CHAPTER 1
1. Now there was a certain man from the Ramathayim-Tzofim of the mountainous [region of] Efrayim, and his name was Elqanah the son of Y’rokham the son of Elihu the son of Tokhu the son of an Efrayimite [named] Tzuf.
Ramathayim-Tzofim means “twin heights of those on the lookout”. It is traditionally only a few miles north of Yerushalayim—within sight of the northern part of the city today. Jews, Christians, and Muslims all accept the site now called Nebi Samwil (“prophet Shmu’el” in Arabic) as the place of both his birth and burial (which we are told in 28:3 are the same). An elaborate tomb is there, but the problem with this is that it is not in Efrayim’s tribal lands, but Binyamin’s. Three other possible sites have been suggested: the modern Arabic towns of Er-Ram (also in Binyamin), Ramallah (well-known seat of “Palestinian” government, which is barely in Efrayim’s territory), and Beit Rama (which is well within the territory and on the edge of the mountainous region). None of them is very far from Shiloh, where the Tabernacle was housed, or Beyth-El, Giv’ah, and Mitzpah, which were featured heavily in the book of Judges. Shmu’el may have been old enough to witness some of the events that took place in these towns as recorded in its final chapters. In verse 19 the name is shortened to simply “Ramath”—the height. In 28:3 it is called “Ramah”. Elqanah means “Elohim has acquired”. Y’rokham means “He will have compassion”. Elihu means “He is my Elohim”. Tokhu means “suppressed”. Tzuf means “an overflowing honeycomb”. The Aramaic targum calls Tzuf “a man dividing a share in the holy things in the hill country of the house of Efrayim”. Since he was not of the priestly tribe of Levi, but Shiloh is in the territory of Efrayim, it could be that he owned some of the land on which the Tabernacle sat or on which some of the priests dwelt.
2. And he had two wives. The name of one was Khannah, and the name of the second was P’ninah. Now P’ninah had children, but Khannah had no children.
Since P’ninah (“jewel”) is the second wife, he probably married her because Khannah (“favor”) could not have children, but, like Yaaqov, Elqanah continued to prefer the wife of his youth, though his second wife was more fruitful, and did not divorce her as many would have. This, however, did not stop her childlessness from bothering her.
3. This man went up from his city year by year to worship and slaughter to YHWH [Master] of Armies in Shiloh when Eli’s two sons, Khawfni and Pin’khas, were priests for YHWH.
Year by year: literally, from days into days—probably meaning every one of the pilgrim feasts. Priests: literally, officiators. Eli means “my ascension”. No genealogy is given showing his pedigree, but in 2:27 Aharon is alluded to as his ancestor, and he is called “YHWH’s priest” in 14:3. Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews 5:9:1) places him as “governor of the Israelites” after the death of Shimshon and as a contemporary of Ruth. There he gives him the full title of “high priest”, whereas our text here only calls him a “priest”. Khawfni means “my fist” and Pin’khas means “bronze mouth”; he was named after one of his most illustrious ancestors.
4. When the day would come when Elqanah [went and] slaughtered, he would give [assigned] portions to his wife P’ninah and to all her sons,
Assigned portions: of the meat of the slaughtered animals. We are commanded to eat our portion of the offerings before YHWH and rejoice. (Deut. 12:5-7) Not living very far from Shiloh, the family undoubtedly went up not only to every prescribed feast, but also to bring other thanks offering when YHWH did something extraordinary, or simply whenever they wished to slaughter an animal to eat, as it could not be consumed without giving a portion to the priests (Lev. 17:4-5). Being a wealthy family (as evidenced throughout the chapter), they must have had plenty of cattle and flocks for this purpose. There would not be enough room inside the Tabernacle courtyard to have so many people feasting, so they would probably eat within the Tabernacle’s outer precincts among the Levites’ homes.
5. but to Khannah he would give one double portion, because he preferred Khannah, though YHWH had closed up her womb.
Double: from a word meaning “a pair of nostrils”—possibly an idiom that originated with YHWH’s statement that He would provide for the complaining Israelites so much meat that eat would come out their nostrils. (Num. 11:20) But the word more often refers to anger than a literal nose, so it may be that Khannah was given enough to anger P’ninah, who in turned poked back at her. (v. 6) Closed up: not rendered barren, but simply having the fruit withheld. It is as if He had reserved it for one special seed alone. There was a similar pattern seen in Sarah, Rivqah, Rakhel, Shimshon’s mother, and Elisheva, mother of Yochanan the Immerser—a lifelong lack of children until one very special child was born, often very late in life. YHWH was setting the stage for someone very significant in His eyes to open their wombs.
6. But her rival [wife] provoked her even to the point of anger by which she crossed over into trembling with rage since YHWH had closed up her womb to such a degree.
7. And He did the same year after year. As often as she went up to the House of YHWH, that often would she provoke her to anger, so that she would shed tears and not eat.
8. But Elqanah her husband would say to her, “Khannah, why do you keep crying? And why don’t you eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I myself not better for you than ten sons?”
Such modesty! He understood the stigma that childlessness brought to a woman, but was trying to cheer her up, reminding her to “count her blessings”. He was also rebuking her with the reminder that they had come for the purpose of giving thanks for what she did have, not to complain about what she did not. Better: or, of more benefit.
9. And Khannah got up after [they] ate in Shiloh and after [they] drank, while Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the [sanctuary] hall of YHWH
Hall: the same word later used for “temple”, though at Shiloh we only know that there was a foundation built for the Tabernacle, and the curtains prescribed for use in the wilderness had been replaced by stone walls. There would not have been a roof over the four prescribed coverings, but the structure was permanent enough to have left remnants visible even today—over 3,000 years later! Sitting: Based on Deut. 10:8 and 18:5, 7, priests and Levites would not sit down anywhere within the actual courtyard where they ministered to YHWH, but outside the gateway into that courtyard he could sit. We know that he was already a very elderly man and very heavy (4:18), and would have difficulty standing for long periods.
10. And she was bitter of soul, and she prayed to YHWH and wept with [many] tears.
11. And she made a vow and said, “O YHWH [Master] of Armies! If you will indeed look on the misery of your bond-woman and remember me and not forget your servant-woman, and give to your bond-woman the seed of men, then I will dedicate him to YHWH all the days of his life, and no razor will come up over his head.”
Razor: literally, remover or changer. In other words, he would be a Nazir from birth, as Shimshon had been. (See Numbers 6:2ff.)
12. Because she prayed so long before YHWH, Eli started watching her mouth.
13. Now Khannah [was] speaking in her heart; only her mouth was moving, but her voice was not heard, so Eli thought she was drunk!
Based on what Elqanah had told her (v. 8), she may have been praying silently so no one else would have to hear her complaints.
14. So Eli said to her, “How long will you be drunken? Put away your wine from upon you!”
Aramaic targum: “Let your wine evaporate from you!”
15. But Khannah answered and said, “No, my master. A woman with a burdened spirit I am, and I have drunk neither wine nor intoxicating drink, but I have been pouring out my emotion before YHWH.
What she had drunk (v. 9) must not have been fermented. Pouring out my emotion: Aramaic targum, I have told the sorrow of my soul in prayer.
16. “Do not write off your servant-woman as the face of a daughter of worthlessness, because all along I have been speaking from the abundance of the thoughts I have put forth--and my frustration.”
Write off: literally, give or assign. Worthlessness: or, one who is unprofitable. The Hebrew term is Beli’al, which means “not ascending”, but the term seems to have been used for a particular demon at times, and this context suggests that it may have been the equivalent of Bacchus/Dionysus, the god of wine. Thoughts: Aramaic, jealousy.
17. So Eli replied and said, “Go in peace, and may the Elohim of Israel grant you the request that you have asked from Him.
Or, and Elohim…will grant you. She seems to have taken this as a promise. (v. 18) The word of a high priest would be taken very seriously, and counted as a blessing. At least it gave her enough hope to escape her depression.
18. And she said, “May your servant-woman find favor in your eyes.” And the woman went her way and ate, and her face was not toward herself any longer.
Not toward herself: the targum takes this as meaning, “her face was not sad”. Ate: The first time, her husband had pressed her to eat (v. 8, 9), but this time she had the right attitude and also appears to have regained her appetite. She is no longer worried, but is concentrating again on walking in the right season.
19. And they got up early in the morning and bowed down [in homage] before YHWH, and they went back and came into their house at Ramath. And Elqanah knew his wife Khannah, and YHWH kept her in mind.
YHWH kept her in mind: or remembered; Heb., z’khreha Yahweh. A slightly different form of this phrase with the same meaning forms the name Z’kharyah, who was the husband of another woman about 1,100 years later whose womb YHWH opened when she was past normal childbearing age. She became the mother of Yochanan the Immerser, the forerunner of the Messiah.
20. And it turned out that when the time came around that Khannah conceived and gave birth to a son, and she called his name Shmu’el—“because I requested him from YHWH!”
Shmu’el means “Elohim has listened” or possibly simply, “El is His Name”, since one letter seems to be lacking if the first is what is intended.
21. So the man Elqanah and his whole household went up to slaughter unto YHWH the slaughtering of the days and [to fulfill] his vow.
The days: the forty days of separation after a woman bears a male child, after which she may come to the sanctuary but in any case must bring a particular offering. (Lev. 12:2-8). In this case, her husband brought it for her. (v. 22) His vow: probably the one Khannah herself had made (v. 22), because since he had upheld it and not nullified it (Num. 30:8-14), it became his responsibility as well, as the head of the household. One had certain offerings to bring when fulfilling a vow made to YHWH. (Lev. 7:16; 22:21-23; 27:2-13)
22. But Khannah did not go up, because she told her husband, “[Not] until the lad is weaned; then I will take him in so he can appear before YHWH, and remain there forever.”
Weaned: the Hebrew word means “ripened” or “dealt fully with”. Appear: or present himself; literally, be seen. Shmu’el was born into a time when “every man did what was right in his own eyes” (a phrase used several times throughout the book of Judges). Deut. 12:8-9 said this was the way it was in the wilderness and should not be the same way once Israel was in the Land. Nevertheless, it had remained that way, and while some knowledge of the Torah survived, in most areas it was weak. There had not been a major prophet since Y’hoshua’s time. (See 3:1.) So Khannah, recognizing that her son was meant to be a man of YHWH in some capacity, planned to bring him to live among the priests, the keepers and guardians of the Torah, where alone he could receive a complete education about the ways of YHWH without the pagan practices that had encrusted and obscured it in most parts of the Land.
23. And Elqanah her husband told her, “Do [what is] best in your eyes; stay until you wean him. But may YHWH make His word stand!” So the woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him.
Make His word stand: i.e., carry out His word and let it have its intended effect. His word: possibly through Eli. (v. 17) But he is probably saying, in essence, “You what you think best, but make sure that when the time comes you remember what you have promised.”
