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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.

And he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot,.... Whatever vessel was made use of, larger or lesser, according to the quantity of flesh the owner boiled for himself and friends, the trident the priest's servants brought with him, he struck into the boiler to the bottom; of it: all that the fleshhook brought up the priest took for himself; as his own property; whereas no part of it at all belonged to him, he having had the breast and shoulder delivered to him in the first place; and yet, by this method, all that he could drag up with this three forked instrument he claimed as his own; which might be much, that would hang upon three teeth of it, or in which they were fastened; and, according to Abarbinel, each of them would bring up a pound of flesh, and perhaps more: so they did in Shiloh, unto all the Israelites that came thither; to offer their sacrifices, which was the proper place for them, the tabernacle and altar being there; and men of all ranks and degrees were treated alike, princes and people, rich and poor; the custom universally obtained, and all sorts of men met with the same usage.

3. Supply "were." For who else are the sons of Eli, if not the Israelites according to the flesh, who knew the Sacred Scripture published by the fathers, and yet did not know the one whom Scripture had promised? Whom indeed Truth itself rebukes in the Gospel, saying: "Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it, and was glad" (John 8:56). And again: "If you believed Moses, you would certainly believe me also, for he wrote about me" (John 5:46). Therefore they did not know the Lord, who spurned the Redeemer coming in our flesh. Whence He complains through Isaiah, saying: "The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's manger; but Israel has not known me" (Isaiah 1:3). As if to say: I opened to him the ways of my incarnation long before through the prophets, and yet he did not accept what I had promised when it was presented. For this reason he also did not know the duty of the priests toward the people. For he would have recognized the priestly office if he had preached that the one who had been promised by the law and the prophets had already come for the redemption of the human race. Because indeed he not only did not believe in Him, but even raged in persecuting Him, he neither knew the Lord nor the duty of the priests toward the people. Yet his malice would have been less if he who refused to benefit the lesser ones by preaching the coming of the Redeemer had at least feared to do harm. It follows therefore, and says: 67 (Verses 13, 14.) But whenever anyone had offered a sacrifice, the servant of the priest would come while the flesh was being cooked, and he had a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he would thrust it into the basin, or the kettle, or the pot, or the cauldron, and whatever the fork brought up, he would take for the priests.

And to reveal the causes of his reproof, the priest's servant is recorded as coming with a three-pronged fork to every one who was sacrificing, and violently demanding raw flesh. By these words, indeed, three species of gluttony are noted in the greediness of their rapacity. For he whose servant came to inflict violence on their behalf before the flesh was cooked could not endure the lawful hour of refreshment; and he for whom flesh was sought did not know how to use simple foods; and because, refusing what was cooked, he demanded raw flesh, he disdained to eat that flesh prepared in the common manner.

4. For what is it to immolate a victim, except to offer the confession of true faith to almighty God? And what are the vessels in which the flesh is cooked for the sacrifice, except the minds of the faithful? For when they believe that the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, is the true Only-begotten of the most high Father, surely in them the flesh is cooked which is to be immolated to God through the service of inmost devotion. Who is the priest's servant other than the people subjected through obedience to the faithless pastors of the Synagogue? He is fittingly called a servant, because while he preferred to hold to the weak things of the law according to the letter, he refused to grow into a perfect man through the Gospel. But what does it mean that he is assigned to seize the portions of food by force? What again does it mean that he is said to hold a three-pronged fork in the violence he inflicts? The food of the chosen soul is the person of the Redeemer. This food is indeed cooked in the sacred vessels, while through the heat of the Holy Spirit it is prepared for the sweetness of refreshment in the minds of the elect. For the flesh is cooked when, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, we both firmly believe and effectually confess that the Lord's humanity was assumed into the nature of divinity. Hence also through Moses he suggests that the flesh of the Paschal Lamb is to be eaten, saying: "You shall not eat any of it raw, or cooked in water" (Exodus 12:9). To eat it raw is, apart from the grace of the Holy Spirit, to believe our Redeemer to be a mere man. It is cooked in water when the essence of the Redeemer is sifted through human wisdom. The Jews therefore eat it raw, the heretics cooked in water, because the former deny his divinity, while the latter, through human wisdom, empty out the mysteries of both his divinity and his humanity. The priest's servant is therefore sent to take away the food of the faithful, because the Jewish people, expelled from faith in the Redeemer, strove vehemently to tear away the love of faith in him from the hearts of the faithful. He is fittingly said to have held a three-pronged fork in his hand, with which he might prevent from being cooked whatever portion of flesh he could pierce and draw out. For the fork thrust by the hand of the servant is the persecution of the Jewish people against holy Church. And because he tried to harm the faithful with enticements, punishments, and terrors, the fork indeed had three prongs. But it is rightly said that what the fork lifted up, the servant took for the priests, because it was a great feast for the wicked prelates if the crowd of their fawning or raging attendants could overthrow someone whom they had recognized as standing firm in the height of our faith through confession. There follows: (Verses 14, 15.) "So they did to all Israel who came to Shiloh, even before they burned the fat."

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.

When any man offered sacrifice - That is, when a peace-offering was brought, the right shoulder and the breast belonged to the priest, the fat was burnt upon the altar, and the blood was poured at the bottom of the altar; the rest of the flesh belonged to the offerer. Under pretense of taking only their own part, they took the best of all they chose, and as much as they chose.

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.

the priests' custom with the people--When persons wished to present a sacrifice of peace offering on the altar, the offering was brought in the first instance to the priest, and as the Lord's part was burnt, the parts appropriated respectively to the priests and offerers were to be sodden. But Eli's sons, unsatisfied with the breast and shoulder, which were the perquisites appointed to them by the divine law (Exo 29:27; Lev 7:31-32), not only claimed part of the offerer's share, but rapaciously seized them previous to the sacred ceremony of heaving or waving (see on Lev 7:29); and moreover they committed the additional injustice of taking up with their fork those portions which they preferred, while still raw. Pious people revolted at such rapacious and profane encroachments on the dues of the altar, as well as what should have gone to constitute the family and social feast of the offerer. The truth is, the priests having become haughty and unwilling in many instances to accept invitations to those feasts, presents of meat were sent to them; and this, though done in courtesy at first, being, in course of time, established into a right, gave rise to all the rapacious keenness of Eli's sons.