1 Samuela 2:2 Komentarz

In this chapter we have, I. Hannah's song of thanksgiving to God for his favour to her in giving her Samuel (Sa1 2:1-10). II. Their return to their family, with Eli's blessing (Sa1 2:11, Sa1 2:20). The increase of their family (Sa1 2:21). Samuel's growth and improvement (Sa1 2:11, Sa1 2:18, Sa1 2:21, Sa1 2:26), and the care Hannah took to clothe him (Sa1 2:19). III. The great wickedness of Eli's sons (Sa1 2:12-17, Sa1 2:22). IV. The over-mild reproof that Eli gave them for it (Sa1 2:23-25). V. The justly dreadful message God sent him by a prophet, threatening the ruin of his family for the wickedness of his sons (Sa1 2:27-36).

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 2 In this chapter the song of Hannah is recorded, Sa1 2:1, and an account is given of the return of Elkanah and Hannah to their own home, and of the care she took yearly to provide a coat for Samuel, and of her being blessed with many other children, and of the growth and ministry of Samuel before the Lord, Sa1 2:11, and of the wickedness of the sons of Eli, Sa1 2:12, and of Eli's too gentle treatment of them when he reproved them for it, Sa1 2:22 and of a sharp message sent him from the Lord on that account, threatening destruction to his house, of which the death of his two sons would be a sign, Sa1 2:27.

There is none holy as the Lord,.... From the consideration of what the Lord had done for her, which had filled her heart and mouth with joy and praise, she is led to celebrate the perfections of God, and begins with his holiness, in which he is glorious, and which appears in all his ways and works; he is essentially, originally, independently, perfectly, and immutably holy, as others are not. Angels are holy, but not of themselves; their holiness is from the Lord; nor is it perfect in comparison of his, and therefore they cover their faces while they celebrate that perfection of his; nor immutable, at least not naturally so, as the loss of it in those that fell demonstrates. Of men, some under the legal dispensation were holy, not truly, but in a typical and ceremonial sense; some are only outwardly and hypocritically holy, and only so in the sight of men, not in the sight of God; and those that are truly holy, being called to holiness, and have the principle of it implanted in them, and live holy lives and conversations; yet though there is a likeness of the holiness of God in them, being made partakers of the divine nature; it is far from an equality to it; for the holiness of the best of men is imperfect; they are not without sin in them, nor without sin committed by them, and perfection is disclaimed by them all; but the Lord is without iniquity, just and true is he; none in his nature, nor in any of his works, not the least shadow thereof: for there is none besides thee; there is no God besides him; no being but what is of him, and none is holy but by him; the holiness of angels is from him; the holiness of Adam in innocence was of him; and all the holiness of his chosen ones comes from him, to which they are chosen by him, and which is secured in that choice unto them, and are sanctified by God the Father, in Christ, and through the Spirit: neither is there any rock like our God; the word rock is used for Deity, and sometimes for a false one, Deu 32:31 and so it may here, and the sense be, there is no god like to our God; there is indeed none besides him; there are fictitious gods, and nominal ones, as the idols of the Gentiles, and who are so in an improper and figurative sense, as magistrates; but there is but one true and living God; nor is there any like him for the perfections of his nature, and the blessings of his goodness, whether in providence or grace. Under this metaphor of a rock, our Lord Jesus Christ is often signified; he is the rock of Israel, the rock of refuge, and of salvation; and there is no rock can do what he does, hide and shelter from the justice of God; there is no rock like him for strength and duration; none like him for a foundation to build upon, or for safety and protection from the wrath of God, and the rage of men, see Psa 18:31.

“Be holy, for I also am holy.” But however much one might advance in sanctity, however much purity and sincerity one might acquire, a human being cannot be holy like the Lord, because he is the bestower of sanctity, the human being its receiver, he is the fountain of sanctity, the human being the drinker from the fountain, he is the light of sanctity, the human being the contemplator of the holy light. Thus “there is none holy like the Lord, there is none besides thee.” What it means to say “There is none besides thee,” I do not understand. If it had said, “There is no God but you” or “There is no creator but you” or had added something like this, there would be no problem. But if it now says “There is none besides thee,” this is what it seems to me to mean here: none of those things which are possess their existence by nature. You alone, O Lord, are the one to whom your existence has not been given by anyone. Because all of us, that is the whole creation, did not exist before we were created; thus, that we are, is [due to] the will of the Creator. And because there was a time when we were not, it is not wholly right if it is said of us, without qualification, that we exist.… For the shadow is nothing in comparison with the body; and in comparison with the fire, smoke too is nothing.

