Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 2:2
[There is] none holy as the LORD: for [there is] none beside thee: neither [is there] any rock like our God.
2. rock ] A frequent metaphor to describe the strength, faithfulness, and unchangeableness of Jehovah. See Deu 32:4; 2Sa 22:32.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Any rock … – The term rock as applied to God is first found in the song of Moses (see Deu 32:4 note), where the juxtaposition of rock and salvation in 1Sa 2:15, he lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation, seems to indicate that Hannah was acquainted with the song of Moses.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Sa 2:2
Neither is there any rock like our God.
God compared to a Rock
I. God is here described as a rock. God frequently compares himself to a rock, and that for his peoples encouragement.
1. He is compared to a rock, because, as a shelter, defence, refuge, every perfection of His nature is as their bulwark round about His people.
2. He is likewise spoken of as a rock, because in ancient days also they oftentimes made rocks their habitation. There are the inhabitants of the rocks (Jer 48:28). I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge, and my fortress: my God, in Him will I trust. They dwell in His love and in his attributes, and find them the place of abode and the place of happiness too.
3. But He also bears the name of a rock because He is the shade of His people. Thus we read in the fifth verse of the one hundred and twenty-first Psalm, The Lord is thy keeper; the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. So are Gods perfections the shade of His people, which preserveth them from the searching heat; and they are just as grateful to their souls.
II. In what peculiar sense is it, that God stands related to His people as their rock, as they pass through this poor desert world.
1. I might first of all say, it is because of His everlasting love towards them, in that He has made Himself to be their rock–in that He has given Himself to be their portion–in that He has made Himself over them to be their God, even unto death.
2. And as the Spirit of God leadeth the soul onwards, then it begins to see the great mystery of justice in salvation. Thus we see in what point of view it is that the Lord God Almighty is the rock of His people, and how He becomes so in their passage through this poor vale of tears. First of all, by the sovereign gift of Himself, according to His everlasting love, and then by the effectual power of the Holy Spirit in drawing poor souls out of the worlds population through His beloved One, that they may take rest in Himself.
III. There is no rock like our God, neither is there any rock like our God. A Socinians God cannot be compared to our God–a God that forgives from mere pity–A God that suffers His own law to be trampled on, and His own justice to be set at nought, in order to make way for the display of His own mercy–that God cannot be compared to our God. The man who talks about the gospel, and liven in sin, who talks of being happy in God, and mistakes accurate notions for conversion of heart, and a well-balanced creed for the love of Christ to the soul, that mans God cannot be compared to our God; for our God is holy. The self-righteous Pharisee in looking to his God, cannot think that he can be compared to our God. The God that can take his poor formal services–the very idea at once not only shows his folly, but exhibits the tow character of the God he worships. Oh, there is no rock like our God!
1. There is no rock so secure as is this rock. Oh, how blessed is that security which does not admit of one crevice, of one opening for the storm to enter!
2. Oh, the breadth of this blessed rock! Is there one case now so bad, is there one circumstance in itself so desperate, that we cannot say there is in that rock a breadth for all comers?
3. And oh, who shall say what there is inside this rock? The God of our salvation is a satisfying portion. (J. H. Evans.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
1Sa 2:2-3
There is none holy as the Lord.
The four perfections of God
1. She speaks of his holiness; There is none holy as the Lord. St. Mary the Virgin echoes her, when in her song she says: Holy is his name. This would be a very sad thought for sinners, whose thoughts, and words, and actions, are so unholy, were it not that our Lord Jesus Christ has atoned for our sins by His death, and has also in our nature led a perfectly holy life; and that, if we join ourselves to Him by faith, God looks at us through Him, and accepts us for His sake.
2. Next Hannah speaks of the power of God. Neither is there any rock, says she, like our God. So St, Mary in her song calls God, He that is mighty; and says, He hath showed strength with his arm. So the people of God may securely trust in Him because of His great power. And now observe what particular exercise of Gods power both Hannah and St. Mary celebrated. It is this, that when men grow proud and ambitious, He immediately, to however great a height of power they may have reached, strikes them down. Gods favourite way of displaying His power in the kingdom of Providence is to cast down the proud and lift up the humble.
3. The third attribute of God which Hannah speaks of is His wisdom. The Lord, she says, is a God of knowledge, and she gives this proof of it, that by him actions are weighed. His knowledge reaches to the depths of the character; He is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. He does not take an action for a good one, because it looks good outside. It is interesting to observe that St. Mary in her song does not make any explicit mention of Gods wisdom or knowledge, though she does mention twice over another attribute, of which Hannah makes no explicit mention. This is the fairest and most smiling of all Gods attributes–His mercy, that is to say, His goodness to the undeserving and ill-deserving. Hannahs song was delivered unto the Law, while Gods people were yet under that sterner and more severe dispensation, which designedly made them more acquainted with His holiness, and power, and wisdom, than with His love. But St Marys song, ushering in as it did the birth of Christ, could not possibly be without an allusion to the tender mercy of our God,–the mercy which led Him to give His Son out of His bosom for the salvation of the lost. (Dean Goulburn.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. None holy] HOLINESS is peculiar to the God of Israel; no false god ever pretended to holiness; it was no attribute of heathenism, nor of any religion ever professed in the world before or since the true revelation of the true God.