24. Then when she had weaned him, she took him up with her along with three bulls, an eyfah of meal-flour, and a skin-bag of wine, and she brought the lad into YHWH’s house [at] Shilo while he was young.
Three full-grown bulls would be between 1,800 and 2,500 pounds (800 to 1,100 kg.) of meat! It would feed many people. No such offering is ever prescribed; even the inauguration of a priest requires only one bull. The family was clearly very wealthy, but it was also a great honor to have his firstborn son fulfill his more ancient role as priest, since the Levites had been taken in lieu of the firstborn for those who chose to redeem instead of giving their own son to YHWH’s service. (Ex. 13:13; Num. 3:12) Khannah chose not to substitute a Levite for her son. He was being adopted into the tribe of Levi, for later we see him not just serving Eli, but replacing him. Shilo is spelled differently here in Hebrew also.
25. When they had slaughtered the bull, they brought the lad to Eli,
They: Apparently his father came along as well. Since the offerer was the one who had to slaughter and prepare the animal for the altar, and the priest would only officiate and deal with the blood, it would probably have taken Elqanah and his other sons to lift the bull up onto the hooks to skin and divide. To draw near to YHWH, then, one would have to learn how to “rightly divide.” (Compare 2 Tim. 2:15) Khannah could only witness it from a short distance away outside the courtyard itself.
26. and she said, “Excuse me, my master! [As sure as] your soul is alive, my master, I am the woman who took my stand with you in this [place] to pray to YHWH.
Excuse me: A very honorific term showing that one is aware of the higher standing of the one being addressed, and of the fact that one might be a “bother” to even speak to him. She reminds him of the last time he encountered her.
27. “Toward this [very] child I was praying, and YHWH has granted me the request that I asked of Him!
28. “So I too have let him be on loan to YHWH! All the days that he will exist, he will be on loan to YHWH.” And he started bowing down to YHWH right there.
Let him be on loan: literally, let him be requested—a parallel with her own request to YHWH. He now belonged to the household of Eli, and would have all the rights and responsibilities that pertained to that privilege.
CHAPTER 2
1. And Khannah prayed and said, “My heart has triumphed through YHWH; my horn has been lifted high by YHWH. My mouth has grown wide over my enemies because I have rejoiced in Your deliverance!
Compare the prayer of Miryam, mother of Y’shua, when she found out that she was to become the mother of the Messiah. (Luqa 1:46ff) We know that Miryam’s was based on a Hanukkah liturgy, which she had probably just heard, as there are many hints in Scripture that Y’shua was born at Sukkoth, so his conception would have been at Hanukkah. Khannah’s prayer also seems too prophetic to have originated with her, and is too reminiscent of Psalms 112 and 113 to ignore (with only a different order; all the elements are the same; these psalms are not credited to any particular author). This is probably an earlier version of those Psalms—a liturgy sung in the Tabernacle, and later changed to fit a new cadence or the orchestration with new instruments and larger choirs as we know the Temple had. Thus in these first ten verses we may have one of the oldest extant liturgies for the worship of YHWH! (The scribe who wrote this would not have been present to hear it, but would have been familiar with the phraseology of the liturgy and therefore could quote it all. Did it originate with Aharon himself?) Yet it applied perfectly to Khannah’s life, so the thoughts were hers too, and she burst into singing this song she had memorized through repeated visits to the Tabernacle. She was no longer sad, for her emotions had now caught up with her faith. My horn has been lifted high: a symbol of power or victory. The imagery is of an animal that has defeated its rival and raises its horn(s) up into the air.
2. “There is no one in the same category as YHWH, because there is none but You, and there is no rock like our Elohim!
In the same category as: literally, set apart like; i.e., He is in a class of His own. None but you: or, other than You there is none. Rock: an idiom for strength and security.
3. “Do not let such terribly haughty talking increase; let arrogance go from your mouths, because YHWH is the El of knowings, and abusive practices are not measured out rightly.
Her rival wife (and possibly her sons as well, as this is addressed to a plurality) was mocking her because she had no child, but now Khannah is proving her wrong, so she regains her dignity quite rapidly. Arrogance: literally, forwardness. Abusive: includes the ideas of severity, ruthlessness, and making a fool of someone. Measured out rightly: or, on level; the imagery is of adjusting weights in a scale to even out the balance. In other words, someone who mocks another before the story has ended is not thinking straight and does not have his values where they should be.
4. “The bows of the brave heroes are shattered, and those who are outfitted with wealth [and ability] are being made to totter!
Their advantage is being undermined and what they trusted in is about to collapse.
5. “Those who were sated with bread have hired themselves out, while the hungry have stopped [being that way]. Until she who was sterile has given birth to seven, the one who had an abundance of sons has grown feeble.
Hired themselves out: i.e., are so impoverished that the only way to pay their debts is to work for their creditor. Given birth to seven: an idiom for completeness: until justice for the downtrodden is complete, those who are powerful for the wrong reasons are restrained—a foreshadowing of haSatan being bound during the Messianic Kingdom. (Rev. 20:2)
6. “YHWH is the one who kills or keeps alive; He [is the one who] brings down to the abode of the dead or causes to ascend.
7. “YHWH brings to poverty or brings riches; He brings low, [but] all the more, He raises up!
All the more: Yes, He has to cause the downfall of some, but only for the sake of exalting those in whom he delights.
8. “He raises the weak from the dust; from the trash-heap He has begun to raise up the needy, to cause them to sit with nobles. He causes them to inherit a seat of honor, because the [narrow] support-columns of the land belong to YHWH, and He has set the habitable world [in place] upon them.
Trash-heap: slag-pile, or, more vividly, dung-hill. Nobles: literally, those who are willing or generous—i.e., hospitable, worthy people who will receive them charitably. (Compare Mat. 10:11-13) A seat of honor: “Many who are last shall be first, and the first last.” Y’shua may have been thinking of this passage when He gave the parable of the one who takes the lower place at a banquet being invited to come to a more prominent place at the table. (Luqa 14:8-11) Khannah’s rival was proving to be one who had taken a seat of greater honor than she had been invited to. I.e., He has founded the world on not just wisdom (Prov. 3:19), but justice as well. He has founded Tzion as the place for the poor of His people to take refuge. (Yeshayahu/Isa. 14:32) This is part of the new moon liturgy, symbolic of the renewal that comes to one which appeared to be languishing away completely. Support-columns: or pillars; an idiom for leaders who uphold Israel.
9. “He guards the feet of His pious ones, while the wicked will be silenced in dark obscurity, because a man does not prevail through force.
Pious: Hebrew, hasidim. “The race is not to the swift”, but to those whom YHWH chooses. (Eccles./Qoheleth 9:11).
10. “YHWH—those who contend against Him will be shattered! In the skies He will thunder; YHWH judges the ends of the earth! He will both give boldness to His king, and set the horn of His anointed on high!”
Give boldness to: or, allow to prevail; solidify. Anointed: Heb., mashiakh (Messiah, of which Y’shua is one particular). His king: a prophecy of the Messianic Kingdom, ultimately, but her own sons would be the one to anoint the first two kings of united Israel, the second of whom is the ancestor of the Messiah and thus made it all possible.
11. Then Elqanah went up to his house in Ramath, while the lad became established in ministering to YHWH in the presence of Eli the priest.
Ministering to: serving, waiting on.
12. Now the sons of Eli were children of worthlessness; they did not acknowledge YHWH.
Acknowledge: or, know in a very familiar manner. In other word, they did not fear YHWH, and along with this came an arrogance about their position that enable them to think they could do anything they wanted and get away with it.
13. And [this was] the custom of [how the] priests made decisions with the people: [Whenever] any man would slaughter an offering, the priest’s servant-boy would come while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand
14. and would thrust it into the pot or kettle. All that the fork would bring up, the priest would take for himself; this is how they dealt with all Israel who came there to Shiloh.
The priest was only supposed to receive some specified portions of the offered animals, for this was his livelihood. Which part depended on what type of offering it was. (Compare Lev. 7:30-34 with Deut. 18:3.) But instead, they depended on “chance” to determine what they got. The term “pot luck” may have originated with this practice! They might not have even eaten it all, but instead sold the meat, as priests were permitted to do in some cases.
15. Also, before they made the choicest parts smoke, the priest’s servant-boy would come in and say to the man who was doing the slaughtering, “Provide the priest with meat to roast, and he will not accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.
Before…the choicest parts: These parts were to be wholly offered to YHWH first. Raw: literally, living. It may have still had some blood remaining in it because they thought it was tastier that way. But this was in direct violation of Lev. 8:31.
16. And [if] the man would say to him, “We must cause the choicest part to smoke according to [what] day [it is], then you can take whatever your appetite desires,” he would say, “No, because you must give it now, and if not, I will take it by force!”
What day it is: in the manner prescribed in the Torah for each festival, Sabbath, new moon, or special occasion. (For example, see Lev. 23:18-20 for what was to be offered on Shavuoth.) These priests only saw their “job” as a livelihood, not a spiritual service. By force: Aramaic, against your will.
17. And the sins of the young men came to be very great in the face of YHWH, because the men had spurned YHWH’s tribute-portion.
Spurned: or, caused it to be held in contempt. Aramaic, robbed. (Compare Mal’akhi 2:8.) YHWH’s tribute: the portion that was due Him before the priests received any for themselves.
18. But Shmu’el was ministering in the presence of YHWH, a lad clothed with a [white] linen efod.
Ministering: the term used for the work of the high priest. (Ex. 28:35) Clothed: literally, belted. White linen: from a word meaning to divide or separate. Efod: an outer garment, somewhat like a work-apron worn over the same type of white linen garment all the priests wore, and fastened at the front to keep his other garments in place so they fit close to his body; the Septuagint (LXX) emphasizes that it had shoulder-straps. This was the garment of the high priest. Does all this mean Shmu’el was acting as the high priest? Not necessarily; David also wore an efod on at least one occasion, and it was not in a priestly role, though it had to do with praise to YHWH. But this seems to be stated in contrast to Eli’s sons; they may not have even been wearing the clothes of a priest. It could be that Eli was too blind to see how to light the menorah, etc., and Shmu’el performed these tasks under his supervision. It does seem that Eli was already grooming him to take his place when he died, because he knew his sons were not worthy of that role. At least one person was focusing on YHWH in this whole scenario.
19. And his mother would make a small coat and bring it up to him year by year when she came up with her husband to offer the slaughtering of the days.
Coat: or possibly, vest; it was in particular a garment worn over a tunic by men of rank, and the root meaning of the word is “to cover”. This term is also used of the blue garment worn over the white robe and under the efod by the high priest. (Ex. 28:31; 29:21)
20. And Eli blessed Elqanah and his wife, and said, “YHWH will ordain for you offspring from this woman to make up for the loan which [she] lent to YHWH. When they went to his place,
To make up for: or, in place of.
