Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 02 Aug 2020
In the last sermon we looked at Samuel’s faithful stewardship of his priestly privileges vs. Eli’s unfaithful stewardship of the priesthood, and how God said, “Far be it from me,” for Eli’s house to remain in leadership of the priests.
The reason is that God is personal and God is just. He honors those who honor Him and despises those who despise Him.
God had promised in His covenants to “do good” to Israel (Gen. 32:10-13, cf. 5th commandment in Deut. 5:16), and God’s people remembered that promise (Num. 10:29 & 32, Josh. 24:20), expecting God to bless them when they walked in His covenant. And part of that promise was to have lots of descendants (Gen. 12:1-3, 32:13, Deut. 6:3 & 18, 28:63). This was the path of blessing from God when His people walked faithfully with Him.
But “Eli has broken the covenant, and his punishment is given in words similar to those of covenant curses.” ~Tsumura (NICOT)
Read passage, starting at v.31: “Look, days are coming when I will chop off your arm and the arm of your forefather’s house [from there being an old man in your house, and you will perceive distress on location with all of Israel that He makes good], and there will not be an elder of yours in my house all those days. Yet there is a man of yours that I will not cause to be cut off from being at my altar to finish off his eyesight and to grieve his soul, though all the increase of your house will fall {by the sword of} men. And this will be the sign for you which will come to both of your sons - to Hophni and Phinehas – on one day both of them will die. Then I will cause to establish for myself a faithful priest {who} will do {all} that is in my heart and in my soul, and I will build for him a faithful house, and he will conduct himself before the face of my Anointed One all his days. So it will come to pass that anyone left in your house will go to prostrate himself before him for the fistfull of change and a slice of bread and say, ‘Assign me to one of the priests to eat a serving of food, please.’”
The word “house” is significant; it appears in 5 out of the 6 verses in this passage.
(If you’re looking at an NIV, this may be less obvious because they translate the word three different ways “house,” “descendants,” and “family line,” but these are all in the range of meaning of this one Hebrew word, bayit.)
Eli’s “house” is being cut out of God’s “house,” meanwhile, God is building a faithful “house,” and if any that remain in Eli’s “house” want to be in it, they must come over to the new priest in order to stay in God’s house.
Do you see how this foreshadows the coming change of priesthood, outlined in the New Testament book of Hebrews, in which Israelites are exhorted to leave behind the Mosaic priesthood and come over to the new and better priesthood of Jesus Christ in order to remain in God’s house?
Let’s divide the six verses of this prophecy into three parts, looking at the first two verses which speak of God’s judgment, then the next two verses which mention God’s mercy, and then of the last couple of verses which highlight the personal hope which God holds out for all believers.
The end of v.31 and the beginning of v.32 do not exist in the oldest-known manuscripts, but God has allowed it to come into common acceptance among God’s people since at least the 400’s A.D. so I’m not going to omit it. There, two main acts of judgment are prophecied:
“Distress” caused by an “enemy” is clearly fulfilled in the next chapter when the Philistines carry off Israel’s ark of the covenant and put it in the temple of their false God.
Eli was so distressed when he heard the news of it that he died right then and there.
This goes along with the second act of judgment: a decline in the number and influence in the priests as well2 in...
This is portrayed in v.31 literally as “chopping off [their] arm” – or their “strength” as it is figuratively translated.
We will see this begin to be fulfilled in the next chapter when Hophni, Phineas, and Eli all die as a result of the Philistine invasion.
1 Samuel 14:3 fills in some detail on Eli’s family:
Two of his grandsons (who were sons of Phineas) survived, and one of their children was a priest for King Saul.
Seeing as Saul was only one generation after Eli, yet his priest was three generations after Eli, he must have been a pretty young priest, and we might infer that Phineas’ sons must have died early for a descendant in the next generation to have to be priest.
How did they die? All but Abiathar died in Saul’s slaughter of the 85 priests at Nob.
