1 Sam 3:1 ff. Here is narrated how the aforementioned rebuke and reprobation were manifested even to Samuel, and the promotion of Samuel to the prophetic grace. "And the child Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was precious," that is, a divine or prophetic response to questions and doubts could be obtained only with difficulty. Also, there were few at that time who informed the people healthfully. "In those days there was no manifest vision," because even if a prophetic revelation was made to someone, as was said in the preceding chapter regarding the man of God sent to Eli, this happened then rarely and secretly. Moreover, everything rare is precious, provided it be desirable. Concerning these things Lyra writes: On account of the malice of the sons of Eli and the negligence of their father in correcting them, the revelations and responses of the Lord ceased. Whence in the Hebrew it is held: "The word of the Lord was prohibited and closed up." Against which it can be objected because, as Thomas and others say, although He sometimes punishes one for the sin of another in temporal matters, He does not do so in spiritual matters. In the times of Manasseh, Amon, and Josiah, there was much greater iniquity of the priests and indeed of the people than in the time of Eli, and yet then there were many both prophets and open visions, as is seen below in the fourth book and in the second book of Chronicles, and frequently in Jeremiah. And Rabbi Paulus asserts that the Hebrew word for which Jerome translated "Precious" signifies nothing but precious. Therefore, according to the doctrine of Augustine in the book on the City of God, it seems it must be said that with the eternal and infinite wisdom of the Creator, it is invariably and most wisely defined how miracles and other miraculous effects occur. So also it must be held concerning prophetic visions.
SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION: "The word of the Lord was precious" (1 Samuel 3:1). This is what Christ said in the Gospel: "The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few" (Matthew 9:37; Luke 10:2). For while there may be many who abound in words, few are found in whom life and the words of preaching agree; the speech of the others is held in contempt and is not worthy to be called the "word of the Lord," since it is rather a discourse of vanity and a word of cupidity, whereas they ought primarily to preach to themselves with charity and right intention. Finally, one must preach at an opportune time, neither too often nor too rarely; let discretion moderate all things. Therefore, Jerome says upon this passage: "If there is no preaching, it does not suffice; if it is constant, it becomes cheap." It must therefore be spoken often, but not continuously, since the Apostle says: "The earth that drinks the rain often falling upon it receives a blessing" (Hebrews 6:7). The earth drinks the rain while the people hear the word devoutly and greedily. Furthermore, those who engage in indiscreet speechifying are figured by the things that were unclean according to the Law. As Scripture says: "Speak not in the ears of the foolish, for they will despise the doctrine of your speech" (Proverbs 23:9). And likewise: "Where there is no hearing, pour not out thy words" (Sirach 32:6).
"In those days there was no manifest vision" (1 Samuel 3:1), because while a negligent man is in charge, the subjects lack vision. Therefore Solomon says: "When the impious have taken the principality, the people shall groan" (Proverbs 29:2).
1 Sam 3:2-3 "It came to pass therefore on a certain day, Eli was lying in his place," that is, in his bed or chamber near the tabernacle for the purpose of sleeping, "and his eyes had grown dim" on account of old age from the indisposition of the organ. Otherwise, if the organ of sight in an old man were disposed as in a youth, the old man would see as clearly as the youth, as the Philosopher says. "Neither could he see the lamp of God before it was extinguished." Some explain this thus: that he could not see in the day when the lamp of the tabernacle was extinguished. Others thus: He could not see before the day when the lamp was being extinguished. These expositions are obscure and seem extorted. Certain people, therefore, explain more according to the letter and more clearly thus: that he was not able to see the lamp while it was still burning or shining on account of the weakness of his sight, just as a bat cannot endure the light of day. But to this exposition also it is objected that no one has such weak sight nor is so blind that he does not see a burning lamp more clearly than one extinguished. Hence, according to the Master in the histories, the Hebrews distinguish and punctuate thus: "He could not see," then they subjoin according to the Hebrew truth, "The lamp of the Lord was not yet extinguished," and so it is congruously subjoined, "And Samuel was sleeping." With these things agrees what is said in the book of Hebrew Questions, and Lyra approves the same and adds: Our translation seems corrupted in this place by the unskillfulness of correctors who joined two verses into one, as has been done in several others; therefore consequently here "lamp" is in the accusative instead of the nominative. Whence it appears that the truth of our translation from the beginning was this: "He could not see," so that it terminates here; and there follows, "The lamp of the Lord before it was extinguished, Samuel was sleeping," that is, before the lamp was extinguished, say in the night, Samuel was sleeping.
