORD the yearly sacrifice, and his vow. But Hannah went not up ; for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the LORD, and there abide forever. And Elkanah her husband said unto her, Do what seemeth thee good ; tarry until thou have weaned him ; only the LORD establish his word. So the woman tarried and gave her son suck, until she weaned him. And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of meal, and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the LORD in Shiloh : and the child was young. And they slew the bullock, and brought the child to Eli. And she said, Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the LORD. For this child I prayed ; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him : therefore I also have granted him to the LORD ; as long as he liveth he is granted to the LORD. And he worshipped the LORD there.

2 1 And Hannah prayed, and said : My heart exulteth in the LORD, Mine horn is exalted in the LORD :

My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies ; Because I rejoice in thy salvation.

2. There is none holy as the LORD; For there is none beside thee: Neither is there any rock like our God.3 Talk no more so exceeding proudly; Let not arrogance come out of your mouth: For the LORD is a God of knowledge, And by him actions are weighed.4 The bows of the mighty men are broken, And they that stumbled are girded with strength.5 They that were full have hired out themselves for bread; And they that were hungry have ceased: Yea, the barren hath borne seven; And she that hath many children languisheth.6 The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.7 The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: He bringeth low, he also lifteth up.

8. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, He lifteth up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes, And inherit the throne of glory: For the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s, And he hath set the world upon them.9 He will keep the feet of his holy ones, But the wicked shall be put to silence in darkness; For by strength shall no man prevail.10 They that strive with the LORD shall be broken to pieces; Against them shall he thunder in heaven: The LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; And he shall give strength unto his king, And exalt the horn of his anointed.11 And Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. And the child did minister unto the LORD before Eli the priest.

The First Book of Samuel, after a gap of uncertain length, takes up the thread of Jewish history where it was dropped in the Book of Judges, at the close of the history of Samson. The Philistines are still formidable enemies of Israel, strong enough to put their armies to the rout and inflict crushing loss upon them. E. V. —For Introduction, see p. 28. B.

1 : 1-8. We have here an account of the state of the family into which Samuel the prophet was born. His father’s name was Elkanah, a Levite, and of the family of the Kohathites, the most honorable house of that tribe. His ancestor Zuph was an Ephrathite—that is, of Bethlehem-judah which was called Ephrathah (Ruth 1 : 2). There this family of the Levites was first seated, but one branch of it in process of time removed to Mount Ephraim, from which Elkanah descended. H.

3. The Lord of Hosts.** The title Jehovah Tsebdoth translated “Lord of hosts” meets us here for the first time in the Old Testament. In the various forms “Lord of hosts,” “Lord God of hosts,” “God of hosts,” it is found in the Books of Samuel (and the parallel passages in 1 Chron.), Kings, the first three books of Psalms, very frequently in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Minor Prophets. Whatever its origin, it should be noted that the title first appears simultaneously with the foundation of the Monarchy. It is used by David in Ps. 24 : 10, as the loftiest title of Jehovah. May we not then take “hosts” in its widest sense, including both earthly and heavenly hosts, and see in the title a proclamation of the universal sovereignty of Jehovah, needed within the nation, lest that invisible sovereignty should be forgotten in the visible majesty of the king; and outside the nation, lest Jehovah should be supposed to be merely a national deity? In this larger sense it includes the idea that the sovereign power was specially exercised on behalf of the covenant people, and that “the Lord of hosts” was “the God of the armies of Israel” (1 S. 17 : 45). The true pronunciation is almost certainly lost. Jehovah is a combination of the consonants of the Name with the vowels of Adonai which are now written with it in the Hebrew text. Modern grammarians argue that it ought to be read Yahveh or Yahaveh; but Jehovah seems firmly rooted in the English language, and the really important point is not the exact pronunciation, but to bear in mind that it is a Proper Name, not merely an appellative title like Lord. A. F. K.

