1 Samuel 3:17

1Sa 3:17 And he said, What [is] the thing that [the LORD] hath said unto thee? I pray thee hide [it] not from me: God do so to thee, and more also, if thou hide [any] thing from me of all the things that he said unto thee.

Ver. 17. What is the thing that the Lord, &c.] He is earnest to know the worst: for any good from an offended God he expected not. But "do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?" {Mic 2:7} {See Trapp on "Mic 2:7"}

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_3:17

What is the thing that the Lord hath said unto thee?

A private enquiry

I. Let us view the question as addressed to Samuel.

1. The first remark which we shall make upon it is that God does speak to men. In ways suitable to their feeble nature the Lord has spoken to men.

(1) He has done so in the inspired volume of His sacred Word. Every line in this priceless volume was dictated by the Spirit, and is a message from God to men.

(2) God, in a renewed manner, speaks to us by His Word when His Spirit applies it to us individually.

(3) Moreover, our God has ways of communicating His mind to His children by those of His servants who speak in His name. He directs the thoughts of His ministers, and suggests their words, so that they speak to the cases of those who are led to hear the Word of God.

(4) By our own thoughts, also, the Lord communes with us.

(5) Our God speaks to us also in Providence.

2. God regards not age in His speaking, but He condescends to speak with young children.

3. When we do hear the voice of God we should be deeply impressed by it.

4. We should store up in our memories whatever God says to us.

5. Looking at the text in its light toward Samuel, we learn that we should be able to tell what we hear from God.

(1) Samuel did this very solemnly, with a deep sense of its weight.

(2) Samuel did his work very carefully and completely. We read, and Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. He said nothing more and nothing less than God had spoken. You know how difficult it is to repeat a story correctly. Additions and subtractions are seeds which it is hard to keep out of the garden of conversation. Alas! this holds good even of the Word of the Lord: how many add to it or take from it!

(3) It was a very painful duty, which the holy child was called upon to perform.

(4) But then, in Samuels case, it was an obvious duty.

(5) And to communicate the message of God was a very weighty duty to the child Samuel.

II. Let us now view the question as it comes from Eli.

1. I understand from Elis question, first, that we should willingly learn, even from a child.

2. Next, learn from Eli, that we should be willing to know the very worst of the ease.

3. Next, we should desire to hear the whole of Gods word. Men aspire to be clever, and to that end they must appear to be bold thinkers, highly cultured, and far removed from the old worn out notions of orthodoxy. Many are the floral displays in sermons! Sheaves of corn are too plain and rustic. This is the age of bouquets and wreaths of rare flowers. Paul must give way to Browning, and David to Tennyson. Brethren, there are enough in the novelty business without us; and we have something better to do. Keep us right by saying to us, What is the thing the Lord hath said to thee? I pray thee, hide it not from me!

III. And now consider the question, to and from ourselves. I want to put a series of questions.

1. Have we ever asked the Lord to speak to us?

2. Next, have we all regarded what God has spoken?

3. A further question is this: Have we shaped our lives by what God has said?

4. Next, have we told what we know?

5. Do our children ever rebuke us? This Samuel was to Eli like a grandchild. His sons were grown up, and had left him; but here was this little one brought into the temple to minister there, and the old man came to be rebuked by this little child. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

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

1Sa 3:17. God do so, &c. — God inflict the same evils upon thee which I suspect he hath pronounced against me, and greater evils too.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

God punish thee after this and that sort, except thou tell me truth, Ruth 1:17.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 17. God do so to thee, and more also] This was a very solemn adjuration: he suspected that God had threatened severe judgments, for he knew that his house was very criminal; and he wished to know what God had spoken. The words imply thus much: If thou do not tell me fully what God has threatened, may the same and greater curses fall on thyself.

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

17. What is the thing that the Lord hath said unto thee?] The word Lord is not in the Hebrew. As in 1Sa_3:9 it is tacitly assumed that the speaker was Jehovah.

Observe how Eli first simply asks for an account of what had passed, then demands a complete statement, and finally adjures Samuel to conceal nothing from him.

God do so to thee, and more also] Literally, “so shall God do to thee and so shall He add.” This form of adjuration is characteristic of the books of Samuel and Kings, in which it occurs eleven times. elsewhere it is found in Rth_1:17 only.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he said, what is the thing that the Lord hath said unto thee?.... The word "Lord" is not in the text, but it is "that it hath said"; the voice that had so often called him in the night, and which yet Eli knew was the voice of the Lord; and as it was, he was sensible there was something of importance said, and he had great reason to believe it respected him and his family; and the rather he might conclude this, by what the man of God had lately said to him, whose words perhaps he had too much slighted, questioning his authority; and therefore the Lord took this way and method to assure him that what was said came from him; for hereby Eli was fully convinced that this voice Samuel heard was of the Lord, and so what was said must be from him, and this he was impatient to know:

I pray thee, hide it not from me; and he not only beseeched and entreated him, but adjured him, as in the next clause:

God do so to thee, and more also, if thou hide anything from me of all the things that said unto thee; it is the form of an oath or curse, wishing that God would do some great evil to him, and more than he chose to express, if he concealed anything from him that had been told him. So Kimchi and Abarbinel take it to be an oath; and Josephus, (u) and Procopius Gazaeus on the place say, that Eli obliged Samuel by oaths and curses to declare what had been said to him.

(u) Antiqu. l. 5. c. 10. sect. 4.

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

And so. Literally, "May God do these things to thee, and add these also." It is not certain that he mentioned the particular punishment, (Haydock) though it is most probable. The Scripture refrains from repeating them. (Grotius) --- Ruth i. 17. (Calmet)

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).

God inflict the same evils upon thee, which I suspect he hath pronounced against me, and greater evils too. Or, God do so, i.e. let God deal with thee so severely, as I cannot, or am loth to express. So it is a kind of aposiopesis, usual in oaths and in adjurations. The same phrase is in Rth 1:17. Thus he adjures him to utter the whole truth, as was usual among the Hebrews, as 1Ki 22:16; Mat 26:63.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17, 18. What is the thing that… said unto thee — It will be observed that the English version supplies the words the LORD, but in his question Eli seems to have intentionally omitted the subject of the verb said. His words imply that he himself was uncertain who had called Samuel. He was doubtless strongly persuaded that it was Jehovah, for this had been his conviction when the child came to him the third time, (1Sa_3:8,) but not until Samuel had told him every whit, (1Sa_3:18 — כל הדברים, all the words, that is, the entire communication of 1Sa_3:11-14,) was he absolutely sure; then he said, It is the Lord, and bowed in humble submissiveness before the sad and solemn prophecy. If he had entertained any doubts respecting the message of 1Sa_2:27-36, all doubt must have vanished now, as that message received confirmation through the child Samuel, whose word he could not doubt.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

God do so, &c. - God inflict the same evils upon thee, which I suspect he hath pronounced against me, and greater evils too.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

the word he spoke

"the message Yahweh gave"

May God do so to you, and even more

This is an idiom to emphasize how serious Eli is. AT: "May God punish you the same way he said he will punish me, and even more" (See: Idiom)

translationWords

word

God

Yahweh

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Such shall [God] do to you. Like that very curse, that you shall not have worthy children. And that curse actually befell him even though he did tell him. And did not withhold. From here [the Sages concluded]: A curse of a wise man, even though pronounced on condition, will be realized.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.