There is none beside thee] There can be but one unoriginated, infinite, and eternal Being; that Being is Jehovah.
Any rock like our God.] Rabbi Maimon has observed that the word tsur, which we translate rock, signifies, when applied to Jehovah, fountain, source, spring. There is no source whence continual help and salvation can arise but our God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
There is none holy as the Lord; none so perfectly, exchangeably, and constantly holy, as God hath showed himself to be in this act of grace to me, whereby he hath both checked the proud and mighty, and pleaded the cause of his afflicted servant that trusted in him, and also fulfilled his promise in giving me a son, whom he hath sanctified by his grace to his service; all which are the proper effects of Gods holiness.
There is none beside thee; not only none is so holy as thou art, but in truth there is none holy (which word is easily understood out of the former clause) besides thee, to wit, entirely or independently, but only by participation from thee. Or, as none have any holiness like thine, so none have ally being besides thee, unless by derivation from thee.
Neither is there any rock like our God; thou only art a sure defence and refuge to all that flee to thee, and trust in thee, as I have found by my experience.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
There is none holy as the Lord,…. From the consideration of what the Lord had done for her, which had filled her heart and mouth with joy and praise, she is led to celebrate the perfections of God, and begins with his holiness, in which he is glorious, and which appears in all his ways and works; he is essentially, originally, independently, perfectly, and immutably holy, as others are not. Angels are holy, but not of themselves; their holiness is from the Lord; nor is it perfect in comparison of his, and therefore they cover their faces while they celebrate that perfection of his; nor immutable, at least not naturally so, as the loss of it in those that fell demonstrates. Of men, some under the legal dispensation were holy, not truly, but in a typical and ceremonial sense; some are only outwardly and hypocritically holy, and only so in the sight of men, not in the sight of God; and those that are truly holy, being called to holiness, and have the principle of it implanted in them, and live holy lives and conversations; yet though there is a likeness of the holiness of God in them, being made partakers of the divine nature; it is far from an equality to it; for the holiness of the best of men is imperfect; they are not without sin in them, nor without sin committed by them, and perfection is disclaimed by them all; but the Lord is without iniquity, just and true is he; none in his nature, nor in any of his works, not the least shadow thereof:
for [there] is none besides thee; there is no God besides him; no being but what is of him, and none is holy but by him; the holiness of angels is from him; the holiness of Adam in innocence was of him; and all the holiness of his chosen ones comes from him, to which they are chosen by him, and which is secured in that choice unto them, and are sanctified by God the Father, in Christ, and through the Spirit:
neither is there any rock like our God; the word rock is used for Deity, and sometimes for a false one, De 32:31 and so it may here, and the sense be, there is no god like to our God; there is indeed none besides him; there are fictitious gods, and nominal ones, as the idols of the Gentiles, and who are so in an improper and figurative sense, as magistrates; but there is but one true and living God; nor is there any like him for the perfections of his nature, and the blessings of his goodness, whether in providence or grace. Under this metaphor of a rock, our Lord Jesus Christ is often signified; he is the rock of Israel, the rock of refuge, and of salvation; and there is no rock can do what he does, hide and shelter from the justice of God; there is no rock like him for strength and duration; none like him for a foundation to build upon, or for safety and protection from the wrath of God, and the rage of men, see Ps 18:31.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(2) Neither is there any rock.This was a favourite simile among the inspired song-writers of Israel. The image, doubtless, is a memory of the long desert wandering. The steep precipices and the strange fantastic rocks of Sinai, standing up in the midst of the shifting desert sands, supplied an ever present picture of unchangeableness, of majesty, and of security. The term rock, as applied to God, is first found in the Song of Moses (Deu. 32:4; Deu. 32:15; Deu. 32:18; Deu. 32:30-31; Deu. 32:37), where the juxtaposition of rock and salvation in 1Sa. 2:15he lightly esteemed the rock of his salvationseems to indicate that Hannah was acquainted with this song or national hymn of Moses. The same phrase is frequent in the Psalms.
That the term was commonly applied to God so early as the time of Moses we may conclude from the name Zurishaddai: My rock is the Almighty (Num. 1:6); and Zuriel: My rock is God (Num. 3:35).Speakers Commentary.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. No rock is as our God No defence so strong, no place of refuge so secure, no shelter so inviting. Parties threatened with danger were wont to fly for refuge to the fastnesses of the rocks. 1Sa 13:6; 1Sa 24:2. Hence God is called a rock of refuge, (Psa 94:22,) a fortress of defence, (Psa 31:2-3,) and a shelter from heat and storm. Psa 61:2; Isa 32:2.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
(2) There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God.
