Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
God again through Samuel foretells the destruction of Eli; and Samuel, adjured by Eli, at verse 16, candidly tells him.
Vulgate Text: 1 Kings (1 Samuel) III:1-21
1. And the child Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was precious in those days, there was no manifest vision. 2. And it came to pass on a certain day that Eli lay in his place, and his eyes had grown dim, nor could he see; 3. before the lamp of God was extinguished, Samuel slept in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. 4. And the Lord called Samuel. Who answered and said: Here I am. 5. And he ran to Eli and said: Here I am, for you called me. Who said: I did not call; go back and sleep. And he went and slept. 6. And the Lord added to call Samuel again. And Samuel rising up, went to Eli and said: Here I am, for you called me. Who answered: I did not call you, my son; go back and sleep. 7. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord been revealed to him. 8. And the Lord added, and called Samuel yet a third time. Who rising up went to Eli, 9. and said: Here I am, for you called me. Eli therefore understood that the Lord was calling the child; and he said to Samuel: Go and sleep, and if He calls you again, you shall say: Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears. Samuel therefore went and slept in his place. 10. And the Lord came, and stood, and called as He had called the second time: Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel said: Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears. 11. And the Lord said to Samuel: Behold I do a thing in Israel; whoever shall hear it, both his ears shall tingle. 12. In that day I will raise up against Eli all the things I have spoken concerning his house: I will begin and I will make an end. 13. For I have foretold him that I would judge his house forever, for iniquity, because he knew that his sons acted unworthily, and did not correct them. 14. Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli, that the iniquity of his house shall not be expiated with victims nor offerings forever. 15. And Samuel slept until morning, and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel feared to tell the vision to Eli. 16. Then Eli called Samuel and said: Samuel my son? Who answering, said: Here I am. 17. And he asked him: What is the word that the Lord spoke to you? I pray you, do not hide it from me. May God do these things to you, and add these things, if you hide from me one word of all the things that were said to you. 18. So Samuel told him all the words, and did not hide them from him. And he answered: It is the Lord; let Him do what is good in His eyes. 19. And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and none of his words fell to the ground. 20. And all Israel knew, from Dan to Beersheba, that Samuel was a faithful prophet of the Lord. 21. And the Lord continued to appear in Shiloh, because the Lord had revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh, according to the word of the Lord. And the word of Samuel came to all Israel.
Verse 1: Samuel's Ministry and the Rarity of Prophecy
1. And the child Samuel. — Josephus, Book 5, chapter 11, says he had completed his twelfth year. Before Eli — that is, with Eli instructing and directing him, to whose every nod Samuel was obedient. The Chaldean says: 'while Eli was alive.' And the word of the Lord was precious — that is, rare; for things that are rare are dear and precious, as if to say: Prophets through whom God would speak were then rare, and this because of the crimes of the sons of Eli the priests, as well as of the laity. For as the priest is, so is the people. There was no manifest vision (prophecy). — In Hebrew 'nipherats,' that is 'broken out,' that is, widely diffused or scattered.
Verse 2: Eli Lay in His Place
2. Eli lay in his place — that is, he was sleeping in that part of the court which was near the tabernacle: while Samuel and the other Levites slept in a more remote part of the court; so the Chaldean. 3. Before the lamp of God was extinguished, Samuel slept. — Read thus with the Roman, Hebrew, Chaldean, Septuagint, Aquila, and Symmachus. It is a periphrasis for night. For the lamps of the tabernacle burned at night and were extinguished in the morning. The sense is, as if to say: While the lamps of the tabernacle were still burning, that is while it was still night, or at least dawn just beginning and still dark, and therefore Samuel was still sleeping, the Lord appeared to him. Hence learn to pray in the morning and at dawn, as soon as you awake, so that you may draw in and hear God's voice and inspirations.
Verse 5: Samuel Runs to Eli
5. And he ran to Eli and said: Here I am, for you called me. — Hence it seems that Samuel, accustomed to being awakened from sleep by Eli in the morning, thought he was called by Eli, not by God, whose voice he had not yet heard. It seems moreover that this voice of God, or of an angel, was similar to Eli's voice, and therefore Samuel ran to Eli upon hearing it. See here the obedience of the prophet Samuel, on account of which he merited to be chosen by God as a prophet and leader of the people.
Again, learn here that God, speaking to Samuel, sends him back to Eli, both so that Eli might more carefully consider and believe this oracle of God; and to teach that oracles of God must be examined and directed by superiors, in order to preserve due order and the subordination of subjects, and lest there be room for diabolical illusion. So Cassian, Conference 2, chapter 14: 'The Lord did not wish,' he says, 'to instruct the boy Samuel, whom He had chosen by His own judgment, in the discipline of divine communication by Himself alone; but allowed him to run once and again to the old man.'