21. YHWH looked after Khannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters, while the lad Shmu’el grew up with YHWH.
Looked after: or, visited. This is the same phraseology used of Sarah when she conceived Yitzhaq. (Gen. 21:1)
22. When Eli had become very old, he heard all that his sons had been doing to all of Israel, as well as how they lay with the women who were waging war at the entrance to the Tent of Appointment.
Compare Exodus 38:8, where we are told that the laver was made from the mirrors of the women who waged war at this very same spot. Did they use mirrors because they were vying for the attention of the men who came to slaughter offerings? Or were they women eligible to marry the young priests? (If so, they would have to be Levite.)
23. And he said to them, “Why do you do such things as these—your evil deeds about which I am hearing from all these people?
24. “Don’t [do them], my sons, because the report that I am hearing is not appropriate; [you are] causing YHWH’s people to transgress!
Could Eli not simply remove them from their position? Possibly not; he may have given them the benefit of the doubt simply because they were sons of Aharon. Nadav and Avihu, in whose footsteps they were following by doing things their own way, had to be killed by YHWH in order to be removed. But as we will see, Eli had also been lazy in training them, so he may have felt it was really his own fault so that he had no right to punish them. On the other hand, they were younger and stronger, and really seemed to have been running things, and might have actually threatened to hurt him if he even tried to reprimand them.
25. “If a man sins against a man, judges can mediate for him, but if a man sins against YHWH, who could intervene for him?” But they did not listen to the voice of their father, because YHWH desired to put them to death.
Judges: Heb., elohim. Desired: or, was pleased to. Was it because He wanted Shmu’el to be in their position, but he could not while they were still alive?
26. And the lad Shmu’el went on to become great and was highly esteemed by both YHWH and also [by] men.
Great: both larger in stature and in promotion to greater importance, as well as increasing the deeds he did to benefit Israel. Compare the description of Y’shua’s growth in Luqa 2:52. Because of this, YHWH now acted:
27. So a man of Elohim came to Eli and said to him, “This is what YHWH says: ‘Wasn’t I plainly revealed to the house of your ancestor when they were in Egypt for the household of Pharaoh,
A man of Elohim: or, one of the judges.
28. “‘to choose him out of all the tribes of Israel as a priest to Me, to go up onto My altar, to cause incense to smoke, to bear an efod in My presence? And wouldn’t I give to the house of your ancestor all the fire [offerings] of the descendants of Israel?
29. “‘Why are you kicking at My slaughters and My tribute-portion about which I gave orders in My habitation, and honoring your sons more than Me to make yourselves fat with the first of all the contributions of Israel which belong to My people?’
30. “Therefore YHWH the Elohim of Israel declares, ‘I indeed promised [that] your house—that is, the house of your ancestor--would walk before Me in perpetuity. But now,’ says YHWH, ‘[it is] profane to Me! Because those who honor Me, I will honor, but those who treat Me with contempt will carry little weight.
Your ancestor: not Ithamar (if he was indeed his ancestor), for he had no such promise, but Aharon (in context of v. 27; see Ex. 27:21; 29:9). The promise was made more specifically to Pin’khas, his grandson, but we have no evidence that Pin’khas was Eli’s ancestor. Carry little weight: literally, be light—trivial, insignificant, held in low esteem, of little account. They would certainly not remain in the highest position in Israel!
31. “‘Indeed, the days are coming when I will chop off your arm and the arm of your ancestor’s house [to prevent there] from being an old man in your house.
Arm: i.e., this branch. Your ancestor’s house: Josephus claims that Eli, the father of Pin’khas, is a descendant of Aharon’s youngest son Ithamar, and that the high priesthood, which was intended to be held by the line of Aharon’s other son El’azar, was transferred at this time to the house of Ithamar. This is never explicitly stated in Scripture, but may be based on 1 Kings 2:26-27 with 1 Chron. 24:3-5, and Josephus undoubtedly had access to records that have since been lost. In any case, it remained so for four generations (14:3; Ezra 7:2-3) until King Shlomo corrected this, replacing Avyathar with Tzadoq, who we know was in the right line to be high priest. (1 Kings 2:27) Eli is never actually called the high priest in Scripture, nor is his ancestry ever listed, so we can only conjecture why this shift came about. It may have been transferred to Ithamar’s house simply because of the liberal spirit of the age the judges, when most were slack about the Torah. But the real question is why El’azar’s sons, who had the right to the position, were not serving in it. Merayoth, the seventh high priest from Aharon (1 Chron. 6:7), seems to have been a contemporary of Eli. It could be that Merayoth became a leper or had some other deformity that prevented him from serving as priest (Lev. 21:17-21; 22:4), or that he simply did not want to take his assigned role, and Eli merely stood in for him. Eli seems somewhat tentative about his role, as if “walking on eggs”, possibly indicating that he knew he should not be in this position, but someone had to, if the true high priest had ceded his right to serve. This might explain why Eli’s sons were “fleecing” the people to such a degree; if they knew they were in a position that was not rightfully theirs, they would not only not take care of it as well as if it were theirs, but would also try to milk from their time in that office whatever they could while it lasted.
32. “‘And you will be made to behold an oppressor of [My] habitation during all the benefit that is done for Israel, and there will not be an old man in your house for all the days.
Aramaic: “And you will be considering and you will be seeing the sorrow that will come upon the men of your house because of the sins that you have sinned in My Temple. And afterwards prosperity will come over Israel, but in your house…”
33. “‘And [any] man of yours whom I do not cut off from My altar [will be] to bring a full end to your eyes and to bring grief to your soul, and all the increase of your house will die feeble.
At this point, he is cursed with a lack of longevity in any of his descendants. Yet from 14:3 and 22:9ff, it appears that Eli’s descendants through Pin’khas continued to act as priests for some time at Nov. Not until King Shlomo’s day was the final descendant of Eli ousted from the high priestly position. Indeed, his very name, Avyathar, means “my ancestor has a remnant”, possibly to mock this very prophecy. But Shlomo recalled what YHWH had said here, and acted upon it. The full lineage of priests in El’azar’s historical line is listed in 1 Chron. 6:4-15.
34. “‘And this is the sign for you [of] what will come toward your two sons—on Khawfni and Pin’khas: both of them will die on one day.
35. “‘But I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest, and He will do what is in My own heart and My aspiration, and I will build a stable house for him., and he will walk before My anointed one all the days.
Faithful: or firm, sure, trustworthy—the same word used here for “stable” as well. In the short run, he is referring to Shmu’el himself, who would anoint Israel’s first official king and advise him. He needed to be “raised up” in more ways than one, as he was only a child at this time. Could he fill this position, not being a Levite? Yes, if there was no one in Levi whom YHWH could trust with it anymore, having not kept their part of the covenant. Shmu’el is a unique individual, in whom we see a special foreshadowing of the Messiah, for he fills, in essence, all three roles of prophet, priest, and “king”. But man’s emergency measures cannot cancel YHWH’s intentions, and He will right their wrongs. The reference also extends to the priests who will minister in the days of THE Anointed (Messiah): Y’hezq’el confirms that the descendants of Tzadoq, who replaced Eli’s line, will continue to hold that position in the age to come. (40:46; 44:15; 48:11)
36. “‘And it will turn out that anyone who is left in your house will come and prostrate himself to him for a silver coin or a loaf of bread, and will say, “Please attach me to one of the priestly offices so [I can] eat a bit of bread!”’”
This may have formed the foundation for some of the details in Y’shua’s parable of the “prodigal son”.
CHAPTER 3
1. Now the lad Shmu’el [was] ministering to YHWH before the face of Eli, and the word of YHWH was rare in those days; there was no oracle breaking open.
Lad: Josephus says he was 12 years old at this time. Rare: literally, precious, costly. Oracle: or, prophetic vision. Even in “Biblical days”, things were not always consistent. Seasons like this when there was no word from YHWH were not unusual, so we should not find it strange that there should have been centuries after Y’shua in which the same was true. The question is, was YHWH silent because people were obeying His word and He did not need to say any more? Or because even if He did speak, we would not “get it” anyway? Was this time a test to see how faithful people would remain without the reminders of the prophets? If so, they were very near to failing the test.
2. But then it came about in that day as Eli was lying down in his place. Now his eyes had begun to grow dim; he was not able to see.
Came about: Did the people, noticing YHWH’s withdrawal, start praying for it to return? We do tend to value more highly the things we are about to lose. See: or, perceive; both senses held true in this case. Nor did he seem to notice enough of what his sons were doing.
3. But before the lamp of Elohim had gone out, as Shmu’el was lying down in the sanctuary of YHWH where the ark of Elohim was,
Lamp of Elohim: Apparently Eli was not tending the literal menorah as he was supposed to. (Ex. 27:20) YHWH made it clear that even “from evening until morning” (Lev. 24:2-3), when the Temple was closed to the public, the lamps still were to be in order and burning constantly. Apparently Shmu’el was tending it for him since he was going blind and his sons were more interested in what was outside than in what really mattered most. It was meant to be snuffed out for cleaning (Ex. 37:23), but only one lamp at a time, never all of them at once. But there is again a double meaning here. Before the light of the Torah had been thoroughly extinguished by the actions of Eli’s sons (as seen in the previous chapter), YHWH intervened to fan the flame and keep it alive. In the sanctuary: not the Holy of Holies, where the ark was, but possibly in the Holy Place, so he could monitor the condition of the menorah so it would not go out altogether; there is not evidence that there were other rooms around the periphery as in the Temple, though permanent walls had been built around the Tabernacle. (See note on verse 15.)
4. YHWH called out to Shmu’el, and he said, “Here I am!”
This is how Avraham answered YHWH in Genesis 22. However, Shmu’el did not yet recognize that it was YHWH calling him. (v. 7) He was just being a dutiful servant to Eli, or so he thought. But this may be specifically why YHWH chose to continue working with him. (Compare 1 Yochanan 4:20.) He was used to answering this way, being essentially a Temple slave. When YHWH called him to something greater, he was already involved in service.
5. And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am! --because you called for me!” But he said, “[No], I didn’t call. Go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.
Ran: Again, he proved ready to obey, not lazy or sluggish like Eli. Since he got no response to his first answer, he went to where he thought the source of the call had come from. “Because”: Eli must have given him a puzzled look, so he explained himself.
6. But YHWH called yet again, “Shmu’el!” So Shmu’el got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, because you called for me!” But he said, “I didn’t call you, my son. Go back and lie down!”
It is common to have to tell children who “heard something” at night and “cannot sleep” to go back to bed, so thus far Eli thought little of it.
7. (Now Shmu’el was not yet acquainted with YHWH, as the word of YHWH had not yet been revealed to him.)
