1 Samuel 2

1 Samuel 2:18-26 . SAMUEL'S MINISTRY.

18. But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child--This notice of his early services in the outer courts of the tabernacle was made to pave the way for the remarkable prophecy regarding the high priest's family.
girded with a linen ephod--A small shoulder-garment or apron, used in the sacred service by the inferior priests and Levites; sometimes also by judges or eminent persons, and hence allowed to Samuel, who, though not a Levite, was devoted to God from his birth.

19. his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year--Aware that he could not yet render any useful service to the tabernacle, she undertook the expense of supplying him with wearing apparel. All weaving stuffs, manufacture of cloth, and making of suits were anciently the employment of women.

20. Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife--This blessing, like that which he had formerly pronounced, had a prophetic virtue; which, before long, appeared in the increase of Hannah's family ( 1 Samuel 2:21 ), and the growing qualifications of Samuel for the service of the sanctuary.

22-24. the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle--This was an institution of holy women of a strictly ascetic order, who had relinquished worldly cares and devoted themselves to the Lord; an institution which continued down to the time of Christ ( Luke 2:37 ). Eli was, on the whole, a good man, but lacking in the moral and religious training of his family. He erred on the side of parental indulgence; and though he reprimanded them yet, from fear or indolence, he shrank from laying on them the restraints, or subjecting them to the discipline, their gross delinquencies called for. In his judicial capacity, he winked at their flagrant acts of maladministration and suffered them to make reckless encroachments on the constitution, by which the most serious injuries were inflicted both on the rights of the people and the laws of God.

25. they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because--it should be therefore.
the Lord would slay them--It was not God's preordination, but their own wilful and impenitent disobedience which was the cause of their destruction.

1 Samuel 2:27-35 . A PROPHECY AGAINST ELI'S HOUSE.

27. there came a man of God unto Eli, and said . . . that there shall not be an old man in thine house--So much importance has always, in the East, been attached to old age, that it would be felt to be a great calamity, and sensibly to lower the respectability of any family which could boast of few or no old men. The prediction of this prophet was fully confirmed by the afflictions, degradation, poverty, and many untimely deaths with which the house of Eli was visited after its announcement (see 1 Samuel 4:11 , 14:3 , 22:18-23 , 1 Kings 2:27 ).

31. I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house--By the withdrawal of the high priesthood from Eleazar, the elder of Aaron's two sons (after Nadab and Abihu were destroyed, [ Numbers 3:4 ]), that dignity had been conferred on the family of Ithamar, to which Eli belonged, and now that his descendants had forfeited the honor, it was to be taken from them and restored to the elder branch.

32. thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation--A successful rival for the office of high priest shall rise out of another family ( 2 Samuel 15:35 , 1 Chronicles 24:3 , 29:22 ). But the marginal reading, "thou shalt see the affliction of the tabernacle," seems to be a preferable translation.