Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - 1 Samuel 3:13 - 3:13
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
I will judge, i.e. condemn and punish or destroy, as the word judge is oft used, as Gen_15:14 Joh_3:18 16:11.
His house; his children and posterity, as is manifest by the story; as the word house is frequently taken, as 2Sa_7:11 1Ki_21:29. So the house of Judah, of Aaron, of David, are oft taken for their posterity. And to build a house, in Scripture use, is to increase their posterity, as Exo_1:21 Deu_25:9 Rth_4:11. Compare Gen_16:2 30:3.
For ever; till they be utterly rooted out; or for a long time, as that phrase is oft used.
Which he knoweth; either by the information of the prophet, 1Sa_2:27, &c., or by his own guilty and self-accusing conscience. But these and the foregoing and following words may well be and are rendered thus;
for this iniquity, because he knew (both by common fame, and by his own observation)
that his sons, & c. He cannot pretend ignorance, or want of proof of their wickedness, which aggravates his sin.
Vile; not only hateful to God, but contemptible to all the people, whereby they also brought their sacred office and God’s holy ordinances into contempt. Heb. cursed themselves, or made themselves execrable or accursed, both to God and men: by their lewd and cursed practices they put themselves under the curse of God, by such a gross violation of God’s commands: compare Jos_6:18 7:12,13. This expression may be used by way of reflection upon their father, because he did not denounce the curse of God against them, nor put them out of the priesthood, as accursed persons, although they were so vile, that they had prevented their father’s censure, and meritoriously cast themselves out, and cut themselves off from the priesthood and congregation of the Lord, which their father should have done judicially.
He restrained them not; he contented himself with a cold and gentle reproof, and did not severely rebuke, and punish, and effectually restrain them from their abominable courses, nor use that authority which God had given him, as a father, as a high priest, and as a judge, or chief magistrate, against them, as by the law of God he was obliged to do.