1 Samuel 1:1 - Exposition

There was a certain man of Ramathaim-Zophim. Though Samuel belonged to the tribe of Levi, yet no special mention is made of the fact, because he owed his importance and rank as a judge not to his Levitical origin, but to the gift of prophecy, which was independent of the accidents of birth and station. In the First Book of Chronicles, 1 Samuel 6:1-21 ; his parentage is twice given, that in 1 Chronicles 6:22-28 being apparently the family genealogy, while that in 1 Chronicles 6:33-38 was probably taken from the records of the temple singers, sprung from Heman, Samuel's grandson ( 1 Chronicles 6:33 ). His name there appears as Shemuel, our translators not having perceived that it is the same as that for which elsewhere they give the familiar rendering, Samuel. The variations Elkanah, Jeroham, Elihu, Tohu, Zuph ( 1 Samuel 1:1 ); Elkanah, Jeroham, Eliab, Nahath, Zophai ( 1 Chronicles 6:26 , 1 Chronicles 6:27 ); Elkanah, Jeroham, Eliel, Toah, Zuph ( ibid. 1 Chronicles 6:34-35 ), are interesting as showing that the genealogies in Chronicles. were compiled from family documents, in which, as was usual in the case of proper names, there was much diversity of spelling, or possibly of interpreting the cumbrous signs used for letters in those early days. The variations, however, in Elihu (God is he), Eliab (God is Father), and Eliel (God is God) were probably intentional, as were certainly other changes in names, such as that of Ishbaal into Ishbosheth. The name of Samuel's father, Elkanah (God is owner), is a common one among the Kohathites, to which division of the sons of Levi Samuel belonged.

The prophet's birthplace was Ramathaim-Zophim, no doubt the Ramah which was Samuel's own head-quarters ( 1 Samuel 7:17 ; 1 Samuel 15:34 ; 1 Samuel 16:13 ; 1 Samuel 19:18-23 ; 1 Samuel 25:1 ); the place where he dwelt, wrought, died, and was buried, and the Arimathsea of the Gospels. The Septuagint generally gives the name in full, but this is the only place where it is so written in the Hebrew. Ramah signifies a height , and the dual Ramathaim the double height , the town being situated on a hill ending in two peaks. But which it was of the many Ramahs, or hill towns, in the Holy Land, is hotly contested; probably it was the Ramah in Benjamin, about two hours' journey northwest of Jerusalem. Its second name, Zophim, is taken from Zuph, Samuel's remote ancestor, with whom the genealogy here begins. Zuph had apparently emigrated from Ephraim, one of the three tribes (Ephraim, Manasseh, Dan) to which the Kohathites were attached, and was a person of sufficient power and energy to give his name to the whole district; called the land of Zuph in 1 Samuel 9:5 . His descendants, the Zophim, had Ramah as their centre, and Elkanah, as their head, would be a man of wealth and influence. Though actually belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, Ramah is said to be upon Mount Ephraim, because this limestone range extended to and kept its name almost up to Jerusalem (see 4:5 , and 2 Chronicles 13:4 ; 2 Chronicles 15:8 , compared with 2 Chronicles 13:19 ). Elkanah too is called an Ephrathite, i.e. an Ephraimite, no doubt because before Zuph emigrated the family had belonged to Ephraim, it being apparently the practice to reckon Levites as pertaining to the tribes to which they were attached ( 17:7 ). The Hebrews Ephrathite is rightly rendered Ephraimite in 12:5 , and should be so translated here, and in 1 Kings 11:26 . In Ruth 1:2 ; 1 Samuel 17:12 it means Bethlehemite, that town being also called Ephratah, the fruitful ; Ephraim has the same meaning, but being a dual, no adjective can be formed from it.