Had Eli not trained him well enough? Even the priesthood, whose job it is to speak for YHWH, was slow to recognize YHWH’s voice. This is shameful. Eli was not a proper example to him, for the priesthood was even out of its proper context, as everything else in this era seems to have been; they were only going through the motions. The ministry was a business to them, just as it often is today. (Y’hezq’el/Ezek. 24:2-10) Shmu’el might have learned better in his own father’s household, for we know he was devout. Yet in the Tabernacle, he had all the teaching imagery—the witnesses of the Tabernacle furniture--surrounding him, apparently day and night. So he was in a better context for YHWH to reveal Himself to him further.
8. But YHWH called Shmu’el again, for the third [time], so he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, because you called for me!” Then Eli discerned that YHWH was [the one] calling the lad.
The third time: Three witnesses are all that are required in Israel to establish a matter. (Deut. 7:6; 19:15) This confirmed to Eli that this was not a mere coincidence, nor was Shmu’el just imagining things.
9. So Eli told Shmu’el, “Go and lie down, but here’s how it must be: if He should call you again, then say, “Speak, O YHWH, because Your servant is listening!” So Shmu’el went and lay down in his place.
10. Then YHWH came and presented Himself, and called out as on [the previous] occasions, “Shmu’el! Shmu’el!” So Shmu’el said, “Speak, because Your servant is listening!”
Presented Himself: or stood, stationed Himself, planted Himself there (until He would be heard). For a short time, His presence was again established here. YHWH’s Name is conspicuously missing in his response.
11. So YHWH said to Shmu’el: “Here, look at Me! I am doing a thing in Israel at which the both of the ears of everyone who hears it will shiver!
Shiver: or, tingle, possibly as the blood returned to them after they had been “asleep”, and they reddened with shame. This phrase is only used two other times in Scripture (2 Kings 21:12 and Yirmeyahu/Jer. 19:3), and always in connection with calamity. Yet would He hide what He was doing from one chosen to be a prophet? (Compare Gen. 18:17; Amos 3:7.)
12. “On that day I will bring on the scene for Eli all that I have spoken toward his house, [both] to begin and to bring to completion.
Bring on the scene: carry out, fulfill, confirm, cause to stand, make binding, raise up. Have spoken: through the “man of Elohim” who came to him previously. (2:27-36)
13. “And I have made known to him that I am judging his house forever because of the crookedness about which he has known, since his sons have been bringing [it] to dishonor, but he has not restrained them.
Made known: There is only one recorded occasion when YHWH told him this previously; was one warning enough to condemn him? Actually, that was already the second witness; the Torah had already warned of the consequences of turning from YHWH’s specific instructions, and he had the scrolls available to be read to him. The people at large had also borne witness to the wickedness of their deeds. So since they were causing Israel to stumble, he should have known that they were to be punished. Restrained: or weakened, frowned upon. Apparently he was not even showing much disapproval, but the fact that YHWH expected at least this much of him shows that he was indeed in a position to at least lessen their influence, if not actually stone them to death as prescribed. But Josephus states the problem as, “Eli has loved his sons more than he has loved My worship.”(Antiquities of the Jews 5:10:4)
14. “So therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli, ‘If the crookedness of the house of Eli can ever atone for itself by slaughter or by tribute-gift…!’”
This is an idiomatic way of saying., “The house of Eli will never…” What a frightening position to be in, to never be able to find forgiveness! Yet the very wording does leave an open door for repentance, and nearly all of the time this is His intent when He sends a prophet.
15. Then Shmu’el lay down until morning, and he opened the doors of the House of YHWH, but Shmu’el was afraid to make the vision known to Eli.
Yet part of the calling of a prophet is to speak the difficult words from YHWH. Eli was not hostile, as some of his audiences might be, and so this was his initiation into that aspect of his role. Doors: This is not the typical word for the entrance to a tent, but of actual doors, which again vouches for the archaeological evidence that there were actual walls around the Tent of Appointment. This would seem like a more comfortable and secure environment, especially if it was cold in the mountains here, but very possibly they were built mainly to make it look more like the temples of the nations around Israel.
16. But Eli called Shmu’el, and said, “Shmu’el, my son!” And he said, “Here I am!”
17. And he said, “What is the word that He has spoken to you? Please do not hide it from me. May Elohim do the same to you and add [more], if you hide from me a word of anything that He said to you!”
This was the moment Shmu’el dreaded. Eli had been shown much favor simply because of the position he was in; YHWH had few options of whom to work with at that time. He put His reputation in much jeopardy because He had made men responsible to uphold it. But Eli knew a change was coming, and he assumed that if YHWH was now speaking, there must be judgment involved, for he passes the curse on to Shmu’el as a threat! Apparently he assumed (as in note on v. 1) that if all was going as it should, YHWH would have no need to comment.
18. So Shmu’el recounted to him all the words, and hid nothing from him. And he said, “It is YHWH. Let Him do what is right in His eyes.”
He does not even show any effort to repent. He is either resigned to the idea that it is simply too late to do anything about his sons at his age, or thinks it will require too much effort on his part, which he is too lazy to deliver. Even Qayin argued that his punishment was too great and YHWH mitigated it somewhat! But Eli relegates the consequences to solely punishment rather than correction. The whole climate of Israel at this time was one of apathy; righteousness was rare, and not enough people cared about upholding the sanctity of the priesthood to hold them to the standard, so Eli had no support. Those who tried to do right were simply taken advantage of. This underscores how it is imperative that we get back into the right context if we want to get back to YHWH’s order.
19. Now as Shmu’el grew up, YHWH was with him, and did not let any of his words fall to the earth.
Because he did not let one of YHWH’s words to him fall to the ground, YHWH did the same for him. This means that even the inevitable times when he, as a man, made honest mistakes, YHWH found ways to uphold him, because his heart was right, and YHWH’s heart is truly what he was after.
20. And all of Israel, from Dan to Be’er-sheva’, knew that Shmu’el was being established as YHWH’s prophet,
Dan to Be’er-sheva: the northernmost and southernmost cities in the Land, and thus everything in between. Established: confirmed, faithful, supported, upheld. YHWH used him at first because he was the only one available, but he proved faithful despite his fears, and so YHWH continued using him. He brought shame upon the whole tribe of Levi by having a mere youth fill in and do their job, but this was meant to motivate them to get back in line.
21. and YHWH [began] to be seen again in Shiloh, because YHWH had revealed Himself to Shmu’el at Shiloh through the word of YHWH.
Be seen: probably in the cloudy pillar that rested above the Holy of Holies. If so, this would mean it had left, and that may be the reason the proper priesthood of the descendants of El’azar had apparently left as well. This therefore ended the age when oracles were rare. A new page in Israel’s history has begun. Shmu’el is the first major prophet since Moshe and Y’hoshua’s era. Yet notice how YHWH revealed Himself. How does YHWH chiefly reveal Himself even now? Through His Word, just as He did then! Now the Word may be usually be the written version, but why should He give us something more before we have finished responding to what we already have?
CHAPTER 4
1. Thus the word of Shmu’el came to all Israel. And Israel went out to encounter the Filistines for battle, and they encamped above the Stone of Help, while the Filistines encamped at Afeq.
Stone of Help: Heb., even ha-ezer. The reason for this name will be explained later. Afeq: There were several towns by this name; the one cited here is probably the one in the northwestern corner of Efrayim’s territory on the Plain of Sharon, close to the border of Dan’s tribal land, which had been overrun by the Filistines even in Shimshon’s day. Afeq is some 20 miles (32 km.) west of Shiloh.
2. When the Filistines set themselves in preparation to meet Israel, the battle was dissipated, and Israel was being beaten before the Filistines when they attacked [and destroyed] the battle-line in the field—about 4,000 men.
Dissipated: let drop, loosened, forsaken, spread out, abandoned, forgone. Battle-line: or, rank and file.
3. When the people arrived at the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has YHWH struck us down today before the Filistines? Let us [go] get the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH for ourselves from Shiloh, so if we bring it in our midst, it might bring us deliverance from the palm of our enemies’ [hands]!”
They credited the defeat to YHWH, knowing that He had promised that those who are walking in His will would defeat their enemies soundly, but those who were not would flee before their enemies. (Ex. 23:22-27; Lev. 26) They therefore deduced that they were following the wrong procedures, and they remembered a precedent from Y’rikho (Y’hoshua 6):
4. So the people sent [to ] Shiloh so they could carry from there the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH [Master of] Armies, on which the kh’ruvim sit, and both of the sons of Eli, Khawfni and Pin’khas, were there with the Ark of the Covenant of Elohim.
They also remembered that Israel had been soundly defeated one time when the Ark did not go before them into battle. (Num. 14:44-45) On which the kh’ruvim sit: or, who dwells [between] the kh’ruvim. These angelic beings were known to be guardians of the gate to Eden and of the sanctuary of YHWH, so they may have thought they would protect the army of Israel as well. Elohim: used rather than YHWH here, because these men were under judgment. Was this war a direct result of the word of Shmu’el (v. 1)? YHWH had said He intended to kill Eli’s two sons, and now that Shmu’el was grown, they had had several more years to repent, and had not. Yet Shmu’el himself conspicuously did not go out with them. This foreign army was within their Land, yet Israel was in no shape to be fighting yet. They were still wanting in regard to relationship with YHWH, so they are out of season. All He wants—as always—is for them to come near to Him again, so the enemies are there as a threat to drive stubborn Israel to return. This was still a season for repentance, because no one had done anything to oust Eli’s sons. Khawfni and Pin’khas if indeed from the line of Ithamar, are from the right family to transport the Ark, but not the family YHWH had prescribed to minister at His altar. A priest was to be involved in the decision of who should go to battle (Deut. 20:2ff). Josephus tells us that Pin’khas had already begun to act in the role of the high priest because of his father’s great age. Yet the character of these two priests should have given Israel second thoughts about following them into war. Josephus also says Eli had told his sons that if they survived any battle in which the Ark was taken, they should not dare to come into his presence again.
5. And as the Ark of the Covenant of YHWH came into the camp, all of Israel started shouting with a loud war-cry, and the earth was made to resound.
Resound: or, move, ring, make a great noise. The term for “shouting” can include shofar-blasts as well. (See Numbers 10:9) The Ark’s arrival in the camp gave them tremendous confidence.
6. When [the] Filistines heard the sound of the shouting, they said, “What is this great noise of shouting in the camp of the Hebrews?” When they found out that the Ark of YHWH had come into the camp,
7. the Filistines were afraid, because they said, “An elohim has come into the camp!” And they said, “Alas for us! Because nothing like this has taken place before!
Before: literally, the third yesterday. It was apparently not a common occurrence for a nation to bring its idols into battle.
8. “Woe to us! Who will rescue us from the hand of these renowned elohim? These are the ones—the [same] elohim who struck the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness!
