1 Samuelchapter 4
22 verses · Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition · 10th century BC · History
And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Eben–ezer: and the Philistines pitched in Aphek.
Introduction
Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition, History, 1 Samuel Overview.
This chapter opens a long account of the ark of the covenant that runs to the start of chapter 7. It was kept for Israelites who remembered Shiloh as the place the nation gathered, and who had to explain how that place was lost. Tradition gives the book to Samuel, yet he leaves the stage after the chapter's first line. It is a battle report followed by two scenes of grief. Listen for what the elders expect the ark to do, and for what the enemy says about Israel's God. Mark the name given to a child at the close.
Context
- Who
- Israelites for whom Shiloh had been the one place the nation gathered, and who knew that it was gone
- What
- Israel is defeated by the Philistines, the ark is captured, Hophni and Phinehas die, and Eli dies at the news.
- Where
- The Israelite camp at Ebenezer and the Philistine camp at Aphek on the coastal plain, and then the road back to Shiloh.
- When
- About 1085 BC, in Eli's ninety-eighth year.
- Why
- To show that the presence of God cannot be used as a weapon, and to carry out the sentence spoken on Eli's house.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to the elders of Israel, who call for the ark, and to Hophni and Phinehas, who carry it. Eli is ninety-eight and blind, and he sits by the road at Shiloh waiting for news.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The Philistines were a coastal people organised in five cities, each under its own lord, with an iron-working advantage the book states plainly at 13:19 to 22. Aphek stood at the head of a pass from the plain into the hills, so the battle is fought where the coastal power pushes inland.
The occasion is a defeat. Israel loses about four thousand men in the first clash, and the elders ask for the ark rather than asking what the defeat meant. A first hearer knew what the ark was and a reader today often does not. It was the chest that held the covenant, the place where God had promised to meet Israel, and it was not a standard carried into battle at a commander's discretion.
The Philistine reaction at verses 7 and 8 shows how far the exodus had travelled. They name Israel's God as the one who struck the Egyptians in the wilderness, by report, generations later, and they fight harder rather than fleeing.
The chapter's numbers are large and the narrator gives them without comment. Thirty thousand foot soldiers fall, the ark is taken, and Eli's two sons die on one day. That last is the sign the man of God had given at 2:34.
Shiloh empties here. The site at Khirbet Seilun was excavated by Danish teams from 1926 and by Israel Finkelstein between 1981 and 1984. It carries a destruction layer dated to the middle of the eleventh century BC, which is where this chapter stands. Psalm 78:60 says the LORD abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, and Jeremiah 7:12 sends a later generation to go and see what was done to the place.
Significance
A first hearer met the difference between the presence of God and an object that stood for it. Israel carried the ark into the field and lost both the battle and the ark.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The name given to the child at verse 21 is the chapter's own summary. Ichabod says that the glory has departed from Israel, and the mother who names him says it twice.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
Rashi is carried here in the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., under CC-BY, and Metzudat David at two verses in the Sefaria Community Translation, CC0. On the opening verse Rashi reads the word of Samuel as fulfilled, and then asks how the defeat came about (Rashi on I Samuel 4:1:1). On the name of the place he says it was "not yet its name", since Scripture calls it here by the name given to it later (Rashi on I Samuel 4:1:2). On the spreading of the battle he sets two other verses beside it that use the same verb (Rashi on I Samuel 4:2:1). On the fear in the Philistine camp he gives the reading of the Sifrei, that the passage joins two separate statements (Rashi on I Samuel 4:8:1). The worthy among them asked who would save them, and the wicked answered that God had spent every plague on the Egyptians (same ref). On the man who ran from the battle