Verse 7: Samuel Did Not Yet Know the Lord
7. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord — that is, he had not yet experienced God's voice, nor was he accustomed to hearing the Lord speak, so as to distinguish His voice from the voice of Eli and recognize God by His voice. So St. Jerome in his Questions.
Verse 9: Eli Understands the Lord Is Calling
9. Eli therefore understood (either by an instinct from God, as Salianus would have it, or by human reasoning; because no one else was there who could call Samuel; and because Samuel was most pleasing to God on account of his virtue and piety), that the Lord was calling the child. Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears — so that he may receive and carry out Your commands. This should be said by every faithful person when they hear God suggesting or inspiring something interiorly to the mind.
Verse 10: The Lord Comes and Stands
10. And the Lord came, and stood. — Hence it is clear that God, that is the angel acting as God's deputy, did not merely inspire these things into Samuel's mind, but spoke to him with a bodily voice in an assumed body. Hence the Chaldean here translates: 'and the glory of the Lord was revealed to him.'
Samuel, Samuel. — Hear St. Gregory: 'The name is repeated when the mind of the seer is received into a great familiarity with the inner majesty and is lifted by fervent desires to the love of the one calling him; so that besides what he hears, nothing pleases him, and he desires to dwell forever in the joy of what he hears.'
Verse 11: Ears Shall Tingle
11. I do a thing (that is, a deed and the punishment threatened against Eli, so terrible and dreadful) that whoever shall hear it, both his ears shall tingle — that is, so that he may be wholly struck and horrified. It is a metaphor taken from one who suddenly hears a tinkling cymbal, or the boom of a great cannon, or a huge thunder, whose vehement sound strikes and excites a long-lasting ringing in the ears of those who hear it.
Verse 13: Eli's Sons Acted Unworthily
13. For I have foretold him that I would judge (that is, justly punish) his house (family and posterity), because he knew that his sons acted unworthily, and did not correct them. — Eli had corrected them, but with too much fatherly leniency, not with pontifical authority and severity, says Angelomus. Therefore he is punished with death: he thus pays for his sons' crime with his own death.
Verse 14: The Oath Against Eli's House
14. Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli, that the iniquity of his house shall not be expiated with victims or offerings forever. — Hence many think Eli was damned, as I will discuss in chapter 4. But this passage does not prove that. For it speaks of the house of Eli, not of Eli himself, as if to say: The punishments which I foretold and threatened against Eli's house for his sin in chapter 2, shall not be recalled by any victims, but by my decree shall remain certain and fixed; and shall certainly befall his descendants.
Verse 17: Eli Adjures Samuel
17. May God do these things. — This is a Hebrew formula of adjuration, as if to say: May God punish you, or may things go badly for you, if you hide these things from me. 18. It is the Lord; let Him do what is good in His eyes. — See here Eli's response, worthy of a penitent Pontiff, equanimous and resigned to all God's will and to a punishment so terrible, on account of which Eli seems to have been saved. So Theodoret, Procopius, Lyranus, Abulensis, Dionysius, Cajetan, Serarius, Mendoza here, and St. Chrysostom, Book 3 Against the Disparagers of the Monastic Life.
Morally, let us learn from this to bear with equanimity whatever adversities and afflictions are sent or permitted by God for our good, and to humbly submit our back to God who scourges us. So did David fleeing from Absalom and Saul: 'You are just, O Lord,' he said, 'and Your judgment is right,' Psalm 118, verse 137.
Verse 19: Samuel's Growth
19. And Samuel grew. — The Septuagint has 'emegalynthe,' that is, 'was magnified,' both in age, but rather in wisdom, virtue, fame, and glory before God and men. And none of his words fell to the ground. — First, as if to say: Nothing said by Samuel was in vain, but all things said and predicted by him were in fact fulfilled. Secondly, as if to say: Samuel's word was not contemptible, but was in great honor and esteem with all.
Verse 20: Samuel Recognized as Prophet
20. And all Israel knew from Dan to Beersheba — that is, throughout all Judea, that Samuel was a faithful prophet of the Lord.
Verse 21: The Lord Continued to Appear in Shiloh
21. And the Lord continued to appear in Shiloh (the Septuagint add: 'to him,' namely to Samuel), because the Lord had revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh — as if to say: Because the Lord had begun to appear to Samuel in Shiloh; hence He continued to appear to him there because of the holiness both of Samuel and of the ark of the covenant which was in Shiloh. For God is constant, and therefore constantly promotes and pursues what He has begun: hence the conferring of one benefit from God is a reason and stimulus for conferring another. Tropologically, Philo, On the Migration of Abraham: 'The fountain,' he says, 'from which good things flow is familiarity with a benign God; therefore, as if sealing His benefits, He says: I will be with you.'