1 Samuel 4:17
The bearer of bad news
- The gospel’s word בָּשַׂר basar · to bear tidings
Original
Translations
The messenger answered, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter among the people. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are both dead, and the ark of God has been captured.”
And the messenger answered and said, Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there hath been also a great slaughter among the people, and thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God is taken.
And he who is bearing tidings answers and says, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and also a great slaughter has been among the people, and also your two sons have died—Hophni and Phinehas—and the Ark of God has been captured.”
소식을 전하는 자가 대답하여 가로되 이스라엘이 블레셋 사람 앞에서 도망하였고 백성 중에는 큰 살륙이 있었고 당신의 두 아들 홉니와 비느하스도 죽임을 당하였고 하나님의 궤는 빼앗겼나이다
그 사자가 대답하여 이르되, 이스라엘이 블레셋 사람들 앞에서 도망하였고 또 백성 가운데는 큰 살육이 있었으며 당신의 두 아들 홉니와 비느하스도 죽었고 하나님의 궤는 빼앗겼나이다, 하니라.
Commentaries
Matthew Henry on 1Sam 4:12-18 as a whole
The defeat of the army was very grievous to Eli as a judge; the tidings of the death of his two sons, to whom he had been so indulgent, and who, as he had reason to fear, died impenitent, touched him as a father; yet there was a greater concern on his spirit. …
Read the whole commentary →Wesley
Nothing on this verse itself.
Read the whole commentary →
Note
Read the Bible in the order of its books, and the first time the Hebrew verb , to bring news, appears, the news is not a victory but a rout. The word that stands behind the gospel makes its entrance in one of the darkest scenes of Israel's history.
Israel had lost a first battle with the Philistines and carried the ark of the covenant from Shiloh into the camp, as though its presence would guarantee a win. The second battle was worse: thirty thousand foot soldiers fell, the ark was captured, and Eli's sons Hophni and Phinehas were killed (1 Samuel 4:3–11). That same day a man of Benjamin ran the whole way to Shiloh with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. Eli, ninety-eight and blind, was sitting beside the road, "because his heart trembled for the ark of God" (1 Samuel 4:13). He asked, "What happened, my son?" (1 Samuel 4:16), and this verse is the answer.
It comes in four blows, each heavier than the one before: Israel has fled; the slaughter has been great; your two sons are dead; the ark of God has been captured. At the mention of the ark, Eli fell backward from his chair, broke his neck and died (1 Samuel 4:18). His daughter-in-law, dying in childbirth, named her son Ichabod, saying, "The glory has departed from Israel" (1 Samuel 4:21).
The man who brings all this is called hamvaser: the piel participle of basar with the article, "the one bringing news." The verb by itself does not say whether the news is good. Most of the time basar does carry welcome news, but here it carries defeat, bereavement and the loss of the sign of God's presence among his people. Set against that range, it stands out that Isaiah, when he pictures the messenger running to Zion, spells out what he brings: peace, good things, salvation, and the words "Your God reigns!" (Isaiah 52:7). The New Testament, too, never leaves the phrase "good news" empty. Paul names its content at the head of Romans: the gospel of God is the news "regarding His Son" (Romans 1:3).
The English versions show the choice a translator faces. The BSB and the KJV both say "The messenger," naming the man by his role. The LSV keeps the Hebrew participle and says he who is bearing tidings. The Korean Bibles divide the same way: the 흠정역 follows the KJV with 사자, a messenger, while the 개역한글 has 소식을 전하는 자, the one who brings news. Both are sound. The participle has the advantage of reminding the reader that the very verb Isaiah uses for Zion's herald is used here for a herald of disaster.
The commentators turn to Eli. Matthew Henry writes that the death of his sons "touched him as a father; yet there was a greater concern on his spirit" Matthew Henry. Wesley sees in the old priest "a fervent zeal for God, and for his honour, which he preferred before all his natural affections" Wesley. Henry also refuses to read Eli's miserable end as the last word on him: "A man may die miserably, yet not die eternally" Matthew Henry.
What broke Eli was the news that the glory of God had gone from Israel. The gospel begins with news running the other way. Jesus came into Galilee saying, "The time is fulfilled … and the kingdom of God is near" (Mark 1:15). Because the Bible's word for news could carry a message as heavy as this one, it means something when the gospel is called good.