1 Samuel 1:24 Komentář

The history of Samuel here begins as early as that of Samson did, even before he was born, as afterwards the history of John the Baptist and our blessed Saviour. Some of the scripture-worthies drop out of the clouds, as it were, and their first appearance is in their full growth and lustre. But others are accounted for from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception. What God says of the prophet Jeremiah is true of all: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee," Jer 1:5. But some great men were brought into the world with more observation than others, and were more early distinguished from common persons, as Samuel for one. God, in this matter, acts as a free agent. The story of Samson introduces him as a child of promise, Jdg. 13. But the story of Samuel introduces him as a child of prayer. Samson's birth was foretold by an angel to his mother; Samuel was asked of God by his mother. Both together intimate what wonders are produced by the word and prayer. Samuel's mother was Hannah, the principal person concerned in the story of this chapter. I. Here is her affliction - she was childless, and this affliction aggravated by her rival's insolence, but in some measure balanced by her husband's kindness (Sa1 1:1-8). II. The prayer and vow she made to God under this affliction, in which Eli the high priest at first censured her, but afterwards encouraged her (Sa1 1:9-18). III. The birth and nursing of Samuel (Sa1 1:19-23) IV. The presenting of him to the Lord (Sa1 1:24-28).

This chapter gives an account of the parents of Samuel, of the trouble his mother met with from her rival, and comfort from her husband, Sa1 1:1, of her prayer to God for a son, and of her vow to him, should one be given her, Sa1 1:9 of the notice Eli took of her, and of his censure on her, which he afterwards retracted, and comforted her, Sa1 1:12 of her conception and the birth of her son, the nursing and weaning of him, Sa1 1:19 and of the presentation of him to the Lord, with a sacrifice, Sa1 1:24.

And when she had weaned him,.... At the usual time of weaning children; See Gill on Sa1 1:23 some refer this not only to the milk of the breast, from which he was weaned, but to such food as was common to children, and so supposes him grown up to nine or ten years of age: she took him up with her; to the tabernacle at Shiloh, at a yearly festival: with three bullocks; for three sorts of offerings, burnt offering, sin offering, and peace offering; or since one only is spoken of as slain, that is, for sacrifice, the other two might be for food to entertain her family and friends with while there; or as a present to the high priest, to whose care she committed her son: and one ephah of flour; if the bullocks were all sacrificed, three tenth deals, or three tenth parts of the ephah, went for a meat offering to each bullock, which made nine parts out of ten, and the tenth part she had to dispose of at pleasure; see Num 15:9, though that seems to be restrained to a burnt offering only: and a bottle of wine; part of which might be for the drink offering which always attended a meat offering, and the rest for her own use, and that of her friends: and brought him unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh: the tabernacle there, and delivered him up to the care of the high priest, to be trained up in the service of God: and the child was young; a very child, very young in years, a little infant; not a sucking child, as the Targum, because weaned, otherwise of a very tender age; though some think this expresses that he was a well grown lad, and was sharp and acute, and could well distinguish between good and evil.

Considering all these things, and whatever else the Lord shall have made known to you in this matter, which either does not occur to me or would take too much time to state here, strive in prayer to overcome this world: pray in hope, pray in faith, pray in love, pray earnestly and patiently, pray as a widow belonging to Christ. For although prayer is, as he has taught, the duty of all his members, that is, of all who believe in him and are united to his body, a more assiduous attention to prayer is found to be specially enjoined in Scripture upon those who are widows. Two women of the name of [Hannah] are honorably named there—the one, Elkanah’s wife, who was the mother of holy Samuel; the other, the widow who recognized the Most Holy One when he was yet a babe. [Hannah], though married, prayed with sorrow of mind and brokenness of heart because she had no sons; and she obtained Samuel and dedicated him to the Lord, because she vowed to do so when she prayed for him.

