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history of the priesthood under Samuel, Saul, and latterly under David, until the
deposition of the line of Ithamar.
(^36) I venture to think that this promise should be applied impersonally rather than
personally. Thus it includes, indeed, Samuel and afterwards Zadok, but goes
beyond them, and applies to the priesthood generally, and points for its final
fulfillment to the Lord Jesus Christ.
(^37) So 1 Samuel 3:1, literally rendered.
(^38) The expression, "ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord," seems
intended to mark the time, as indicated by us in the text.
(^39) This seems to be the reason why the fact is mentioned, that Eli's eyes had begun
to wax dim.
(^40) It is remarkable, as indicative of Samuel's reverential fear, that his reply differs
from that taught him by Eli in the omission of the word "Jehovah."
(^41) This is implied in the words, "Jehovah came and stood" (1 Samuel 3:10). The
"voice" had come from out of the most holy place, where the Lord dwelt between
the Cherubim; the "vision" or appearance, in whatever form it may have been, was
close before Samuel. In the one case Samuel had been asleep, in the other he was
fully awake.
(^42) Literally, "his eyes stood" (1 Samuel 4:15). Through a mistake, probably in
reading the numeral letters ( [ for x ), the Arabic and Syrian versions represent Eli
as seventy-eight instead of ninety-eight years old.
(^43) We regard the first clause of 1 Samuel 4:1 as entirely unconnected with the
account of Israel's expedition against the Philistines. Keil, following other
interpreters, connects the two clauses, and assumes, as it appears to me,
erroneously, that the war was undertaken in obedience to Samuel's word. But in
that case he would have been the direct cause of Israel's disaster and defeat.
(^44) For reasons too numerous here to detail, I still hold by the old identification of
Mizpeh, notwithstanding the high authority of Dean Stanley, and Drs. Grove and
H. Bonar.
(^45) So literally in 1 Samuel 4:2: "They slew in the battle-array in the field about four
thousand men."
(^)