That left Abiathar as the last priest of the line of Eli, and Solomon later replaced him with Zadok who was of the priestly line of Eleazar.
The Hebrew word for “old man” (זכנ), by the way, is the same word used for the local government leader called an “elder,” and this may also have been part of the judgment that there would be a loss of respect in the community toward Eli and his family such that no one would want them to be in leadership3.
A “sign” is a visible, physical manifestation of the intangiable relationship which exists between God and Man; it speaks of the occasions where our relationship with the invisible God becomes visible for a moment.
The plagues on Egypt were called “signs” because they showed God’s judgment on unbelievers and His favor on the believing Israelites.
The “sign” of a newborn baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger demonstrated in a visible way God’s invisible work of saving a people for Himself.
This particular sign of the death of Hophni and Phineas was a visible manifestation of God’s judgment against those who fail to honor Him.
The punishment in verse 36 of having to bow down and practically beg for food is poetic justice to the men who had so imperiously snatched the best food from God’s people. As Matthew Henry put it, “Want is a just punishment for wantonness.”
God’s justice is perfect, and it warns us not to give in to sin in the midst of a sinful and corrupt generation. But, thank God, the message doesn’t stop there...
It is part of God’s character to show mercy – even in judgment, and, just as there were two acts of judgment threatened, there are two singular mercies implied:
Classic commentators Keil & Delitzsch answered the question of why God bothered to warn Eli, by saying that it was “In order to arouse Eli's own conscience, he had pointed out to him, on the one hand, the grace manifested in the choice of his father's house... to keep His sanctuary, and, on the other hand, the desecration of the sanctuary by the wickedness of his sons.”
It is God’s pattern to send warnings before judgment comes. (I’ve preached whole sermons on that in my Isaiah series.) Why does He send warnings? To bring us to repentance!
Once his conscience was aroused, the right thing for Eli would be to repent and beg forgiveness of God and then discipline his sons.
It is the nature of God to graciously show mercy when such a course is pursued.
Didn’t He say in 1 Chronicles 7, “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will heal their land”?
This even happened to the gentile city of Ninevah – God sent Jonah to announce a warning of judgment, they repented, and God relented.
Imagine all the good things that could have happened if Eli had just resolved upon this course, but he didn’t.
Verse 33 speaks of “eyes blinded” by tears and “grief of heart/soul.”
Weeping and grief is a healthy part of repentance – in addition to stopping the sin and placing hope in God’s mercy.
It was also part of the Mosaic covenant: Lev. 26:13-16 “I am Yahweh, y’all’s God who delivered y’all out of the land of Egypt from being slaves to them... But if y’all don’t give heed to me... and if you despise my statutes, and if your souls disdain my judgments, failing to do any of my commands such that y’all break my covenant... I will visit dismay upon y’all, emaciation and scarlet fever that fades out eyes and causes a soul to pine away...” (NAW)
It also reminds me of the man excommunicated from the church in New Testament Corinth over the unrepentant sin of adultery who came to repentance and was so overcome by sorrow over it that the Apostle Paul wrote a follow-up letter saying it was time “to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow.” (2 Cor. 2:7, NKJV)
Sorrow is one of the ways that God leads us to repentance and restoration of relationship with Him. When we experience awful things – sometimes it is not even a punishment for anything we did wrong, but whether or not it is a call to repentance from a particular sin of ours – it is always a call to come to God for comfort.
The sad part of this story is that, if God’s gracious warning had any effect on Eli, it seems to have been that Eli merely invested in preparing Samuel to carry on the priesthood.
Eli did not believe enough in God’s mercy or have enough gumption to deny himself and discipline his sons.
This is so sad when a person’s own inability to believe that God could forgive and restore to blessing, prevents them from even seeking forgiveness and blessing.
Never forget that God’s threatenings of judgment are always opportunities to receive mercy from Him.
What did Abraham do when God threatened to destroy Sodom & Gomorrah?
Did he say, “Que sera sera”?
