1 Samuel 4:1

EXPOSITION

And the word of Samuel... all Israel. This clause is rightly connected with the foregoing verse of the previous chapter in the Syriac and Vulgate. Attached to the fourth chapter, it gives a wrong sense, namely, that Samuel gave the command for the assembling of all Israel for battle with the Philistines. This is so plainly erroneous that the A.V. dissents from it by translating the and in the next clause by now. Joined to the previous chapter, it gives the true meaning. Because Samuel spake by the word of Jehovah, therefore his word came to all Israel, that is, it was a binding and authoritative command throughout the whole land; or, in other words, when Samuel was acknowledged to be Jehovah's prophet he also became the virtual judge of Israel, though probably he did not act with full authority until after Eli's death.

DEFEAT OF ISRAEL AND CAPTURE OF THE ARK ( 1 Samuel 4:1-11 ).

Now Israel —rather. And Israel— went out against the Philistines. During the declining years of Eli, the yoke of the Philistines, which apparently had been shaken off in his manhood, began once again to press heavily upon the neck of Israel. But Israel was still strong enough to make valiant resistance, provoked apparently by the Philistines invading the land, as we find that they had pitched , i.e. encamped, in Aphok. As Aphek means a fortress, many places bear the name; but the position of the Philistine camp is fixed by its being near both to Eben-ezer and to Mizpah, and probably, therefore, it was the Aphek in Judah ( Joshua 12:18 ). Eben-ezer, the stone of help, had not as yet received this name (see 1 Samuel 7:12 ); and apparently it was not a town, but a monument set up m an open plain fit for the purposes of war, and which up to this time had. no specific appellation.