1 Samuel 4:17

In the first battle, the Philistines had the better of the Israelites, which caused the latter to inquire into the reason of it, and who proposed to fetch the ark of the Lord, and did, to repair their loss, and prepare for a second battle, in which they hoped to succeed, and which struck a panic into their enemies, 1 Samuel 4:1, who yet encouraged and stirred up one another to behave in a courageous manner, and victory a second time was on their side, a great number of the Israelites were slain, among whom were Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, and the ark of God was taken, 1 Samuel 4:8, the news of which being brought to Eli, he fell back and died, 1 Samuel 4:12 and to his daughter-in-law, who upon it fell into labour, and died also, 1 Samuel 4:19. Ver. 1. And the word of Samuel came to all Israel,....

4:12-18 The defeat of the army was very grievous to Eli as a judge; the tidings of the death of his two sons, to whom he had been so indulgent, and who, as he had reason to fear, died impenitent, touched him as a father; yet there was a greater concern on his spirit. And when the messenger concluded his story with, The ark of God is taken, he is struck to the heart, and died immediately. A man may die miserably, yet not die eternally; may come to an untimely end, yet the end be peace.

And the messenger answered and said,.... He delivered his account gradually, beginning with generals, and then proceeding to particulars, and with what he thought Eli could better bear the news of, and so prepared him for the worst; in which he acted a wise part: Israel is fled before the Philistines; they have given way and retreated, and which might possibly be done without great loss, and which, though it was bad news, might not be so very bad: and there hath also been a great slaughter among the people; this is worse news still; however, the number of the slain is not given, nor any mention of particular persons that were killed: so that, for any thing yet said, his own sons might be safe: but then it follows: and thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead; the news of which must be very affecting to him, and strike him closely; though he might expect and be prepared for it by what both the man of God and Samuel from the Lord had related to him: and the ark of God is taken; the thing he feared, and his heart trembled before for it; this was the closing and cutting part of the account; the messenger foresaw that this would the most affect him, and therefore referred it to the last.

12 . there ran a man of Benjamin ] Cp. 2 Samuel 18:19 . The distance from Ebenezer to Shiloh was probably not more than twenty miles, so that a swift runner could easily arrive the same evening. Cp. to-day in 1 Samuel 4:16 . There is a strange Jewish tradition that the man was Saul, who seized the tables of the law out of the hand of Goliath and fled! out of the army ] Out of the battle-array , as in 1 Samuel 4:2 . with his clothes rent and with earth upon his head ] Signs of the deepest mourning. Cp. Joshua 7:6 ; 2 Samuel 1:2 ; Homer, Il. XVIII. 23, and an exact parallel in Virg. Aen . XII. 609–611, describing the mourning of Latinus on the suicide of his queen Amata: “It scissa veste Latinus Coniugis attonitus fatis urbisque ruina, Canitiem immundo perfusam pulvere turpans.” “Bowed to the earth with woe on woe, His consort dead, his town brought low, The hapless king his raiment tears, And soils with dust his silver hairs.” 12–18. The Death of Eli

Dim - Rather, "set." The word is quite different from that so rendered in 1 Samuel 3:2 . The phrase seems to express the "fixed" state of the blind eye, which is not affected by the light. Eli's blindness, while it made him alive to sounds, prevented his seeing the ripped garments and dust-besprinkled head of the messenger of bad news.

13-18. Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside—The aged priest, as a public magistrate, used, in dispensing justice, to seat himself daily in a spacious recess at the entrance gate of the city. In his intense anxiety to learn the issue of the battle, he took up his usual place as the most convenient for meeting with passers-by. His seat was an official chair, similar to those of the ancient Egyptian judges, richly carved, superbly ornamented, high, and without a back. The calamities announced to Samuel as about to fall upon the family of Eli [1Sa 2:34] were now inflicted in the death of his two sons, and after his death, by that of his daughter-in-law, whose infant son received a name that perpetuated the fallen glory of the church and nation [1Sa 4:19-22]. The public disaster was completed by the capture of the ark. Poor Eli! He was a good man, in spite of his unhappy weaknesses. So strongly were his sensibilities enlisted on the side of religion, that the news of the capture of the ark proved to him a knell of death; and yet his overindulgence, or sad neglect of his family—the main cause of all the evils that led to its fall—has been recorded, as a beacon to warn all heads of Christian families against making shipwreck on the same rock.