4,5. Elkanah’s marrying two wives was a transgression of the original institution of marriage, to which our Saviour reduces it (Matt. 19 : 5, 8). From the beginning it was not so. It made mischief in Abraham’s family, and Jacob’s, and here in Elkanah’s: how much better does the law of God provide for our comfort and ease in this world than we should, if we were left to ourselves! H. —The law does indeed tolerate polygamy but does not sanction it, and provides against the wrongs that easily spring from it. In general, monogamy remained predominant among the people of Israel; in fact, the description of a wife in Prov. 12 : 4 ; 19 : 14 ; 31 : 10, and in particular the prophetic representation of the covenant between Jehovah and His people as marriage, clearly presuppose that monogamy is the rule. O.

9. They are at Shiloh, at the door of the tabernacle, where God had promised to meet his people, and which was the house of prayer. They had offered their peace-offerings, to obtain the favor of God and all good, and in token of their communion with him ; and taking the comfort of their being accepted of him they had feasted upon the sacrifice, and now it was proper to put up her prayer in virtue of that sacrifice. H.

10,11. Whatsoever the complaint be, here is the remedy. There is one universal receipt for all evils, prayer ; when all helps fail us, this remains ; and while we have a heart, comforts it. Here was not more bitterness in the soul of Hannah than fervency : she did not only weep and pray, but vow unto God. If God will give her a son, she will give her son to God back again. The way to obtain any benefit is, to devote it in our hearts to the glory of that God of whom we ask it : by this means shall God both pleasure his servant and honor himself : whereas if the scope of our desires be carnal, we may be sure either to fail of our suit or of a blessing. Bp. H.

These griefs of Hannah’s heart are brought before us to show why she cast her burden so earnestly upon the Lord, and how it came to pass that Samuel was a child of many and mighty prayers before he was born. Her record as a praying mother is priceless for our common humanity. It cannot be said too emphatically that hers was the true idea of woman’s mission. The names of only a few women stand embalmed for all time on the pages of God’s ancient word. Almost without exception, those few names are there, exalted to that high honor, because they were true mothers. H. C.

13. The heart may pray when there are no audible words, as in the case of Hannah, and such prayer shall find access to the Throne of Grace ! and there may be many words without anything of the spirit of prayer accompanying them. Whosoever is made sensible of his own weakness and of Christ’s all-sufficiency, as well as of the continual blessings which he has received, is receiving and hopes to receive from above, can never be long without a silent mental ejaculation at least ; and such will find its way to the Throne of Grace, be the posture of the body what it may. Every real Christian knows well what it is to lift up his heart to God while he is walking, travelling, working, lying on his bed, and even when he is in company ; and often is he holding an intercourse with Heaven, while those about him are busied only with the world. Hcl.

14. Good men and kind are often unmerciful in their thoughts. Eli was unmerciful, when because he saw Hannah’s lips passionately moving as she prayed in bitterness of soul, he counted that she had been drunken, and rebuked her as a daughter of Belial. We, too, are unmerciful in our thoughts as often as we give the worst interpretation to the words and actions of others. How many of these words and actions are capable of being taken by two handles, are patient of two interpretations—a good interpretation and a bad ! We are unmerciful when without necessity we are judges of evil thoughts, when we suspect meanness, littleness, untruthfulness, not to speak of worse surmisings, in others. The merciful in thought give no room in their hearts for suspicions such as these. They take everything by the fairest handle which it offers. Trench.

17. Now Eli sees his error, and recants it ; and, to make amends for his rash censure, prays for her. Even the best may err, but not persist in it : when good natures have offended, they are unquiet till they have hastened satisfaction. This was within his office, to pray for the distressed. Bp. H.

18. Her countenance was no more sad. She began her devotions in sorrow ; she concludes them in thankfulness and joy. Great is the peace of that heart which has unburdened its cares, and addressed its fervent supplications to God. When we have sought unto God in our distress, we shall obtain either relief or patience. Bp. H.—She had by prayer committed her case to God, and left it with him ; and now she was no more perplexed about it. She had prayed for herself, and Eli had prayed for her ; and she believed that God would either give her the mercy she had prayed for, or make up the want of it to her some other way. Prayer is heart’s ease to a gracious soul ; the seed of Jacob have found it so, being confident that God will never say unto them, Seek ye me in vain. Prayer will smooth the countenance ; it should do so. H.