Nevertheless, because it does not seem that such a corruption could easily happen, I think it must be said that as the text lies it can be conveniently saved. First it must be considered that there were seven lamps burning by night, of which four were extinguished in the morning and were lit again in the evening. And those lamps were very bright lamps placed upon the candlestick without an intermediate wick-nozzle, all of which things are explained in Exodus. Furthermore, it should be noted that someone is said not to see a burning lamp or light in two ways. First, because he is in no way perceptive of its visual species or rays. Second, because he cannot see it without pain and injury to his sight, in the manner that an owl is unable to see light. It must be said, therefore, that Eli was so blind that he was unable to look at those burning and shining lamps without notable torment of sight. And so it is commonly said that a man cannot gaze into the sun in the wheel of its brightness. And so Eli "could not see the lamp of God," understanding those burning lamps by using the singular for the plural, "before they were extinguished"—not that he saw them afterward. Just as it is reported in Matthew that Joseph "did not know Mary until she brought forth," not that he knew her afterward. Perhaps when the lamps were extinguished in the twilight or dawn, he saw better and more healthfully than in the conglomeration and vigor of such great light.
SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION: "Eli lay in his place and his eyes had grown dim" (1 Samuel 3:2). By Eli are designated prelates who are remiss, useless, inveterate in evils and vices, and darkened in heart, who are unable to see the lamp—that is, the training of discipline, the incarnate Wisdom of the Father, or the divine law—because they do not have a heart that is formed and well-disposed. For the "animal man" does not perceive those things which are of God (1 Corinthians 2:14). Nor does Divine Scripture taste well to them, which is the lamp of which it is said: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet" (Psalm 119:105). These men likewise cannot see the lamp of God, that is, they refuse to attend to and fulfill the divine precepts. Whence it is held in the book of Proverbs: "The commandment is a lamp, and the law a light, and the way of life is the rebuke of discipline" (Proverbs 6:23).
1 Sam 3:3 cont. 1 Sam 3:4-5 "But Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was." By the "temple of the Lord" is understood here the tabernacle of Moses. For the Ark was in the Holy of Holies, in which no one slept, indeed not even in the exterior part of the tabernacle. Therefore Samuel is said to have slept "in the temple," that is, in a certain annex of it, say in a chamber near the tabernacle, in which chamber Eli alone slept, though not in the same bed. "And the Lord called Samuel." This the Lord did through the ministry of an angel, who as it appears called Samuel while he was sleeping, so that from that calling he woke up; and so it seems to have been an exterior calling, just as a little later He spoke to him with an exterior vocal address, although He could also have called him up to the point of awakening with an interior imaginary calling. Which Samuel responding said: "Behold, here I am," prepared for your command. And he ran to Eli and said: "Behold, I am ready, for you called me now." This Samuel estimated, and therefore he said what was false materially, but not formally; indeed formally he said the truth, because he spoke as he felt. Who said: "I did not call you, my son, in this hour; return and sleep." And he went and slept.
SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION: Finally, let us consider in the text: "And the Lord called Samuel" (1 Samuel 3:4). Just as the Lord rebuked the old man Eli through the youth, so daily does the Lord correct certain people who have passed their lives in negligence and vices through younger people who are devout and fervent. Some in the beginning of their conversion are filled with such great gifts and progress so strenuously and instantly that they precede the lazy elders, for whom a special humility is always necessary and to be solicitously observed. Note throughout the whole chapter how promptly obedient, how vigilant and alert, how docile and directable Samuel was in his youth, who ran quickly and often in the night itself to Eli and presently obeyed him in all things. If there should be anything of special devotion, illumination, or vision granted from above, let him by no means betray it incautiously and without legitimate reason, weighing what Isaiah speaks: "My secret is to myself" (Isaiah 24:16), lest he be deprived of the gift thereafter.
