1 Samuel 2:7

1Sa 2:7 The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up.

Ver. 7. The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich.] De pauperat et ditat: It is he that stoppeth that hole in the bottom of the bag, those secret drains and issues of expense, at which other men’s estates run out. {Hag 1:6}

He bringeth low, and lifteth up.] Job, for instance; and our Henry VI, in whom it appeared that mortality was but the stage of mutability; for today he was a most potent monarch, tomorrow not the master of a mole hill. How suddenly was Joseph advanced, and David, and Daniel, and Mordecai, and Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, &c.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Sa_2:7

The Lord maketh poor.

The rich and the poor

Everything created is taught by God a lesson of dependence; the earth upon which we tread is subject to continual wants; the sea requires replenishing from its tributary streams. Man is a volume of wants, as is recorded in every page of his history.

I. Let us consider the real wants of the poor and of the rich. For the most cogent reasons, the truths of the Gospel are of unspeakable advantage to the poor man; his mind is as a great field wanting cultivation. The rich man has a certain advantage on this point; by education and literary opportunities, as well as by intercourse with men of information and well-regulated minds, he has the void supplied, and is generally preserved from the ready and fearful consequences to which the ignorant are a prey. But the rich man has this fearful counterpoise upon him:--The more his hand is filled, the more he is likely to forget the Giver of all gifts. The promoters of Socinian, Deistical, end even of Atheistical doctrines, are ever found among the merely intellectual and educated, rather than among the poor. The rich man too often is encircled by a glittering fence refusing entrance to all that have not the key to his heart, or who are not auxiliary to his enjoyments. The rich man does, indeed, want the Gospel: he needs a restraint upon his enjoyments. But if the rich man is thus a pauper in many things, how great a pauper is the poor man! Speaking in a sense, the poor mans mind requires to be occupied with subjects of thought; reasonings connected with morality must be encouraged there, or else, under temptations from lust, he will forget to reason like Joseph (Gen_39:9). When once he has found it easier to gain a shilling by fraud or mendicancy, than by industry and toil, farewell, a long farewell, to honest and painstaking exertion! The poor man needs to feel his true position; the general opinion with regard to the relative condition of the poor man is, in many respects, wrong. The poor man generally feels as if he were hardly dealt with, especially if he cannot trace his privations to any indiscretion of his own. He feels as if the rich man only was happy. He feels as if his condition were altogether disreputable--that he may be utterly and legitimately selfish, and that there is no sympathy demandable save from rich and poor. Assuredly, whatever would correct such mistakes, would teach man his true position--giving him independence amid poverty, peace under privation, and contentment under adversity--such is true philosophy, worthy of being purchased at any price: Man, in poverty and neglect, wants resources. The uncultivated mind is often restless, and the tendency of the heart is, to explore the mysteries of sensual gratification, which, once tasted, are often resistless evermore. He flies to low excitements. Were a mind taught to seek luxury within itself, to be happy from some self-possessed and ever-flowing fountain, what a blessing would be conferred! Resources of a merely intellectual kind fall short of the mark. Higher and holier teachings must be introduced.

II. The adaptation of the Gospel to the poor. The greatest mistake, as concerns this life, into which any man may fall, is that of not knowing or of overlooking his true and indispensable friends. How true is this of the poor man and the Gospel! for, strange to say, there is no want which the Gospel will not either supply, mitigate, or convert into a blessing. A change of a most remarkable kind, and one which requires no little delicacy of delineation, is that which the reception of Gospel knowledge bestows upon the poor man, in unfolding to him the actual position in which he stands with regard to the rich man. He is not his superior, nor his equal, and yet there is a sense in which he is not his inferior. He sees the rich man occupying his proper station before God and man: he sees him in rank or office, and envies him not; he blesses God for every link in the chain, from the monarch on the throne to the beggar at the crossroad. He is not so curious to know in what exact part of the chain he, as a link, may be assigned a place: he knows it is a subordinate place, but he also trusts it is a useful one, and he knows that in the eye of his heavenly Father it is not an obscure or despised one. Vast and varied are the resources which are opened out to the poor in his searching of the Scriptures.

III. Lastly, let us consider the poor mans peculiar blessings. He that must go daily to the fountain, cannot forget that such a fountain exists; and if it be a fountain of purity and pleasantness, it becomes all the dearer, as life extends. And he whose wants send him hourly to the Giver of living waters, is less likely to forget his benefactor. It is not matter of surprise, if the poor be called rich in faith, seeing that they must live by faith. It is to him a blessing to be thus main-rained in a spirit of continual liveliness and dependency. The bruised reed is ever a tender one, end the object of heavenly regard end compassion; so he is not left for a moment to himself. If the poor man is often tried and tempted, yet, his temptations are all of a character of urgency, to drive him to God; whereas, his neighbour, possessed of wealth, is often assailed by temptations, where influence is powerful, to lead him farther and farther from God. Amidst all these things, the heart is wound around the Gospel. Take this away, and whet is life? (Thomas Drew.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2:7-8 Cp. Ps 113:7-9.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 7. The Lord maketh poor] For many cannot bear affluence, and if God should continue to trust them with riches, they would be their ruin.