20. The God of Israel granted her her petition that she had asked of Him. The child which she had prayed for was sent her. She had looked forward to this child’s becoming nothing more than a Nazarite—one specially dedicated to God, and employed all the days of his life in the service of the tabernacle and in its holy ministries. But God gave her for a son a great prophet, the first of a long succession of prophets, and one who was destined to found the monarchy of Israel. He is wont to give more than either we desire or deserve. E. M. G.

Called his name Samuel. She would perpetuate the remembrance of God’s favor to her in answering her prayers. Thus she designed upon every mention of his name to take the comfort to herself, and to give God the glory of that gracious condescension. How many seasonable deliverances and supplies may we call Samuel, asked of God; and whatever is so we are in a special manner engaged to devote to him. Hannah intended by this name to put her son in mind of the obligation he was under to be the Lord’s, in consideration of this, that he was asked of God and was at the same time dedicated to him. H.

24. At last, when the child was weaned, she goes up and pays her vow; and with it pays the interest of her intermission. Never did Hannah go up with so glad a heart to Shiloh, as now that she carries God this reasonable present which himself gave to her, and she vowed to him; accompanied with the bounty of other sacrifices more in number and measure than the law of God required of her; and all this is too little for her God, that so mercifully remembered her affliction and miraculously remedied it. Bp. H.—So far was she from thinking that by presenting her son to God she made God her Debtor, that she thought it requisite by these slain offerings to seek God’s acceptance of her living sacrifice. All our covenants with God for ourselves and ours must be made by sacrifice, the great Sacrifice. H.

28. Elkanah must have been a consenting party to Hannah’s vow, in accordance with the law of Num. 30. Nevertheless, as the first thought of this dedication was Hannah’s, Elkanah allows her to take the first part in the transaction, and keeps himself in the background. Yet there are traces of his having been a party to the whole proceeding. In verse 25 we read that “they slew a bullock, and brought the child to Eli”—not that she alone did so; and in verse 28 we are told that “he worshipped the Lord there.” The “he” is probably Elkanah, who, as head of the family, representative of his wife and child, and as responsible for and concerned in the presentation, offered an act of solemn worship to the Lord. E. M. G.

Ch. 2.

Comprehensively, this lofty Psalm refers to the perfections of Jehovah’s character, the wide-reaching operations of His Providence, and the universal establishment of His kingdom. B.

The spirit of Hannah prophesied of the Christian religion, the city of God; whose King and Founder is Christ: and of the grace of God, from which the proud are estranged, but with which the humble are filled. Aug.—This admirable hymn excels in simplicity of composition, closeness of connection, and uniformity of sentiment; in the breathing of a devout mind, deeply impressed with a conviction of God’s mercies to herself in particular, and of his providential government of the world in general; in exalting the poor in spirit or the humble minded, and abasing the rich and arrogant, rewarding the righteous, and punishing the wicked. Hannah foretells not only the more immediate judgments of God on the Philistines during her son’s administration, but his remoter judgments on “the ends of the earth” (verse 10) in the true spirit of the prophecies of Jacob, Balaam, and Moses. Like them, she describes the promised Saviour of the world as a King, before there was any king in Israel: and she first applied to him the remarkable epithet, Messiah in Hebrew, Christ in Greek, and Anointed in English; which was adopted by all the succeeding prophets of the Old Testament, and by the apostles and prophets of the New. Hales.

At the close of her song, she breaks forth into a sublime and glowing delineation of the final exaltation and triumph of the King of Zion. And as if to remove every shadow of doubt as to this being the purport and design of Hannah’s song, when we open the record of that better era which she but described in the remote distance, we find the Virgin Mary, in her song of praise at the announcement of Messiah’s birth, re-echoing the sentiments, and sometimes even repeating the very words, of the mother of Samuel. Why should the Spirit, breathing at such a time in the soul of Mary, have turned her thoughts so nearly into the channel that had been struck out ages before by the pious Hannah? Or why should the circumstances connected with the birth of Hannah’s Nazarite offspring have proved the occasion of strains which so distinctly pointed to the manifestation of the King of Glory, and so closely harmonized with those actually sung in celebration of the event? Doubtless to mark the connection really subsisting between the two. It is the Spirit’s own intimation of His ulterior design in transactions long since past, and testimonies delivered centuries before—namely, to herald the advent of Messiah, and familiarize the children of the kingdom with the essential character of the coming dispensation. P. F.