1 Sam 3:6-7 And the Lord called Samuel again. And Samuel, rising up, went to Eli and said: "Behold, I am here, because you called me." Who responded: "I did not call you, my son; return and sleep." In which things the most prompt obedience of Samuel is commended, because in the silence of the dead of night he rose so many times and so quickly and patiently and ran to Eli his lord, by whom he thought himself called. From this it is likewise elicited that they did not lie remote from one another. Furthermore, Samuel did not yet know the Lord in that way in which the Prophets do, that is, he had not yet learned the manner in which the Lord is accustomed to appear and speak to the Prophets; or, because of his youth, he did not yet have a notable knowledge of God, nor had the word of the Lord been revealed to him, that is, a prophetic address had not yet been made or declared to him. Josephus also says that in his twelfth year he began to have prophetic visions.
1 Sam 3:8-10 And the Lord called Samuel yet a third time. Who, rising up, went to Eli and said: "Behold, I am here, because you called me." Eli therefore understood that the Lord called the boy; for Eli weighed the innocence and eminent grace of Samuel, and therefore he presupposed him to be called by a good spirit. And he said to Samuel: "Go and sleep, and if he calls you hereafter, you shall say: 'Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.'" Samuel therefore went and slept in his place. And the Lord came—that is, an angel appearing and speaking in the person of God—and stood and called as he had called the second time—that is, before or on the other occasion. Or "the second time" means he expressed the name of Samuel twice in calling him, for it is added: "Samuel, Samuel." Which repetition is a sign of love, or an excitation of attention, or a mark of the seriousness and magnitude of the matter. Furthermore, as Josephus implies, the Lord called Samuel three times to prefigure his three dignities: from this hour he was made a prophet, afterward a judge, and he also offered sacrifice as a priest, because Ichabod the son of Phinehas the son of Eli was but a small child. Nevertheless, if the aforementioned things are rightly weighed, the Lord called Samuel four times. And Samuel said: "Speak, Lord, for your servant hears."
Concerning this passage, a certain man writes: "art and nature proceed from the imperfect to the perfect, so also revelations according to the process of time, because later Prophets approaching the time of Christ had clearer prophecies concerning Christ than the earlier Prophets." To which I say that in certain cases it was so, but not regularly. For Haggai, Nahum, Habakkuk, Joel, and those similar to them were not more illuminated concerning the mysteries of Christ than David and Isaiah, who were long before them; on the contrary, since Jerome says Isaiah so clearly followed through all the mysteries of Christ and the Church that he should be judged rather an evangelist than a prophet.
1 Sam 3:11-14 And the Lord said to Samuel: "Behold, I do a word in Israel," that is, I will quickly do a work so fearful and a plague or vengeance so great in the Israelite people that whoever hears it, both his ears shall tingle; that is, whoever of the faithful perceives and rightly weighs it will be vehemently amazed and terrified, like one who hears a sound so huge that his ears tingle from it. This was fulfilled in the capture of the Ark and the great slaughter of the sons of Eli and the people of Israel, and other things which are written in the following chapter. "In that day I will raise up against Eli all things which I have spoken over his house; I will begin and I will finish. For I foretold to him"—namely to Eli the priest through the man of God, as is held in the preceding chapter—"that I would judge his house forever," that is, I would duly punish both Eli himself and his sons and his posterity with perpetual punishments according to the exposition of the preceding chapter, "for the iniquity," that is, the great heap and enormity of his iniquities, because he knew his sons were acting unworthily and he did not correct them as rigorously as he was bound, as these things were explained in the preceding chapter. "Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli," that is, I have irrevocably defined concerning them, "that the iniquity of his house shall not be expiated by victims and gifts forever," that is, that their crimes will never be forgiven them through any sacrifices of the law as far as the punishment of the present life is concerned; yet to those repenting, the way of salvation was not closed as far as the remission of guilt and eternal punishment. Behold how terribly the Lord speaks against Eli because he did not fulfill the precept of paternal correction.