Are these words going to be regarded as simply the words of one mere woman giving thanks for the birth of her son? Are people’s minds so turned away from the light of truth that they do not feel that the words poured out by this woman transcend the limit of her own thoughts? Surely, anyone who is appropriately moved by the events whose fulfillment has already begun, even in this earthly pilgrimage, must listen to these words and observe and recognize that through this woman (whose very name, Hannah, means “God’s grace”), there speaks, by the spirit of prophecy, the Christian religion itself, the City of God itself, whose king and founder is Christ. There speaks, in fact, the grace of God itself, from which the proud are estranged so that they fall, with which the humble are filled so that they rise up, which was in fact the chief theme that rang out in her hymn of praise. Now it may be that someone will be ready to say that the woman didn’t utter a prophecy but merely praised God in an outburst of exultation for the son who was granted in answer to her prayer. If so, what is the meaning of this passage, “He has made weak the bow of the mighty ones, and the weak have girded themselves with strength. Those who were full of bread have been reduced to want, and the hungry have passed over the earth. Because the barren woman has given birth to seven, while she who has many children has become weak.” Had Hannah herself really borne seven children, although she was barren? She had only one son when she spoke these words; and even afterwards she did not give birth to seven, or to six, which would have made Samuel the seventh. She had in fact three male and two female children. And then observe her concluding words, spoken among that people at a time when no one had yet been king over them: “He gives strength to our kings and will exalt the horn of his anointed.” How is it that she said this, if she was not uttering a prophecy? Therefore, let the church of Christ speak, the “city of the great king,” the church that is “full of grace,” fruitful in children. Let it speak the words that it recognizes as spoken prophetically about itself, so long ago, by the lips of this devout mother, “My heart is strengthened in the Lord; my horn is exalted in my God.” Her heart is truly strengthened and her horn truly exalted, because it is “in the Lord her God,” not in herself, that she finds strength and exaltation.

In the description of the Redeemer, all things are designated as incomparable. For the true Redeemer is shown from this: that in everything said concerning His glory, no one is compared to Him. For He redeemed all who excels all. This is rightly said against Judea, which despises the Redeemer all the more boldly because it recalls having had many men who shone with great praise of holiness. Hence it is that when reproaching the man whose sight was restored, they say: "You be His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this man is from" (John 9:28-29). Hence likewise they boast and say: "We are the seed of Abraham, and we have never served anyone" (John 8:33). But Moses was a man, Abraham was a man, Christ was a man. However, they were assumed for speaking with God; He was assumed into divinity. They were assumed for ministry; He, as the Only-begotten, was assumed to the kingdom. Hence He also speaks, saying: "All things that the Father has are mine" (John 16:15). There is none holy as the Lord is. Sacred Scripture also testifies to this, saying: "In whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9). Hence John says: "From His fullness we have all received" (John 1:16). There is none holy as the Lord is. Because in that He is declared Lord, the excellence of His holiness is commended. But the Jews assert that the Christ whom they await is a mere man, and yet they believe He will be their Lord and uniquely holy. But the Psalmist, reproving them, exhorts us to the joy of faith, saying: "Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; serve the Lord with gladness. Enter into His presence with exultation; know that the Lord Himself is God" (Psalm 100:1-3). They call Him Lord who is not God. Therefore we must shout for joy, we must serve with gladness, who have such a Lord who is also truly believed to be God, who proved the majesty of divinity that He claimed for Himself by incomparable miracles. Let those who deny His invisible divinity believe in His manifest works. But how wondrous is that holiness which sanctifies sinners! Hence He says of the sinful woman: "Her many sins are forgiven, because she loved much" (Luke 7:47). The woman with the flow of blood, recognizing this excellence of holiness, said: "If I touch even the fringe of His garment, I shall be saved" (Matt. 9:21). But who would affirm her faith if the effect of faith were not evident? For when she touched His garment, the blood stopped. There is none holy, therefore, as the Lord is, because whoever was able to be holy received from His gift that he might be able to be holy. For the holy Church, suggesting this in the following words, turns to the same Redeemer out of exceeding love.

"Holy" is understood. Someone would be holy outside of him, if without the gift of the Only-begotten one could have had the spirit of sanctification. But who would dare assert this about men, when it is by no means established about the Angels? For it is written: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their power by the spirit of his mouth" (Psalm 32:6). The Word of the Lord is the Only-begotten of God. The evangelist John, indeed pointing to him, says: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). If therefore even the angels are believed to be sanctified in the Son, much more is it believed about men that they cannot find the grace of sanctification outside of him.