2: 1. Prayed. Observe the word prayer, as applied to this song of Hannah’s. There is nothing asked of God in it from beginning to end. She had already asked for what she desired, and asked it privately. And her “Father which seeth in secret” had rewarded her “openly,” by giving her the child she asked for. And her acknowledgment must be as public as His mercies. Therefore she bursts forth into a song of thanksgiving and praise, here called a prayer; for the homage we render to God, being the principal thing in prayer, and more important than the mere asking for what we want, is in Scripture called prayer. “Hallowed be thy name” is prayer, quite as much as “Give us this day our daily bread.”

2,3. Hannah rehearses three of God’s perfections. She speaks of His holiness; “There is none holy as the Lord.” Mary the Virgin echoes her, when in her song she says; “Holy is his name.” The earliest meaning of the Hebrew word translated “holy” is “clean, pure.” Sin is regarded as the defilement of the mind, just as uncleanness is a defilement of the body. And when God, or His name (that is, His character), is said to be holy, the meaning is that He is altogether free from sin, and absolutely good—perfectly just, perfectly true, perfectly loving. Next Hannah speaks of the power of God. “Neither is there any rock,” says she, “like our God.” So Mary in her song calls God, “He that is mighty;” and says, “He hath showed strength with his arm.” The third attribute of God which Hannah speaks of is His wisdom. “The Lord,” she says, “is a God of knowledge,” and she gives this proof of it, that “by him actions are weighed.” His knowledge reaches to the depths of the character; He is “a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” E. M. G.

God is infinitely holy, creatures finitely holy. He is holy from Himself, creatures are holy by derivation from Him. He is not only holy, but holiness; holiness in the highest degree is His sole prerogative. It is the essential glory of His nature: His holiness is as necessary as His being, as necessary as His omniscience; as He cannot but know what is right, so He cannot but do what is just. There can be no contradiction or contrariety in the Divine nature, to know what is right, and to do what is wrong: if so there would be a diminution of His blessedness, He would not be a God always blessed, blessed forever, as He is. He is as necessarily holy as He is necessarily God; as necessarily without sin as without change. As He was God from eternity, so He was holy from eternity. He was gracious, merciful, just in His own nature, and also holy, though no creature had been framed by Him to exercise His grace, mercy, justice, or holiness upon. If God had not created a world, He had in His own nature been Almighty, and able to create a world. If there never had been anything but Himself, yet He had been omniscient, knowing everything that was within the verge and compass of His infinite power; so He was pure in His own nature, though He never had brought forth any rational creature whereby to manifest this purity. These perfections are so necessary that the nature of God could not subsist without them. Charnock.

6. God is the sovereign Lord of life and death. The Lord killeh and makeh alice. He presides in births and burials. Death is his messenger, strikes whom and when he bids; none are brought to the dust but it is he that brings them down, for in his hand are the keys of death and the grave. Whenever any are born, it is he that makes them alice. Whenever any are recovered from sickness, and delivered from imminent perils, it is God that bringeth up, for to him belong the issues from death.

7,8. Advancement and abasement are both from him. He brings some low and lifts up others, humbles the proud and gives grace and honor to the lowly; lays those in the dust that would vie with the God above them, and trample upon all about them (Job 40: 12, 13); but lifts up those with his salvation that humble themselves before him; those whom he had brought low, when they are sufficiently humbled, he lifteth up. H.

9,10. A prediction of the preservation and advancement of all God’s faithful friends, and the destruction of all his and their enemies. Having testified her joyful triumph in what God had done, and is doing, she concludes with joyful hopes of what he would do. He will keep the feet of his saints. There are a people in the world that are God’s saints, his select and sanctified ones; and he will keep their feet—that is, all that belongs to them shall be under his protection, he will secure the ground they stand on and establish their goings; he will set a guard of grace upon their affections and actions, that their feet may neither wander out of the way nor stumble in the way. When their feet are ready to slip, his mercy holdeth them up, and keepeth them from falling. While we keep God’s ways, he will keep our feet. H.