line he hands on the tradition that it was Saul (Rashi on I Samuel 4:12:1). On that reading Saul had seized the Tablets from the hands of Golyas and fled with them (same ref). On Eli waiting he places him at the side of the road, where a messenger would have to pass him first (Rashi on I Samuel 4:13:1). On Eli's fall he gives the Targum's word for the bone of the neck (Rashi on I Samuel 4:18:1). On the word used of the wife of Phinehas giving birth he records Menachem's grouping of the verb with wailing, since her pangs came with it (Rashi on I Samuel 4:19:1). On the name she gave the child he reads the first syllable as a word of absence, so that the name says "There is no glory" (Rashi on I Samuel 4:21:1). Metzudat David works the Philistine side of the chapter. On their learning what had come into the camp he says that "after investigating, they knew the aron of hashem had come" (Metzudat David on I Samuel 4:6:2). On their call to one another he reads it as an order to take courage and fight as men (Metzudat David on I Samuel 4:9:1). Radak, Metzudat David and Malbim comment at thirteen more verses, and the corpus holds no English version of any of them, so they stand as citations. They are Radak on I Samuel 4:2:1, 4:3:1, 4:4:1, 4:15:1, 4:17:1, 4:20:1 and 4:22:1, Metzudat David on I Samuel 4:5:1, 4:7:1 and 4:16:1, and Malbim on I Samuel 4:10:1, 4:11:1 and 4:14:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty of them Midrash and ten Talmud, each a locator without text. The word going out to all Israel draws Pesikta Rabbati 11:1, and verse 3 draws Berakhot 55b:9 and Kohelet Rabbah 5:16:1. The bringing of the ark into the camp draws six locators. They are Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 1:12:6, Midrash Aggadah, Exodus 35:30:1, Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 37:1:1, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Matot 5:2, Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of Melechet HaMishkan 1:26 and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 11:1. Their fear of the God who struck Egypt draws Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 6:1:5, Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 8:3:3, Kohelet Rabbah 3:11:1, Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 14:23, Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 11:7:1 and Midrash Shmuel 10:4. The defeat and the death of the two sons draw Midrash Tehillim 7:2 and Bereshit Rabbah 54:4. The runner from the line draws Midrash Shmuel 11:1. Eli waiting by the road draws Aggadat Bereshit 41:3, Avot DeRabbi Natan 4:5, Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 7:3, Keritot 28a:31 and Kohelet Rabbah 1:16:1. The report brought to Eli draws Aggadat Bereshit 29:3, Devarim Rabbah 5:11, Ein Yaakov, Sotah 8:8, Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 8:10:1, Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 20:9:1 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 20:9:1. Eli's fall and his death draw Chullin 21a:7, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Zevachim 14:3, Ein Yaakov, Zevakhim 14:8, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Shmini 3:7 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Shoftim 1:1. The birth at the news, and the naming of the child, draw Bekhorot 45a:18, Bereshit Rabbah 82:7, Ein Yaakov, Bekhorot 7:3, Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 35:16:3, Midrash Shmuel 11:3 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 35:17:3. The rabbis teach in these places, and this site reports them as their teaching rather than as a rule of the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Samuel 4:1:1, 4:1:2, 4:2:1, 4:8:1, 4:12:1, 4:13:1, 4:18:1, 4:19:1 and 4:21:1, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Samuel 4:6:2 and 4:9:1, the Sefaria Community Translation, CC0; Radak, Radak on I Samuel 4:2:1, 4:3:1, 4:4:1, 4:15:1, 4:17:1, 4:20:1 and 4:22:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Samuel 4:5:1, 4:7:1 and 4:16:1, cited only; Malbim, Malbim on I Samuel 4:10:1, 4:11:1 and 4:14:1, cited only.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The ark carried into battle and captured
1 Samuel 4:1-2
Israel camps at Ebenezer and the Philistines at Aphek, and the first clash costs about four thousand men. The place bears the name Ebenezer here, years before Samuel sets up the stone and names it at 7:12, so the narrator uses the name ahead of the event. The defeat opens the chapter with no prayer and no enquiry of the Lord.