NO! He said, “God, wait a minute! Please, let me talk you out of destroying that city! Won’t you please have mercy even if there are no more than 5 righteous people in it?”
Why? Because Abraham knew God’s character, that He offers mercy; Abraham didn’t want judgment to fall merely because he had failed to intervene and ask for mercy.
What did David do when God threatened to destroy his illegitimate son?
Did he say, “Yeah. Saw that one coming. But I guess I deserved it”?
NO! He fasted and prayed day & night for a week that God would spare his son’s life.
Why? Because he knew God’s character; David didn’t want death to fall merely because he had failed to ask for mercy.
What did Jairus, the synagogue president, do when his child was dying?
“Well, it must be the will of God.”
NO! He ran after Jesus, flopped down at his feet, and begged him, “Master, come quick, you’ve gotta heal my daughter!”
He knew the character of God. You never know when He might just say, “Talitha Cum,” and she’s up and walking around healthy again.
You never know until you have tried His mercy, so ask for it, even when judgment seems inevitable.
In addition to the mercy of a warning...
Verse 33 is difficult to translate, and Bible interpreters go two ways with it:
The Greek Septuagint, English KJV, and NIV, and the Spanish Nueva Biblia paint a picture of the hacking down of Eli’s house as being punative (punishment),
but the Latin Bible tradition that seems to be reflected in the old English Geneva Bible as well as the French (Louis Segond) Bible and the New American Standard Bible sees this verse as an expression of mercy that one of Eli’s household will be spared to be a priest4, and I’m inclined to interpret it that way too.
God was gracious to allow there to be any survivor at all.
While the two sons of Eli will die in an upcoming battle against the Philistines, there is an intern in Eli’s house who will continue to serve, and that is Samuel.
Later on, a physical descendant of Eli named Abiathar escaped the slaughter of most of his relatives and was raised to the priesthood under David.
v.33 God says, “I will not cut off every man.”
Furthermore, God was gracious to allow any of those survivors to be able to serve Him in the tabernacle at all. This is implied in v.36 “everyone who is left will come and bow...”
Some of Eli’s grandsons continued to serve as priests at Nob for a time after Eli and his sons were killed.
Abiathar, the great-grandson of Eli served as a priest alongside David. (He got crosswise with Solomon for treason, but even then, Solomon merely deposed him from being high priest; he didn’t send his hit-man Beniah after Abiathar like he did to others - 1 Ki. 2:26-27).
In 1607, Puritan Andrew Willet commented on how this fulfilled the prophecy we’re looking at: “[H]is posteritie, which should humble themselues to the priest for a peece of siluer, and a morsell of bread: which came to passe afterward, when Abiathar was sent to Anathoth to live of his owne patrimonie, which was not sufficient to maintaine him and his, without some releefe from the altar...”
Abiathar was deposed during the Golden Age of Israel under Solomon, at a time when God was “doing good” and blessing the nation with great prosperity, so this prophecy was fulfilled in detail5.
The provision of a piece of silver in that culture was not a fancy salary, it was more like scraping together a fistfull of change. Likewise, a mere slice of bread was considered austerity rations6 – a far cry from the beef tenderloins that Eli and his sons were used to gorging themselves on – and yet, it was enough to live on7. God is merciful when we don’t starve.
The implication in v.36 of having to do obeisance to another priest in order to get money and food is that Eli’s family will no longer be in leadership of the priesthood, yet they would still have a remnant which is able to serve in the temple. That is merciful, isn’t it? How could a holy God allow such sinners to find any place of service anymore in His tabernacle? God is always eager to show mercy to those He loves if they will just humble themselves and seek His face!
Not only does this prophecy speak of God’s just judgment and God’s offer of an opportunity of mercy, we also see that...
We could sure use some hope in our own days where it seems almost impossible to find a Christian with integrity and devotion to God’s word on the ballot!
The conclusion of the prophecy is the good news of the coming of a special person. Notice...
