I Samuel 2 · The Lantern

Hannah’s Prayer of Thanksgiving

And Hannah prayed and said: “My heart exults in the LORD; my horn is raised high in the LORD. My mouth is opened wide against my enemies, for I rejoice in your salvation.

Through this ode also he teaches the one who comes to God to place his hopes in him alone and to boast in him — not to boast greatly, but to be humble-minded. Inasmuch as he, being God, has the knowledge of all things, he renders to each according to his practices. And he himself is master of both death and life.

Are these words going to be regarded as simply the words of one mere woman giving thanks for the birth of her son? Are people's minds so turned away from the light of truth that they do not feel that the words poured out by this woman transcend the limit of her own thoughts?

My mouth is enlarged over my enemies, etc. While my heart is enlarged to rejoice in Jesus, that is, in your salvation, my mouth is also enlarged over all enemies of faith and truth, to confess and proclaim His name; because even in the tightness of afflictions your word is not bound, nor is it bound in preachers.

There is none holy like the LORD — for there is none besides you; and there is no rock like our God.

Do not multiply speaking so high, so high; let arrogance go out of your mouth no more. For the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him deeds are weighed.

"Do not multiply to speak lofty things." Why did she not say: Do not speak lofty things? Therefore it is permitted me to speak some lofty things, but to multiply lofty and arduous things is not permitted me; for this seems to be designated by that which was said: "Do not multiply to speak lofty things." What, then, is indicated by this, let us consider.

As if to say: While you perceive incomparably new things, you reproachfully bring forth the deeds of the ancients. For those things had preceded as a shadow, as it were.

In the Canticle of Anna it is said in the book of Kings: "Let the old things depart from your mouth, for the Lord is the God of sciences, and to Him thoughts are prepared;" not foolish thoughts, which are scattered along the ways of errors, but good thoughts are prepared for the Lord along the ways of truth.

The bows of the mighty are shattered, and those who stumbled are girded with strength.

"The bow of the mighty was made weak." The darts of the malign one, which are called fiery, are sent forth through the bow of the mighty.

Indeed, by the name of strength, the power of the Holy Spirit is shown. Hence the Lord, promising this same Spirit to the disciples, says: 'But remain in the city until you are clothed with power from on high' (Luke 24:49). And the grace of the Holy Spirit is rightly called strength, because when the elect receive it, they become strong against all adversities of this world.

The bow of the mighty has been broken, etc. The proud intention of the Jews, by which they always presumed to be saved by the works of the law, has failed; the exercise of dialectical skill, and the loquacity of secular philosophy, as if bent to ridicule the simplicity of faith, has been weakened; finally, all the fiery darts of malignant spirits have been blunted by the weapon…

The full have hired themselves out for bread, and the hungry have ceased to hunger. Even the barren has borne seven, and she who had many sons has withered.

"They that were filled with loaves were led into servitude." She shows that it is blameworthy to be filled with loaves, because Jacob ate and drank, and was filled, and grew fat, and the beloved kicked. "They that were hungry were forsaken." She means those who had been filled with loaves, because they forsook the hungry.

For since it is said by the distinguished Doctor: 'They all ate the same food, and all drank the same spiritual drink (for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ)' (1 Cor. 10:3-4), it can reasonably be gathered that those ate and were not satisfied, while these ate and were satisfied.

The barren has borne many, etc. Isaiah explains that the children of the desolate are many more than of her who has a husband (Isaiah LIV). The translators of the Septuagint wrote, "For the barren has borne seven." Saba, a Hebrew word, indeed designates both seven and many.

The LORD puts to death and makes alive; he brings down to Sheol and brings up.

Certainly his making alive is to take place after he has killed. As, therefore, it is by death that he kills, it is by the resurrection that he will make alive. Now it is the flesh which is killed by death; the flesh, therefore, will be revived by the resurrection.

There was once a brother who was very eager to seek goodness. Being very disturbed by the demon of lust, he came to a hermit and told him about his thoughts. The hermit was inexperienced and when he heard all this, he was shocked, and said he was a wicked brother, unworthy of his monk's habit because he had thoughts like that.

The Lord kills and gives life, etc. He kills the Synagogue and gives life to the Church; or He gives life to those whom He kills; so that we might consider that we are indeed dead to sin, but living to God in Christ Jesus (Eph. II).

The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low — he also lifts high.

He raises the poor from the dust; from the ash heap he lifts the needy, to seat them with nobles and give them a throne of glory as inheritance. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s, and he has set the world on them.

The feet of his loyal ones he keeps, but the wicked are silenced in darkness — for not by strength does a man prevail.

The LORD — those who contend with him are shattered; against them he thunders in the heavens. The LORD judges the ends of the earth. And may he give strength to his king, and raise high the horn of his anointed.”

These words refer to the return of Christ or to the return of God to heaven. His teaching [will be] heard like thunder by all, and holy Scripture foretells his future judgment of all afterwards. And after this it is said that the Lord will give strength to our kings.

