Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 3:7
Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him.
7. Now Samuel, &c.] This verse explains why Samuel failed to recognise the Voice. ‘Knowing the Lord’ here denotes not the general religious knowledge of a pious Israelite, but the special knowledge communicated by a personal revelation. The phrase is used in a different sense in 1Sa 2:12.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Did not yet know the Lord – i. e. in His supernatural communication, as follows at the end of the verse. The text rendering of this verse is better than that of the margin.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Sa 3:7
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him.
Early religious impressions
A study of this story will show parents and teachers much which ought to be supremely helpful in their dealings with those young persons who come under their care.
I. There is, first, the period of conscientious routine. For a while every child born of Christian parents, and trained as Samuel was, will follow the traditions his father and mother have passed on down to him in course of education. What is it possible for any child now to do, as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, under the family rule? Young people can be taught to pray, to take the care of some practical schemes of usefulness, to study the Word of God diligently, to contribute money to religious causes, to become interested in the poor, to speak words of counsel and encouragement and warning to such as need direction or assistance. The grand old moralities are always within their reach; fidelities at school, courtesies to the aged consideration for the weak, keeping the Sabbath, aiding in household cares, and full obedience to all Gods commands. How far is this truly religious? Children differ extremely. Some of them become spiritual Christians quite early; some never know the date of any experience that might be considered regeneration; some are alert, imaginative, poetic, sensitive; others are slow, heavy, and run to rigid moralities with supreme delight and conscientious satisfaction. It is always right to do right, and God loves a virtuous, correct life. Of this we can be comfortably certain. As to the spiritual condition of Samuel at this period of his career, there is found one verse in the record which has given some trouble: Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. Evidently there passed a vivid and permanent change over this boys heart and history in that nights experience: God called him.
II. Awakened restlessness in children. There is a period in the history of almost every one who, reared in a Christian land, has been more or less directly under the pressure of the truth, in which he really faces the great question of his relation to God. And the effort is often an earnest one and is directed towards a positive decision concerning a religious life. This period you may recognise in yourself, or detect in others, almost always by certain unmistakable signs. There will be outward manifestations of solicitude which will show how seriously the soul contemplates its own experience. Skill, however, and especially patience, will be needed to understand these revelations of inward struggle. They often partake of the nature of strategy, and press their advance in the line of a precise contradiction. Then they will have to be read, like Hebrew syllables, from right to left. Every individual of us, in these communities lit with truth, comes one day to see that his path to heaven is unlike that of any other person, and henceforth he must journey on alone. That thought is revolutionary. But the thing to be remembered is this: And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. Men and women may forget this, and grow as sorrowfully amazed as was Mary when she rebuked Jesus for not paying more attention to her feelings. They ought to recollect those calm words: Wist ye not that I must be about my Fathers business? (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 7. Samuel did not yet know the Lord] He had not been accustomed to receive any revelation from him. He knew and worshipped the God of Israel; but he did not know him as communicating especial revelation of His will.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Either, first, He was not acquainted with God in that extraordinary or prophetical way. Or rather, secondly, He did not yet understand, any more than before, that it was not Eli, but God, who spake to him. And this ignorance of Samuels served Gods design, that his simplicity might give Eli the better assurance of the truth of Gods call and message to Samuel.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord,…. He knew that Jehovah, the God of Israel, was the true God; he had spiritual knowledge of him, and knew somewhat of his word and worship, ways and ordinances, in which he had been instructed by Eli; wherefore, though the Targum is,
“Samuel had not yet learned to know doctrine from the Lord;”
it can only be understood, that he had not learnt it perfectly; somewhat he knew of it, but in an imperfect manner, being a child: but the sense of the word is, that as yet he was ignorant that God had used to speak with ordinary and familiar voice to men, as Maimonides says s; he perhaps had never heard of any such thing, and much less was experimentally acquainted with it, that God ever did speak after such a manner to men, and could not distinguish between the voice of God and the voice of Eli:
neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him; what of the written word that was in being he had, and read, as the law of Moses; but the meaning is, that no word of prophecy of the Lord was revealed unto him, as the Targum; he never had prophesied as yet, and knew not the form and manner of prophecy, as the above writer observes, or what methods God took to reveal himself, his mind and will, to men, at least not this by an audible voice.