He will be a “faithful” priest who will “do” God’s will
There are only a half-dozen people in the Old Testament who are called “faithful”8:
GOD - Hosea 11:12 (cf. 1 Cor. 1:9, 10:13, etc.)
ABRAHAM - Nehemiah 9:7-8
MOSES - Numbers 12:6-8
SAMUEL - 1 Samuel 3:19-21
DAVID - 1 Samuel 22:14 & 25:23&28
and the MESSIAH - Isaiah 49:7
He will have an “enduring house”
In 1 Kings 11:38, God said that He built an “enduring/faithful house” for David, and He promised to build for Solomon an “enduring/faithful” house, but it was a conditional promise that required him and his reigning descendants to be faithful to God.
Solomon and the kings which followed him were not faithful to God9, so their dynasties were not stable. Nevertheless, God preserved a line of descendants (recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke) that led to the birth of Jesus who was perfectly faithful to God and who also received an enduring/faithful house.
So this coming leader will be a faithful priest, will have an enduring/faithful house, and...
He will walk/conduct himself/minister before God’s Anointed10 always/forever11 – literally “all the days” – which, I might point out, does not necessarily mean “forever” but could just refer to his lifetime. So, who is this who will walk in the presence of the Lord?
This phrase was used of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 48:15.
It is used of Eli a few verses earlier in this chapter 2, verse 30.
It is used later of David in Psalm 56:14, and of King Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20:3
So it does not appear to be limited to what priests did in service to God, but was what any godly person and leader could do: whatever they do, doing it for the glory of God, remembering that God is always there with them, so living their life before God’s face – coram deo/in His presence.
God’s Anointed, by the way, would not have been understood by Eli as a king, because a king had never been anointed in the history of Israel up to that point, only priests.
Is is Samuel? No. He was a faithful priest, but he did not anoint any priests and his sons did not become priests either.
Is it Saul? No. He wasn’t a priest, his dynasty didn’t endure, and he didn’t anoint anybody.
Is it David? No. He was anointed king, and he was promised an enduring house, but He was not a priest, and he didn’t anoint anybody else.
It must be Jesus the Messiah,
the “great high priest” extolled in the book of Hebrews
who described himself in the Gospel of John as the one who “does whatever I see my Father doing,”
the Son of David whose house was promised to endure, and Son of God who, as God, can be priest forever,
the one given a house of living stones who leads that church as its “chief-shepherd” over the under-shepherds of His church (1 Pet. 5:4)
So, when we follow Jesus, when He is the leader we place our hopes in, we walk in the presence of the Anointed One/the Christ, we join His spiritual house, and we are faithful.
The Apostle Paul, in his sermon at the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch, explained, "...He [God] gave them judges for about four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, 'I HAVE FOUND DAVID12 THE SON OF JESSE, A MAN AFTER MY OWN HEART, WHO WILL DO ALL MY WILL.' From this man's seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior—Jesus—" (Acts 13:20-23, NKJV) When we connect the dots like this between David and Jesus, we are following the instruction of the apostles and setting our hopes on the right person.
The apostle Peter explained in his first epistle: “...you yourselves also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house, into a holy priesthood... through Jesus Christ... [T]he one who trusts in Him shall never be put to shame...’" (1 Peter 2:5-7, NAW)
John 8:12 Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (NKJV)
Romans 4:11-12 Abraham is “the father of all [you in the New Testament] who believe... all who walk in the steps of faith.” (NKJV)
Colossians 2:6-7 “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.” (NKJV)
1 John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we are having fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus His Son is cleansing us from all sin.” (NAW)
Days of Judgment Are Coming, so Obey God and don’t give in to sin in the midst of a corrupt generation.
Days of Mercy are Available, so don’t neglect the Gospel in the dread of judgment; Repent and ask for God’s mercy.
Days of Hope are coming, so don’t give in to despair in the absence of Godly leaders, rather, look to Jesus!
