'We are struck with astonishment still more reverential when Eve's serpent and Balaam's ass talk; when the waters of the cataracts are swelled by rain fifteen cubits above all the mountains; when we behold the plagues of Egypt, and the six hundred and thirty thousand fighting Jews, flying on foot through the divided and suspended sea; when Joshua stops the sun and moon at noon-day; when Sampson slays a thousand Philistines with the jaw-bone of an ass..... In those divine times all was miracle, without exception; and we have the profoundest reverence for all these miracles; for that ancient world which was not our world; for that nature which was not our nature; for a divine book, in which there can be nothing human.
'But we are astonished at the liberty which Dr. Kennicott takes of calling those Deists and Atheists, who, while they revere the Bible more than he does, differ from him in opinion. Never will it be believed that a man with such ideas is of the academy of medals and inscriptions. He is, perhaps, of the academy of Bedlam, the most ancient of all, and whose colonies extend throughout the earth.' (Philosophical Dictionary.)
Verse 19. The Douay renders this—'He slew of the people seventy men, and fifty thousand of the common people;'
Chapter vii., v. 1. What were the men of Kirjathjearim, that they should enjoy complete immunity from the ills which attended the other unfortunates who came in contact with the ark, and what gave them the right to sanctify Eleazar? Kirjathjearim was a city of the Gibeonites. (Joshua, chap, ix., v. 17.)
Verse 6. 'Drew water, and poured it out before the Lord.' This is a mode of sacrifice, or rather of offering, to the Lord which I do not find mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament.
Verse 13. It is not true that the Philistines came no more into the coast of Israel. (Vide chap, xvii., v. 1.)
Verse 15. 'And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.' Bishop Patrick's interpretation of this stubborn verse may be quoted, but to be as speedily rejected; because it perverts the plain meaning of words, for the purpose of making them support a preconceived theory:—
'"As Samuel was the author of this book, he could not speak literally of 'all the days of his life;' the sense probably is, that he was so diligent in the discharge of his office, that he gave himself no rest, but sat to judge causes every day."'
'It is almost a waste of words to reply to such a manifest perversion of the meaning. "All the days of his life" means "the whole of his life," not "every day:" and the use of these words shows that Samuel could not have been the author of the book. But the commentator, taking for granted that Samuel was the author of the book, has twisted the meaning of words to suit this preconceived notion.' (Dr. Giles.)
Chapter viii., v. 3. The sons of Samuel seem to have been equally as vicious as the sons of Heli, yet Samuel escapes punishment.