When the messenger informed him of the defeat of the Israelites, the death of his sons, and the capture of the ark, at the last news Eli fell back from his seat by the side of the gate, and broke his neck, and died. The loss of the ark was to him the most dreadful of all - more dreadful than the death of his two sons. Eli had judged Israel forty years. The reading twenty in the Septuagint does not deserve the slightest notice, if only because it is perfectly incredible that Eli should have been appointed judge of the nation in his seventy-eight year.

[Bible] 4:14. And Heli heard the noise of the cry, and he said: What meaneth the noise of this uproar? But he made haste, and came, and told Heli. 4:15. Now Heli was ninety and eight years old, and his eyes were dim, and he could not see. 4:16. And he said to Heli: I am he that came from the battle, and have fled out of the field this day. And he said to him: What is there done, my son? 4:17. And he that brought the news answered, and said: Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter of the people: moreover thy two sons, Ophni and Phinees, are dead: and the ark of God is taken. 4:18. And when he had named the ark of God, he fell from his stool backwards by the door, and broke his neck and died. For he was an old man, and far advanced in years: And he judged Israel forty years. Named the ark, etc... There is great reason, by all these circumstances, to hope that Heli died in a state of grace; and by his temporal punishments escaped the eternal. 4:19. And his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinees, was big with child, and near her time: and hearing the news that the ark of God was taken, and her father-in-law, and her husband, were dead, she bowed herself and fell in labour: for her pains came upon her on a sudden. 4:20. And when she was upon the point of death, they that stood about her said to her: Fear not, for thou hast borne a son. She answered them not, nor gave heed to them. 4:21. And she called the child Ichabod, saying: The glory is gone from Israel, because the ark of God was taken, and for her father-in-law, and for her husband: Ichabod... That is, Where is the glory? or, there is no glory. We see how much the Israelites lamented the loss of the ark, which was but the symbol of God's presence among them. How much more ought Christians to lament the loss of God himself, when by sin they have driven him out of their souls. 4:22. And she said: The glory is departed from Israel, because the ark of God was taken.

[Bible] 3:14. Therefore have I sworn to the house of Heli, that the iniquity of his house shall not be expiated with victims nor offerings for ever. 3:15. And Samuel slept till morning, and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel feared to tell the vision to Heli. 3:16. Then Heli called Samuel, and said: Samuel, my son. And he answered: Here am I. 3:17. And he asked him: What is the word that the Lord hath spoken to thee? I beseech thee hide it not from me. May God do so and so to thee, and add so and so, if thou hide from me one word of all that were said to thee. 3:18. So Samuel told him all the words, and did not hide them from him. And he answered: It is the Lord: let him do what is good in his sight. 3:19. And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and not one of his words fell to the ground. 3:20. And all Israel, from Dan to Bersabee, knew that Samuel was a faithful prophet of the Lord. 3:21. And the Lord again appeared in Silo, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Silo, according to the word of the Lord. And the word of Samuel came to pass to all Israel. The Israelites being overcome by the Philistines, send for the ark of God: but they are beaten again, the sons of Heli are killed, and the ark taken: upon the hearing of the news Heli falleth backward and dieth. 4:1. And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight: and Israel went out to war against the Philistines, and camped by the Stone of help. And the Philistines came to Aphec, The Stone of help... In Hebrew Eben-ezer; so called from the help which the Lord was pleased afterwards to give to his people Israel in that place, by the prayers of Samuel, chap. 7.12. 4:2. And put their army in array against Israel. And when they had joined battle, Israel turned their backs to the Philistines: and there were slain in that fight, here and there in the fields, about four thousand men.