1 Samuel 4:1
“Some attach the opening words to the close of 1 Sam. 3, as the complement of what is there said, “The Lord revealed himself to Samuel ... in Shiloh, and the word of Samuel went forth to all Israel.” If placed at the commencement of 1 Sam. 4, and in connection with what follows, they are to be understood in the sense that Samuel called all Israel to battle against the Philistines. (Compare 1Sa 7:5.) But this is not the natural interpretation of the words, which seem clearly to belong to what went before.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Samuel 4:1
“Israel went out against the Philistines to battle--that is, to resist this new incursion. Aphek--Aphek, which means "strength," is a name applied to any fort or fastness.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Israel went out as the aggressor, and about four thousand men fell on the field. Matthew Henry set this beside God's promise that one Israelite would chase a thousand, and he traced the reversal to sin in the camp. The promise had turned against them.
1 Samuel 4:2
“Israel, who were the aggressors, were smitten, and had 4000 men killed upon the spot. God had promised that one of them should chase a thousand; but now, on the contrary, Israel is smitten before the Philistines. Sin, the accursed thing, was in the camp, and gave their enemies all the advantage against them they could wish for.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The elders ask “Why has the LORD brought defeat on us” and answer with a plan to fetch the ark, with no word about sin. They treat the ark as a charm that could win the battle apart from the God enthroned above it. Henry and Gill both note that no priest in this council calls the people to repentance.
1 Samuel 4:3
“THESE MEN made a great mistake: what they wanted was the Lord in their midst; whereas they imagined that the symbol of God’s presence, the ark of the covenant, would be amply sufficient to bestow upon them the assistance which they required in the day of battle. As is man, such must his religion be. Now, man is a compound being. To speak correctly, man is a spiritual being: he hath within him a soul, a substance far beyond the bounds of matter. But man is also made up of a body as well as a soul.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Samuel 4:3
“In short, the shout raised in the Hebrew camp, on the arrival of the ark, indicated very plainly the prevalence among the Israelites at this time of a belief in national deities--whose influence was local, and whose interest was especially exerted in behalf of the people who adored them.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Samuel 4:3
“In the evening of the defeat of the Israelites the elders held a council, and resolved to send for the ark, which is described in full, as implying that in virtue of the covenant God could not but give them the victory (compare Num 10:35; Jos 3:10).”
the two sons of Eli: Hophni and Phinehas go out with the ark, the two priests the man of God said at 2:34 would die on one day as a sign against Eli's house. A corrupt priesthood carries a holy object into battle without repenting of what it did at the tabernacle door. The narrator names them here so that their deaths later in the chapter read as a word already spoken.
1 Samuel 4:4
“The Lord of hosts - See on 1Sa 1:3 (note). Dwelleth between the cherubims - Of what shape the cherubim were, we know not; but there was one of these representative figures placed at each end of the ark of the covenant; and between them, on the lid or cover of that ark, which was called the propitiatory or mercy-seat, the shechinah, or symbol of the Divine presence, was said to dwell. They thought, therefore, if they had the ark, they must necessarily have the presence and influence of Jehovah.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 4:4
“And yet indeed they did but make an idol of the ark, and looked upon it to be as much an image of the God of Israel as those idols which the heathen worshipped were of their gods. To worship the true God, and not to worship him as God, is in effect not to worship him at all.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 4:5-6
When the ark enters the camp, Israel raises such a shout that “it shook the ground”. Israel treats the noise and the ark as enough in themselves and never asks whether the Lord goes with them in favor or under judgment. The Philistines hear the shout from their own lines and learn that “the ark of the LORD had entered the camp” before the fighting resumes.
1 Samuel 4:5
“All Israel shouted - Had they humbled themselves, and prayed devoutly and fervently for success, they would have been heard and saved. Their shouting proved both their vanity and irreligion.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The Philistines call Israel the Hebrews, the name foreign nations used for them. Albert Barnes pointed to Exodus 1:15 and 2:6, where Egyptians use the same name. The shout told the enemy that the ark had come.
1 Samuel 4:6
“And the Philistines heard the sound of the cry. The fame of the Lord's preaching spoke even to the knowledge of the gentiles.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Samuelpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 4:6
“Of the Hebrews - This was the name by which the Israelites were known to foreign nations (compare Exo 1:15; Exo 2:6).”
