Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 25

And Samuel died. — At this period—namely, about the time when Saul and David met at En-gedi—died Samuel, full of years and honour—perhaps rather than honours, for a long time the old prophet had lived apart from the court, and alienated from the king he had chosen and anointed. Since Moses, none so great as Samuel had arisen. Briefly to recapitulate his work: his influence had in great measure restored the Law of Moses to the affections of the people.

Before his time, the words and traditions which the great lawgiver, amidst the supernatural terrors of Sinai, had with some success impressed upon the great nomadic tribe of the Beni-Israel were almost forgotten; and the people among whom, for a long period, no really great leader had sprung up were becoming rapidly mixed up, and soon would have been hardly distinguished from the warlike tribes of Canaan in the neighbouring countries.

But Samuel, aided by his great natural genius, but far more by the Glorious Arm, on which he leaned with a changeless trust from childhood to extreme old age, quickened into life again the dying traditions of the race, and taught them who they—the down-trodden Israelites—really were— the chosen of God. He restored the forgotten laws of Moses, by the keeping of which they once became great and powerful, and by the creation of an earthly monarchy he welded into one the separate interests of the twelve divisions of the race; so that from Dan to Beersheba there was but one chief, one standard.

But his greatest work was the foundation of the Prophetic Schools, in which men were trained and educated carefully, with the view of the pupils becoming in their turn the teachers and guides of the people. (These schools, which exercised so great an influence upon the future of Israel, and their special character have been already discussed.)

And all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him. — “When the hour of his death came, we are told, with a peculiar emphasis of expression, that all the Israelites—not one portion or fragment only, as might have been expected in that time of division and confusion—were gathered together round him who had been the father of all alike, and lamented him, and buried him, not in any sacred spot or secluded sepulchre, but in the midst of the home which he had consecrated only by his own long, unblemished career in his house at Ramah.”—Stanley, Jewish Church, Lecture 18.

Josephus makes special mention of the public funeral honours paid to the great prophet: “They wept for him a very great number of days, not looking on it as a sorrow for the death of another man, but as that in which they were all concerned. He was a righteous man, and gentle in his nature, and on that account he was very dear to God.”— Antiquities 6.13.5.

F. W. Krummacher beautifully writes on this public lamentation: “It was as if from the noble star, as long as it shone in the heaven of the Holy Land, though veiled by clouds, there streamed a mild, beneficial light over all Israel; now the light was extinguished in Israel.”

It is probable that by “in his house,” the court or garden attached to the prophet’s house is signified. To have buried him literally in his house would have occasioned perpetual ceremonial defilement.

We read also of Manasseh the king being buried in his own house (2 Chronicles 33:20), which is explained in 2 Kings 21:18 by the words, in the garden of his own house. In modern times Samuel’s grave is pointed out in a cave underneath the floor of the Muslim mosque on Nebi Samuel, a lofty peak above Gibeon, which still bears his honoured name. There is, however, a tradition that his remains—or what purported to be his remains—were removed with royal pomp from Ramah to Constantinople by the Emperor Arcadius, at the beginning of the fifth century.

The wilderness of Paran. — The Septuagint (Vatican) read “Maon” instead of “Paran,” not conceiving it probable that the scene of David’s camp would be so far removed from Maon and Carmel, the localities where the following events took place. “Paran” is properly the south of the Arabian peninsula, west of Sinai; “but it seems to have given its name to the vast extent of pasture and barren land now known as the Desert of El Tih. Of this the wilderness of Judah and Beersheba would virtually form part, without the borders being strictly defined. The Septuagint emendation, therefore, is quite unnecessary.— Dean Payne Smith.

Maon. — Maon mentioned above was in the hill country of Judah. The Carmel mentioned here is not the famous Mount Carmel in the north, but the small town, the modern Kurmeel, near Maon, of which we read in 1 Samuel 15:12, when Saul set up a place or monument after the war with Amalek.

And the man was very great. — The wealthy chief—the subject of the story—was a descendant of Caleb, the friend and comrade of Joshua. At the time of the conquest of Canaan, Caleb obtained vast possessions in the valley of Hebron and in the south of Judah.

The tradition has even preserved to us the exact number of his flocks, probably to enhance the churlishness of his reply to David when David asked him for some return for the protection his armed bands had afforded to these vast flocks in their pasturage on the edge of the desert.

The occasion of David’s mission to Nabal was the annual sheep-shearing of the rich sheep-master—always a great occasion, and accompanied usually on large estates by festivities.

Nabal. —The word “Nabal” means “fool,” connected with naval, to fade away. The name was probably a nickname given to him because of his well-known stubborn folly.

Abigail. —The famous beautiful woman who afterwards became David’s wife seems to have been, as Stanley calls her, “the good angel of the household” of the ill-starred, boorish southern chieftain. Her name, too, which signifies “whose father is joy,” was most likely given to her by the villagers on her husband’s estate, as expressive of her sunny, gladness-bringing presence. Her early training, and the question regarding the sources from which she derived her wisdom and deep, far-sighted piety—apparently far in advance of her age—is discussed further on in the chapter.

The house of Caleb. —In the original Kalibi, that is, of the house or family of Caleb. Thus the word is read in the Hebrew Bible. There is, however, an alternative reading—K’libi—with different vowel-points in the written text, which would be read “according to his heart.” Josephus, the Septuagint, and the Arabic and Syriac Versions understand it as derived from kelev, a dog, and render—“and he was a cynical man” (that is, “one of a dog-like character”—anthrôpos keunikos). The Chaldee “e domo Caleb,” and Vulgate “de genero Caleb,” follow the text which is read in the Hebrew Bible, and translated in our version, “of the house of Caleb,” which seems, on the whole, the preferable and most likely meaning.

And David heard in the wilderness. The question of supporting the large band of devoted followers who obeyed David must usually have been a very anxious one. No doubt, contributions from the farmers and sheep owners substantially contributed to the supplies David and his men obtained from their raids across the Philistine borders. It is quite likely that some of these contributions were not always willingly made; still, there is no doubt that the presence of the armed band of David during the latter years of Saul provided considerable protection to the borderland.

His position resembled that of a modern Arab sheikh of a friendly Bedouin tribe, and it is clear that, on the whole, his career as head of an army of free lances tended to make him popular among the southern tribes of Israel. Nabal’s conduct appears to have been more than churlish and foolish, for David, according to the accounts of Nabal’s own shepherds, had on many occasions been of substantial service to them as they tended their flocks in exposed and dangerous locations. The testimony of these shepherds can generally be accepted as the popular estimate of David and his acts during this rough and severely tested period of his life.

And in this way you shall say. — On such a festive occasion near a town or village, an Arab sheik of the neighbouring desert would hardly fail to put in a word, either in person or by message; and his message, both in form and substance, would be only a transcript of David’s. — Robinson, Palestine, p. 201.

To him who lives in prosperity. — Considerable diversity of opinion exists regarding the meaning of the Hebrew original here, lechai. The Vulgate alters the text slightly and renders it “to my brother.” The Septuagint has an impossible translation — “eis horas,” meaning for times or for seasons. It is better, however, to understand it as a popular expression of congratulation, not found, as Lange well puts it, in the literary language. Luther also renders it “glück auf,” meaning “may it turn out well” or “may you be prosperous.” The famous Hebrew commentator Raschi, and also the Babylonian Talmud, apparently understand it in this sense.