1 Samuel 4

1. Israel went out against the Philistines. This connects the subsequent history with that in Judges xvi. Samson was now living.

Eben-ezer. “Stone of help.” The name Eben-ezer was given to this place twenty years later, but before this history was written, “Aphek,” or, fortress, the same as in Josh. xv. 53: but not as in xxix. 1. These places lay a few miles north or north-west of Jerusalem, but have not been absolutely identified.

5 the ark of the covenant. The exultation of the Israelites and the alarm of the Philistines, when the ark was brought into the camp, indicate gross and unworthy conceptions of the Divine Being in the minds of both nations. They superstitiously imagined that the outward symbol insured the actual presence and help of the Almighty. See, in contrast with this, David’s intelligent faith, 2 Sam. xv. 25, 26.

8 with all the plagues. Or, “with every kind of plague and pestilence.” “In the wilderness” is an error in translation.

11 the ark of God was taken. The capture of the Ark now, and the destruction of the Temple in after times, would tend to give the Hebrews more correct views of the spirituality of God whose presence and power they were too prone to limit.

13 his heart trembled. Eli evidently distrusted the result of this superstitious expedient, which, however, he was too feeble-minded to forbid. The effect of the capture of the Ark on his aged frame, affecting him even more than his heavy family disasters, proves that, with all his weakness, there was true religious feeling.