1 Samuel 4:7-9
The Philistines speak of Israel's God in the plural, “these mighty gods” who “struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues”, remembering the exodus by report generations later. Their fear names the real danger, the presence of God, while Israel carries the ark as a weapon. Their dread drives them to fight harder, and verse 9 turns it into resolve: “Take courage and be men”.
1 Samuel 4:7
“God is come into the camp - They took for granted, as did the Israelites, that his presence was inseparable from his ark or shrine.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The Philistines remember the exodus in a confused form. Matthew Henry observed that the plagues fell on Egypt before the ark was made and before Israel entered the wilderness. John Wesley read the wilderness here as the Red Sea, where Pharaoh's army perished.
1 Samuel 4:8
“These mighty Gods - מיד האלהים האדרים miyad haelohim haaddirim, from the hand of these illustrious Gods. Probably this should be translated in the singular, and not in the plural: Who shall deliver us from the hand of this illustrious God?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Samuel 4:8
“Wilderness - They mention the wilderness, not as if all the plagues of the Egyptians came upon them in the wilderness, but because the last and sorest of all, which is therefore put for all, the destruction of Pharaoh and all his host, happened in the wilderness, namely, in the Red- sea, which having the wilderness on both sides of it, may well be said to be in the wilderness.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Samuel 4:8
“Here they were as much out in their history as in their divinity: the plagues of Egypt were inflicted before the ark was made and before Israel came into the wilderness; but some confused traditions they had of wonders wrought by or for Israel when this ark was carried before them, which they attributed, not to Jehovah, but to the ark.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The Philistines turn their fear into a rallying cry. Adam Clarke read the words as an address to the whole army: fight, or become servants to the Hebrews and bear their revenge for past cruelty. The Hebrews had long served them.
1 Samuel 4:9
“The Defeat of the Israelites. 10 And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. 11 And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 4:10-11
The second battle is worse than the first: thirty thousand footmen fall, the army scatters to its own tents, and the ark itself is carried off by the enemy it was fetched to defeat. Hophni and Phinehas die in the same clash, and their deaths on one day complete the sign the man of God spoke at 2:34 word for word. Bringing the ark did not bring victory, and the narrator lets the bare numbers make the point without comment.
1 Samuel 4:10
“Tent - To his habitation, called by the ancient name of his tent. There fell - Before, they lost but four thousand, now in the presence of the ark, thirty thousand, to teach them that the ark and ordinances of God, were never designed as a refuge to impenitent sinners, but only for the comfort of those that repent.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The ark was captured, and the two priests beside it died the same day. Adam Clarke thought Hophni and Phinehas fell trying to defend it. John Wesley added that God lost nothing by this event and the Philistines gained nothing, as chapter 5 goes on to show.
1 Samuel 4:11
“How will it be true to say about that [earthly] tabernacle that only "the innocent in hands and pure in heart, who did not receive his soul in vain," will inhabit it, when the history of the kings transmits that the worst priests, "sons of pestilence," have dwelt in the tabernacle of God and the ark of the covenant itself also was captured by foreigners and detained with the impious and profane?”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON EXODUS 9.2patristic
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 4:11
“Thus as God was no loser by this event, so the Philistines were no gainers by it; and Israel, all things considered, received more good than hurt by it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Eli falls backward at the gate
1 Samuel 4:12-14
A Benjamite runs from the battle line to Shiloh “with his clothes torn and dirt on his head”, the signs of disaster. Eli sits by the road watching “because his heart trembled for the ark of God”, which older writers read as a rightly ordered fear despite his failure as a father. The city's outcry reaches Eli before the messenger does, so he asks about the noise first.