46. For what is signified by a calf in this place, if not the purpose of imitating the life of the perfect? But it is a calf when it arises in the heart of one making progress, yet it becomes an ox when through the strength of virtue it is brought to the disposition of a great conversion. In this place it must be carefully inquired why not one calf, but three are reported to have been brought to the tabernacle. But in the three calves the infant being carried is shown, so that he might suggest the pattern of those who are being trained for the ministry of preaching. For the perfect teacher watches over both the conversion of sinners and the guarding of the just. For like a farmer of the supreme head of the household, he yokes both oxen to the plows, so that he may not only watch over those standing lest they fall, but also raise up the fallen so they may stand firm. But let him who has two oxen in the care of those subject to him, that he may be able to be perfect, yoke a third ox in divine contemplation, so that he may both open the hearts of his neighbors with a complete yoke, by speaking as if by plowing, and always extend himself through the singular strength of love toward the vision of his Creator. Therefore Samuel is led to the house of the Lord with three calves, when anyone making good progress proposes that through the labor of preaching he may be able to benefit his neighbors, and through the secret of quiet cling to the intimate vision of the Creator. And because an unskilled mind will never be able to exhibit this well, he is also offered with three measures of flour. For when loaves are made from flour, the preparation of refreshment is completed. But because he is offered not in loaves but in measures of flour, a good devotion proposing doctrine is shown, not exhibiting the benefit of doctrine itself. Therefore a measure of flour signifies the preparation for holy preaching. But the infant is brought with three measures of flour, because when we propose to preach, we prepare the word of knowledge for sinners unto conversion, for the just unto the state of perseverance, and for ourselves unto heavenly contemplation; or certainly one measure is, as we have said, for the conversion of the sinner, another for the instruction of the married, and the third for the excellent purity of the continent. And they are called measures on account of the measure of discretion. Whence also the blessed Paul declares, saying: Not to think more highly than one ought to think, but to think with sobriety (Rom. 12:3). 47. Indeed, what the order of preachers, chosen from among the nations as circumstances required, possessed—not from the fickleness of vanity but from the virtue of good intention—follows: "And a jar of wine." The virtue of good intention is the charity of God, which is poured into the hearts of the elect through the gift of the Holy Spirit. This gift of charity is rightly figured by the name of wine, because it occupies the mind and alienates it from earthly affections, so that it has no intention toward the world, which it inflames toward desiring heavenly things alone. But so that not the perfection but the beginning of this virtue might be designated, it is shown to have been a jar of wine and not a cup. For we store in a jar what we will someday serve through a cup. Hence it is that he who had tasted the perfection of heavenly charity confessed to almighty God, saying: "You have anointed my head with oil, and my inebriating cup, how excellent it is!" (Psalm 22:5). Samuel is shown to have been offered with a jar of wine, because every elect person, when he is prepared for the ministry of evangelical preaching, proposes the good of that preaching to be expended not for the vain ambition of this world, but for charity alone. Therefore he is brought with calves for the purpose of fortitude, with measures of flour for the doctrine of the word, with a jar of wine for the intention of charity. 48. Where indeed these beginnings of virtues are to be perfected, he teaches when he adds: "And she brought him into the house of the Lord in Shiloh." The house of the Lord is rightly understood as the holy Church, which indeed is said to be situated in Shiloh. Now Shiloh is the place where the ark of God is said to have remained. What else, therefore, does Shiloh signify in this place than the tradition of the old law? For it contains, as it were, the ark of God, while it displays outwardly the carnal letter, which holds spiritual knowledge enclosed in its secrets. What then does it mean that the house of the Lord is said to be situated in Shiloh, except that the holy Church is known to be founded in the sacrament of the Scriptures as in a place? Samuel is said to have been brought there, offered there, because apart from the holy Church there is no place where the merits of virtues may grow and come to the summit of perfection. But when he who was brought is mentioned, the reason for his delay is also recalled, when it is added: (Verse 24.) "But the boy was still a little child." For if he had not then been a little child, while he could come by himself, it would not have been necessary for him to be led here by another. It follows: (Verse 25.) "And they sacrificed a calf, and offered the boy to Eli."

