The news

was summed up in a superstitious hope from the mere symbol of His presence, which they profaned even while they trusted to its help. The ark was brought from Shiloh by Hophui and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, fit ministers of such a sacrilegious act. The shout with which the ark was welcomed appalled the Philistines, who thought the gods of the Hebrews had come into the camp, those mighty gods "that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness.""" But, instead of panic fear, they assumed the courage of despair, while the God they so much feared was only present in the Hebrew camp to punish the presumption. of the rulers and the wickedness of the priests. Israel was smitten with a panic rout; 30,000 men were slain, and among them Hephni and Phinehas, and the ark of God was taken. was carried to Shiloh by a Benjamite, who escaped from the battle, and arrived with his clothes torn and earth upon his head, in sign of the deepest mourning. As Eli sat by the side of the road, at the gates of the tabernacle, waiting for tidings and trembling for the ark of God, he heard the cry of grief and terror raised by the whole city. The messen ger was brought to Eli, who listened to the fate of the army and his own sons; but when he heard that the ark of God was taken, he fell back from his seat and broke his neck and died, for he was an old man and heavy. He was ninety. eight years old, and had judged Israel forty years." But the troubles of the day were not yet ended. The wife of Phinehas, on hearing the news, was seized with premature labor, and died in giving birth to a son, whom she named with her last breath I-CHA-BOD (where is the glory), for she said, "The glory is departed from Israel," because the ark of God was taken. That one phrase is the best description of the fearful issue of the second battle of Eben-ezer.58

§ 9. The captured ark was carried by the Philistines to Ashdod (the later Azotus), to be laid up as a trophy in the temple of their national deity:

"Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man
And downward fish: yet had his temple high
Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast
Of Palestine, in Gath, and Askelon,

And Accaron, and Gaza's frontier bounds."59

1 Sam. iv.

1 Sam. iv. 8. 58 Such was the vivid but vague recollection handed down by tradition.

57

B.C. 1141, in the common chronology.

59 Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I vs. 462-466. The five cities here named formed the Pentapolis of the Philistines. Accaron is Ekron.

But Jehovah, in punishing His people, was still jealous of His own glory. The comfort of His presence was withdrawn from Israel, but its terror, so often felt by them, was transferred to their foes. First, their god was laid prostrate

61

"When the captive ark

Maimed his brute image, head and hands lopped off,
In his own temple, on the grunsel edge,

Where he fell flat, and shamed his worshipers. "60

The memory of his humiliation was perpetuated at Ashdod by the custom of the priests not to tread on the threshold of his temple. Next the men of Ashdod were smitten, many with death, and others by a complaint shameful as well as painful, and, as we afterward find, their land was ravaged by swarms of mice. They refused to keep the ark any longer, and, by the decision of the lords of the Philistines, it was carried first to Gath and then to Ekron, only to inflict the like plagues and slaughter on those cities."

63

62

For seven months the ark was thus carried about through the cities of the Philistines; and at length they resolved to send it back. Under the advice of their priests and diviners, whom it is most interesting to find remonstrating with them for hardening their hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh had done, they sent with it five golden images of mice, and five such of the emerods, as a trespass-offering. They made a new cart, on which they placed the ark, with a coffer containing the jewels of gold; and to prove the hand of God in its return, they harnessed to the cart two milch-cows that had never borne the yoke, and took home their calves. The cows went straight up the road leading from Ekron to Beth-shemesh (House of the Sun, now Ain-Shems), lowing after their calves, but never turning aside; the five lords of the Philistines following after, to see the result. As the cart reached the field of Joshua, the Bethshemite, the men of Beth-shemesh paused from their harvest-work, rejoicing at the sight; the Levites took down the ark and coffer," cut up the cart, and

64

used the wood in sacrificing the cows as a burnt-offering Overcome, however, by curiosity, the men of Beth-shemesh looked into the ark, and Jehovah smote 50,070 of them with death." In their terror they sent to the men of Kirjathjearim to fetch away the ark, and in that city it remained till David removed it to Jerusalem. Its abode was in the house of Abinadab, a Levite, on the summit of the hill; and his son Eleazar was consecrated as the keeper of the ark."

69

$10. For twenty years the people mourned for the absence of the ark from Shiloh, and beneath the oppression of the Philistines, till Samuel summoned them to repentance and exertion. He bade them to put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and all false gods, and prepare their hearts to serve Jehovah, and he would deliver them from the hand of the Philistines. He gathered all Israel at Mizpeh, that he might pray for them to Jehovah. There they held a solemn fast-day, confessing their sins, and pouring out libations of water, which seem to represent a "baptism of repentance," as well as a re newal of the covenant; after which Samuel judged the people, their repentance being thus connected with the redress of wrongs. This assembly was the signal for a new muster of the Philistines, and the frightened Israelites entreated Samuel not to cease to cry to God on their behalf. He was in the very act of offering a burnt-offering and uttering his cries of prayer, when the Philistines drew near in battle array. Then God answered the prayers of Samuel by a violent storm of thunder, which discomfited the Philistines, and Israel pursued them with great slaughter to Bethcar (the house of lambs). This spot, at which the pursuit ceased, seems to have been the place where Samuel set up a stone, as a memorial of the victory, between Mizpeh and Shen, and called it EBEN EZER (the stone of help), saying, "Hitherto hath Jehovah helped us

70יין

This third battle of Eben-ezer put an end to the forty years' oppression of the Philistines, who "were subdued, and came no more into the coast of Israel, and the hand of Jehovah was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel." The prophet was now, if not before, constituted the judge of Israel, the last who held that office before the monarchy; for though

The odd seventy may have been f elders; but we can not hope to solve all the difficulties presented by the numbers in our present text.

67 1 Sam. vi., vii. 1; 2 Sam. vi. ; 1 Chron. xiii.

68 A treaty was always accompanied with libations of water; and in Greek the name of the former was derived from the latter.

69

1 Sam. vii. 3-6; comp. Matt. iii, 8; Luke iii. 8. 70 1 Sam. vii. 7-12.

he is said to have made his sons Joel (or Vashni) and Abiah judges, they must be regarded simply as his deputies, like the sons of Jair and of Abdon." Their seat of judgment was at Beersheba; while Samuel himself dwelt at Ramah, and made a circuit of the neighboring cities, judging the people of Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpeh, all four places being in the highlands of Benjamin. We have incidental pictures of this part of Samuel's life in the early history of Saul and Da vid. We see the prophet receiving those who desired to inquire of Jehovah, and who came to him with a customary present, presiding at the sacrifices of his own city, and entertaining a select number of the most distinguished elders at the ensuing banquet, or going to hold a special sacrifice, as at Bethlehem, where the awe inspired by his presence bears witness to the authority of the judge. At this time, too, we first hear of those "Companies (or as our version gives, Schools) of the Prophets," where the young men on whom the Spirit of God had descended were trained, under Samuel's eye, in the art of sacred song, and doubtless in the knowledge of the Scriptures; in which David improved his powers as the great psalmist, and of which we learn more under Elijah and Elisha.72 How long this state of things lasted we are not informed it was brought to an end by the misconduct of Samuel's sons in his old age.

71 Judg. x. 4, xii. 14; 1 Sam. viii. | Illustrations to ch. xx. (p. 425), “Thɛ 1, 2; comp. 1 Chron. vi. 28. Schools of the Prophets."

721 Sam. ix., xvi. See Notes and