1 Samuel 4:12
“Came to Shiloh the same day - The field of battle could not have been at any great distance, for this young man reached Shiloh the same evening after the defeat. With his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head - These were signs of sorrow and distress among all nations.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The runner reaches the city with Eli watching at the roadside, and the whole city cries out before Eli learns why. Matthew Henry heard in that cry the word of 3:11, that the ears of all who hear it will tingle. The ark never returned to Shiloh.
1 Samuel 4:13
“And well they might, for beside that this was a calamity to all Israel, it was a particular loss to Shiloh; for the ark never returned thither. Their candlestick was removed out of its place, and the city sunk and came to nothing.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Samuel 4:13
“The calamities announced to Samuel as about to fall upon the family of Eli [1Sa 2:34] were now inflicted in the death of his two sons, and after his death, by that of his daughter-in-law, whose infant son received a name that perpetuated the fallen glory of the church and nation [1Sa 4:19-22]. The public disaster was completed by the capture of the ark.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Samuel 4:13
“His careful thoughts represented to him what a dishonour it would be to God, and what an irreparable loss to Israel, if the ark should fall into the Philistines' hands, with what profane triumphs the tidings would be told in Gath and published in the streets of Ashkelon. He also apprehended what imminent danger there was of it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Eli hears the outcry before any word reaches him, and he has to ask what it means. Albert Barnes noted that Eli's blindness left him alert to sound and unable to see the messenger's torn clothes and dusty head. The news had to come in words.
1 Samuel 4:14
“And when Eli heard the noise of the crying,.... The shrieks of the men and women, which were very clamorous and terrible.”
1 Samuel 4:15-18
Eli is ninety-eight and blind, and the messenger tells him all at once that Israel fled, his sons are dead and the ark is taken. It is the ark that fells him, for “As soon as the ark of God was mentioned” he falls backward, breaks his neck and dies. The chapter closes his life in one line: “Eli had judged Israel forty years”.
1 Samuel 4:15
“Dim - Rather, “set.” The word is quite different from that so rendered in 1Sa 3:2. The phrase seems to express the “fixed” state of the blind eye, which is not affected by the light. Eli’s blindness, while it made him alive to sounds, prevented his seeing the ripped garments and dust-besprinkled head of the messenger of bad news.”
The messenger first establishes that he saw the battle himself and fled the field that same day. Matthew Henry stressed that Eli's news came from an eyewitness who told it plainly. Eli calls him son, as he called Samuel at 3:16.
1 Samuel 4:16
“But she answered not, neither did she regard it. 21 And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband. 22 And she said, The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the messenger answered: The report climbs in four steps: Israel fled, the slaughter was great, both sons have fallen, and the ark is captured. Adam Clarke counted each woe heavier than the one before, all delivered in very few words. The ark comes last.
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. This was a sore evil: that Israel should turn their backs upon their enemies, was bad; and that they should turn their backs on such enemies as the Philistines, was yet worse; for now they might expect the chains of their slavery to be strengthened and riveted more closely. 2. There hath also been a great slaughter among the people.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Albert Barnes pictured Eli's seat set against the jamb of the gate, so that everyone coming through passed in front of him. The line that he judged Israel forty years joins this book to the record of Judges. Jerome held that Eli rebuked his sons and never removed them.
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 disposition than from a desire to encourage vice, is gone to perdition?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Samuel 4:18
“See what chastity is required in a bishop! If his child is unchaste, he himself cannot be a bishop, and he offends God in the same way as did Eli the priest, who had indeed rebuked his sons, but because he had not put away the offenders, fell backwards and died before the lamp of God went out.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Against Jovinianus 1.35patristic
1 Samuel 4:18
“Thus was the wickedness of those sons of his, whom he had indulged, his ruin. Thus does God sometimes set marks of his displeasure on good men, that others may hear and fear. Yet we must observe, it was the loss of the ark that was his death, and not the slaughter of his sons.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ichabod: the glory is departed from Israel
1 Samuel 4:19-20
Phinehas's wife goes into labor at the news, and the verse names “the capture of God’s ark” before the deaths of her father-in-law and husband. When the women tell her she has borne a son, “she did not respond or pay any heed”, her grief swallowing the comfort of new life. The narrator gives her no name, only her relation to Phinehas, and lets her silence carry the weight.