(Moral Exposition) Now the boy is led to the tabernacle with three calves, because for the abundance of spiritual gifts we ought to give thanks to the supreme Trinity. Concerning these calves the prophet beseeching the Lord says: "Take away all iniquity, and receive the good, and we will render the calves of our lips" (Hosea 14:3). As if to say: For the abundance of gifts we will render sacrifices of praise, through the service of our lips. The boy is brought to be offered in the house of the Lord, when the progress of a holy mind is revealed to the teachers of Holy Church, so that while it is examined through consultation with the wise, it may in no way be stained by the fraud of the cunning enemy. The house of the Lord can also designate the eternal homeland. Of this indeed the Psalmist says exulting: "Blessed are they who dwell in your house, O Lord, they will praise you forever and ever" (Psalm 84:5). The boy is brought into the house of the Lord, when the chosen mind is raised up on high, and strives to give thanks to almighty God for all in which it makes spiritual progress, from whom it recognizes the gifts of its advancement have been bestowed upon it. And rightly one calf is sacrificed, though three are brought, because although the Trinity of persons is sung in divine praises by the confession of the faithful, the inseparable unity of those same persons is proclaimed. But what kind, or how great is praise, if it is not devout? Therefore fittingly three measures of flour are joined to three calves, so that we may be satisfied through devotion by what we say with our mouth in praises of God. For he offers a calf without flour, who in the praises of God indeed utters words, but with a wandering mind does not attend to what he speaks. But if speaking the words of God in praising or praying, we rejoice, while we mix joy with understanding, we join an amphora of that wine which gladdens the heart of man to the flour. This indeed he suggests, who longing says: "May God bless us, our God bless us, may God bless us, and may all the ends of the earth fear him" (Psalm 67:7-8). He led as it were three calves to the tabernacle, who praising God, by repeating the name of his divinity, set forth the properties of the persons. But when he said "may they fear," he said not "them" but "him," certainly he who brought three calves sacrificed one. And because he mixed flour with the calves, and wine with the flour, he glories, saying: "To him I cried with my mouth, and I exulted under my tongue" (Psalm 66:17). For while he cried out, he led as it were a calf of sacrifice to be immolated, but he could not exult under his tongue, if he did not understand the lofty words of his prayer. When therefore he cried out, he understood what he cried out, and when he exulted in the oblation of almighty God, he had not only a calf, but also measures of flour, and an amphora of wine. Therefore the calf, the flour and the wine are the praise of God, the understanding of praise, and the joy of a devout mind. But why are the measure and amphora named in the oblation to God, unless because they are names of measures? Paul also explains what this spiritually indicates, saying: "Each one has his own gift from God, one indeed in this way, another in that way" (1 Corinthians 7:7). Hence the Truth says: "A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, they will give into your lap" (Luke 6:38). Sacred Scripture has commanded us to guard this measure, saying: "Do not lift a burden above yourself." But the chosen soul must take great care to offer these three things to almighty God with the ardor of pious devotion and with the zeal for manifest truth. Hence also the son of the same Anna is declared to have been offered to the priest. Which indeed we also do, if when we make progress in holy conduct, when with minds now fruitful we bring forth the fruit of spiritual joys, we lead to the examination of our prelates everything that is generated in us from heavenly contemplation. And because chosen men amid their sublime gifts do not abandon the good of their humility, there follows: (Verse 28.) "And they worshiped the Lord there."

And she brought him with her, after she had weaned him, etc. The Church brings up her children, to whom she reasonably and without deceit administered milk, and has now advanced them from the rudiments of the new man to more perfect things, having educated them. She brings, I say, those whom the assisting grace of Christ has made strong in understanding to the fellowship of those who have already been made the temple of God through the observance of the divine law. But she brings them in three persons, namely, those who are married, the continent, and the teachers, who by the purity of their lives are fit for divine sacrifices, having bodies prepared to die for Christ, possessing a heart contrite through the mill of fear and hope, and embracing with a full mind the fervent love of spiritual grace to be inebriated with a sober chalice. For since an amphora is a kind of measure, it indicates the measure of love, by which each one is commanded to love his neighbor as himself. And because it holds three measures, it is rightly applied to the aforementioned three persons, by whom the whole Church consists.

