Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 1 Samuel 4:10-11
Here is a short account of the issue of this battle. I. Israel was smitten, the army dispersed and totally routed, not retiring into the camp, as before (1 Sam. 4:2) when they hoped to rally again, but returning to their tents, every man shifting for his own safety and making the best of his way home, despairing to make head any more; and 30,000 were slain in the field of battle, 1 Sam. 4:10. Israel was put to the worse, 1. Though they had the better cause, were the people of God and the... read more
Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 1 Samuel 4:1-9
The first words of this paragraph, which relate to Samuel, that his word came to all Israel, seem not to have any reference to the following story, as if it was by any direction of his that the Israelites went out against the Philistines. Had they consulted him, though but newly initiated as a prophet, his counsel might have stood them in more stead than the presence of the ark did; but perhaps the princes of Israel despised his youth, and would not have recourse to him as an oracle, and he... read more