1 Samuel 4:19
“Let us read the Scriptures, and we will never find that holy women, except Rachel, gave birth with pain: because she was on the way and in the hippodrome, that is, in the race of horses, which are sold in Egypt, she gave birth to a son of pain, whom later the father called the son of his right hand. Eve, expelled from paradise and hearing: "In pain you will bring forth children," is said to have given birth in pain.”
Jerome · written before 420 · COMMENTARY ON MICAH 2.4patristic
The women offer the one comfort they have. A living son means nothing to her beside the ark, and John Wesley observed that no earthly joy keeps its taste at death. Jerome set this birth beside Rachel's, a son born in pain on the road.
1 Samuel 4:20
“None but spiritual joy will stand us in stead then. Death admits not the relish of any earthly joy: it is then all flat and tasteless. What is it to one that is lamenting the loss of the ark?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Samuel 4:21-22
She names the child Ichabod and gives the reason twice, “The glory has departed from Israel”, once for the ark and the dead of her house and once for the ark alone. Psalm 78:60 and Jeremiah 7:12 and 14 later read this day as the Lord forsaking Shiloh, a warning to a later generation. Shiloh never again holds the ark or the tabernacle in Israel's worship.
1 Samuel 4:21
“She named the child I-chabod - The versions are various on the original words כבוד I-chabod; the Septuagint, ουαιβαρχαβωθ ouaibrachaboth; the Syriac, yochobor; the Arabic, yochabad. But none of these give us much light on the subject. It is pretty evident they did not know well what signification to give the name; and we are left to collect its meaning from what she says afterwards, The glory is departed from Israel; the words literally mean, Where is the glory?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Her second saying drops the family and names the ark alone. Albert Barnes rendered the verb as gone into captivity and set this departure beside Ezekiel 10:18 and 11:23, where the glory of the LORD leaves the temple and the city. Matthew Henry wrote that when God goes, all good goes.
1 Samuel 4:22
“The lesson of the ruin brought upon Churches by the covetousness and profligacy of their priests, which is here taught us so forcibly, and which has been again and again illustrated in Jews and Christians, is too solemn and important to be overlooked. When the glory of holiness departs from what should be a holy community, the glory of God’s presence has already departed, and the outward tokens of His protection may be expected to depart soon likewise. (Compare Eze 10:18; Eze 11:23; Rev 2:5.)”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 4:22
“Nothing is more cutting, more killing, to a faithful Israelite, than the want and loss of these. If God go, the glory goes, and all good goes. Woe unto us if he depart!”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative, the opening panel of the ark account that runs from here to 7:1, as Samuel classes it.
A Israel takes the ark to battle and loses it
1 Samuel 4:1-11
B Eli dies and Ichabod is named, the glory departed
1 Samuel 4:12-22
C Dagon falls before the ark in his own temple
1 Samuel 5:1-5
X The hand of the LORD heavy on Ashdod, Gath and Ekron
1 Samuel 5:6-12
C′ The Philistines send the ark home with a guilt offering
1 Samuel 6:1-12
B′ Beth-shemesh struck, who is able to stand before this holy God
1 Samuel 6:13-20
A′ The ark comes to rest at Kiriath-jearim
1 Samuel 6:21-7:1
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The panel that opens the ring | This chapter holds the first two limbs of the ark account, which this site publishes as a concentric arrangement running from 4:1 to 7:1. Israel takes the ark to battle and loses it at 4:1 to 11, and its answering limb is the ark coming to rest at Kiriath-jearim at 6:21 to 7:1. Eli dies and Ichabod is named at 4:12 to 22, and its answering limb is Beth-shemesh struck at 6:13 to 20.This site's published structure for 1 Samuel, src/components/book/dossier-content/1-samuel.ts, the chiasm entry titled The Ark Narrative (4:1-7:1), marked proposed. | 1 Samuel 4:1, 1 Samuel 4:11, 1 Samuel 4:12, 1 Samuel 4:22 |