The boy, however, was still a little child, etc. The people of the nations had recently converted to the faith and produced not a few martyrs, who with unanimous devotion shed their blood for Christ, and grafted the wild olive tree onto the good olive tree; this was done by ministers of the word.

Some account of Elkanah and his two wives, Peninnah and Hannah, Sa1 1:1, Sa1 1:2. His annual worship at Shiloh and the portions he gave at such times to his wives, Sa1 1:3-5. Hannah, being barren, is reproached by Peninnah, especially in their going up to Shiloh; at which she is sorely grieved, Sa1 1:6, Sa1 1:7. Elkanah comforts her, Sa1 1:8. Her prayer and vow in the temple, that if God would give her a son, she would consecrate him to His service, Sa1 1:9-11. Eli, the high priest, indistinctly hearing her pray, charges her with being drunk, Sa1 1:12-14. Her defense of her conduct, Sa1 1:15, Sa1 1:16. Eli, undeceived, blesses her; on which she takes courage, Sa1 1:17, Sa1 1:18. Hannah and Elkanah return home; she conceives, bears a son, and calls him Samuel, Sa1 1:19, Sa1 1:20. Elkanah and his family go again to Shiloh to worship; but Hannah stays at home to nurse her child, purposing, as soon as he is weaned, to go and offer him to the Lord, according to her vow, Sa1 1:21-23. When weaned, she takes him to Shiloh, presents hear child to Eli to be consecrated to the Lord, and offers three bullocks, an ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, for his consecration, Sa1 1:24-28.

With three bullocks - The Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Arabic, read, a bullock of three years old; and this is probably correct, because we read, Sa1 1:25, that they slew את הפר eth happar, The bullock. We hear of no more, and we know that a bullock or heifer of three years old was ordinarily used, see Gen 15:9. One ephah of flour - Seven gallons and a half. A bottle of wine - נבל יין nebel yayin, a skin full of wine. Their bottles for wine and fluids in general were made out of skins of goats, stripped off without being cut up; the places whence the legs were extracted sewed up, as also the lower part; and the top tied. She the notes on Gen 21:14, and Mat 9:17. These three things, the ox, the flour, and the wine, probably constituted the consecration-offering.

OF ELKANAH AND HIS TWO WIVES. (Sa1 1:1-8) a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim--The first word being in the dual number, signifies the double city--the old and new town of Ramah (Sa1 1:19). There were five cities of this name, all on high ground. This city had the addition of Zophim attached to it, because it was founded by Zuph, "an Ephrathite," that is a native of Ephratha. Beth-lehem, and the expression "of Ramathaim-zophim" must, therefore, be understood as Ramah in the land of Zuph in the hill country of Ephratha. Others, considering "mount Ephraim" as pointing to the locality in Joseph's territory, regard "Zophim" not as a proper but a common noun, signifying watchtowers, or watchmen, with reference either to the height of its situation, or its being the residence of prophets who were watchmen (Eze 3:17). Though a native of Ephratha or Beth-lehem-judah (Rut 1:2), Elkanah was a Levite (Ch1 6:33-34). Though of this order, and a good man, he practised polygamy. This was contrary to the original law, but it seems to have been prevalent among the Hebrews in those days, when there was no king in Israel, and every man did what seemed right in his own eyes [Jdg 21:25].

three bullocks--The Septuagint renders it "a bullock of three years old"; which is probably the true rendering. Next: 1 Samuel Chapter 2