LXX |
Brenton (LXX) |
DRB (Vulgate) |
KJV |
NAW |
Masoretic Txt |
31 ἰδοὺ ἡμέραι ἔρχονται καὶ ἐξολεθρεύσω τὸ σπέρμα σου καὶ τὸ σπέρμα οἴκου πατρός σου, |
31 Behold, the days come when I will destroy thy seed and the seed of thy father's house. |
31 Behold the days come: and I will cut off thy arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man in thy house. |
31 Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house. |
31 Look, days are coming when I will chop off your arm and the arm of your forefather’s house [from there being an old man in your house, |
(לא) הִנֵּה יָמִים בָּאִים וְגָדַעְתִּי אֶת זְרֹעֲךָ וְאֶת זְרֹעַ בֵּית אָבִיךָ B מִהְיוֹת זָקֵן בְּבֵיתֶךָ. |
32 C καὶ οὐκ ἔσται σου πρεσβύτης ἐν οἴκῳ μου πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας· |
32 And thou shalt not have an old man in my house for ever. |
32 And thou shalt see [thy] rival in the temple, in all the prosperity of Israel, and there shall not be an old man in thy house for ever. |
32
And thou shalt see an enemyD
in my
habitationE,
in all the
wealth which God
shall |
32 and you will perceive distress on location with all of Israel that He makes good], and there will not be an elder of yours in my house all those days. |
(לב) וְהִבַּטְתָּ צַר מָעוֹןG בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר יֵיטִיב אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל Hוְלֹא יִהְיֶה I זָקֵן בְּבֵיתְךָJ כָּל הַיָּמִים. |
33 καὶ ἄνδρα οὐκ ἐξολεθρεύσω σοι ἀπὸ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου μου ἐκλιπεῖν τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτοῦ καὶ καταρρεῖν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ, καὶ πᾶς περισσεύων οἴκου σου πεσοῦνται ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ ἀνδρῶν. |
33 And [if] I do not destroy a man of thine from my altar, it shall be that his eyes may fail and his soul may perish; and every one that remains in thy house shall fall by the sword of men. |
33 However, I will not altogether take away a man of thee from my altar: but that thyK eyes may faint, and thy soul be spent: and a great part of thy house shall die, [when they come to] man['s estate]. |
33
And the manL
of thine, whom
I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall
be to
|
33 Yet there is a man of yours that I will not cause to be cut off from being at my altar to finish off his eyesight and to grieve his soul, though all the increase of your house will fall {by the sword of} men. |
(לג) וְאִישׁ לֹא אַכְרִית לְךָ מֵעִם מִזְבְּחִי לְכַלּוֹת אֶת עֵינֶיךָO וְלַאֲדִיבP אֶת נַפְשֶׁךָ וְכָל מַרְבִּיתQ בֵּיתְךָ יָמוּתוּR אֲנָשִׁים. |
34
καὶ τοῦτό σοι
τὸ σημεῖον, ὃ
ἥξει ἐπὶ τοὺς
δύο υἱούς
σου |
34
And this which shall come upon thy two sons Ophni and Phinees
shall be |
34 And this shall be a sign to thee, that shall come upon thy two sons, Ophni and Phinees: in one day they shall both of them die. |
34
And this shall
be |
34 And this will be the sign for you which will come to both of your sons - to Hophni and Phinehas – on one day both of them will die. |
(לד) וְזֶה לְּךָ הָאוֹת אֲשֶׁר יָבֹא אֶל שְׁנֵי בָנֶיךָ אֶל חָפְנִי וּפִינְחָס בְּיוֹם אֶחָד יָמוּתוּ שְׁנֵיהֶם.S |
35 καὶ ἀναστήσω ἐμαυτῷ ἱερέα πιστόν, ὃς πάντα τὰ ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ μου καὶ τὰ ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ μου ποιήσει· καὶ οἰκοδομήσω αὐτῷ οἶκον πιστόν, καὶ διελεύσεταιT ἐνώπιον χριστοῦU μου πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας. |
35 And I will raise up to myself a faithful priest, who shall do all that is in my heart and in my soul; and I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before my Christ for ever. |