These: They had heard of YHWH before, yet, possibly because they saw two kh’ruvim on the ark, they considered YHWH a plurality. Considering the source of this idea, we should be very hesitant to credit Him with that characteristic! Renowned: majestic, mighty, principal, famous, noble.
9. “Get hold of yourselves and [rise up to] be men, O Filistines, so you won’t become slaves to the Hebrews as they were to you! So become men and fight!”
This is the most honorable scenario in the entire chapter, even if it is credited to the uncircumcised Filistines. They would rather fight to the death than be enslaved, as the Jews at Matzada and Gamla would later decide. So they called upon all the strength they had within them, and developed a plan. If this nation brought its “idol” into battle, they were at risk of it being captured, so the Filistines calculated that the risks involved in trying to capture it were worthwhile if it would take away the enemy’s confidence.
10. So the Filistines fought, and Israel was beaten, and they each started taking flight to his tents, and the defeat was very severe, and 30,000 of Israel’s foot [soldiers] fell.
Israel rushed presumptuously into this battle because they had recently “re-acquired” YHWH’s presence among them (3:21), and they took the hope of restoration as an accomplished fact just because the cloud was back over the Tabernacle. They assumed that if they did things the same way they had been done before, YHWH would have no choice but to back them. This had become their elohim! They were indeed idolatrous, not so much in trusting the Ark as in falling back on “religion” rather than the security of being in the right relationship with YHWH as He had prescribed. He will not fit into our boxes, especially when we are out of season. He follows general patterns, but the specifics are based on the condition of His people at the time. If we act in a certain way just because we are most comfortable with its familiarity, we will find ourselves without His covering. 30,000 Israelites won the battle at Ay once they were back in favor with YHWH (Y’hoshua 8), but now Israel had proven to be on the wrong side, and lost the same number, for YHWH was actually with their enemies this time. Israel scattered, leaving their brothers to die in battle, since they were not in unity to begin with. All they had was “personal religion”. They were not as honorable as the Filistines, or even the builders of the Tower of Bavel, in this sense.
11. And the Ark of Elohim was captured, and both of Eli’s sons, Khawfni and Pin’khas, died.
Just as Hizqiyahu destroyed the bronze image of a snake that Moshe had made because it was beginning to be worshipped (2 Kings 18:4), Though He had commanded both to be built, they were being taken out of the context He intended for them. YHWH wanted to diminish the importance of the Ark which was competing with Himself for Israel’s attention at this point. And one day, when we again have YHWH’s direct presence among us, the Ark will cease to even be mentioned anymore. (Yirmiyahu 3:16)
12. And a Binyamite man ran from the battle-ranks and came to Shiloh that day with his garments torn and with soil on his head.
These are very clear signs of mourning, and while he was still far off, anyone who saw him would know this deserter was bringing bad news.
13. As he came in, there was Eli, sitting on the seat beside the road, keeping watch because his heart was trembling with fear over the Ark of Elohim. When the man came into the city to bring the report, the whole city was in an uproar.
Keeping watch: or, waiting expectantly, since he was physically blind. He did not have the confidence the army had that the Ark would be invincible. He was, after all, a prophet and a judge, despite his own personal failings, and he knew that Israel was not in YHWH’s best graces at this point. YHWH’s visible presence had remained at Shiloh, with Shmu’el, though they had taken the Ark.
14. When Eli heard the noise of the outcry, he said, “What is this noise of the crowd?” So the man hurried and came and started reporting to Eli.
15. Now Eli was 98 years old, and his eyes were fixed so he was unable to see.
His eyes had been growing dim for years. (3:2) Because he was not in YHWH’s order, his blindness became progressively worse. He did not even develop his other senses to compensate for his loss of vision. Contrast Avraham, whose “vision” became clearer as he became older because he responded properly to what he did see—and his seed was preserved against all odds. Eli did nothing about what he learned, and thus he saw less and less, and his seed kept on being diminished.
16. And the man said to Eli, “I myself am the one who has come from the battle-front, and I escaped today from the battle-line.” So he said, “How did things go, my son?”
Things: literally, the thing (the matter or the word).
17. And the one who brought the news answered and said, “Israel has fled before the face of the Filistines, and there has also been a great blow to the people, and even your two sons Khawfni and Pin’khas have died, and the Ark of Elohim has been captured!”
18. And it was as he mentioned the Ark of Elohim that he fell off the seat backwards through what held the gate [in place], and his neck broke, and he died, because the man was old and heavy. And he had governed Israel forty years.
What held: literally, the hand. Was Eli just as superstitious as the people about the Ark, thinking it was a magic charm that would automatically defeat their enemies? He was probably more concerned that something holy had fallen into the hands of a wicked and profane people—the uncircumcised Filistines. This was the “last straw that broke his neck”, and more significant to him, because he already knew his sons were going to die, and was somewhat better prepared for that.
19. Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Pin’khas, was pregnant with a child. When she heard the news of the Ark of Elohim’s capture, and that her father-in-law and her husband had died, she sank to her knees and went into labor, because her contractions overcame her.
Contractions: Another meaning of the word is “hinges” of a door—probably a synonym for what her father-in-law had fallen through that broke his neck! Overcame: or, turned in on. Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews 5:11:4) says she went into labor at seven months.
20. But at the time of her death, the women who were appointed to stand by her said, “Don’t be afraid, because you have given birth to a son!” But she did not respond or take it to heart.
Don’t be afraid: though she was dying, her husband had someone to pass on his name, as a male heir. They may have even thought that giving her hope would save her life. But she did not find much consolation in this, knowing that he would never be as great as his father, much less his grandfather:
21. But she called the boy Ikhavod, to make [the] statement, “The honor has departed from Israel [into exile]”, in regard to the capture of the Ark of Elohim, and on account of her father-in-law and her husband.
Ikhavod means “no honor”, “no importance”, “no glory”, or “no authority”. The authority and glory had all been taken from her family as well as from Israel. Yet YHWH allowed them to remain in the position, possibly because Shmu’el could train the next ones, possibly because there was still some factor in the line of El’azar that prohibited them from holding the position, and possibly because it would take someone as strong as a king to finally oust them fully from their office, because the priests were still the closest thing there was in Israel to royalty at this time, and the people were still afraid to do so.
22. And she had said, “The honor has departed from Israel [into exile], because the Ark of Elohim has been captured!”
She was more concerned for a piece of furniture, as holy as it was in its proper context, than with her own family! They had fallen back on what had been a reality for their ancestors, because when the “box” into which they put YHWH was locked away in the sanctuary, they did not have to get close to YHWH Himself. But when the box was gone and the religion was stripped away, what did they have left? Even the Torah can become an idol. In and of itself, it is nothing but words, unless they are applied for the purpose of drawing near to Him. He did not need the box before our ancestors left Egypt, and one day it will be forgotten; what He wants is for His people to be near Him, loving one another. The Ark—and the whole Torah that was stored in it—were given to teach us that.
CHAPTER 5
1. When Filistines captured the Ark of Elohim, they brought it from the Stone of Help to Ashdod.
Ashdod means “Devastator” or “burly ravager”. This was probably so named to intimidate any would-be attacker. It is a coastal city south of Yafo and nearly due west of Yerushalayim. The Stone of Help was near Afeq, northeast of Yafo. Some of the Anaqim (a race of giants) remained in Ashdod, according to Y’hoshua 11:21ff. They took it where there were stronger men to guard it.
2. And [the] Filistines took the Ark of Elohim and brought it [to] the house of Dagon, and placed it in [close] proximity to Dagon.
Dagon was a Filistine fertility god with the face and hands of a man and the tail of a fish; Dagon means “great(est) fish”. As they had originally been a seafaring people, this is an understandable emphasis. But even now they were more of a land-and-agriculture-based people (though still dwelling near the coast), the name still fit, because it is also very similar to the Hebrew word for grain (dagan), from the root word meaning to grow or increase. In later times it was described as the “Zeus of the plowman”. This is a picture of the apparent adaptability that earned Christianity the description “transcultural Judaism”. It has also, as here, claimed the loyalty of Yehudah’s Elohim without deposing its own object of worship. In taking YHWH’s Ark into this Temple, they were not necessarily dishonoring it. The Filistines were not monotheists, so they actually seem to have been trying to take it into their pantheon, alongside the big fish—as if they considered them equals. They would have readily added the worship of another Elohim if they thought it could help them win their battles, especially against the ones they had taken it from. They may have simply wished to house it in a dignified setting until they could build it a temple of its own, though the rest of the chapter does hint that they may have placed it in a lower position physically than their idol.
3. When [the] Ashdodites rose early the next day, lo and behold, Dagon [had] fallen on its face on the ground before the Ark of YHWH! So they took Dagon and put it back in its place.
YHWH says that not only every human knee, but every idol as well, will bow to Him. (Yeshayahu/Isa. 45:23-46:5)
4. And they rose early in the morning the next day, and there was Dagon, fallen to its face on the ground in front of the Ark of YHWH, and Dagon’s head and both of its hands were cut off over the threshold; only the fish [portion] was left on him.
Hands: literally, the palms (or “spoons”) of its hands. Aside from the obvious imagery of the idol not being able to hear, speak, or act, the particular way in which the idol fell apart suggests that the forearms were raised to the same height as the head, so that both could break off when striking the threshold, which was typically raised to allow for a bowl to catch the blood of a dedicatory slaughter. Though the symbol of the fish to represent believers in Messiah originated with a Greek acrostic and is undoubtedly an allusion to Yirmeyahu 16:16 to identify one another as members of the House of Israel in exile while under persecution, it seems no coincidence that this fish-god also resembled a crucifix somewhat. Despite the impossibility of a spike staying in place if run through the palms of a crucified man’s hands, crucifixes have persisted in depicting the palms as the place Y’shua was pierced. (It was actually done through the wrists.) It is even doubtful that Y’shua’s hands were actually spread wide in the manner usually depicted, for Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, a standard Christian theological reference, clearly admits (s.v. “Cross, Crucify”) that “both the noun (stauros, i.e., an upright stake) and the verb stauroo, to fasten to a stake or pale, are originally to be distinguished from the ecclesiastical form of a two-beamed cross. The shape of the latter had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz (being in the shape of a mystical Tau, the initial letter of his name) in that country and in adjacent lands, including Egypt. By the middle of the 3rd century…in order to increase the prestige of the apostate ecclesiastical system, pagans were received into the churches apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, in its most frequent form, with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted to stand for the cross of [Messiah].” Yet despite all this evidence, the image has persisted, indicating that there are other politico-religious forces that want to retain it, because it stems from something much older—an image of this sort. Since it is a demonic symbol, there is power of another sort behind it as well. In modern terms, we would call this hybrid fish with human hands and face a “mer-man”, which the crucified image even resembles as well, with two legs crossed so one spike can go through them both. We therefore cannot ignore the parallels between this event and what has been done with Y’shua as he has become “Jesus” in the popular mind. Only the fish portion: literally, only Dagon; Aramaic, only his trunk. So the fish was considered the essence of the idol. The human parts were removed, just as has tended to take place as Y’shua was fused into such a hybrid “God-man”. So this image, too, must fall before the symbolism that YHWH chose for Himself. It is a concept that cannot stand in the face of YHWH’s word. Y’shua himself would have no problem bowing before the Father, as he very often did. The first time, YHWH had given them an open door to repent, but since they had put YHWH’s rival (which He defines not as one overtly opposed to Him, but as any elohim placed in His presence) back into a position that YHWH had already shown was not valid, the head—the “principality”—of “Jesus” must be toppled. The two things improperly joined together have to be separated back out so the difference can be plainly seen. Y’shua never claimed to be YHWH’s equal. But the accoutrements men have added to him, especially characterizing him as deity, must be removed so he can be seen rightly and function in his proper place beneath YHWH, though above all else.
