1And Hannah prayed and said: My heart has rejoiced in Jehovah; my horn has been exalted in Jehovah. My mouth has been enlarged over my enemies, because I have rejoiced in Your salvation. 2No one is holy like Jehovah, for there is no one besides You, nor is there any rock like our God. 3Talk no more so very proudly; let no arrogance come out of your mouth, for Jehovah is the Mighty God of knowledge; and by Him actions are weighed. 4The bows of the mighty are broken, and those stumbling have been girded with strength. 5Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, and the hungry have ceased to hunger. Even the barren has borne seven, and she who has many children has become feeble. 6Jehovah kills and makes alive; He brings down to Sheol and brings up. 7Jehovah makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts up. 8He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are Jehovah's, and He set the world upon them. 9He guards the feet of His saints, but the wicked are silent in darkness. For man does not prevail by might. 10The adversaries of Jehovah are broken in pieces; from the heavens He thunders against them. Jehovah judges the ends of the earth. He gives strength to His king, and exalts the horn of His anointed. 11And Elkanah went to his house at Ramah, and the child served Jehovah before Eli the priest. 12Now the sons of Eli were sons of wickedness; they did not know Jehovah. 13And the custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a three-pronged fleshhook in his hand while the flesh was boiling. 14And he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; and the priest would take for himself all that the fleshhook brought up. Thus they did in Shiloh to all Israel who came there. 15Also, before they burned the fat with smoke, the priest's servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, Give flesh for roasting to the priest, for he will not take boiled flesh from you, but raw. 16And if the man said to him, It is time to burn the fat to make it smoke, then you may take as much as your soul desires; he would then answer him, No, but you must give it now; and if not, I will take it by force. 17Therefore the sin of the young men was very great before Jehovah, for the men had spurned the offering of Jehovah. 18But Samuel was serving before Jehovah, even as a boy, girded with a linen ephod. 19Moreover his mother made him a little robe, and brought it to him year after year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. 20And Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, Jehovah give you seed from this woman for the petition which has been loaned unto Jehovah. And they went to their place. 21And Jehovah visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew up with Jehovah. 22Now Eli was very old; and he heard everything his sons did to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tent of meeting. 23And he said to them, Why do you do such things? For I am hearing of your evil dealings from all the people. 24No, my sons; for it is not a good report that I am hearing. You cause the people of Jehovah to transgress. 25If a man sins against man, God will judge him. But if a man sins against Jehovah, who shall intercede for him? Nevertheless they did not heed the voice of their father, because Jehovah desired to kill them. 26And the boy Samuel grew in stature, and in favor both with Jehovah and men. 27And a man of God came to Eli and said to him, Thus says Jehovah: Have I not revealed to show Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house? 28Did I not choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be My priest, to offer upon My altar, to burn incense, and to bear the ephod before Me? And did I not give to the house of your father all the offerings by fire of the children of Israel? 29Why do you kick at My sacrifice and at My offering which I have commanded for My dwelling place, and honor your sons above Me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel My people? 30Therefore Jehovah the God of Israel says: I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now Jehovah says: Far be it from Me! For those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed. 31Behold, the days are coming that I will cut off your arm and the arm of your father's house, so that there shall not be an old man in your house. 32And you shall see an adversary in My dwelling place, despite all the good which God did for Israel. And there shall not be an old man in your house for all time. 33And any of your men whom I do not cut off from My altar shall be to consume your eyes and grieve your soul. And all the increase of your house shall die as young men. 34And this shall be a sign to you that shall come upon your two sons, upon Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall die, both of them. 35Then I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in My heart and in My soul. I will build him a lasting house, and he shall walk before My anointed for all time. 36And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left in your house shall come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and say, Please, join me to the priesthood, that I may eat a piece of bread.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 HANNAH'S SONG IN THANKFULNESS TO GOD. (
1Sam 2:1-11)
Hannah prayed, and said--Praise and prayer are inseparably conjoined in Scripture (
Col 4:2;
1Tim 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.
5 they that were hungry ceased--that is, to hunger.
the barren hath born seven--that is, many children.
6 he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up--that is, He reduces to the lowest state of degradation and misery, and restores to prosperity and happiness.