For it is written: "He himself shall judge the ends of the earth." The Lord justifies or condemns each person at the end and considers the outcome of all things, so that not even the sinner, if he or she truly repents, need despair of forgiveness, nor should the just person have confidence in his own sanctity.

And He will give power to His king, etc. After the trial of the final examination, the kingdom of Christ, which unbelievers now despise, will be elevated and shown gloriously with the revelation of His divine majesty. But the horn of Christ is fittingly understood not only of the only-begotten Son of God but also of each of His chosen ones.

And Elkanah went to Ramah, to his house; and the boy was ministering to the LORD before Eli the priest.

Eli’s Wicked Sons

Now the sons of Eli were worthless men; they did not know the LORD.

Samuel bore with the wicked sons of Eli, his debased sons whom the people would not bear and who were thereupon accused by divine truth or disciplined by divine wrath; finally he bore with the people themselves in their pride and rejection of God.… Let them read who wish, and who can, the heavenly language.

3. Supply "were." For who else are the sons of Eli, if not the Israelites according to the flesh, who knew the Sacred Scripture published by the fathers, and yet did not know the one whom Scripture had promised? Whom indeed Truth itself rebukes in the Gospel, saying: "Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it, and was glad" (John 8:56).

Furthermore, the sons of Eli, sons of Belial, etc. The sons of the Jewish priesthood, sons of blind light, or without a yoke (for both Belial and Beliar mean this), were those who did not know the doctrine of Christ; not following the commands of the divine law but adhering to their own statutes and traditions.

And the custom of the priests with the people was this: whenever any man sacrificed a sacrifice, the priest’s young man would come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand,

and he would strike it into the basin, or the kettle, or the cauldron, or the pot; all that the fork brought up, the priest would take with it. So they did to all Israel who came there, at Shiloh.

Even before they burned the fat, the priest’s young man would come and say to the man sacrificing, “Give meat for roasting for the priest — for he will not take boiled meat from you, but raw.”

And if the man said to him, “Let them surely burn the fat first, and then take for yourself whatever your soul desires,” then he would say, “No — give it now; and if not, I will take it by force.”

And the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD, for the men despised the offering of the LORD.

8. The sin is recognized to be exceedingly great which is not washed away by the tears of repentance. For the prophet, beholding this exceedingly great sin of the Synagogue, says: "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with the point of a diamond" (Jeremiah 17:1). Or certainly the sin was exceedingly great before the Lord because it was dragging others into sinning.

The sin of the boys was therefore exceedingly great, etc. The sin of the scribes and Pharisees was exceedingly great before the Lord, although before men they justified themselves through hypocrisy (Luke 11); because they, being men, annulled the commandment of God through their traditions; or certainly taking away the key of knowledge, they themselves did not enter, and they p…

But Samuel was ministering before the LORD — a boy girded with a linen ephod.

WHETHER SAMUEL WAS ONE OF THE SONS OF AARON, AND WHETHER HE IS TO BE CONSIDERED A PRIEST? — There are some among us who, partly occupied with secular affairs and partly less studious concerning the Holy Scriptures, fall into error, thinking that Samuel was a priest, that is, that he traced his origin from Aaron, whose offspring the Lord God ordained should be born priests, not…

But the divine discourse returns to the narrative of the chosen boy, so that in him we may more attentively consider not what is to be condemned, but what is to be imitated. And so he is said to have been girded with a linen ephod and to have been in the sight of the Lord. What then is shown in the linen ephod except the brightness of continence?

Now Samuel was ministering before the face of God, etc. Ephod in Hebrew, in Latin it is called a superhumeral or overgarment; the garment of this name, woven from gold, blue, purple, twice-dyed scarlet, and twisted fine linen, is mentioned in the Scripture of Exodus (Exod. XXV) as allowed only for the high priests.

And his mother would make him a little robe and bring it up to him year by year, when she went up with her husband to sacrifice the sacrifice of the days.

And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, “May the LORD set for you seed from this woman in place of the one asked, who was lent to the LORD.” And they would go to their own place.

Indeed the LORD visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew up with the LORD.

When Hannah had once offered in the tabernacle the son whom she had vowed to God, she never took him back: for she thought it unbecoming that one who was to be a prophet should grow up in the same house with her who still desired to have other sons.

13. By the three sons are designated all the more perfect members of the holy Church, who are known to have always done mighty deeds for the faith of the Trinity. But if the holy Church were to bring forth only the perfect, our weakness could not attain the rewards of eternal life.

The Lord therefore enriched Anna, etc. The Lord gave to the Church the Spirit of His grace, by which it, being fruitful, bore for Him spiritual offspring, partly to search out or preach the mysteries of the Holy Trinity powerfully, partly with perfect love of God and neighbor despised in its simplicity; because the humility of the incarnation assumed by Christ for a time was he…

Now Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

Because their father [Eli] did not chastise them with enough severity … he moved the forbearance of God to wrath so great that foreign peoples rose up against them and killed those sons of his in war in one day. His entire nation, furthermore, was vanquished, and a considerable number of his people fell.