5. Therefore, to this day, the priests of Dagon and those who enter the house of Dagon do not step on the threshold.
Another reference to how widespread this practice became is found in Tz’fanyah 1:2-9. Other thresholds are not to be set against YHWH’s. (Y’hezq’el 43:8) That it was the priests that do not tread there, this suggests that this threshold was to the holiest inner sanctuary of the temple, not that of the outer door. The idol would have been placed close to it. Since the Ark was not hit when it toppled, yet the idol fell prostrate toward it, it would seem that the Ark was beyond this threshold, i.e., in a less-revered part of the building.
6. And the hand of YHWH grew heavy on the Ashdodites, and He was bringing them to ruin, and He began to afflict them—Ashdod and its territories--with hemorrhoids!
Hemorrhoids: pronounced much like “awful” in Hebrew (and they were!), the term means “swellings-up”, and a synonym meaning inflammation or burning is used in 6:17. YHWH “lit a fire” under them that was too painful to ignore. They had no choice but to stand up in His presence!
7. When the men of Ashdod saw that it was this way, they said, “The Ark of the Elohim of Israel cannot remain with us, because His hand has been severe upon us, and upon Dagon our elohim.”
Saw that: or, paid attention because. Though YHWH is the one who gave Israel over to the plunderers when they did not walk in His ways (Yeshayahu 42:24), the “ravager” was now ravaged, for though YHWH has proven Himself superior to Dagon, they still identify themselves with Dagon.
8. So they sent and gathered to themselves all the rulers of the Filistines and said, “What should we do to the Ark of the Elohim of Israel?” And they said, “Let the Ark of Elohim be transferred to Gath.” So they transferred the Ark of Elohim.
They did not consider the possibility of sending the Ark back to Israel, because they thought that if they had Israel’s “Elohim” in their possession, they could influence Him to let them beat the Israelites in battle. So they sent it to another of the five principal cities of Filistia. But since they were lacking a priest who knew the specifics of how YHWH wanted to be worshipped, they could not control Him. The Ark was only a box, but though it had not helped Israel win the war, YHWH did use it to make a distinction so that His Name would not be dishonored.
9. But, sure enough, after they had it transferred, the hand of YHWH came onto the city [with] a very great disturbance, and He afflicted the people of the city, from small all the way to great, with hemorrhoids!
10. So they sent the Ark of Elohim to Eqron, but as the Ark of Elohim entered Eqron, the Eqronites were making an outcry, saying, “They’ve transferred the Ark of the Elohim of Israel to us, to cause us and our people to die!”
Since Dagon had failed to protect them, they brought the Ark to a city where another elohim, Ba’al-Z’vul (seen by some as Dagon’s son) was worshipped. Eqron means “eradication”. The name stemmed from the Filistines having been “torn up by their roots” and having to emigrate from their original territory. But now they felt the threat of being removed yet again. So they refused to let this “hot potato” enter their city.
11. So they sent and gathered all the rulers of the Filistines and said, “Send away the Ark of the Elohim of Israel, so it can go back to its own place and not put me or my people to death!” (Because there had been a deathly panic throughout the whole city; the hand of Elohim had been very heavy there.)
Panic: mass hysteria; the same word as “disturbance” in v. 9.. It had taken all the soldiers had in them not to panic when the Ark arrived at the battleground, and these were civilians who were not used to forcing themselves to be brave. Some may have even committed suicide.
12. so those who did not die were afflicted with hemorrhoids, and the outcry of the city went up [into] the heavens.
Who did not die: apparently, under the pressure of YHWH’s “heavy hand”, their “hearts were failing them for fear” before they even suffered the plagues YHWH brought. (Compare Lukas 21:26) The outcry went up to the heavens: said of the sinfulness of S’dom and Ghamorah (Gen. 18:20-21) and Babylon (Rev. 18:5). Here, it is describing how loud the cry must have been.
CHAPTER 6
1. So the Ark of YHWH ended up in the open country [belonging to] the Filistines [for] seven months.
None of the cities would accept it, so they kept it within their territory but not within any of their walls.
2. And [the] Filistines called for priests and diviners, to say, “What shall we do to the Ark of YHWH? Let us know what we should send it to its place with!”
3. So they said, “If you are letting the Ark of the Elohim of Israel go, you must not send it away empty, because you must certainly return a compensation to Him; then you will be healed, and it will be made known to you why His hand has not turned away from you.”
Empty, pointlessly, in vain, with no effect. But apparently they were “keeping” the Torah—literally! There is plenty of evidence below that they had read at least the Exodus and Leviticus scrolls, possibly in an effort to learn Israel’s secrets, or possibly just to know how to deal with YHWH appropriately. Compensation: the same Hebrew word used for a “guilt” or “trespass offering” in Lev. 5:15-16 et al, for they knew they owed Him more than just to send the Ark back. They knew they needed to make restitution for stealing it. Not turned away: They must have been trying other means to alleviate the situation for all these months.
4. So they said, “What is the compensation that we should return to Him?” And they said, “The number of the rulers of the Filistines: five golden hemorrhoids, as well as five golden mice, because they all had one [and the same] plague—as did your rulers.
Your hemorrhoids: Particularly those of these five city-state rulers; pity the artisans who had to replicate them! Plague: or pestilence—probably related to the mice (or rats, though there is another Hebrew word for the latter, but it is used only once in Scripture). They had apparently read about the bronze serpent in Numbers 21, for they imitated the practice there of making images of what was plaguing them, but made these from a more costly metal, to show YHWH that they were doing all they could to beg Him to stop the plague.
5. “So when you have made images of your hemorrhoids and images of your mice that are bringing the land to ruin, you will have paid honor to the Elohim of Israel. He may lighten His hand from [being] upon you and from [being] upon your elohim and from [being] upon your land.
Your mice: This suggests that the priests or diviners may not have been Filistine. Bringing the land to ruin: or, to corruption, spoiling it. They may have been diseased and spreading something like the black plague, or simply “plaguing” the people because they were beginning to overrun their land, and this was an abomination to YHWH. (Compare Yeshayahu 66:17.)
6. “And why should you make your heart heavy as Egypt and Pharaoh made their heart heavy? When He had dealt with them severely, didn’t they set the people free, and they left?
Heavy: or dull, insensible. They had read the account of the Israelites in Egypt, and how the plagues stopped once they let the people go. The plague of frogs (Ex. 8:4ff) was most similar to this one, and a careful reading of the Hebrew text there indicates that the frogs were actually entering bodily orifices; if the mice were doing the same, they may have been very directly related to the hemorrhoids!
7. “So now take and make a wagon—a new one--and [take] two cows that are nursing young, upon which a yoke has never come, and tie the cows to the wagon, and take their offspring back home, away from them.
These cows were unaccustomed to being yoked, so they would not go in a certain direction just out of habit once yoked. They had a very natural reason to refuse to leave as well. So the Filistines are asking for a miraculous sign as Gid’on had done with his fleece.
8. “When you have taken the Ark of YHWH and set it onto the wagon, then you must put into a chest beside it the articles of gold that you are returning to Him as a compensation, then send it away so it will depart.
Chest: the particular type is from a root word meaning to quiver as if suspended like a basket. They may have sent it on poles, as they would know from reading the Torah scrolls that they were to do to the Ark.
9. “Then watch: If it goes up in the direction of its own territory [to] Beth Shemesh, He [is the one who] has dealt us this great injury, but if not, we will know that His hand did not strike us; it [just] happened to us by accident.”
Beth Shemesh is in the Sh’felah (foothills) about halfway between Eqron and Yerushalayim, on the border between Yehudah’s and Dan’s tribal lands, and very close to Shimshon’s hometown of Tzaur’ah. The wanted to get it within Israelite borders. Accident: i.e., coincidence.
10. So the men did just that: they took two cows that were nursing [young], hooked them to the cart, and restrained their offspring indoors,
If cows that were still nursing their young would do such an unnatural thing and leave their calves behind, they knew that YHWH had to be in this.
11. and they put the Ark of YHWH onto the cart along with the chest with their golden mice and the images of their inflammations,
12. and the cows went straight to the journey in the direction of Beth Shemesh, and proceeded [along] one highway, lowing as they walked, and did not turn aside to the right or left, with the rulers of the Filistines going after them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh.
Lowing: because they were heavy with milk and in pain since their calves were not present to relieve them of it.
13. And [the people of] Beth Shemesh were harvesting their wheat crop in the valley, when they lifted up their eyes and saw the Ark, and were they [ever] glad to see it!
14. When the wagon came to the field of Y’hoshua the Beth-Shemeshite, it stood still there where there was a big stone. So they split the wood of the cart, and made the cows go up as an ascending [offering] to YHWH.
They used the large stone as an altar, since the cows had apparently chosen this spot for the Ark to stop. This is the only scenario where females of the bovine species were burnt, except the red heifer used to purify the priesthood. Did they do this to purify the Ark again after being taken outside Israelite territory?
15. And the Levites took the Ark down along with the chest that was with it, in which the articles of gold , and placed them on the big stone, and the men of Beth Shemesh offered up ascendings and made slaughters to YHWH on that [same] day.
The stone must have been large enough to accommodate the Ark and the “altar” at the same time. A stone of that size should be easy to locate today, since the location of Beth Shemesh is well known.
16. When the five rulers of the Filistines saw [it], they returned to Eqron on that [same] day.
They were satisfied that they had taken it out of their area of jurisdiction, and it was in the hands of someone who should know what to do with it.
17. Now these were the golden inflammations that the Filistines sent back to YHWH as a compensation: one for Ashdod, one for ‘Azzah, one for Ashqelon, one for Gath, one for Eqron.