| The glory, said twice over one name | The mother names the child Ichabod at verse 21 and gives her reason, that the glory is departed from Israel. Verse 22 says it again, and this time the ark alone is the reason. The narrator lets the sentence stand twice, once for the household's dead and once for the ark.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel, 1875, on 1 Samuel 4:21 to 22. | 1 Samuel 4:21, 1 Samuel 4:22 |
| The ark named before the sons, three times | The messenger's report at verse 17 lists four losses in order, the flight, the slaughter, the two sons and the ark last. Eli falls at the word ark and not at the word sons. At verse 19 the wife of Phinehas is told of the ark first and her husband second, and at verse 22 she names only the ark. The chapter keeps putting the ark where a reader expects a family.W. G. Blaikie, The First Book of Samuel, Expositor's Bible, 1887, on 1 Samuel 4:13 to 18. | 1 Samuel 4:17, 1 Samuel 4:18, 1 Samuel 4:19, 1 Samuel 4:22 |
| The God who smote the Egyptians | The Philistines name Israel's God at verses 7 and 8 by what He did at the exodus, and they use a plural form for Him. Their fear is accurate about the danger and wrong about the moment, since the men carrying the ark are under judgment themselves. Their dread drives them to fight harder rather than to run.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on 1 Samuel 4:8. | 1 Samuel 4:7, 1 Samuel 4:8, 1 Samuel 4:9 |
What the chapter is built on
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
The elders' reasoning at verse 3 leans on a memory of the ark going before Israel at the Jordan in Joshua 3 and around Jericho in Joshua 6. In both of those places the ark moved on a word from God and under priestly order. Here it is fetched on a council's decision with no word asked for and no repentance offered.
Matthew Henry and John Gill both note that no priest in the council calls for repentance, and that the difference between Joshua's crossings and this battle lies there rather than in the object.
The New Testament's use
This chapter is not quoted in the New Testament. Its later use in Scripture is prophetic rather than apostolic. Psalm 78:56 to 64 tells the whole episode back as a lesson, naming the forsaken tabernacle, the priests falling by the sword and the widows unable to weep. Jeremiah 7 and Jeremiah 26:6 use Shiloh as the precedent for what God will do to a temple that its people treat as a charm.
Those two passages are the closest thing Scripture gives to a commentary on this chapter, and both read it the same way.
The reading the chapter has drawn argument over
The figure of thirty thousand foot soldiers at verse 11 has been weighed two ways, and the question is about the Hebrew word rather than about the event.
Most English translations, including the American Standard Version and the Berean text this site uses, render the number as thirty thousand men on foot. A line of readers, weighing that the same Hebrew consonants can carry the sense of a unit or a chief, read the figure as thirty units rather than thirty thousand individuals. The text as the manuscripts carry it gives the larger number, and the estate prints it as the versions do.
The wider textual question belongs to this book as a whole. This book's dossier records that Samuel is one of the more damaged books in Masoretic transmission, and that 4QSam-a, dated about 50 to 25 BC, is the single most important witness for it.
The thing the chapter states before its time
Verse 21 makes a child's name the verdict on a nation. Ichabod says that the glory has departed, and the word behind glory is kabod, Strong's h3519, whose root sense is weight. The same family of words covers the heavy hand of the LORD on Ashdod in the next chapter. A mother dying in childbirth states the theology of the whole ark account in one name.
Keep studying
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, 1834, on 1 Samuel 4:5 to 9; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel, 1875, on 1 Samuel 4:11 and This site's published structure for 1 Samuel, src/components/book/dossier-content/1-samuel.ts, the chiasm entry titled The Ark Narrative (4:1-7:1), whose source line cites Leonhard Rost, Die Überlieferung von der Thronnachfolge Davids, 1926, for treating the ark account as a distinct unit.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. G. Blaikie, The First Book of Samuel (Expositor's Bible).