15. In the person of Eli, not only the old priesthood but also the teachings of the ancient fathers are prefigured, because from the fact that he presided with spiritual dignity, he undertook this office: that he should instruct with saving preaching those for whom he would offer pleasing sacrifices to the Lord.

And he heard everything that his sons were doing, etc. The transgression of the sons of Eli was not small nor uniform, which did not fear to tarnish both divine religion and love of neighbor.

And he said to them: “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all this people.

No, my sons — for it is not a good report that I hear the people of the LORD spreading.

If a man sins against a man, God may mediate for him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?” But they did not listen to the voice of their father — for the LORD desired to put them to death.

And the boy Samuel went on growing, and was good both with the LORD and with men.

A Prophecy against the House of Eli

And a man of God came to Eli and said to him: “Thus says the LORD: Did I not reveal myself, reveal myself indeed, to the house of your father when they were in Egypt, belonging to the house of Pharaoh?

For with respect to the future, they will not be benefited by the honor done them, but receive the greater condemnation, neither will they be injured as to the future by ill treatment, but will have the more excuse. But all this I desire to be done for your own sakes.

23. What is represented by this man of God, if not that venerable company of the holy apostles? He is indeed called a man of God on account of the excellence of his holiness, because he governed the summit of authority, which he had ascended in the governance of the whole world, with an equal loftiness of virtue.

Was I not openly revealed? etc. He does not speak here of the recent father of Eli, who could not have been in that Egyptian servitude; but of Aaron himself, to whose house He was revealed in Egypt, and whom He, having been instructed from there, preferred to all the tribes of Israel by the right of the priesthood.

And I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up on my altar, to burn incense, to carry an ephod before me; and I gave to the house of your father all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel.

Why do you kick at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I commanded in my dwelling? And you honor your sons above me, fattening yourselves on the first part of every offering of Israel my people.

Therefore — the declaration of the LORD, the God of Israel — I said, I surely said, that your house and the house of your father would walk before me forever. But now — the declaration of the LORD — far be it from me! For those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be held in contempt.

If we regard the sentence passed on him [the serpent] to be in the nature of a condemnation, God did not condemn the serpent in order to cause injury to humans. He pointed out what was to happen in the future.

A pearl will shine in the midst of squalor, and a gem … will sparkle in the mire. This is what the Lord promised when he said, "Those who honor me I will honor." Others may understand this of the future when sorrow shall be turned into joy and when, although the world shall pass away, the saints shall receive a crown which shall never pass.

Therefore, says the Lord God of Israel: He spoke, I said, etc. The question arises by what reason what was promised to last forever could be changed; but recall that the priesthood of Aaron was the shadow of the eternal priesthood, and the promise of eternity; understand that truth pertains not to the shadow but to that shadowed.

Look — days are coming when I will cut off your arm and the arm of your father’s house, so that there will be no old man in your house.

Hence I beg you to offer a hand to our children lest we ourselves become liable for what is committed by them. Are you not aware of what happened to old Eli for not properly correcting his sons' shortcomings?

For the arm of the scorner is temporal strength. And because he departed from the household of the supreme Father by transgressing, the fallen angel began to have him as a father, now cast out from heavenly glory. Therefore the house of his father is that society of subjects which favors him in evil.

Behold, the days are coming, and I will cut off your arm, etc. These days are present, no priest is now chosen from the stock of Aaron; but the boast of the legal priesthood has been cut off, not only in Eli alone, but in the entire succession of the Levitical lineage; so much so that not even a priest of the lesser order, who are called presbyters in Greek, that is, elders, is…

And you will look on distress in my dwelling, in all the good that is done to Israel; and there will never be an old man in your house, all the days.

And the man of yours I do not cut off from my altar will be left to wear out your eyes and to grieve your soul; and all the increase of your house shall die as men.

And this shall be the sign for you, which will come to your two sons, to Hophni and Phinehas: on one day the two of them shall die.

And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and in my soul; and I will build him a faithful house, and he will walk before my anointed all the days.

38. For when the sons of Eli were dead, the Lord raised up a faithful priest for Himself, because when the leaders of the ancient people were destroyed in their faithlessness, He chose elect ones to carry out the ministry of our redemption. He is indeed called a faithful one who was taken up, because the old one, whom he succeeded, was rejected on account of unfaithfulness.

"And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will act according to my heart, etc." [1 Samuel 2:35] What the prophet says, speaking to Eli in the person of God: And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will act according to my heart and my soul: and I will build him a faithful house, and he will walk before my Christ all days, must be understood under the…

And it shall be that everyone left in your house will come to bow down to him for a piece of silver and a round of bread, and will say: Attach me, please, to one of the priestly offices, to eat a scrap of bread.”

I Samuel2

Hannah’s Prayer of Thanksgiving

Eli’s Wicked Sons

A Prophecy against the House of Eli