Maketh rich] Some he can trust, and therefore makes them stewards of his secular bounty.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich,.... Which is true in a natural sense of the same persons, as might be exemplified in the case of Job; and of different persons, as in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus; for both poverty and riches are of God, see Pro 22:2. Poverty is of God; for though it is sometimes owing to a man's own conduct, yet that there is such a difference among men in general, that some should be poor, and others rich, is owing to the wise providence of God, that men may be dependent on one another. Riches are of God, and are the gifts of his bountiful providence; for though they are oftentimes the fruits of industry and diligence, as means, yet not always; and whenever they are, they are to be ascribed to the blessing of God attending the diligent hand. This is also true in a spiritual sense; for though spiritual poverty is owing to the fall of Adam, and to the actual sins and transgressions of men, whereby they become poor and miserable, yet all this is not without the knowledge and will of God: and it is he that makes men sensible of their poverty, and then makes them rich in spiritual things, with his own grace, and the blessings of it, with the riches of grace here, and of glory hereafter; all which flow from the good will of God, who has laid up much for his people, bestowed much on them, and entitles them to more; and which come to them through the poverty of Christ, who, though he was rich, became poor, that they through his poverty might be made rich, Co2 8:9 he bringeth low, and lifteth up; which has been verified in the same persons, as in Job, Nebuchadnezzar, &c. and in different persons, for he puts down one, and raises up another; so he rejected Saul from being king, and took David from the sheepfold, debased Haman, and raised Mordecai to great dignity: and, in a spiritual sense, the Lord shows men the low estate and condition they are brought into by sin, humbles them under a sense of it, brings down their proud spirits to sit at the feet of Jesus, and to submit to him, and to his righteousness; and he lifts them up by his son out of their fallen, captive, and miserable estate, and by his Spirit and grace brings them out of the horrible pit of nature into the state of grace; sets them upon the rock Christ, and makes their mountain to stand strong by the discoveries of his love, and will at last lift them up to glory, and place them on the same throne with Christ.

he bringeth low, and lifteth up; which has been verified in the same persons, as in Job, Nebuchadnezzar, &c. and in different persons, for he puts down one, and raises up another; so he rejected Saul from being king, and took David from the sheepfold, debased Haman, and raised Mordecai to great dignity: and, in a spiritual sense, the Lord shows men the low estate and condition they are brought into by sin, humbles them under a sense of it, brings down their proud spirits to sit at the feet of Jesus, and to submit to him, and to his righteousness; and he lifts them up by his son out of their fallen, captive, and miserable estate, and by his Spirit and grace brings them out of the horrible pit of nature into the state of grace; sets them upon the rock Christ, and makes their mountain to stand strong by the discoveries of his love, and will at last lift them up to glory, and place them on the same throne with Christ.

1 Samuel 2:8

sa1 2:8

sa1 2:8

sa1 2:8He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill,.... This is but a further illustration of what is before expressed. Literally; such poor as are beggars, are those that are extremely poor, that sit in the dust and beg, and have nothing but a dunghill to lie on; yet God is able to raise and lift up persons in such an extremely low condition to a very high one: spiritually; such are the poor, who are poor in spirit, and spiritually poor, and are sensible of it, and they, and they only, are beggars. For all that are poor, as they are not sensible of their poverty, so they beg not; but some are and beg; they knock at the door of grace and mercy; their language is petitionary, they entreat the grace and mercy of God; their posture is standing, and waiting till they have an answer; they are importunate, and will not easily take a denial; and they observe all opportunities to get relief, and are thankful for everything that is given then. Their conditions, in which they are, is represented by the "dust" and "dunghill"; which in general denotes that they are in a mean estate, in a sinful one, and in a very polluted and loathsome one; in this condition the Lord finds them, when he calls them by his grace; and from this he raises and lifts them up by his Spirit and grace, out of which they could never have raised themselves; and in which estate of sin and misery they must have lain, had he not exerted his powerful efficacious grace, in bringing them into a glorious one, next described:

to set them among princes the people of God called by grace, who are the sons of the King of kings by adoption, manifested in their regeneration and faith; have a princely spirit, the spirit of adoption, a free, generous, and bountiful one; live and look like princes, are well fed and clothed, and attended; have the riches of princes, and are heirs of a kingdom: and to be set among them, is to be made one, and ranked as such; to have a place and a name in the church, and among the people of God; to sit down with them at the table of the Lord, and have communion with them: and to make them inherit the throne of glory; eternal glory and happiness, which as it is signified by a kingdom and crown, so by a throne, and is the same with Christ's, Rev 3:21 and therefore must be a glorious one: and this is had by way of inheritance; not obtained by industry, nor purchased with money; but comes by adoption grace, and belongs only to children, is a bequest of our heavenly Father, and comes through the death of Christ the testator; and this phrase denotes not barely the right unto, but the possession of his happiness and glory:

for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them; the earth has its foundations on which it is laid, and its pillars by which it is supported; but these are no other than the power and providence of God; otherwise the earth is hung upon nothing, in the open circumambient air: and that God can and does do this may well be thought, and to do all the above things in providence and grace, related in the preceding verses; in the support, and for the proof of which, this is observed. Figuratively, the pillars of the earth may design the princes of the world, the supreme rulers of it, and civil magistrates, who are sometimes called cornerstones, and the shields of the earth, Zac 10:4, and so pillars, because they are the means of cementing, supporting, and protecting the people of the earth, and of preserving their peace and property. Likewise good men may be meant in a figurative sense, who, as they are the salt of the earth, are the pillars of it, for whose sake it was made, and is supported, and continued in being; the church is the pillar and ground of truth; and every good man is a pillar in the house of God, and especially ministers of the Gospel; see Rev 3:12.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Exalteth. The same instances of God’s power and providence are related, Psalm cxii. 7., and Luke i. 52. (Menochius) --- Hesiod (op.) says, "Jupiter easily gives or takes away power," &c.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

He also raises: The addition ("also") is because ascent [requires] more power and strength than descent.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.