1 Samuel 1:1
The Birth of Samuel
Read 1 Samuel 1:1 Using Other Translations
What does 1 Samuel 1:1 mean?
Now there was a man of Ramathaimzophim, of Mount
Ephraim,
&c.] Ramathaim is a word of the dual number, and signifies
two Ramahs; the city consisted of two parts, being built perhaps
on two hills, and were called Zophim; because, as the Rabbins
say, they looked one to another; or rather, because situated on
eminences, there were watchtowers in them, where watchmen were
placed; or because they were inhabited by prophets, who were
sometimes called watchmen, ( Ezekiel 3:17
) and here is thought to be a school of the prophets, see (
1
Samuel 19:19-24 ) and which seems to be countenanced by the
Targum, in which the words are paraphrased thus, "and there was
one" man of Ramatha, of the disciples of the prophets; or, as
others think, the sense is this, this man was one of the
Ramathites, the inhabitants of Ramah, and of the family of Zuph,
or the Zuphites, which gave the name to the land of Zuph, and the
grand ancestor of Elkanah is in this verse called Zuph, see (
1 Samuel
9:5 ) . According to Jerom F5, this is the same with
Arimathaea, of which Joseph was, ( Matthew
27:57 ) for thus he writes,
``Armatha Sophim, the city of Helcanah and Samuel, in the Thamnitic region near Diospolis (or Lydda), from whence was Joseph, who in the Gospels is said to be of Arimathaea;''but Reland F6 thinks it cannot be the same that was about Lydda, which was all a champaign country; whereas this was in the mountains of Ephraim, which must be sought to the north of Jerusalem, and not the west, and so it follows:
of Mount Ephraim:
which is added to distinguish it from other Ramahs in several
tribes, as in Benjamin, Naphtali though this may refer not to the
situation of Ramathaim, but to the country of this man, who was
originally of Mount Ephraim, as was the Levite in ( Judges 19:1 ) who was
the cause of much evil to Israel, as this was of great good, as
Kimchi observes:
and his name was Elkanah;
which signifies "God hath possessed"; that is, possessed him, or
he was in possession of God; he had an ancestor of the same name,
( 1
Chronicles 6:23 ) . This man was a Levite, one of the
Kohathites, and a descendant of Korah; so that the famous prophet
Samuel was of the sons of Korah:
the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the
son of
Zuph;
the three last of these names are somewhat differently read in (
1
Chronicles 6:26 1 Chronicles
6:27 ) , where they are Eliab, Nahath, Zophai; and in (
1
Chronicles 6:34 1 Chronicles
6:35 ) . Eliel, Toah, Zuph:
an Ephrathite;
which appellation is to be connected, according to Kimchi, not
with Elkanah, but with Zuph; though neither of them were so
called from Bethlehemjudah, the inhabitants of which were indeed
called Ephrathites from Ephratah, another name of it; so
Elimelech, and his sons Mahlon and Chilion, being of that city,
were so called, ( Ruth 1:2 ) not from their
being of the tribe of Ephraim, as Jeroboam of that tribe is
called an Ephrathite, ( 1 Kings
11:26 ) , see ( Judges 12:5 ) for these
were Levites, the descendants of Kohath, in the line of Korah;
but because they sojourned in Mount Ephraim, or dwelt there, as
Elkanah did; and it is well known that the Kohathites had cities
given them in the tribe of Ephraim, ( Joshua 21:5 Joshua 21:21
) .
F5 De loc. Heb. fol. 88. K.
F6 Palestin. Illustrat. tom. 2. p. 581.