8 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill--The dunghill, a pile of horse, cow, or camel offal, heaped up to dry in the sun, and used as fuel, was, and is, one of the common haunts of the poorest mendicants; and the change that had been made in the social position of Hannah, appeared to her grateful heart as auspicious and as great as the elevation of a poor despised beggar to the highest and most dignified rank.
inherit the throne of glory--that is, possesses seats of honor.
10 the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth . . . exalt the horn of his anointed--This is the first place in Scripture where the word "anointed," or Messiah, occurs; and as there was no king in Israel at the time, it seems the best interpretation to refer it to Christ. There is, indeed, a remarkable resemblance between the song of Hannah and that of Mary (
Luke 1:46).
11 the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest--He must have been engaged in some occupation suited to his tender age, as in playing upon the cymbals, or other instruments of music; in lighting the lamps, or similar easy and interesting services.
12 THE SIN OF ELl'S SONS. (
1Sam 2:12-17)
Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial--not only careless and irreligious, but men loose in their actions, and vicious and scandalous in their habits. Though professionally engaged in sacred duties, they were not only strangers to the power of religion in the heart, but they had thrown off its restraints, and even ran, as is sometimes done in similar cases by the sons of eminent ministers, to the opposite extreme of reckless and open profligacy.
13 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 (
Exod 29:27;
Lev 7:31-
Lev 7:32), 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.
18 SAMUEL'S MINISTRY. (
1Sam 2:18-26)
But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child--This notice of his early services in the outer courts of the tabernacle was made to pave the way for the remarkable prophecy regarding the high priest's family.
girded with a linen ephod--A small shoulder-garment or apron, used in the sacred service by the inferior priests and Levites; sometimes also by judges or eminent persons, and hence allowed to Samuel, who, though not a Levite, was devoted to God from his birth.
19 his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year--Aware that he could not yet render any useful service to the tabernacle, she undertook the expense of supplying him with wearing apparel. All weaving stuffs, manufacture of cloth, and making of suits were anciently the employment of women.
20 Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife--This blessing, like that which he had formerly pronounced, had a prophetic virtue; which, before long, appeared in the increase of Hannah's family (
1Sam 2:21), and the growing qualifications of Samuel for the service of the sanctuary.
22 the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle--This was an institution of holy women of a strictly ascetic order, who had relinquished worldly cares and devoted themselves to the Lord; an institution which continued down to the time of Christ (
Luke 2:37). Eli was, on the whole, a good man, but lacking in the moral and religious training of his family. He erred on the side of parental indulgence; and though he reprimanded them (see on
Deut 21:18), yet, from fear or indolence, he shrank from laying on them the restraints, or subjecting them to the discipline, their gross delinquencies called for. In his judicial capacity, he winked at their flagrant acts of maladministration and suffered them to make reckless encroachments on the constitution, by which the most serious injuries were inflicted both on the rights of the people and the laws of God.
25 they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because--it should be therefore.
the Lord would slay them--It was not God's preordination, but their own wilful and impenitent disobedience which was the cause of their destruction.
27 A PROPHECY AGAINST ELI'S HOUSE. (
1Sam 2:27-35)
there came a man of God unto Eli, and said . . . that there shall not be an old man in thine house--So much importance has always, in the East, been attached to old age, that it would be felt to be a great calamity, and sensibly to lower the respectability of any family which could boast of few or no old men. The prediction of this prophet was fully confirmed by the afflictions, degradation, poverty, and many untimely deaths with which the house of Eli was visited after its announcement (see
1Sam 4:11;
1Sam 14:3;
1Sam 22:18-23;
1Kgs 2:27).
31 I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house--By the withdrawal of the high priesthood from Eleazar, the elder of Aaron's two sons (after Nadab and Abihu were destroyed, [
Num 3:4]), that dignity had been conferred on the family of Ithamar, to which Eli belonged, and now that his descendants had forfeited the honor, it was to be taken from them and restored to the elder branch.
32 thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation--A successful rival for the office of high priest shall rise out of another family (
2Sam 15:35;
1Chr 24:3;
1Chr 29:22). But the marginal reading, "thou shalt see the affliction of the tabernacle," seems to be a preferable translation.
