1And Hannah prayeth, and saith: "My heart hath exulted in Jehovah, My horn hath been high in Jehovah, My mouth hath been large over mine enemies, For I have rejoiced in Thy salvation. 2There is none holy like Jehovah, For there is none save Thee, And there is no rock like our God. 3Ye multiply not -- ye speak haughtily -- The old saying goeth out from your mouth, For a God of knowledge is Jehovah, And by Him actions are weighed. 4Bows of the mighty are broken, And the stumbling have girded on strength. 5The satiated for bread hired themselves, And the hungry have ceased. While the barren hath borne seven, And she abounding with sons hath languished. 6Jehovah putteth to death, and keepeth alive, He bringeth down to Sheol, and bringeth up. 7Jehovah dispossesseth, and He maketh rich, He maketh low, yea, He maketh high. 8He raiseth from the dust the poor, From a dunghill He lifteth up the needy, To cause them to sit with nobles, Yea, a throne of honour He doth cause them to inherit, For to Jehovah are the fixtures of earth, And He setteth on them the habitable world. 9The feet of His saints He keepeth, And the wicked in darkness are silent, For not by power doth man become mighty. 10Jehovah -- broken down are His adversaries, Against them in the heavens He thundereth: Jehovah judgeth the ends of earth, And giveth strength to His king, And exalteth the horn of His anointed." 11And Elkanah goeth to Ramath, unto his house, and the youth hath been serving Jehovah, in the presence of Eli the priest; 12and the sons of Eli are sons of worthlessness, they have not known Jehovah. 13And the custom of the priests with the people is: any man sacrificing a sacrifice -- then hath the servant of the priest come in when the flesh is boiling, and the hook of three teeth in his hand, 14and hath struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the hook bringeth up doth the priest take for himself; thus they do to all Israel who are coming in, there, in Shiloh. 15Also before they make perfume with the fat -- then hath the priest's servant come in, and said to the man who is sacrificing, "Give flesh to roast for the priest, and he doth not take of thee flesh boiled, but raw;" 16and the man saith unto him, "Let them surely make a perfume (as to-day) with the fat, then take to thee as thy soul desireth;" and he hath said to him, "Surely now thou dost give; and if not -- I have taken by strength." 17And the sin of the young men is very great in the presence of Jehovah, for the men have despised the offering of Jehovah. 18And Samuel is ministering in the presence of Jehovah, a youth girt with an ephod of linen; 19and a small upper coat doth his mother make to him, and she hath brought it up to him from time to time, in her coming up with her husband to sacrifice the sacrifice of the time. 20And Eli blessed Elkanah, and his wife, and said, "Jehovah doth appoint for thee seed of this woman, for the petition which she asked for Jehovah;" and they have gone to their place. 21When Jehovah hath looked after Hannah, then she conceiveth and beareth three sons and two daughters; and the youth Samuel groweth up with Jehovah. 22And Eli is very old, and hath heard all that his sons do to all Israel, and how that they lie with the women who are assembling at the opening of the tent of meeting, 23and he saith to them, "Why do ye things like these? for I am hearing of your evil words from all the people -- these! 24Nay, my sons; for the report which I am hearing is not good causing the people of Jehovah to transgress. -- 25If a man sin against a man, then hath God judged him; but if against Jehovah a man sin, who doth pray for him?" and they hearken not to the voice of their father, though Jehovah hath delighted to put them to death. 26And the youth Samuel is going on and growing up, and is good both with Jehovah, and also with men. 27And there cometh a man of God unto Eli, and saith unto him, "Thus said Jehovah, Was I really revealed unto the house of thy father in their being in Egypt, before Pharaoh's house, 28even to choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to Me for a priest, to go up on Mine altar, to make a perfume, to bear an ephod before Me, and I give to the house of thy father all the fire-offerings of the sons of Israel? 29Why do ye kick at My sacrifice, and at Mine offering which I commanded in My habitation, and dost honour thy sons above Me, to make yourselves fat from the first part of every offering of Israel, of My people? 30"Therefore -- the affirmation of Jehovah, God of Israel -- I certainly said, Thy house and the house of thy father, do walk up and down before Me to the age; and now -- the affirmation of Jehovah -- Far be it from Me! for he who is honouring Me, I honour, and those despising Me, are lightly esteemed. 31"Lo, days are coming, and I have cut off thine arm, and the arm of the house of thy father, that an old man is not in thy house; 32and thou hast beheld an adversary in My habitation, in all that He doth good with Israel, and there is not an old man in thy house all the days. 33"And the man I cut not off of thine from Mine altar, is to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thy soul; and all the increase of thy house do die men; 34and this is to thee the sign that cometh unto thy two sons, unto Hophni and Phinehas -- in one day they die both of them; 35and I have raised up for Me a stedfast priest; as in My heart and in My soul he doth do; and I have built for him a stedfast house, and he hath walked up and down before Mine anointed all the days; 36and it hath been, every one who is left in thy house doth come in to bow himself to him, for a wage of silver, and a cake of bread, and hath said, Admit me, I pray thee, unto one of the priest's offices, to eat a morsel 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.