6. For by these words of Anna, every chosen soul cries out this in praise to the Redeemer, which it believes to be a gift from him. But from this order of pious confession, the order is indicated by which we may attain those same goods of the gift which she set forth in sequence. Therefore the Lord is declared holy and strong, by whom we are sanctified, led to rest, and glorified. We receive sanctification from the Lord in the power of regeneration; but being—that is, rest from the changeableness of this corruption—in the ending of exile; and strength in the triumph of the resurrection. Therefore we attain the first of these gifts in this life, when the soul of each chosen one is in the flesh, but both are still placed in the struggle of labor; the next, however, in the soul alone apart from the flesh, after the life of the flesh, and now taken up from the labors of this life; but the last, in flesh and soul, but both now renewed through the glory of eternity. Therefore he is first called holy, because for those regenerated through the washing of salvation, the love of God is poured into our hearts, through whose grace we are prepared for the goods of the eternal homeland, so that while this life slips away through the time of its course, that life may receive us, whose joy the departing souls of the elect from here may possess without fear of death. Then being is ascribed to him, because, secure, we await the day of our consummation, namely the glory of the final resurrection, while in that gift of received rest we learn not to fear the scrutiny of the final judgment, but to await the joy of the promised glory. But in the last place he is declared strong, because in the joy of the future resurrection our weaknesses are strengthened, when the flesh rises from the dust; but that same dust of our flesh, transferred into the glory of perpetual incorruption, returns no more to the misery of its frailty. But it should also be noted that in these three we are led from one to another; but when one begins to have what was not had, he who receives what he did not have does not lose what he had before. For when we are led from sanctification to rest, and from the rest of the soul we are led to the strength of eternal incorruption, both the sanctification of love is increased for us in that rest, and rest and love grow greatly in the resurrection. For let each soul, joined to its Creator through love, beholding such great gifts, say in the words of Anna how well the gift of perfect regeneration and the power of love tastes to it. Let it say: There is none holy as the Lord is. Let it say how much better a gift is the promise of rest in the hour of its passing: Neither is there any other besides you. Let it say how the most excellent and pleasing reward is its final renewal, in the joy of its perfected spirit and glorified flesh. Let it say: And there is none strong like our God. And it should be noted that Anna speaks this in a canticle of prayer. For to the chosen mind, to ask these things in a canticle is to desire such great gifts with joy. Indeed, for it to ask is to desire, and to rejoice is to sing. But she who so joyfully beholds the gifts of her dignity, how strongly she reproaches hidden enemies becomes known.

This can also be understood without any implied meaning. Therefore when she says: "Nor is there any other besides you," what else is designated in the Redeemer but the immutability of the divine essence? Hence he also says to the blaspheming Jews: "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58). Intimating the same thing to Moses in Genesis, he says: "I am who I am" (Exodus 3:14). For the only-begotten God's being is never to be dissimilarly. This state is certainly as far removed from all mortals as it is more clearly known that they are changed through many things at every single moment. This can also pertain to the state of justice, because the being of the elect is to remain in God through justice. And because the only-begotten of God is God, there is no one outside him, because none of the elect exists except in him. But if this is referred to his divinity, so that it in no way empties the understanding of his humanity, because one who does not have faith in the divine Incarnation cannot be just; therefore the Jews are struck by these individual words, who, while they despise the Redeemer, await the Antichrist, who is clearly proven not to be God. Hence it is also said through blessed Job: "Let the companions of him who is not dwell in his tent" (Job 18:15). The tent of the Antichrist is the love of faithlessness, by which he contradicts the faith of the Redeemer. In this tent indeed the Jews now remain, because while they lovingly inhabit the position of their faithlessness, they fight against the Redeemer. They are also said to be companions of him who is not, because in their purpose they aid the devil, who, when he fell from the love of that supreme essence, immediately lost true being. For him, indeed, not to be is to be unable to return to that supreme blessed essence through participation in love. And because the people of the Jews had not only the arduous way of life of the ancient fathers, but also the display of miracles for the increase of their pride.

