1 Samuel 3:9 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 1 Samuel 3:1-10

To make way for the account of God's revealing himself first to Samuel, we are here told, 1. How industrious Samuel was in serving God, according as his place and capacity were (1 Sam. 3:1): The child Samuel, though but a child, ministered unto the Lord before Eli. It was an aggravation of the wickedness of Eli's sons that the child Samuel shamed them. They rebelled against the Lord, but Samuel ministered to him; they slighted their father's admonitions, but Samuel was observant of them; he... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 3:9

Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, go, lie down ,.... Once more: and it shall be, if he call thee ; the voice, or the Lord by it: that thou shalt say, speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth ; his meaning is, that he should not rise and come to him, as he had done, but continue on his bed, on hearing the voice again, but desire the Lord to speak to him what he had to say, to which he was ready to attend: so Samuel went and lay down in his place ; which, as commonly understood, was in... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Samuel 3:9

Speak , Lord ; for thy servant heareth - This was the usual way in which the prophets spoke, when they had intimations that the Lord was about to make some especial revelation. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Samuel 3:1-10

Light withheld. The facts given are— 1 . A lack of the manifest revelations of the Divine will to which Israel had been accustomed. 2 . A consciousness of this want on the part of the few pious in Israel. 3 . The continued service of Samuel in the ordinary routine of the sanctuary. 4 . The resumption of the manifest revelation by the call of Samuel to receive it. 5 . Samuel experiences difficulty in recognising the call of God. 6 . Eli renders to him the assistance... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Samuel 3:1-18

The old priest and the child prophet. Every imagination must be struck by the contrast between the old man and the child. The more so, that the natural order of things is reversed. Instead of admonition to the child coming through the lips of age, admonition to the aged came through the lips of childhood. 1. THE CHARACTER OF ELI ILLUSTRATED . 1 . His good points. The Lord had ceased to speak to or by Eli; but when the old priest perceived that the Lord had spoken to the... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 3:1-18

Judgment on the family of Eli (2:12-3:18)Eli the priest had become the judge, or chief administrator, in Israel. He sat at the door of the house of God where people could freely meet him to seek his advice or ask for directions in disputes (see 1:9; 4:18). His sons, it seems, carried out the routine work in connection with the sacrifices and ceremonies.According to the Levitical law, the portion of the sacrifice that was for God had to be burnt on the altar first, after which the priest and the... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - 1 Samuel 3:1-18

1. Samuel’s call 3:1-18The Hebrew word used to describe Samuel in 1 Samuel 3:1 (naar) elsewhere refers to a young teenager (cf. 1 Samuel 17:33). Consequently we should probably think of Samuel as a boy in his early teens as we read this section. Josephus wrote that Samuel was 12 years old. [Note: Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 5:10:4.] At this time in Israel’s history (i.e., the late Judges Period), special revelations from God were rare. These normally came to prophets in visions... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Samuel 3:1-21

The Call of Samuel1. Precious] RM, ’rare’: see Isaiah 13:12. There was no prophet then. Open] rather, ’published, widely announced’: cp. 2 Chronicles 31:5.3. Ere the lamp of God went out] The lamp (’the seven-branched candlestick’) burned all night in the sanctuary, so that the time was early morning: cp. Exodus 27:21. Samuel seems to have been sleeping in some chamber near the ark. Cp. RV, ’was laid down to sleep, in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.’ On the ark see Intro. § 5.... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - 1 Samuel 3:9-10

(9, 10) And the Lord came, and stood.—Then before the boy, as he lay and waited for the voice, came something, and it stood before him. The question naturally occurs to us, What came and stood before the boy’s couch? As a rule, we find that generally, when the Lord was pleased to take some form, the form is specified. Now, as in Abraham’s case at Mamre, it was a traveller; now, as in Joshua’s, an armed warrior; very frequently, as to Manoah, the form was that of an angel; here nothing is... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - 1 Samuel 3:1-21

The Word of the Lord 1 Samuel 3:1 Is there not a message for us from this story of Samuel listening to the word of God? Is the word of God, the revelation which He gives to men, precious in these days? There is, as there was in those days, no open vision, but we have the written word of God. It carries our minds on does it not? not only to the revelation which God gave of the word of the Lord in the Old Testament, but to that greater Word of the Lord Who was with the Father from all eternity,... read more