35 And I will raise me up a faithful priest, who shall do according to my heart, and my soul and I will build him a faithful house, and he shall walk all days before my anointed. |
35 And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sureV house; and he shall walkW before mine anointed for everX. |
35 Then I will cause to establish for myself a faithful priest {who} will do {all} that is in my heart and in my soul, and I will build for him a faithful house, and he will conduct himself before the face of my Anointed One all his days. |
(לה) וַהֲקִימֹתִי לִי כֹּהֵן נֶאֱמָן Y כַּאֲשֶׁר בִּלְבָבִי וּבְנַפְשִׁי יַעֲשֶׂה וּבָנִיתִי לוֹ בַּיִת נֶאֱמָן וְהִתְהַלֵּךְ לִפְנֵי מְשִׁיחִי כָּל הַיָּמִים. |
36 καὶ ἔσται ὁ περισσεύωνZ ἐν οἴκῳ σου ἥξει προσκυνεῖν αὐτῷ ὀβολοῦAA ἀργυρίου X X XBB λέγων Παράρριψόν με ἐπὶ μίαν τῶν ἱερατειῶν σου φαγεῖν X ἄρτον. |
36 And it shall come to pass that he that survives in thy house, shall come to do obeisance before him for a little piece of silver X X X, saying, Put me into one of thy priest's [offices] to eat X bread. |
36 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall remain in thy house shall come that he may be prayed for, and shall offer a piece of silver, and a roll of bread, and shall say: Put me, I beseech thee, to somewhat of the priestly [office], that I may eat a morsel of bread. |
36 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left in thine house shall come and crouchCC to him for a piece of silver and a morselDD of bread, and shall say, Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priests' [offices], that I may eat a pieceEE of bread. |
36 So it will come to pass that anyone left in your house will go to prostrate himself before him for the fistfull of change and a slice of bread and say, ‘Assign me to one of the priests to eat a serving of food, please.’” |
(לו) וְהָיָה כָּל הַנּוֹתָר בְּבֵיתְךָ יָבוֹא לְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֹת לוֹ לַאֲגוֹרַתFF כֶּסֶף וְכִכַּר לָחֶם וְאָמַר סְפָחֵנִי נָא אֶל אַחַת הַכְּהֻנּוֹת לֶאֱכֹל פַּתGG לָחֶם. |
1This is an odd and probably spurious rendering of מָעוֹן (compare with the word for “eye” עינ in v.33) from the RSV which the ESV kept. In v.29, the ESV rendered it “my dwelling.”
2“ṣar… shrinkage of the size… the decline of the temple despite the prosperity of society is announced as the judgment of God upon the priestly family.” ~Tsumura
3 Gill cites the Talmud in favor of this position (T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 14. 1) as well as Ben Gersom and Abarbinel.
4Keil & Delitzsch commented: “By the ‘tried priest,’ Ephraem Syrus understood both the prophet Samuel and the priest Zadok... Since his time, most of the commentators, including Theodoret and the Rabbins, have decided in favour of Zadok. Augustine, however, and in modern times Thenius and O. v. Gerlach, give the preference to Samuel. The fathers and earlier theologians also regarded Samuel and Zadok as the type of Christ, and supposed the passage to contain a prediction of the abrogation of the Aaronic priesthood by Jesus Christ… only receives its complete and final fulfilment in Christ... But... we must not exclude either Samuel or Zadok... the prophecy was partially fulfilled in both.”
5“[I]n the days of Solomon (1Ki. 4:20)... amidst all that plenty and prosperity, and when the high priesthood was most honourable and profitable... Eli's family was turned out of it, and another put into it...” ~Gill
6 Cf. 1 Chron. 16:3 (David’s rations were much more), Prov. 6:26 (reduction of net worth); Jer. 37:21 (prisoner’s ration).
