Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
It narrates that the calamities predicted by Samuel actually befell both Eli and his sons, and all Israel, namely that 34 thousand were slain by the Philistines, the ark was captured, Ophni and Phinehas were killed: hence Eli, hearing this, falling from his seat, expired; and the wife of Phinehas, her delivery hastened by grief, bore Ichabod, saying: The glory is departed from Israel.
Vulgate Text: 1 Kings (1 Samuel) 4:1-22
1. And it came to pass in those days that the Philistines gathered together for battle; and Israel went out to meet the Philistines in war, and encamped beside the stone of help. And the Philistines came to Aphec, 2. and set their army in array against Israel. And when the battle was joined, Israel turned their backs before the Philistines; and there were slain in that battle here and there through the fields about four thousand men. 3. And the people returned to the camp; and the elders of Israel said: Why hath the Lord struck us today before the Philistines? Let us bring to us from Shiloh the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and let it come into the midst of us, that it may save us from the hand of our enemies. 4. So the people sent to Shiloh, and they brought from thence the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts sitting upon the Cherubim: and the two sons of Eli, Ophni and Phinehas, were with the ark of the covenant of God. 5. And when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, and the earth resounded. 6. And the Philistines heard the voice of the shout, and said: What is this voice of a great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood that the ark of the Lord was come into the camp. 7. And the Philistines were afraid, saying: God is come into the camp. And they groaned, saying: 8. Woe to us! for there was no such great joy yesterday and the day before; woe to us! Who shall save us from the hand of these sublime gods? These are the gods that struck Egypt with every plague in the desert. 9. Take courage, and be men, O Philistines: lest you serve the Hebrews as they have served you; take courage and fight. 10. So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and every man fled to his tent: and there was an exceedingly great slaughter; and there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen, 11. and the ark of God was taken: the two sons of Eli also died, Ophni and Phinehas. 12. And a man of Benjamin running from the battle, came to Shiloh that same day, with his garment rent, and his head sprinkled with dust. 13. And when he came, Eli sat upon a seat over against the way, watching. For his heart was trembling for the ark of God. And that man, after he had entered, told it to the city; and all the city cried out. 14. And Eli heard the sound of the cry, and he said: What is this noise of this uproar? And he made haste, and came, and told Eli. 15. Now Eli was ninety and eight years old, and his eyes were dim, and he could not see. 16. And he said to Eli: I am he that came from the battle, and I that fled out of the fight today. And he said to him: What has been done, my son? 17. And he that brought the tidings answered and said: Israel hath fled before the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter of the people; moreover thy two sons, Ophni and Phinehas, are dead; and the ark of God is taken. 18. And when he had named the ark of God, he fell from his seat backward by the door, and his neck being broken, he died. For he was an old man and advanced in years; and he judged Israel forty years. 19. And his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was with child, and near her time; and hearing the tidings that the ark of God was taken, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and gave birth: for her pains came suddenly upon her. 20. And in the very moment of her death, those that stood about her said to her: Fear not, for thou hast borne a son. She answered them not, neither did she give heed. 21. And she called the child Ichabod, saying: The glory is departed from Israel, because the ark of God was taken, and for her father-in-law and for her husband. 22. And she said: The glory is departed from Israel, because the ark of God was taken.
Verse 1: Fulfillment of Samuel's Prophecy
1. And it came to pass in those days. — Behold, here is fulfilled the prophecy of Samuel and the threats of God, and the disaster He intended for Eli and his sons and all Israel. How much time elapsed from Samuel's prophecy to its fulfillment is uncertain. Serarius and Abulensis think it was fulfilled in the same year.
Verse 3: Bringing the Ark From Shiloh
3. Let us bring to us from Shiloh the ark of the covenant of the Lord. — For the Hebrews had often experienced the presence and help of God seated upon the ark and giving answers from the mercy seat, as in the crossing of the Jordan, in the capture of Jericho, etc. Christians have much greater trust in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the relics of the saints, which they therefore carry in solemn procession with Litanies and prayers in times of war, famine, and plague, and often experience wondrous help therefrom.
Verse 7: The Philistines' Fear
7. God has come into the camp — because the ark was like the throne of God. Add that the Philistines, accustomed to the adoration and worship of idols and images, thought the ark was God, or the idol of the Hebrews; or at least the wiser among them supposed that a divine power and something divine was enclosed in the ark.
Verse 11: The Ark Captured
11. And the ark of God was captured. — Why did God permit this? Procopius gives two reasons: The first is, that He might teach the Hebrews who were living rightly to trust in God's providence: but those who were sinning to trust neither in the ark nor in God Himself. The second, so that the Philistines, by capturing the ark, might recognize its power and might from the plagues it inflicted, which we shall hear about in the next chapter, and thus fear and worship the God of the Hebrews. Add a third reason: so that God might chastise the impiety of Eli's sons, who abused the ark and the altar for their robberies and crimes.
Tropologically, the ark captured by foreigners indicated that God's covenant was to pass to the Gentiles, say Eucherius and St. Gregory. Allegorically, the ark of the covenant is the humanity of Christ, especially in the Eucharist.
Verse 18: The Death of Eli
18. And when he named the ark of God, he fell from his seat backward beside the door, and his neck being broken, he died. — Hence Abulensis, Cajetan, and others note that Eli was a pious man, inasmuch as the care for the ark and the religion of sacred things touched him more than the care for his sons or the people.
One asks whether Eli was damned. St. Gregory affirms it. But Theodoret, Lyranus, Dionysius, Abulensis, Cajetan, Serarius, Sanchez, and Mendoza hold the opposite. And this is proved: first, because Eli was an upright and pious man; second, because although he sinned by excessive gentleness and indulgence toward his sons, yet old age partly excuses him, since he could not so severely correct them; third, because even granting that he sinned mortally, he nevertheless seems to have repented; fourth, because God punished him so harshly in this life precisely in order to spare him in the next.
Verse 21: Ichabod — The Glory Departed
21. And she called the child Ichabod, saying: The glory is departed from Israel. — Ichabod in Hebrew means, as it were, 'e chabod,' that is, 'where is the glory?' namely, it has vanished. Josephus translates it 'adoxia,' that is, ingloriousness, ignobility, worthlessness.