I pray the Reader not to overlook the great warmth of devotion, expressed in those words. The unspotted holiness of Jehovah, calls forth we are told, the unceasing adoration of the blessed. Hannah first celebrates this glorious perfection of our God, which plainly proves that one, and the same Spirit operated upon her mind, and theirs. And here by the way, Reader, is a plan opened to your heart, to see whether the same Spirit operates upon you. The song of saints and angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect, is of the holiness of Jehovah. None but redeemed souls can rejoice in it. Devils and spirits of darkness know that Jehovah is holy, but cannot love him for it. But his people rejoice in this glorious perfection, because in the holiness of their surety, the Lord Jesus, they see this holiness glorified, and their redemption eternally secured. I would have the Reader also consider, and then, as the blessed Spirit than instruct him, judge for himself, whether Hannah when calling Jehovah a Rock, did not evidently allude to Jesus, who in all the eventful journeys of Israel, through the wilderness, was the Rock that followed them, and whom the Apostle decidedly declares to have been Christ. Compare Exo_33:21-22; Exo_17:6 ; Num 20:8 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
“There is none holy as the Lord for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God.” 1Sa 2:2 .
How our theology is affected by our circumstances! It is needful to note this in the case of Hannah, lest we give her credit for too much religion. Her prayer had been answered, her heart was full of joy, her mouth was enlarged over her enemies, and she saw in her little child a whole posterity of noble men. Under such circumstances, she magnified the Lord, saying there was none so holy as he, and indeed there was none other beside him; and as for the rock of the enemy, it was not to be compared unto her God. Sometimes we are religious only because we are happy; sometimes we are pious only because we have received what we asked for. There is no particular gratitude or religion in recognising bounty which has been heaped upon us contrary to expectation. The great test of religion is to magnify God when he denies our prayers; when we ask for much and receive nothing, it is then hard to say (but in proportion to its hardness is its goodness) that there is none holy as the Lord, and none beside him in heaven or in earth. This need not check the natural and proper expression of thankfulness when great mercies have been received; that is always not only desirable, but just and reasonable; at the same time let it be firmly fixed in our minds as a lesson that ought to affect our whole thinking, that God is supremely good when he denies, that he is as much Father when He says No as when he says Yes. We must not mistake mere exultancy of animal spirits for religious enthusiasm. There is a great temptation to do this. But all such exultancy has a necessary reaction, and then, having mistaken the exultancy, we also mistake the depression, and think that God has forgotten to be gracious. He lives the true and noble life who casts himself lovingly into God’s hands, and says, Whatever God does is right: be it day, or be it night; be it summer, or be it winter, when it is of his sending, it must be welcomed as his gift.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
1Sa 2:2 [There is] none holy as the LORD: for [there is] none beside thee: neither [is there] any rock like our God.
Ver. 2. There is none holy as the Lord. ] “Glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders.” Exo 15:11 This holy God is to be sanctified, Isa 5:16 and praised; Mat 6:9 yea, he “will be sanctified in all that draw near unto him.” Lev 10:3 The Pope, who arrogateth the title of Holiness, is injurious to God; and was no whit wronged by Philip the Fair of France, who wrote thus to him, Sciat tua maxima fatuitas, &c.: Be it known to your singular Foolishness, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
none holy. This is the cry of all His saints. See note on Ex. 1Sa 15:11. holy. See note on Exo 3:5. any rock. Compare Deu 32:4. 2Sa 22:32.
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
none holy: Exo 15:11, Deu 32:4, Psa 99:5, Psa 99:9, Psa 111:9, Isa 6:3, Isa 57:15, 1Pe 1:16, Rom 4:8, Rom 15:4
none beside: Deu 4:35, 2Sa 22:32, Psa 73:25, Isa 43:10, Isa 43:11, Isa 44:6, Isa 44:8
rock: Deu 3:24, Deu 32:20, Deu 32:31, Deu 32:39, Psa 18:2, Psa 71:3, Psa 71:19, Psa 86:8, Psa 89:6, Psa 89:8, Isa 40:18, Jer 10:6
Reciprocal: 2Sa 7:22 – none 2Sa 22:2 – General 1Ki 8:23 – no God 1Ch 17:20 – beside thee Job 6:10 – the Holy One Psa 18:31 – General Psa 99:3 – for it Psa 145:17 – righteous Isa 26:4 – everlasting strength Isa 26:7 – most Isa 41:16 – thou shalt rejoice Jer 22:16 – was not Hab 1:12 – mighty God Mat 19:17 – there Mar 10:18 – that is Luk 1:49 – and Luk 2:37 – which Luk 6:48 – rock Rev 15:4 – thou only
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 2:2. There is none holy as the Lord None so perfectly, unchangeably, and constantly holy. None besides Not only none is so holy as thou art, but in truth there is none holy besides thee; namely entirely, or independently, but only by participation from thee. Any rock Thou only art a sure defence and refuge to all that flee to thee.