Ten generations is enough for the descendant of an illegitimate child to overcome this stigma and become part of the congregation of Israel; it seems it had been enough for the Filistines to fill up their “cup” of iniquity; here they were only doing right out of fear so they would survive. If we assume these events are contemporary with David’s father, this is ten generations after Yitzhaq’s day, when the Filistines were still considered a “righteous people” (Gen. 20:4; 26:28-30). But now they have come fully into idolatry. Five is the number of the Torah (five scrolls of “instruction”), and they have five rulers; they are thus are a picture of the counterfeit people of YHWH who are now being forced to give up YHWH’s bride and send her back to its original context—Israel.
18. And the golden mice--by count [as many as] all the cities of the Filistines, for the five rulers from the fortified city down to the rural village, including the large meadow on which they let the Ark of YHWH rest—are in the field of Y’hoshua the Beth-Shemeshite to this day.
19. But He struck some of the men of Beth-Shemesh [dead], because they looked into the Ark of YHWH. Indeed, He struck 70 men among the people, 50,000 men. And the people were mourning because YHWH was bringing chastisement among the people with a great plague.
Looked into: or simply looked on; the Aramaic explains that this is because it was exposed. While the articles inside the Ark were put there as a testimony, it was to be concealed by a veil whenever it left the sanctuary (Ex. 40:3; Num. 4:5). Apparently the Filistines had read enough of the scrolls to know they had to keep it covered. It is not clear whether this means 70 out of the city’s whole population of 50,000 or 70 from the leaders and 50,000 from the rest of the people (but the latter is how the Aramaic targum interpreted it). Another possibility is that “elef” (thousand) should be read as alef, meaning that the 70 who died included the 50 chief men of the city—those held responsible for this act. Despite the joyful occasion of the Ark returning from exile, people who were not to look on a set-apart object had not remedied the fact that the Filistines had profaned it by covering it up immediately, but let their curiosity have the upper hand. Tradition says the two carved figures atop the Ark represented YHWH and His people in an act of intimacy, and thus it was only to be uncovered when in the innermost room. Even those who washed the inner walls of the Holy of Holies in the Temple were lowered down in such a way that they could not see the Ark, but only a small part of the wall in front of them. These people had usurped the prerogative of the priests alone, possibly reasoning that YHWH had sent he Ark to them, and therefore they could look to see what was in it. It is the way that seems right to a man (Prov. 14:12), but He had given it to them only so they could deliver it back to the whole people. They are a picture of many Christians, who though they rejoiced to see the Jews return to the homeland, still act as if they had displaced them as YHWH’s chosen people. Though Beth Shemesh was a step up from the totally pagan context of the Filistines, the Ark was really supposed to be where the Tabernacle was, at Shiloh. The Ark was now in a place where it could be restored to where it should be, but was not there yet, Like those who come out of pure Catholicism but do not come all the way back into the covenant of Israel. Beth Shemesh (the “house of the sun”) is thus a picture of the early pagan churches, soon after Constantine’s time, which took over buildings once used to worship the sun, and kept the disks representing the sun on their walls. They also adopted the worship on the “day of the sun” rather than the Sabbath. As the pastors went right along with this, the Levites seen in v. 15 apparently did not do their duty and stop the people from this sin. They too seemed to be keeping their distance from the Ark since they were not priests either. This shows that Israel was still in the condition found over and over in the previous 300 years, where “every man did what was right in his own eyes.”
20. And the men of Beth-Shemesh said, “Who can stand before YHWH, this set-apart Elohim? And to whom can He go up [away] from us?”
They were so full of fear that they did not even ask what the right thing to do with the Ark was, but just wanted to get it off their own hands to somebody else’s. They did not treat the Ark as set-apart, but had profaned it just as the Filistines initially had. Yet, ironically, they appeared to be worshipping it, or at least identifying it with YHWH Himself, since they though that getting rid of it would remove Him from them as well.
21. So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiryath-Y’arim to say, “The Filistines have returned the Ark of YHWH; come down and take it up to yourselves.”
Kiryath-Y’arim (“village of forests”) was further into the mountains, and so it would be better protected. But though they knew it was wrong to keep the Ark, they seem only concerned to get it off their own hands, and do not care about the brothers into whose hands they are trying to pass it off. They should be asking YHWH what to do with it, or at least sending it to Shiloh, where they would assume it belonged. There are not to be groves of trees around the sanctuary (Deut. 16:21), because they are too reminiscent of pagan fertility shrines. So a forest was not an appropriate place for the Ark. Kiryath-Y’arim is also called Kiryath-Ba’al in Y’hoshua 50:16, and this suggests that it was indeed originally a pagan worship site. It is about seven miles closer to Yerushalayim than Beth Shemesh, and would have been on the way to Shiloh as well. It is on the border between the tribal lands of Yehudah, Binyamin, and Dan.
CHAPTER 7
1. So men came from Kiryath-Y’arim and took the Ark of YHWH up and brought it to the house of Avinadav on the hill, and they set his son El’azar apart to guard the Ark of YHWH.
Avinadav means “my father is generous/willing”. Was El’azar chosen because he was a noble man, or because his name sounded priestly? This was not one of the Levitical cities, so he was apparently not a Levite and thus should not have been dealing directly with the Ark.
2. And it turned out that from the day the Ark was set in Kiryath-Y’arim, the days increased; they became twenty years! And the whole household of Israel was wailing after YHWH.
Out of sight and in the wrong place, it symbolized YHWH’s presence being gone. They wanted His presence, but the very thing He had given to symbolize His presence was kept hidden away because it might kill them. This has been Christianity’s precise attitude toward the Torah. They could have brought it back at any time; what would wailing accomplish until they did?
3. But Shmu’el said to all of the household of Israel, “If you are returning to YHWH with your whole heart, [then] remove the foreign elohim and Ashtaroth from among you, and make your hearts steadfast toward YHWH, and serve Him alone. Then He will rescue you from the hand of the Filistines.”
Remove: put away (from oneself), abolish, reject, turn away from. Ashtaroth: fertility goddesses. This is the most common idol found in Israel by archaeologists—often in people’s homes. The Ba’alim (v. 4) were often seen as their husbands. The name of one of the Ba’alim evolved into “God”. Israel had started building a pantheon, lamenting YHWH’s “absence” yet with hearts divided between Him and other elohim. Steadfast: i.e., resolute, unbending, firmly fixed, not wavering back and forth.
4. So the descendants of Israel removed the Ba’alim and the Ashtaroth, and served YHWH alone.
This is the best thing that had taken place in the last 300-odd years! Yet it only says “removed” and not “destroyed”, possibly setting the stage for the idolatry to return in another form. We need to recognize other places it has infiltrated our society now: the names of months, days of the week, planets, cars, holidays, and even tennis shoes, all bear the very names of pagan deities; cross-based jewelry, especially with the crucifix, superstitions, charms, candles on a birthday cake, and homosexual priests are just a few of the ways these ancient forms of worship have come back or remained in disguise in modern times.
5. Then Shmu’el said, “Gather all Israel to the observation post, so that I may intercede with YHWH on your behalf.”
The observation post: or watchtower, lookout point: Heb., Mitzpah, but the article appears in Hebrew, so it may not refer to the town by this name, though it is only a few miles north of Kiryath-Y’arim. Many cities in the mountains would have such observation sites. Intercede: pray, intervene, interpose, mediate.
6. So they were gathered at the observation point, and drew water and poured it out before YHWH, and fasted on that day and said, “We have sinned against YHWH.” So Shmu’el ruled the sons of Israel at the watchtower.
Ruled: or judged. Except at Sukkoth (when it was a request for rain), pouring water out like this symbolized repentance. Compare Iyov (Job) 3:24 links it with cries of distress or groanings. This was a ceremony of confession—a graphic physical representation of their penitence.
7. When the Filistines heard that the sons of Israel had gathered themselves together at the observation point, the rulers of the Filistines went up against Israel. And when the sons of Israel heard [it], they were terrified because of the presence of the Filistines.
Filistine reconnaissance may have reported the great noise being made by all of these people gathered at what was probably often used for military purposes. They assumed they were gathering for battle, especially now that they knew they had gotten the Ark back, and so decided to preclude their attack with one of their own. Now that the Israelites were no longer serving the elohim the Filistines served, they were less hesitant to attack them. The Israelites might have been fearful because they had not brought their weapons with them to this gathering.
8. So the sons of Israel said to Shmu’el, “Don’t be quieter than we are from crying out to YHWH our Elohim, so He might save us from the hand of the Filistines!”
Quieter than we are: and they were making lots of noise.
9. So Shmu’el took one choice lamb and offered it up in its entirety as an ascending to YHWH, and Shmu’el cried out to YHWH on behalf of Israel, and YHWH responded to him.
Choice lamb: or, milk lamb, possibly meaning one still nursing. It may have been a firstborn that YHWH had said to bring before it was weaned. (Ex. 23:19; 34:26) The restoration was not complete without something having to die, and this was Shmu’el’s way of crying out to YHWH with more than just his voice. He first must get in touch with the reality that this is what all Israel deserved for their neglect of YHWH’s presence.
10. Now as Shmu’el was offering up the ascending, the Filistines approached to fight against Israel, and on that day YHWH thundered with a loud noise over the Filistines and confused them, and they were beaten before Israel,
Thundered: possibly with an astronomical event much larger than ordinary thunder—like a “thunderbolt”.
11. and the men of Israel left the watchtower and chased the Filistines and struck them down as far as below Beyth Kar.
Beyth Kar means “house of the he-lamb” or “camel-saddle” (possibly due to the shape of a geographical feature there) and was apparently in the Filistines’ territory.
12. Then Shmu’el took one [building] stone and set it up between the watchtower and the sharp, pointed rock, and called its name “The Stone of Help”, saying, “Up to here YHWH has helped us.”
Sharp, pointed rock: literally, “the Tooth”. The Stone of Help: Heb., Eben ha-Ezer. Up to here: or, thus far. This may have been exactly the spot at which the Filistines turned and fled or where the Israelites stopped pursuing. Or did it symbolize that the rest was now up to them to guard?
13. Thus the Filistines were being brought down, and they didn’t come within the border of Israel any more, and the hand of YHWH was on the Filistines all the days of Shmu’el.
Brought down: or subdued, brought into subjection, lowered.
14. And the cities that the Filistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel from Eqron as far as Gath; thus Israel recovered their territory from the hand of the Filistines, and there was peace between Israel and the Emorites.
Eqron to Gath: the inland cities; the coastal cities apparently remained in the hands of the Filistines, for they will show up again in the next generation, though all the coastal cities in this region did belong to the tribe of Yehudah. (Y’hoshua 15:47-48) The Emorites were the only other potential threat at this time, and they were not actively threatening, so there was total quiet in the Land.
15. And Shmu’el ruled Israel all the days of his life,
16. that is, he went every year and traveled in a circuit [from] Beyth-El [to] Gilgal [to] the observation point, and judged Israel in all of these places.