I. History of the People of Israel Under the Prophet Samuel - 1 Samuel 1-7 The call of Samuel to be the prophet and judge of Israel formed a turning-point in the history of the Old Testament kingdom of God. As the prophet of Jehovah, Samuel was to lead the people of Israel out of the times of the judges into those of the kings, and lay the foundation for a prosperous development of the monarchy. Consecrated like Samson as a Nazarite from his mother's womb, Samuel accomplished the deliverance of Israel out of the power of the Philistines, which had been only commenced by Samson; and that not by the physical might of his arm, but by the spiritual power of his word and prayer, with which he led Israel back from the worship of dead idols to the Lord its God. And whilst as one of the judges, among whom he classes himself in Sa1 12:11, he brought the office of judge to a close, and introduced the monarchy; as a prophet, he laid the foundation of the prophetic office, inasmuch as he was the fist to naturalize it, so to speak, in Israel, and develope it into a power that continued henceforth to exert the strongest influence, side by side with the priesthood and monarchy, upon the development of the covenant nation and kingdom of God. For even if there were prophets before the time of Samuel, who revealed the will of the Lord at times to the nation, they only appeared sporadically, without exerting any lasting influence upon the national life; whereas, from the time of Samuel onwards, the prophets sustained and fostered the spiritual life of the congregation, and were the instruments through whom the Lord made known His purposes to the nation and its rulers. To exhibit in its origin and growth the new order of things which Samuel introduced, or rather the deliverance which the Lord sent to His people through this servant of His, the prophetic historian goes back to the time of Samuel's birth, and makes us acquainted not only with the religious condition of the nation, but also with the political oppression under which it was suffering at the close of the period of the judges, and during the high-priesthood of Eli. At the time when the pious parents of Samuel were going year by year to the house of God at Shiloh to worship and offer sacrifice before the Lord, the house of God was being profaned by the abominable conduct of Eli's sons (1 Samuel 1-2). When Samuel was called to be the prophet of Jehovah, Israel lost the ark of the covenant, the soul of its sanctuary, in the war with the Philistines (1 Samuel 3-4). And it was not till after the nation had been rendered willing to put away its strange gods and worship Jehovah alone, through the influence of Samuel's exertions as prophet, that the faithful covenant God gave it, in answer to Samuel's intercession, a complete victory over the Philistines (1 Samuel 7). In accordance with these three prominent features, the history of the judicial life of Samuel may be divided into three sections, viz.: 1 Samuel 1-2; 3-6; 7.

As soon as the boy was weaned, Hannah brought him, although still a נער, i.e., a tender boy, to Shiloh, with a sacrifice of three oxen, an ephah of meal, and a pitcher of wine, and gave him up to Eli when the ox (bullock) had been slain, i.e., offered in sacrifice as a burnt-offering. The striking circumstance that, according to Sa1 1:24, Samuel's parents brought three oxen with them to Shiloh, and yet in Sa1 1:25 the ox (הפּר) alone is spoken of as being slain (or sacrificed), may be explained very simply on the supposition that in Sa1 1:25 that particular sacrifice is referred to, which was associated with the presentation of the boy, that is to say, the burnt-offering by virtue of which the boy was consecrated to the Lord as a spiritual sacrifice for a lifelong service at His sanctuary, whereas the other two oxen served as the yearly festal offering, i.e., the burnt-offerings and thank-offerings which Elkanah presented year by year, and the presentation of which the writer did not think it needful to mention, simply because it followed partly from Sa1 1:3 and partly from the Mosaic law. (Note: The interpretation of שׁלשׁה בּפרים by ἐν μόσχῳ τριετίζοντι (lxx), upon which Thenius would found an alteration of the text, is proved to be both arbitrary and wrong by the fact that the translators themselves afterwards mention the θυσία, which Elkanah brought year by year, and the μόσχος, and consequently represent him as offering at least two animals, in direct opposition to the μόσχῳ τριετίζοντι. This discrepancy cannot be removed by the assertion that in Sa1 1:24 the sacrificial animal intended for the dedication of the boy is the only one mentioned; and the presentation of the regular festal sacrifice is taken for granted, for an ephah of meal would not be the proper quantity to be offered in connection with a single ox, since, according to the law in Num 15:8-9, only three-tenths of an ephah of meal were required when an ox was presented as a burnt-offering or slain offering. The presentation of an ephah of meal presupposes the offering of three oxen, and therefore shows that in Sa1 1:24 the materials are mentioned for all the sacrifices that Elkanah was about to offer.)