s Moreh Nevochim, par. 2. c. 44.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
7. Samuel did not yet know the Lord The first part of this verse is explained by the second. Samuel knew not the Lord in the way of receiving divine communications from him, for, as already stated, such communications were at that time rare.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Samuel Was Not As Yet Used To Hearing The Word Of YHWH ( 1Sa 3:7 )
1Sa 3:7
‘ Now Samuel did not yet know YHWH, nor was the word of YHWH yet revealed to him.’
We are now given the reason for Samuel’s confusion. Up to this point he did not ‘know YHWH’ In other words he had never had personal and specific communication with Him and from Him. This was indeed the day on which he would become ‘a man of God, a prophet’. For from now on he would continue to hear the voice of YHWH. The long years of darkness for Israel were over. Spiritually the light would not go out. Rather it would go on shining ever more brightly as the years went by.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Sa 3:7. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord The second clause in this verse explains the first: Samuel was not yet instructed in the will of GOD as a prophet; he had not yet received any immediate revelation from him.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
“Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him” 1Sa 3:7 .
Yet he was in the sanctuary; he was connected with Eli; he had a great destiny before him. We are taken at various points, God always knowing our age and our capacity, and not expecting more from us than we can render. It is not necessary to know the Lord in any purely intellectual sense before we engage in some department of his service. Samuel was the child of prayer, Samuel had been lent unto the Lord, Samuel had but one destiny, according to the purpose of his mother; yet “Samuel did not yet know the Lord.” Observe the word “yet,” and find in it an abundance of encouragement. We cannot know all things now; we know in part, therefore we prophesy in part. There are words of limitation, such as this yet, which are at the same time words of encouragement; on the one side they seem to discourage us, and on the other they are bright with hope. “What thou knowest not now thou shalt know hereafter” may be said to every Samuel and to every Peter in the Church. Let us be faithful to what we do know. We can at least be in the sanctuary, expecting to hear messages from heaven, and showing our readiness to obey them when they come; we need not be far to fetch when the Master comes and asks for us. Blessed are they who linger about the altar, and who find pleasure in waiting on the threshold of the sanctuary; for when the Lord comes they shall be ready to accept the duty which he assigns them. A beautiful expression is this: “Neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him,” it was to come; he was being prepared for it; his life pointed in one direction, and God recognised the direction, and honoured it. This is open to us, every one. We can show what we would be if we could, where we would always be, how we would always act; if we supply these conditions, God will not withhold his discretion or his blessing.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
1Sa 3:7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him.
Ver. 7. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, ] i.e., He knew him not in that way peculiar to prophets: for otherwise he knew the Lord a far deal better than Eli’s two sons did, 1Sa 2:12 and yet he and they had all one tutor. But he hath his chair in heaven who teacheth the heart, saith a father.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Now Samuel: Or, Thus did Samuel before he knew the Lord, and before the word of the Lord was revealed unto him.
did not yet: Samuel was not destitute of the knowledge of God, in that sense which implies the total absence of true piety, as Eli’s sons were; for he knew and worshipped the God of Israel, but he did not know him as communicating special revelations of his will to him, in the manner in which he made it known to the prophets. Jer 9:24, Act 19:2
Reciprocal: 1Sa 2:12 – knew
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 3:7. Samuel did not yet know the Lord How God was wont to teach and instruct men in his will. Neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed to him He was not acquainted with the way wherein God made himself and his mind known unto the prophets, because he had never spoken to him before. So that he did not know how to distinguish between the voice of God and that of men. And this ignorance of Samuel served Gods design, as it gave Eli the fuller assurance of the truth of Gods call and message to Samuel.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
3:7 Now Samuel did not yet know {f} the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him.
(f) By vision.