If this observation point is indeed the same Mitzpah where Israel gathered to battle against Binyamin in Judges 20-21, then all of these cities were places where Israel had been united. Beyth-El was close to both Ramah (see v. 17) and Shiloh. The Tabernacle had been there for a short time when Israel was at war with one of its own tribes (Judges 20), and D’vorah had judged from very close to here. (Judges 5:5) Shiloh is conspicuously absent from this circuit, though it was not far away. Of what value is a sanctuary without the Ark? The Tabernacle was just a shell without it. Shmu’el may not have wanted to overstep onto priestly territory, since his ruling was of a different sort. Or the Tabernacle may have been back at Beyth-El or even moved down to Kiryath-Y’arim where the Ark was.
17. When he returned to Ramah, because his home was there, he judged Israel there, and there he built an altar to YHWH.
Since the Ark had not yet reached its final resting place in Yerushalayim, altars at other locations were still permitted.
CHAPTER 8
1. Now when Shmu’el grew old, he appointed his sons as rulers for Israel.
2. And the name of his firstborn son was Yo’el, and the name of his second, Aviyah. [They were] judges in Be’er-Sheva’.
Yo’el means “YHWH is Elohim”. Aviyah means “YHWH is my Father”. Be’er-Sheva’ is where Avraham and Yitzhaq had dwelt. By this time it was in Shim’on’s tribal territory. (Y’hoshua 19:2) It was not on the mountaintops like the places their father had judged, but rather was on the margin of Israel. (3:20) The most likely reason they chose this location was that it was on a major trade route to Egypt and would likely be wealthy from all the merchandise that passed through, and thus the people there could pay them more for their services:
3. But his sons did not walk in his ways, but began to incline after dishonest gain, take a bribe, and pervert judgment.
Just like Eli’s sons (2:12), they did not live up to their great names. It could be that Shmu’el was so busy with judging Israel that he failed to train his successors well. Investing in all of Israel has to be balanced with consideration for the next generation, or it will be harmful in the long run. The gains he had made could all be lost in just one generation if they did not understand their roles the way he did. We are not told anything about his wife. It could be that she was not considered worthy of mention, and that the reason his sons turned out the way they did was because their mother was not of the same caliber that Shmu’el was. Or it may simply be that Shmu’el had let people take advantage of him, so his sons, who did not really desire to serve as he did, decided that they were going to at least get something out of it for themselves. The Torah commands judges not to take bribes, because they blind the eyes of a judge. (Ex. 23:8; compare Ex. 18:21.)
4. So all the elders of Israel collected themselves together and came to Shmu’el at Ramah,
5. and said to him, “Look here! You are old and your sons have not walked in your ways. Appoint a king for us now to rule us, like all the nations.”
They took advantage of a bad situation to push what was already their agenda. Israel has in modern times continued to have this yearning to be like all the other nations.
6. But the thing was distasteful in the eyes of Shmu’el when they said, “Give us a king to rule us”, so Shmu’el prayed to YHWH,
7. and YHWH told Shmu’el, “Listen to the voice of the people—to all that they say to you—because it is not you that they have rejected, because they have refused My reigning over them.
Shmu’el himself was no longer even officially in power, though his influence remained great. It is really his sons that they are rejecting. But the fact that they are not as upright as Shmu’el was does not seem important to YHWH; after all, the people were in such a state that they did not deserve a perfect ruler; their actions were part of His judgment. Since he had given the responsibility to Shmu’el, those whom Shmu’el chose were still His choice, even if their heart was not where his was. This begs the question: If having a king is rejecting YHWH, why did He say in the Torah that there would one day be a king over Israel? And we are promised yet another King over Israel; will this also be rejection of the One who has appointed him to reign? It is a matter of the wrong timing. YHWH had said the scepter would belong to Yehudah, but Yehudah had a child through a forbidden marriage (Lev. 18:15), which disqualified his descendants from being part of the “congregation of Israel” for ten generations. (Deut. 23:2) At this point we had only reached the ninth. Like those who declared someone the Messiah based on his meeting some of the qualifications while they did not study the rest well enough to recognize that he did not meet the rest, these people had no right to demand a king yet.
8. “Just like everything they have done since the day I brought them up out of Egypt up to this day—that is, they have forsaken Me and served other elohim—they are doing the same to you as well.
Everything: There were a few exceptions, but apparently too few to count for much. Now they are rejecting the leaders He has chosen as well. Other elohim: Their wanting a king out of season is related to idolatry somehow. This is all the more reason that we must not turn the coming King of Israel into a “god”. He has a very important place in Israel, but no one can take YHWH’s.
9. “So listen to their voice for now, but you must indeed warn them repeatedly of the privileges due the king that will reign over them.”
This definitely gave a new twist to His initial instruction to listen to their voice. No, they were not right; Shmu’el was. But they had to learn to be careful what they asked YHWH for, because they just might get it! He is letting them have their way so they can learn the hard way.
10. So Shmu’el spoke all the words of YHWH to the people who were requesting a king from him.
11. And he said, “This will be the right of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons for himself and set them among his chariots and war-horses, and [some] will run ahead of his chariots.
12. “And he will appoint for himself captains of thousands and captains of fifties, as well as to do his plowing and reap his harvest, and to make his weapons of war and the apparatus of his [chariot] riders.
Captains of thousands…fifties: assumedly, hundreds and tens as well (according to Exodus 18:21)—but maybe not, for the king might have his own system. Rulers of tens would mainly be dealing with their own relatives, but now he was going to make changes which would undermine the prescribed ways:
13. “And he will take your daughters as perfume-makers and cooks and bakers.
Their children would now be “federal property” and no longer available to the households where they were needed most. This would require finding help from other sources for their own farms, kitchens, etc., further mixing up the tribal inheritances as YHWH had set them up. Yes, a king would unify the nation in a way seldom known during the period of the judges, but at a very high price. Ideally, the worship of YHWH is the factor that unifies Israel, but the fact that they had not totally dispossessed other peoples from the Land thwarted the realization of that goal, for their presence drew Israelites away into idolatry. To do things any differently eventually has to undermine the Torah.
14. “He will also take your fields, vineyards, and olive orchards—the best [of them]—and give them to his servants.
His servants did not deserve what belonged to other people, but how else would the king pay so many people but to take from those who were not his hand-picked household? They were not really his to give. Yet because they chose this path, anything the king demanded of them would be considered rightfully his. The term translated “privilege” in v. 9 and “right” in v. 11 is mishpat, which means justice. I.e., it would be considered his just due, though it undermined much of Torah. During the Messianic Kingdom, the “Prince” will not be permitted to give to his servants or sons any land but what was deeded to him from the start. (Y’hezq’el 46:16-18)
15. “And he will take ten per cent of your seeds and your vintage, and give [them] to his court officials and servants.
This is not in place of the tithes commanded by the Torah, but in addition to them. With the three commanded tithes (which represented 23.33% in any given year) still in place plus this tax (which may not have even included the items taken in verse 14), the people would be left with only two-thirds of their resources. This is a very heavy burden—one that we are again faced with as part of our exile as we move back into Torah observance, as we still owe taxes to the nations where we live. Those who followed the Torah in ancient Israel could have avoided this situation, but did not see the great privilege that it was.
16. “He will also take your [male] and female servants and the best of your choice young men, as well as your donkeys, and use them for his own work [as his representatives].
17. “He will take ten per cent of your flock, and you will become servants to him.
If they thought they had it bad now, this would be much worse on them than what Shmu’el’s sons were doing. Verse 3 suggests that they only took one bribe—possibly a rare occasion, so it could be that the elders were looking for any excuse to push their political agenda.
18. “And in that day you will cry out [for help] because of the presence of your king that you have chosen for yourselves, but YHWH will not answer you on that day.”
This indeed turned out to be true under King Shlomo and his son Rehav’am. The only recourse YHWH had in order to remedy the situation at that time, because of the ripple effect from this decision here, was to divide the kingdom in two—so now they would have two kings! But if Shmu’el had already been the ruler—the de facto “king” though not called by that title-- what was the difference between him and the king they were asking for? The king would be there to be served, while he had been there to serve. The priests were really intended to be those who judged Israel, but they had apparently been failing in their duty, so Shmu’el placed in position those whom he thought knew best, having seen his example of leadership. By David’s time, the priests were again given their responsibility to make rulings, but they were under the supervision of the throne, and thus were accountable to him, to check and balance them in case they should abuse their great power. Y’shua emphasized that those who are given high positions in his Kingdom must have this attitude as well. (Mat. 20:25-28)
19. But the people refused to listen to the voice of Shmu’el, and they said, “No, because if there will be a king over us,
His fair warning was not taken. They did not see this as rejecting YHWH, but He did.
20. “we, too, will be just like all the nations, and our own king will rule us and go out before us when our battles are fought.”
They were still smarting from the loss of the Ark, and may have even thought that having YHWH Himself go out to war for them was not enough to guarantee victory. They wanted a figurehead who would bring pomp and splendor—someone they could put out front who looked formidable to their enemies, for they were concerned with how Israel looked on the world stage. In their minds this took precedence over all these sacrifices they would have to make to support such a system of government. With a king, they could have parades and not have to be so concerned about walking in righteousness. YHWH’s King, Y’shua, is not like other kings. He deliberately avoided the limelight most of the time. He was not particularly attractive. He was not a diplomat, and sometimes even seemed like a lunatic. He said people had to leave their old context to follow him. So the Romans hijacked him and turned him into something palatable to them and what they expected a king to be. They even turned him into YHWH Himself—and sometimes even considered him greater than YHWH! This they could respect. But they changed his identity and will be very surprised at what he really is when he returns.
21. When Shmu’el had heard all that the people had spoken, he spoke them in the ears of YHWH.
22. And YHWH told Shmu’el, “Listen to their voice and cause a king to reign over them.” So Shmu’el said to the people of Israel, “Each of you go to his own city.”
This way the person whom YHWH chose would be at home and able to be found when YHWH told Shmu’el who he was. Or so it should have been…
THE FIRST BOOK OF
Shmu'el
the prophet
INTRODUCTION: This book begins in the 11th century B.C.E. Some place Shmu'el's birth as early as 1096 B.C.E., while others estimate 1028 or 1025. Shmu'el has been called "the last judge". The title of the book may be a slight misnomor, for, though his life extends throughout most of the book, King Sha'ul and David take center stage, and 2 Shmu'el is almost entirely about David, Shmu'el having died before it begins. Actually, the division of the book of Shmu'el into two parts originated with the Greek Septuagint (LXX) in the second century B.C.E. It was not until the 15th century C.E. (A.D.) that it was divided into two parts in the Hebrew scriptures. The book recounts the transition in Israel's history from the era of the judges to the era of the united kingdom.