7Gill commented: “wards of the priests; their custodies... of which there were twenty four…. priests degraded from their office... would solicit the high priest in those days, and beg that he would put them in some inferior post under the priests, to do the meanest offices for them, slay the sacrifices for them, wash their pots, open and shut up doors, and the like, that so they might have a living, though a poor one.”
8The New Testament books go on to affirm that God and Jesus and those Old Testament saints were faithful (e.g. Heb. 3:1-6), but the New Testament adds that when we trust Jesus to save us, we too join the ranks of those God considers “faithful”! Jesus often spoke of His followers being faithful (Mat. 24:45; 25:21,23; Luke 12:42; 16:10,11,12; 19:17.)
91 Kings 11:38 “Then it shall be, if you heed all that I command you, walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as My servant David did, then I will be with you and build for you an enduring house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you." (NKJV)
10The phrase “my Anointed” occurs one other place in the Bible in the plural rather than the singular, and that is in Psalm 105:15 (and its parallel passage in 1 Chron. 16:22) referring to all the faithful “prophets” of God before David. The only other place in the Bible that this singular name “my anointed” occurs is in Psalm 132:8-17 when David moved the tabernacle into Jerusalem and said, "Arise, O LORD, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your strength. Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness, And let Your saints shout for joy. For Your servant David's sake, Do not turn away the face of Your Anointed. The LORD has sworn in truth to David; He will not turn from it: "I will set upon your throne the fruit of your body. If your sons will keep My covenant And My testimony which I shall teach them, Their sons also shall sit upon your throne forevermore." For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His dwelling place... I will also clothe her priests with salvation, And her saints shall shout aloud for joy. There I will make the horn of David grow; I will prepare a lamp for My Anointed." (NKJV) Note that the “Anointed” is mentioned immediately after reference to priests and saints both times.
11 Cf. Goldman “all his days”
12Jehu, however, gets an honorable mention as being the only other person in the Bible that God said “did all that was in my heart” when he destroyed Ahab’s descendants.
AMy
original chart includes the NASB and NIV, but their copyright
restrictions have forced me to remove them from the
publicly-available edition of this chart. I have included the ESV in
footnotes when it employs a word not already used by the KJV, NASB,
or NIV. (NAW is my translation.) When a translation adds words not
in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done so by the use
of italics (or greyed-out text), I put the added words in [square
brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is different
from all the other translations, I underline it. When a
version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs
too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far
from the grammar form of the original text, I use strikeout.
And when a version omits a word which is in the original text, I
insert an X. (I also place an X at the end of a word if the original
word is plural but the English translation is singular.) I
occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between
the various editions and versions when there are more than two
different translations of a given word. The only known Dead Sea
Scroll (DSS) containing any part of 1 Samuel 2 is 4Q51Samuela
which contains fragments of many of the verses (highlighted in
purple), and which has been dated between 50-25 B.C. Where the DSS
supports the LXX with text not in the MT, I have highlighted
with yellow the LXX
and its translation into English.
BThe DSS does not have room for any more text than this, supporting the LXX. There are, however other Greek manuscripts which support the MT (Fields cites: Codd. III, 19, 93, 108, 247, Arm. I, Procop. p.10).
CAlthough not in the Vaticanus or the majority of Septuagint (LXX) manuscripts, the additional text in the MT is found in the Second and Third Century AD Greek versions made by Judaistic-leaning translators Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotian. From this it appears that both textual traditions go back approximately to the time of Christ. The question of “How much further back in time are the textual traditions divided?” is currently unanswerable due to lack of manuscript evidence.
D NASB/NIV=distress
E NASB/NIV=dwelling, ESV=with envious eye
F NASB/NIV=good be done, ESV=prosperity bestowed
GGill says that the Targums explain this as calamity upon Eli’s house then argues that it is actually Samuel and Zadock as “rival” priests, but Keil & Delitzsch noted that there was no rivalry between them so it must have been calamity upon the tabernacle as it was ravaged by Philistines and moved from place to place during Samuel’s lifetime (cf. JFB).
