In a prayer of thanksgiving (1 Samuel 2:1-10), Hannah praised God for giving her a son. Centuries later, Mary, the mother of Jesus, would model her own song of praise — called the Magnificat — after Hannah’s prayer (Luke 1:46-55). Elkanah and Hannah returned home to Ramah (1 Samuel 2:11), but Samuel remained at Shiloh to assist Eli in the Lord’s sanctuary. The fact that Samuel wore a linen ephod — a garment worn only by priests — shows that he was a priest in training (verse 18).

In this passage, Samuel’s faithfulness and rapid rise into God’s favor contrast sharply with the wickedness and ultimate demise of Eli’s two sons. Although Hophni and Phinehas were priests, they treated God’s offerings with contempt. Verses 12-17 describe their scandalous behavior.

Not only did they take the sacrifices before they were offered to God, but they also ate the meat before the fat was burned. This was against God’s law (Leviticus 3:3-5). As if this were not enough, they also sexually violated the women who served as temple aides (1 Samuel 2:22).

Eli knew about his sons’ wicked behavior, and even confronted them (verses 22-23), but he did not remove them from their duties. Finally, God’s patience reached a breaking point and the entire priestly line of Eli faced divine judgment.

A man of God brought a tragic message. Eli’s priestly reign was about to end, and his sons would die on the same day (verses 27-36). Eli’s successor is not identified here. But for now, Samuel was the religious leader of Israel. Later, King David appointed as priests Zadok and Ahimelech (2 Samuel 8:17), whose families seem to have had roots going back to the sanctuary at Shiloh and beyond that to Aaron (1 Chronicles 6:3-8; 24:1-3).

Samuel received a dramatic revelation in which God repeated his judgment against the house of Eli (verses 1-18). 

The old era of the "judges" has ended, and a new age of divine communication with humankind has broken forth — the age of the prophet.... The section concludes with a statement about Samuel’s increasing importance as a religious leader in early Israel (verses 19-21). His fame as a spokesman for God now extends to the limits of Israel. His priestly upbringing, now strengthened by God’s call, prepares Samuel for his historic leadership of God’s people. His stature as the spiritual leader of his people must now extend to the political realm, where he must answer the rising demand for a king. Thus there is little doubt within the Old Testament about Samuel’s importance. He guides Israel from the time of the judges to the time of the monarchy. (Frank Johnson, 1 and 2 Samuel, Genesis to Revelation Series, book 5, pp. 8-9)

The Philistines defeated Israel at Ebenezer (verses 1-2). The Israelites immediately recognized that God had caused their defeat, but they did not know why. They sent men to Shiloh, who brought back the ark of the covenant. They believed that if the ark was with them in battle, it would save them from their enemies (verse 3).

They were sadly mistaken. The Philistines slaughtered the Israelites in battle and captured the ark, killing Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, in the process (verse 11). About 400 years later, the prophet Jeremiah would remind the people in Jerusalem of this event, telling them that God punished the Israelites for their wickedness (Jeremiah 7:12-15). Jeremiah warned that the presence of God’s temple in Jerusalem no more guaranteed safety than the ark at Shiloh had.

One Benjamite, when he saw the ark captured, ran from the battle toward Shiloh and told the news to Eli: "Israel fled before the Philistines, and the army has suffered heavy losses. Also your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured" (1 Samuel 4:17).

This format of message — with each line bearing worse news than the last — occurs again in 2 Samuel 1:3-4. The mention of the ark was too much for Eli. He fell backward from his chair and broke his neck. God’s prophecy to Samuel had been fulfilled (1 Samuel 3:11-14).

The Philistines thought that by capturing the ark they had made the God of Israel subservient to their gods. They placed the ark in the temple of Dagon in Ashdod. When they awoke the next morning, they found their god Dagon fallen on the floor before the ark. They put Dagon back in his place, but the next morning they found him fallen again before the ark, this time with his head and hands broken off. Although Israel’s defeat was God’s punishment of Eli and his sons, and of the people for their general wickedness, it also served another purpose — God used the capture of the ark to demonstrate his supremacy in the land of the Philistines.

Continuation of the commentary

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