Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 4

And the word of Samuel.—To which portion of the narrative does this statement belong? Is it part of that account of the Lord’s dealings with Samuel which closed the preceding chapter? Does it close that brief narrative which tells of the Divine voice that called to, and the vision seen by, the young chosen servant of the Highest, with a note simply relating how the word of the boy-prophet was received throughout the varied tribes of the people? Or does it tell us that at Samuel’s word—that is, acting under his advice—Israel commenced this new disastrous war with the Philistines?

By adopting the first supposition, which understands the words as a general statement respecting Samuel’s influence in Israel, the grave difficulty of supposing that Samuel was mistaken in his first advice to the people is, of course, removed; but then we have to explain the separation of this clause from the preceding section in chapter 3, to which it would appear so naturally to belong. We also have to account for the great abruptness with which the announcement of the war with the Philistines follows the clause respecting the “word of Samuel.” The Speaker’s Commentary attempts to solve the problem by suggesting, as “the cause of the abruptness,” that the account of the battle probably is extracted from some other book in which it came in naturally and consecutively, and that it was here introduced for the sake of exhibiting the fulfilment of Samuel’s prophecy concerning Eli’s family.

Evidently, however, the Hebrew revisers of Samuel did not so understand the clause. They have placed the notice of Samuel’s words coming to all Israel as introducing the narrative of the battle.

The compiler of the book, in his account of the young prophet’s error, touches upon an important feature of his great life. Anarchy and confusion had long prevailed throughout the tribes, and none of the hero-judges who had yet been raised to power had succeeded in restoring the stern, rigid form of theocracy that had made the Israel of Moses and Joshua so great and powerful. The high qualities that in his prime had, no doubt, raised Eli to the first place in the nation, were in his old age almost totally obscured by a weak affection for his unworthy sons. A terrible picture of the corruption of the priesthood is presented to us during the last period of Eli’s reign.

We can well imagine what the ordinary life of many among the people must have been, with such an example from their religious guides and temporal governors. Individual instances of piety and loyalty to the God of their fathers, such as we see in the house of Elkanah, even though such instances were not infrequent in themselves, would have been totally insufficient to preserve the nation from the decay that always follows impiety and corruption.

In this period of moral degradation, the Philistines—part of the original inhabitants of the land, a warlike and enterprising race—took advantage of the internal jealousies and weaknesses of Israel. They made themselves supreme in many portions of the land, often treating the former conquerors with harshness and even with contempt.

And pitched beside Eben-ezer.—“The stones of help.” The name was not given to the place until later, when Samuel set up a stone to commemorate a victory he gained over the Philistines some twenty years later.

In Aphek.—With the article, “the fortress.” Perhaps the same place as the old Canaanitish royal city Aphek.

Why has the Lord smitten us? —The people and the elders who, as we have seen above, had undertaken the war of liberty at the instigation of the young man of God, amazed at their defeat, were puzzled to understand why God was evidently not among them; they showed by their next procedure how thoroughly they had gone astray from the old pure religion.

Let us fetch the ark of the covenant. —Whether or not Samuel acquiesced in this fatal proposition we have no information. It evidently did not emanate from him. But, as we are expressly told, from the “elders of the people.” Probably the lesson of the first defeat had deeply impressed him, and he saw that a thorough reformation throughout the land was needed before the invisible King would again be present among the people.

It may save us. —It was a curious delusion, this baseless hope of the elders, that the unseen God was inseparably connected with that strange and beautiful symbol of His presence, with that coffer of perishable wood and metal overshadowed by the lifeless golden angels carved on the shining seat which closed this sacred Ark—that glittering mercy seat, as it was called, around which so many hallowed memories of the glory vision had gathered.

Far on in the people’s story, one of the greatest of Samuel’s successors, Jeremiah, presses home the same truth the people were so slow in learning, when he passionately urges his Israel, “Trust ye not in lying words, saying The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these. For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever” (Jeremiah 7:4–5; Jeremiah 7:7).

Wordsworth here, with great force, thus writes: “Probably David remembered this history when, with a clearer faith, he refused to allow the Ark to be carried with him in his retreat before Absalom out of Jerusalem; and even when the priests had brought it forth, he commanded them to carry it back to its place, saying, ‘If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring me again, and show me both it and His habitation’ (2 Samuel 15:25).

“David, without the Ark visibly present, but with the unseen help of Him who was enthroned on the mercy-seat, triumphed, and was restored to Jerusalem; but Israel, with the Ark visibly present, but without the blessing of Him whose throne the Ark was, fell before their enemies, and were deprived of the sacred symbol, which was taken by the Philistines.”

So the people sent to Shiloh. —There was, no doubt, in the minds of the elders, the memory of many a glorious victory gained in the old heroic days of Moses and Joshua in the presence of their sacred Ark; but then God was with His people, and the sacred Ark of the Covenant served as a reminder of His ever-presence with them. Now they had been disloyal to their unseen King, His very sanctuary had become infamous as the centre of vice, and His ministers were chiefly known as the prominent examples of covetousness and immorality, and the Ark had become only a symbol of the broken covenant.

It was in vain that the grand battle hymn of Israel was raised as in the old days when the Ark set forward: Rise up, Lord, and let Thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate Thee flee before Thee (Numbers 10:35).

Were there with the ark. —This Note respecting the guardians of the Ark is sufficient to account for the terrible discomfiture of Israel. The conduct and general life and example of their priestly leaders have already been indicated. What a contrast the writer of the Book bitterly puts down in his memoirs here—the glorious but now deserted earthly throne of God, and its guardians, the wicked, abandoned priests!

And when the ark ... came into the camp. —As far as we know, this was the first time since the establishment of the people in Canaan that the Ark had been brought from the permanent sanctuary into the camp. The shout of joy represented the confidence of the army that now the Ark, which had witnessed so many splendid victories of the chosen people, was among them, defeat was out of the question.

God is come into the camp. —The joy manifested by the Israelites at the arrival of the Ark from the sanctuary made the Philistines suspect that their enemies’ God was now present with the defeated army.

The city of Aphek, near which the camp of Israel was pitched, was close to the western entrance of the Pass of Beth-horon. The two defeats of Israel are termed in this Commentary the Battles of Aphek. The name of Eben-ezer, by which the scene was known in later days, was only given to the locality some twenty years later, on the occasion of the victory of Samuel near the same spot.

Philistines and Israelites, then, were equally superstitious in their belief, both supposing that Deity was in some way connected with the lifeless gold and wood of the symbol Ark and Cherubim.

But the Philistines had some excuse for their fears. Tradition was, no doubt, current among the old inhabitants of Canaan that this sacred Ark had been carried before the conquering armies of Israel in many a battle and siege in those days long past, when the strange shepherd hordes under Joshua had first invaded and taken possession of their beautiful land. The next verse explains more clearly some of the reasons for their fear.