a vision · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 1:6-8 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.
1 Samuel 1:9 So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of th…
Malachi 1:10 Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in…
1 Corinthians 16:10-11 Now if Timotheus come, see that he may be with you without fear: for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 3:11-18
Here is, I. The message which, after all this introduction, God delivered to Samuel concerning Eli's house. God did not come to him now to tell him how great a man he should be in his day, what a figure he should make, and what a blessing he should be in Israel. Young people have commonly a great curiosity to be told their fortune, but God came to Samuel, not to gratify his curiosity, but to employ him in his service and send him on an errand to another person, which was much better; and yet the matter of this first message, which no doubt made a very great impression upon him, might be of good use to him afterwards, when his own sons proved, though not so bad as Eli's, yet not so good as th…
he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me--It is evident that his sleeping chamber was close to that of the aged high priest and that he was accustomed to be called during the night. The three successive calls addressed to the boy convinced Eli of the divine character of the speaker, and he therefore exhorted the child to give a reverential attention to the message. The burden of [the Lord's message] was an extraordinary premonition of the judgments that impended over Eli's house; and the aged priest, having drawn the painful secret from the child, exclaimed, "It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good." Such is the spirit of meek and unmurmuring submission in which we…
Samuel feared to show Eli - He reverenced him as a father, and he feared to distress him by showing what the Lord had purposed to do. It does not appear that God had commanded Samuel to deliver this message: he, therefore, did not attempt it till adjured by Eli, Sa1 3:17.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 3:15
And Samuel lay until the morning,.... It is not said he slept; it can hardly be thought he should, when it is considered what a new, strange, and uncommon thing had befallen him; what honour had been conferred on him a child, that the Lord should vouchsafe to speak and communicate his mind to him, and what dreadful things were said of Eli's family; all which must greatly affect his mind, and keep him waking: however, he lay musing thereon until morning, and then arose:
and opened the doors of the house of the Lord; as he had used to do, and which was the business of the Levites; though he had been so highly honoured, he was not elated with it, nor thought himself above so low and mean an em…
The Church Fathers
Samuel slept until morning, etc. The Lord remained in secret rest with the Father, with whom he ceaselessly arranged and governed all things invisibly, waiting for when, with the night of vices dispelled by the host of virtues, the lights of evangelical truth would reveal themselves, when the shadow of the law departed. And immediately, wherever he saw the dawn of faith rising in anyone's heart by the breath of the Sun of righteousness, opening the more abundant gifts of his Spirit, he promised the hope of entrance to the eternal house in heaven. This happens not only then among the Jews but also among us to this day; for whoever has not yet received the grace of Christ, or having received it, has cast it away by the merits of sins, to this person placed in the night of blindness, Christ, who always watches in the saints, sleeps, and the entrance of the heavenly kingdom is closed to him. But when he receives the light of hoped-for and sought-for forgiveness, immediately the Lord, as if awakened from sleep, opens the doors of virtues, which he had closed at the coming of the evening of faithlessness. This sense agrees beautifully with another trope, that while the Lord sleeps, the sailors are in danger; while he awakens, they are freed (Matthew 8).