H The DSS appears to pick back up here, supporting the LXX.
I DSS inserts לך "to you,” supporting the LXX.
J The pronomial suffix in the DSS is first singular, matching the LXX
K A couple of Latin codices (93 & 94) match the LXX & DSS with a third person singular pronoun here.
L
NASB = “[every] man” NIV = “[every] one” ESV
= “the [only] one”
MNASB=fail from weeping, NIV= blind with tears, ESV=weep his eyes out. [ESV matches LXX with 3rd person pronoun instead of MT’s 2nd person pronoun]
N NASB & NIV = “in the prime of life” | ESV & LXX = “by the sword of men”
O The prepositional suffix in the DSS is 3rd singular, matching the LXX “his.”
P This Hebrew verb for “grieve” occurs nowhere else in scripture.
QThe Vulgate supports the MT, but the LXX reads “remainder.” The DSS is obliterated at this point, and its word spacing does not favor either way. The word “remainder” does occur later in v.26, by all accounts.
RHere, the DSS reads יפולו בחרב "they will fall by the sword of,” matching the LXX. Fields was only able to cite a marginal note in one Greek manuscript in support of the MT. The obscurity of the MT has occasioned the addition of all sorts of words to make it intelligible. In addition to the above versions, there’s: “young” (AJV), “common” (Erlich), “full bloom of” (K&D), “grown” (Gill).
SAlthough obliterated at this point, DSS has more space than the words of the MT would require. It is believed that “by the sword of men” may have been repeated at this point.
TCf. synonyms from Aquila (εμπεριπατησει “walk around in”) and Symmachus (αναστραφησεται “live a lifestyle” -literally “turn up”).
USymmachus matched the LXX here with Christos. Fields cites 5 Greek manuscripts, however, which make “anointed one[s]” plural, narrowing the meaning down to “priests” and making the singular Messiah less in view. Aquila, on the other hand kept the singular, but translated it ηλειμμενου “the one who was shown mercy.”
V NASB=enduring, NIV=establish
W NIV=minister, ESV=go in and out
X NASB & NIV=always
YDSS is obliterated at this point, but it has more space than the wording in the MT, supporting the extra words ὃς πάντα in the LXX, and BHS cites multiple Hebrew manuscripts which read אשר כל like the LXX.
ZField cites 10 other Greek manuscripts (Ald., X, XI, 19, 29, 82, 93, 108, 158, 243) which substituted a synonym based on the passive form of the Greek root leipw “to be left,” closer to the meaning of the Hebrew word in the MT and DSS.
AA Cf. synonyms in Aq. συλλογην (“a mutually agreed upon amount”) and Symm. Μισθαρνηση (“a working-man’s wage”)
BBThere are Greek manuscripts and versions apart from the LXX tradition which include the additional phrase in the MT (and supported by the DSS) about a crust of bread. Field cites codex III, 44, 74, and 92, as well as Symmachus η κολλυρας αρτου (“or a cake of bread”).
CC NASB & NIV = “and bow down,” ESV = “to implore”
DD NASB=loaf, NIV=crust
EE ESV=morsel, NIV follows the LXX in omitting this word
FFHapex Legomenon. Related to a verb for “gather,” other forms of which are found in Dt. 28:39 & Prov. 6:8; 10:5, & 30:1. Gill speaks for several commentators who equated this “agorat” with the similar Hebrew word “gerah” saying, “a piece of silver, even the smallest piece, that is, as the word signifies, a ‘gerah’ or ‘meah’, about a penny or three halfpence of our money, the twentieth part of a shekel (Eze. 45:12) and a piece of bread, not a whole loaf, but a slice of it...” (cf. Tsumura)
GGThis word is used to describe the size of hail in Ps. 147:17, but it is also used to describe the size of food-servings made to honored guests, (Gen. 18:5), a king (1 Sam. 28:22), and a nobleman (Job 31:17), so I don’t think this word connotes “smallness” of portion but merely “a serving/apportionment.”