1 Samuel 4:15-18

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 1 Samuel 4:12-18

Tidings are here brought to Shiloh of the fatal issue of their battle with the Philistines. Bad news flies fast. This soon spread through all Israel; every man that fled to his tent brought it, with too plain a proof of it, to his neighbours. But no place was so nearly concerned as Shiloh. Thither therefore an express posted away immediately; it was a man of Benjamin; the Jews fancy it was Saul. He rent his clothes, and put earth upon his head, by these signs to proclaim the sorrowful news to... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 4:15

Now Eli was ninety eight years old ,.... Which is very properly observed, he being now come to the end of his days, and which also accounts for his blindness after mentioned: and his eyes were dim, that he could not see ; could not see the messenger, and read in his countenance, and perceive by his clothes rent, and earth on his head, that he was a bringer of bad tidings; or his eyes each of them "stood" F8 קמה "stetit", Montanus; "stabant", Tigurine version. ; were fixed and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 4:16

And the man said unto Eli, I am he that came out of the army ,.... It is very probable that the people Eli inquired of told him there was a messenger come from the army, though they did not choose to relate to him the news he brought: and I fled today out of the army ; so that as he was an eyewitness of what was done in the army, the account he brought was the earliest that could be had, in bringing which he had made great dispatch, having ran perhaps all the way: and he said, what is... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 4:17

And the messenger answered and said ,.... He delivered his account gradually, beginning with generals, and then proceeding to particulars, and with what he thought Eli could better bear the news of, and so prepared him for the worst; in which he acted a wise part: Israel is fled before the Philistines ; they have given way and retreated, and which might possibly be done without great loss, and which, though it was bad news, might not be so very bad: and there hath also been a great... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 4:18

And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God ,.... Of the taking of that, it struck him to the heart, and killed him; the rest he bore tolerably well, the flight of Israel before the Philistines, the great slaughter made of them, the death of his two sons; but the taking of the ark was so dreadful to him, that he could not support under it: that he fell from off the seat backward, by the side of the gate ; which confirms the sense of 1 Samuel 4:13 though whether it was... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Samuel 4:17

And the messenger answered - Never was a more afflictive message, containing such a variety of woes, each rising above the preceding, delivered in so few words. 1. Israel is fled before the Philistines. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Samuel 4:18

When he made mention of the ark of God - Eli bore all the relation till the messenger came to this solemn word; he had trembled before for the ark, and now, hearing that it was captured, he was transfixed with grief, fell down from his seat, and dislocated his neck! Behold the judgments of God! But shall we say that this man, however remiss in the education of his children, and criminal in his indulgence towards his profligate sons, which arose more from the easiness of his... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Samuel 4:12-18

Victory in defeat. The facts given are— 1 . Eli, aware of the absence of the ark on the battle field, awaits with anxiety the earliest tidings of the issue of the conflict. 2 . A fugitive relates to him and to the people of Shiloh the nature of the disaster that had befallen Israel. 3 . The effect of the news on the city is a wailing cry of despair, and on Eli sudden death. By record and tradition the people were familiar with the disasters and sufferings occasionally... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Samuel 4:15

Eli was ninety and eight years old. Until the invention by the Arabs of the present system of numerals, all ancient nations had a most cumbrous system of expressing numbers. The Hebrew method was to attach a value to each of the letters of the alphabet, and then add them together, and thus the eighth and nineteenth letters would between them make up ninety-eight. Such a system led to constant mistakes in copying, and thus the numerals in the earlier parts of the Old Testament are beset with... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Samuel 4:16-17

What is there done, my son? Literally, What is the thing? Or, as the phrase is translated in 2 Samuel 1:4 , "How went the matter?" Eli must have gathered from the words of the messenger that Israel had been defeated; for he expressly says, I fled, and his haste, as testified by the added words today , showed that the defeat was a severe one. Eli, therefore, anxiously asks what has happened, and the answer piles misery upon misery, rapidly heaping together four crushing catastrophes.... read more

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