1And HanNah prayed and sang: ‘Now my [faith] is firm, O God; For my heart [belongs to Jehovah]; My horn has been raised by my God; And against my enemies my mouth’s opened wide. ‘I thank You for my salvation, For, Your salvation has made me so happy. 2There’s no one as holy as Jehovah; There’s no one who is as righteous as our God… none are holier than You. 3‘We should never boast Or allow haughty words to come from our mouths, For, Jehovah is a God of [great] knowledge, And a God who plans all that He does. 4‘He has weakened the bows of the mighty; He’s given power to those who are weak. 5‘Those full of bread now have less, And those who are hungry have neglected the land. Yet the sterile have given birth to seven, While the one with many children has grown weak. 6‘For, Jehovah kills and gives birth to the living; He takes them to the grave and leads them back out. 7It’s Jehovah who makes the poor and the rich; Yes, He humbles and raises. 8‘He resurrects the needy from the ground, And He raises the poor from the dirt, To seat them with the mighty of the people, Where a throne of glory they’ll inherit. 9‘He repaid the little vow of the one that was vowing; And He’s blest the years of the righteous. For man can do nothing in his own strength, 10And it’s Jehovah who weakens our enemies… yes Jehovah is holy. ‘May the intelligent not boast of their smartness, And may the mighty not brag of their strength, Nor the rich of their wealth. But let them boast now in this: Let he who is bragging now see, And know that it comes from Jehovah; May they observe the ways that He judges, And see His justice in the midst of the land. ‘For, Jehovah has ascended into heaven, And there in the sky He has thundered. He will [find] and judge all the wicked, And to the ends of the earth [He’ll search] for the righteous. ‘It is He who gives strength to kings, And it’s He who’ll raise the horn of His anointed.’ 11She then left him there before Jehovah and went back home to their house in RamAh. And there the boy served Jehovah before Eli the Priest. Now, Eli’s Sons were very wicked, 12because they didn’t [really believe in Jehovah]. 13And these Priests felt that all the sacrifices the people brought belonged to them, so whenever there was boiled meat in the kettle, they would reach in with the three-pronged hook and take it. 14They would drop the meat hook down into the large kettle and grab whatever they could. So, rather than allowing [the people to eat their portion of the sacrifice], the Priests took whatever they wanted. And that’s how they treated the people of Israel who came to Shiloh to offer sacrifices to Jehovah. 15And when the servants of the Priests were burning the [sacrificial] fat on the Altar, one of them would say to the one who was doing the sacrificing, ‘Give me the roasted meat for the Priests, because we don’t want any of that boiled meat in the kettle.’ 16‘But if the one who was doing the sacrificing said, ‘Allow me to burn the fat first, because that’s what’s required,’ they would say, ‘No! If you don’t give it to me, I’ll take it myself.’ 17And that’s how the young men were sinning before Jehovah in such a great way, and how they made the His sacrifices worthless.’ 18So, SamuEl served there in the presence of Jehovah as a boy, wearing a sacred chest piece of linen. 19He wore little doubled robes that his mother had made for him, for she carried them to him when she returned with her husband to offer the sacrifices that were required back then. 20And Eli praised ElKanah and his wife, saying, ‘Jehovah has taken the seed of this woman as a loan, for the way that she has acted toward the Lord.’ And then they went back home. 21Well, Jehovah visited HanNah once more, and she got pregnant again. So, she gave birth to three more sons and two daughters. But the boy SamuEl was given the responsibility of serving in the presence of Jehovah. 22Now, Eli was very old, and he knew all that his sons were doing to the people of Israel, for they were even sleeping with the women who stood around near the Tent of Proofs. 23And he asked them, ‘Why are you doing all these bad things that the people of Jehovah are talking about? 24No, my sons, no! The things I’m hearing aren’t good! I don’t want to listen to the things that I’m hearing, for you’re here to serve the people of God. 25Why, if you’re sinning against the people, they will go and pray to Jehovah about it. And if you’re the one who is sinning against Jehovah, who will pray for you?’ But they wouldn’t listen to their father, because Jehovah preferred to destroy them. 26However, the boy SamuEl went on to become great, for he was in good standing with both Jehovah and with men. 27Then a man from God came to Eli and said, ‘This is what Jehovah has said: I revealed Myself to the house of your fathers in the land of Egypt who were servants in the house of Pharaoh. 28And I chose the house of your father from all the tribes of Israel to serve Me as Priests to come up to My Altar, burn incense, and wear My sacred chest piece. I also gave the house of your father all the sacrifices that were burned on the fire as their food. 29So, why have you looked at My incense and My sacrifices in disgust? And why have you treated your sons better than Me by allowing them to bless themselves with the first fruitage of all the sacrifices that Israel brings before Me? 30‘Now, because of this, says Jehovah, the God of Israel, Your house and the house of your father will fall before Me through the age. Then those who glorify Me will be glorified, and those who treat Me with contempt will be disgraced. 31‘Look! The days are coming when I will destroy your seed… the sons of the house of your father. 32Then you will see how well things will be done in Israel. But never again will there be a man who will grow old in your house. 33For, I will destroy every man among you that serves at My Altar. I will make their eyes fail and cause their lives to flow out of them, and then men will cut your family down with swords. 34‘This is the sign that I will give to your two sons, Hophni and Phineas, in the day that they’re both going to die: 35I will appoint Myself a [High] Priest who is trustworthy, and I will do for him whatever things are in My heart and soul. Then I’ll build his house into one that I can trust, and he will be My anointed for the rest of his life. 36And then anyone who is left in your house will have to come and bow before him bearing a silver coin and a loaf of bread and say, Allow me to be one of your Priests, so I may eat some of the food.’
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.
