1 Samuel 4:13

And when he came, lo, Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside watching: for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city, and told it, all the city cried out.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
came	וַיָּב֗וֹא vai.ya.Vo'	H935	to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Eli	עֵ֠לִי 'E.li	H5941	Eli · proper noun, a man's name
sat	יֹשֵׁ֨ב yo.Shev	H3427	properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
seat	הַכִּסֵּ֜א ha.ki.Se'	H3678	properly · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
wayside	דֶּ֙רֶךְ֙ de.rekh	H1870	a road (as trodden) · noun, common both genders singular absolute
watching	מְצַפֶּ֔ה me.tza.Peh	H6822	properly · verb, piel active participle, masculine singular absolute
heart	לִבּוֹ֙ li.Bo	H3820	the heart · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
trembled	חָרֵ֔ד cha.Red	H2730	fearful · adjective, masculine singular absolute
ark	אֲר֣וֹן 'a.Ron	H727	a box · noun, common masculine singular construct
God	הָאֱלֹהִ֑ים ha.'E.lo.Him	H430	gods in the ordinary sense · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
man	וְהָאִ֗ישׁ ve.ha.'Ish	H376	a man as an individual or a male person · conjunction + definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
came	בָּ֚א ba'	H935	to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
city	בָּעִ֔יר ba.'Ir	H5892	a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
told	לְהַגִּ֣יד le.ha.Gid	H5046	properly · preposition + verb, hiphil infinitive construct
city	הָעִֽיר ha.'Ir	H5892	a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
out	וַתִּזְעַ֖ק va.tiz.'Ak	H2199	to shriek (from anguish or danger) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular

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

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…
1 Samuel 4:18 And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck b…
Joshua 7:9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: an…
Nehemiah 1:3-4 And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Je…
Psalms 26:8 LORD, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth.
Psalms 79:1-8 O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.
Psalms 137:4-6 How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a strange land?

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 4:12-18

Tidings are here brought to Shiloh of the fatal issue of their battle with the Philistines. Bad news flies fast. This soon spread through all Israel; every man that fled to his tent brought it, with too plain a proof of it, to his neighbours. But no place was so nearly concerned as Shiloh. Thither therefore an express posted away immediately; it was a man of Benjamin; the Jews fancy it was Saul. He rent his clothes, and put earth upon his head, by these signs to proclaim the sorrowful news to all that saw him as he ran, and to show how much he himself was affected with it, Sa1 4:12. He went straight to Shiloh with it; and here we are told, I. How the city received it. Eli sat in the gate (Sa…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Samuel 4:13

ELI HEARING THE TIDINGS. (Sa1 4:12-22) Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside--The aged priest, as a public magistrate, used, in dispensing justice, to seat himself daily in a spacious recess at the entrance gate of the city. In his intense anxiety to learn the issue of the battle, he took up his usual place as the most convenient for meeting with passers-by. His seat was an official chair, similar to those of the ancient Egyptian judges, richly carved, superbly ornamented, high, and without a back. The calamities announced to Samuel as about to fall upon the family of Eli [Sa1 2:34] were now inflicted in the death of his two sons, and after his death, by that of his daughter-in-law, whose infa…

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Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 4:13

His heart trembled for the ark of God - He was a most mild and affectionate father, and yet the safety of the ark lay nearer to his heart than the safety of his two sons. Who can help feeling for this aged, venerable man?

John Gill on 1 Samuel 4:13

And when he came,.... To Shiloh; he either passed by Eli, who being blind could not see him, 1 Samuel 4:15 or he came in at another gate of the city on the other side of it, as Abarbinel thinks; though the former seems more likely by what follows, he not choosing to deliver the bad news to Eli first, whom he knew it would very much grieve, and therefore slipped by him into the city: lo, Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside watching: by the "hand" of the way, as the marginal reading, and which we follow; it seems to be a place where two ways or more met, and where was a way post erected, with an hand directing what places they led to. The text is, "he", or "it smote", as if his heart smote him…

The Church Fathers

Eli was pious in himself; for he was not anxious primarily about the salvation of his children, but about the ark, lest it should come to be under the foreigners — which indeed also happened.
— Origen of Alexandria, FRAGMENTS ON KINGDOMS 2

But when that man had entered, he announced to the city, etc. The teacher evangelized, and the listener repented. For upon hearing the crime they had committed in the slaughter of the Savior, the Jews were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles: "What shall we do, brothers?" (Acts 2).
— Bede, Commentary on Samuel

And when that man arrived, Eli was sitting, etc. When the teacher of the New Testament appeared in Judea, having torn the garment of the letter, the old priesthood still sat on the chair of Moses, although it had lost its light; but against Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. For he feared, as indeed happened, that if he were rejected, the grace of Christ might pass to the Gentiles.
— Bede, Commentary on Samuel

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Eli — Ascent, the high priest when the ark was at Shiloh (1 Sam. 1:3, 9). He was the first of the line of Ithamar, Aaron’s fourth son (1 Chr. 24:3; comp. 2 Sam. 8:17), who held that office. The office…
Fast — The sole fast required by the law of Moses was that of the great Day of Atonement (q.v.), Lev. 23:26-32. It is called “the fast” (Acts 27:9). The only other mention of a periodical fast in the Old…
Philistines — (Gen. 10:14, R.V.; but in A.V., “Philistim”), a tribe allied to the Phoenicians. They were a branch of the primitive race which spread over the whole district of the Lebanon and the valley of the…
Tabernacle — (1.) A house or dwelling-place (Job 5:24; 18:6, etc.). (2.) A portable shrine (comp. Acts 19:24) containing the image of Moloch (Amos 5:26; marg. and R.V., “Siccuth”). (3.) The human body (2 Cor.…
Throne — (Heb. kiss’e), a royal chair or seat of dignity (Deut. 17:18; 2 Sam. 7:13; Ps. 45:6); an elevated seat with a canopy and hangings, which cover it. It denotes the seat of the high priest in 1 Sam.…
Eli · His — His
Judgments · Eli’s house — Eli’s house
Parents · Involved in children’s wickedness — Involved in children’s wickedness
Shiloh · .Eli lived at — .Eli lived at

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).

1 Samuel 4:13

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 4:12-18

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Samuel 4:13

Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 4:13

John Gill on 1 Samuel 4:13

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

1 Samuel 4:13

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 4:12-18

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Samuel 4:13

Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 4:13

John Gill on 1 Samuel 4:13

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Samuel 4:12-14

Tyndale Open Study Notes on 1 Samuel 4:12

Rashi on 1 Samuel 4:13