10. She speaks of Christ. And she is the first inspired person who speaks of Him under the name so familiar to us,—the name of Messiah, or Christ—that is, the anointed One, “God,” says she, “shall exalt the horn of his Messiah,” that is, shall give to his Messiah overwhelming power and victory, shall put all things under Messiah’s feet. E. M. G.

The power and honor of Messiah the Prince shall grow and increase more and more. He shall give strength unto his King, for the accomplishing of his great undertaking, strengthen him to go through the difficulties of his humiliation, and in his exaltation he will lift up the head (Ps. 110 : 7), lift up the horn, the power and honor of his anointed, and make him higher than the kings of the earth (Ps. 89 : 27). This crowns the triumph, and is, more than anything, the matter of her exaltation. Her horn is exalted (verse 1), because she foresees the horn of the Messiah will be so. This secures the hope; the subjects of Christ’s kingdom will be safe, and the enemies of it will be ruined, for the Anointed, the Lord Christ, is girt with strength, and is able to save and destroy unto the uttermost. H.—The exaltation of the horn of the anointed of Jehovah commenced with the victorious and splendid expansion of the power of David, was repeated with every victory over the enemies of God and his kingdom gained by the successive kings of David’s house, goes on in the advancing spread of the kingdom of Christ, and will eventually attain to its eternal consummation in the judgment of the last day, through which all the enemies of Christ will be made his footstool. Keil.

What is the great lesson of this song? That for the answer to prayer, for deliverance from trial, for the fulfilment of hopes, for the glorious things yet spoken of the city of our God, our most cordial thanksgivings are due to God. Every Christian life presents numberless occasions that very specially call for such thanksgiving. But there is one thanksgiving that must take precedence of all—“Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” W. G. B.

II Samuel’s early connection with the sanctuary had its strengthening and educating effect. It was in the midst of the sanctuary that the Lord’s presence became manifest to him, and that the Divine voice sounded clearly and intelligibly in his ears. We may gather from the fact that there is great virtue in early and affectionate association with the church, and in earnest participation in things that concern the church. Things become related to us only by our coming into affectionate relation with them. There was room in the tabernacle at Shiloh for the young

Samuel to do something. He was not only early planted in the house of the Lord, but early established also in the practical service of the Lord. But great as is the supplementary service which the church can render the child, the home is at once his physical birthplace and his proper spiritual birthplace. It is a Spanish proverb that an ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy. The home is the first church, the hearth-stone the first altar, and the father and mother the first priests. The home-atmosphere is the element in which all the material suited to the nurture of the child becomes prepared and adapted. And so the more home there is in the home, the more readily and completely does it fulfil its offices as a child-church. It is for this reason that no prayers ever touch us so tenderly or remain with us so faithfully as the home prayers. C. H. P.

Godliness in children is accounted by Christians generally to be extraordinary, or at least uncommon, and perhaps there are but few godly children. But there is no theory of Christian doctrine which excludes children from the experience and practice of godly life. In the present state of human nature, the two fundamental principles of religious life are repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, and there is nothing in childhood which prevents repentance and faith becoming living and abiding sources of action in children. We admit that a child’s knowledge of sin is necessarily small, that its sense of sin is feeble, and its sorrow for sin shallow. But then it must be remembered that, comparatively speaking, the actual transgressions of children are but few, and that godly sorrow is a slow growth, even in the adult convert. If the understanding of a child be less enlightened, the soul is more sensitive; if the judgment be less formed, the conscience is more tender; if there be but little strength of purpose, the heart is less hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. If decided piety be within reach of a child, how is it that the absence of godliness from children does not more distress us, and that piety in children is not more our aim and hope, and that it is not more frequently the burden of our prayer? Because godliness is not looked for in children; it is not seen where in many cases it exists; and the signs of it are not trusted when they are clearly manifest. Godly children are God’s workmanship, created by Jesus Christ, and if we would be the means of leading children into true godliness, we must bid them look to our Saviour Jesus. S. Martin.

BASENESS OF ELI’S SONS. GOD’S CHARGE AGAINST ELI, AND FOREWARNING OF FEARFUL PUNISHMENT. CALL OF SAMUEL, AND HIS ESTABLISHMENT AS THE FIRST PROPHET IN ISRAEL.