1 Sam 3:15-17 But Samuel slept until morning and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And he feared to indicate to Eli the priest the aforementioned vision on account of its terribleness, and on account of the authority of Eli himself, and lest that old man should be too greatly saddened. Eli therefore called Samuel and said: "Samuel, my son." Who responding said: "I am ready." And he interrogated him: "What is the word that the Lord has spoken to you? I pray you, do not hide it from me. May God do these things to you and add these things"—that is, punish you in such a way, or afflict you more heavily through temporal adversities as it shall please His justice—"if you hide from me a word of all the words that were said to you." Certain people say that this was the usual form of adjuring anyone among the Hebrews, and that this is the sense: "May God do to you as many evils as He has done to any man, and even more." But it seems that such an adjuration would have been illicit under that sense, since such an imprecation would have opposed and derogated from justice. For one would not have deserved such great evils because of not fulfilling things to which he was bound by those words. And thus that adjuration would have been an inhuman curse; since nevertheless many are read to have used it, it is therefore to be explained under a certain implicit condition, as it is placed.
1 Sam 3:18 Samuel therefore indicated to him the words, that is, all the words revealed to him against the house of Eli and against the people of Israel, and he did not hide it from him. And he responded: "He is the Lord," the maker, prince, and judge of the whole creation, from whom no one can hide and whom no one can resist, since He is truly omnipotent and the first measure, cause, and rule of justice, wisdom, and virtue; therefore whatever He dictates consists as good and wise. Hence it is subjoined: "What is good in His sight, let Him do," that is, what His wisdom has dictated, let Him fulfill. Hence it is read in the Book of Wisdom: "Who, O Lord, will impute it to you if the nations which you made perish? For there is no other God than you, who has care for all. Since you are therefore just, you dispose justly. For your power is the beginning of justice." Hence holy Job said: "Who am I that I should contradict the words of the Holy One?"
From such a patient and humble response, some elicit that by accepting the equity of the divine sentence upon himself and his own, he merited through his contrition the remission of his own sins, and he was punished for them temporally, not condemned eternally; although even after this life he bore punishments because he did not correct his sons, which is also judged probable from those things which are held in the following chapter. For he was trembling for the Ark of God more than for his sons in the time of war, and having heard of the capture of the Ark, he fell dead from excessive sorrow, whereas he had remained sitting upon hearing of the slaying of his sons. Finally, David followed this response when fleeing from Absalom. Furthermore, the words of the saints saying Eli was "damned" can be explained as meaning he would have been condemned according to eternal justice unless he had repented. And again, they are verified concerning the condemnation of temporal slaughter.
1 Sam 3:19-21 But Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and not one of all his words fell to the ground; that is, all things which he prophesied and taught were true, nor was anything of them frustrated or trodden down. So also Job says: "The light of my countenance did not fall to the ground." And all Israel knew from Dan to Beersheba—that is, that whole people from one extremity of their land to the other—that faithful Samuel was a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord added to appear in Shiloh, that is, after the prescribed appearance He appeared yet more often to Samuel in His tabernacle which was in the city of Shiloh; because the Lord had been revealed to Samuel in Shiloh, that is, since He already once began to manifest Himself there to Samuel as He was accustomed to manifest Himself to the Prophets in various ways, namely in sleep and waking and through holy angels. Hence in the same place the Lord deigned to continue His revelations to Samuel according to the word of the Lord, that is, according to what the Lord through Moses in Deuteronomy foretold, that He would answer His people through Prophets. On account of which He commanded: "Let there not be among you one who consults pythons or diviners and seeks truth from the dead." Hence Isaiah speaks: "Shall not a people seek truth from their God? Proceed rather to the law and the Prophets and according to the mandates of the law in seeking counsels and responses, and flee to the Prophets for such things." And the word of Samuel came to pass to all Israel, that is, to everyone in general and to those individually interrogating him, that happened which he foretold to them.
CONTINUE
Comments
Post a Comment