As if to restrain Judea in her vain boasting, he says: Those whom you claim did great things were mere men; He whom I proclaim was not only a holy man, but also mighty God. Therefore, when strength is considered, excellence is indicated, because truly all strength of man is utterly weak in comparison to the divinity. Yet in this passage, the assertion of divinity does not prove the excellence of the work, but the incomparability of strength shows the truth of the divinity. As if to say: In this it is known that he spoke true things, because he proved the divinity which he claimed for himself by incomparable works. Hence through himself he says: "If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would have no sin" (John 15:24). Now indeed the works themselves must be examined. Moses divided the sea (Exodus 14:12), Elijah divided the river (2 Kings 2:8); our Lord Jesus walked upon the sea (Matthew 14:24). What then is more elegant—to provide a way for the people passing through in the dry bed of the deep, or to make the very surface of the sea a way? For they, because they were weighed down by the burden of humanity, sought a way on the solid floor of the deep by which they might proceed; but He who is known to have assumed the weakness of human nature into the height of divinity was carried upon the waters by his own power. Moses obtained the splendor of his countenance from communion with the word of the Lord (Exodus 34:29), Joshua fixed the sun by his prayers (Joshua 10:12-13); but because Jesus is God, he shone forth before his disciples with the power of the sun. The children of Israel could not gaze upon the face of the former; those who were worthy to behold the glory of the latter fell down, so that you might openly recognize that what transcended human capacity was divine. To Him, while those others stood by on the mountain, it was said by the eternal Father: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; listen to him" (Matthew 17:5-6). And therefore also Elijah, who shut heaven so that it would not rain, and opened it so that it would rain (1 Kings 17:1)—what is he in comparison to Him who, with the heavens opened, presented the Father as witness of his divine generation? Therefore there is none strong like the Lord, because whatever power Moses was able to show, the Lord, not Moses himself, performed. But Jesus displayed everything that he did wonderfully by his own power, because he was Lord even of Moses. For it was not Moses who rained manna on the people journeying through the desert, but the Lord (Exodus 16:13ff.). It was not Moses, but the Lord who went before the people in a pillar of fire by night and of cloud by day (Exodus 14:19). It was not Moses, but the Word that came to him who brought forth water from the rock (Exodus 17:6). It was not Moses, but the Lord who provided birds to those who desired them (Exodus 16:17). Hence the Lord also restrains the Jews glorying in the strength of their fathers, saying: "Not Moses, but my Father gave you bread from heaven" (John 6:32). Hence the Psalmist, not vainly extolling Moses but laudably exalting the Lord, says: "He did wonders in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan; he divided the sea and led them through, and made the waters stand as in a heap. He led them with a cloud by day, and all the night with a light of fire. He brought water out of the rock, and caused waters to flow down like rivers. He commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven, and rained down manna for them to eat, and rained flesh upon them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the sea" (Psalm 78:12ff.). But the Lord Jesus, incomparably strong, appeared not in another's power but in his own. Hence, powerful of himself, commanding the paralytic, he says: "I say to you, arise" (Matthew 9:6). Hence also it is written: "As many as touched him were made well from whatever illness held them" (Mark 6:56). And again: "Power went out from him and healed all" (Luke 6:19). For this mark of strength neither Moses nor Elijah could have, so that while incomparable signs were made known, they might most clearly designate the coming of the Only-begotten. Rightly therefore the Synagogue is condemned to perpetual silence.

There is none holy like the Lord, etc. Indeed, we read of holy and strong people and angels; but no matter how much one advances in holiness, however much perfection is acquired, a creature cannot be as holy and strong as the Creator; because He is the bestower of strength and holiness, the other is the recipient. As for what he said, Neither is there any other beside you, and he did not add, Creator, or Lord, or anything specific; it singularly designates His eternal existence, which the Psalmist distinguishes from the frailty of creatures: You will change them, and they will be changed; but you are the same, and your years will have no end (Psalm 102).

Hannah's prophetic hymn, Sa1 2:1-10. Samuel ministers to the Lord, Sa1 2:11. The abominable conduct of Eli's sons, Sa1 2:12-17. Farther account of Samuel, and of the Divine blessing on Elkanah and Hannah, Sa1 2:18-21. Eli's reprehensible remissness towards his sons in not restraining them in their great profligacy, Sa1 2:22-26. The message of God to Eli, and the prophecy of the downfall of his family, and slaughter of his wicked sons Hophni and Phinehas, Sa1 2:27-36.

None holy - Holiness is peculiar to the God of Israel; no false god ever pretended to holiness; it was no attribute of heathenism, nor of any religion ever professed in the world before or since the true revelation of the true God. There is none beside thee - There can be but one unoriginated, infinite, and eternal Being; that Being is Jehovah. Any rock like our God - Rabbi Maimon has observed that the word צור tsur, which we translate rock, signifies, when applied to Jehovah, fountain, source, spring. There is no source whence continual help and salvation can arise but our God.

HANNAH'S SONG IN THANKFULNESS TO GOD. (Sa1 2:1-11) Hannah prayed, and said--Praise and prayer are inseparably conjoined in Scripture (Col 4:2; Ti1 2:1). This beautiful song was her tribute of thanks for the divine goodness in answering her petition. mine horn is exalted in the Lord--Allusion is here made to a peculiarity in the dress of Eastern women about Lebanon, which seems to have obtained anciently among the Israelite women, that of wearing a tin or silver horn on the forehead, on which their veil is suspended. Wives, who have no children, wear it projecting in an oblique direction, while those who become mothers forthwith raise it a few inches higher, inclining towards the perpendicular, and by this slight but observable change in their headdress, make known, wherever they go, the maternal character which they now bear.