Synopsis of the Chapter
It narrates that the calamities predicted by Samuel actually befell both Eli and his sons, and all Israel, namely that 34 thousand were slain by the Philistines, the ark was captured, Ophni and Phinehas were killed: hence Eli, hearing this, falling from his seat, expired; and the wife of Phinehas, her delivery hastened by grief, bore Ichabod, saying: The glory is departed from Israel.
Verse 1: Fulfillment of Samuel's Prophecy ¶
1. And it came to pass in those days. — Behold, here is fulfilled the prophecy of Samuel and the threats of God, and the disaster He intended for Eli and his sons and all Israel. How much time elapsed from Samuel's prophecy to its fulfillment is uncertain. Serarius and Abulensis think it was fulfilled in the same year.
Verse 3: Bringing the Ark From Shiloh ¶
3. Let us bring to us from Shiloh the ark of the covenant of the Lord. — For the Hebrews had often experienced the presence and help of God seated upon the ark and giving answers from the mercy seat, as in the crossing of the Jordan, in the capture of Jericho, etc. Christians have much greater trust in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the relics of the saints, which they therefore carry in solemn procession with Litanies and prayers in times of war, famine, and plague, and often experience wondrous help therefrom.
Verse 7: The Philistines' Fear ¶
7. God has come into the camp — because the ark was like the throne of God. Add that the Philistines, accustomed to the adoration and worship of idols and images, thought the ark was God, or the idol of the Hebrews; or at least the wiser among them supposed that a divine power and something divine was enclosed in the ark.
Verse 11: The Ark Captured ¶
11. And the ark of God was captured. — Why did God permit this? Procopius gives two reasons: The first is, that He might teach the Hebrews who were living rightly to trust in God's providence: but those who were sinning to trust neither in the ark nor in God Himself. The second, so that the Philistines, by capturing the ark, might recognize its power and might from the plagues it inflicted, which we shall hear about in the next chapter, and thus fear and worship the God of the Hebrews. Add a third reason: so that God might chastise the impiety of Eli's sons, who abused the ark and the altar for their robberies and crimes.
Tropologically, the ark captured by foreigners indicated that God's covenant was to pass to the Gentiles, say Eucherius and St. Gregory. Allegorically, the ark of the covenant is the humanity of Christ, especially in the Eucharist.
Verse 18: The Death of Eli ¶
18. And when he named the ark of God, he fell from his seat backward beside the door, and his neck being broken, he died. — Hence Abulensis, Cajetan, and others note that Eli was a pious man, inasmuch as the care for the ark and the religion of sacred things touched him more than the care for his sons or the people.
One asks whether Eli was damned. St. Gregory affirms it. But Theodoret, Lyranus, Dionysius, Abulensis, Cajetan, Serarius, Sanchez, and Mendoza hold the opposite. And this is proved: first, because Eli was an upright and pious man; second, because although he sinned by excessive gentleness and indulgence toward his sons, yet old age partly excuses him, since he could not so severely correct them; third, because even granting that he sinned mortally, he nevertheless seems to have repented; fourth, because God punished him so harshly in this life precisely in order to spare him in the next.
Verse 21: Ichabod — The Glory Departed ¶
21. And she called the child Ichabod, saying: The glory is departed from Israel. — Ichabod in Hebrew means, as it were, 'e chabod,' that is, 'where is the glory?' namely, it has vanished. Josephus translates it 'adoxia,' that is, ingloriousness, ignobility, worthlessness.