22. What is it that Samuel's sleep is described so attentively through sacred Scripture? And since he is said to have repeated his sleep four times already, anyone who does not believe this was spoken spiritually by the Spirit of God is greatly foolish. For even if he is rightly understood to have slept so many times according to the truth of history, it is written for this purpose: that from the truth of the letter, meanings of allegory may be brought forth. What then does this fifth sleep of Samuel signify? But since we referred the first sleep to the pursuit of truth, the second to the testing of true work, the third to the exploration of true joy, the fourth to the full enjoyment of perfection found, proven, and known, the fifth kind of sleep is referred to the effort of arranging one's speech. Samuel therefore slept a fifth time, because the order of preachers, even though through the counsel of the heart it learned the truth, through the will of the mind chose good things, through the affection of virtue received true joy, and through the certainty of beatitude found and known rested in the security of sublime virtues, nevertheless could not preach to those under its care what it had come to know within itself without the great ordering of counsel. For very often a teacher both possesses within himself what he should preach, and yet cannot preach what he possesses as he ought, because even if he has already learned by the Lord's revelation what to say, he does not know the manner in which it should be brought forth to the people. Samuel therefore slept again, because the order of preachers disposed within itself with great intent of quiet lest by preaching it scatter uselessly the seed of God's word that it had gathered by profitable contemplation. For while a preacher is compelled to consider what and how much, or when, he speaks, what he should say to all together, how he should admonish some separately — because he employs the great quiet of holy meditation — Samuel is quite fittingly said to sleep again as a type of the new preacher. For to sleep then is for him to arrange in a tranquil mind the manner of speaking. And to awake is for him to go forth from the quiet of meditation to speaking. And because he does not reasonably awake before he has arranged what must be said, there follows: "Until morning." For morning is the perfected knowledge of…
Dictionary and topics
Samuel — Heard of God. The peculiar circumstances connected with his birth are recorded in 1 Sam. 1:20. Hannah, one of the two wives of Elkanah, who came up to Shiloh to worship before the Lord, earnestly…
Samuel · His vision concerning the house of Eli — His vision concerning the house of Eli
Visions · Mentioned in scripture: To Samuel — Mentioned in scripture: To Samuel
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Samuel then slept till the morning; and when he opened the doors of the house of Jehovah, he was afraid to tell Eli of the revelation which he had received. Opening the doors of the house of God appears to have been part of Samuel's duty. We have not to think of doors opening into the holy place, however, but of doors leading into the court. Originally, when the tabernacle was simply a tent, travelling with the people from place to place, it had only curtains at the entrance to the holy place and court. But when Israel had become possessed of fixed houses in the land of Canaan, and the dwelling-place of God was permanently erected at Shiloh, instead of the tents that were pitched for the pri…
Samuel was afraid to tell Eli of God’s plans for him and his family either because he respected Eli’s position or he feared for his own safety.
Rashi on 1 Samuel 3:13
That his sons were blaspheming themselves. It should properly state, 'blaspheming Me' but Scripture euphemized.12 See Mechilta Beshalach 15:7 for a listing of other places where Scripture euphemized out of reverence to ‘ה. Ralbag, however, interprets this verse that “they [Bnei Yisroel] cursed them [the sons of Eili].”
Blaspheming. Meaning, acting irreverantly, and similarly, every curse [קְלָלָה] is an expression of irreverence and disgrace.
He did not censure. I.e., he did not darken [כהה] their faces by removing them from their high positions.
21. For he sleeps until morning who rests in the conduct of a good work begun until the splendor of the coming Redeemer appears. He sleeps until morning who throughout the whole night of the present life waits through the purpose of justice begun, so that the brightness of the promised Redeemer may shine forth for him unto the joy of a merited reward. For he heard the word promised in Israel, about which his ears do not cease to ring, because from the observed severity of divine justice he drew in a spirit of fear, under whose weight he will not be able to awake to the love of the world. But perhaps he is said to sleep until morning on account of the ringing of the right ear. For the right ear rings, because while the perfect lover of the interior life doubts about the perfection of contemplation, he desires more and more to advance in that sublimity of life which he has begun. But as long as we are in this mortal flesh, evil spirits lay snares for those striving toward the heights; and in order to draw them back from the vision of interior glory, they gather together phantoms of foolish thoughts, which they set before their interior eyes. Well therefore is it said: 'Samuel slept until morning.' The temptation of unclean spirits is night; but he who sleeps until morning does not open his eyes the whole night. He therefore sleeps in the night who disdains to look upon the phantoms of demons in temptation. He also sleeps the whole night, because he is not overcome by the darkness of temptation, but manfully endures, until he is visited by the light of heavenly brightness through the coming of grace. And then indeed he awakens as at morning, because he is gladdened by the delight of light poured back upon him after the darkness. For as one awakening he then opens his eyes, because he joyfully beholds the light with which he is bathed, he who did not care to look upon the darkness brought against him. From the ringing of the right ear indeed he obtains that he who rests upon heavenly things disdains to behold wicked things, and it suggests the certainty of his progress, since what he gains in peace he does not lose through open and violent wars. There follows: (Verse 15.) 'And he was afraid to tell the vision to Eli.' 22. For he feared to reveal to him what the Lord had shown to him, so that he might restrain the recklessness of human boldness with the force of…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
