Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 2:8
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, [and] lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set [them] among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth [are] the LORD’s, and he hath set the world upon them.
8. out of the dust ] “To sit in the dust” (Isa 47:1), or “on the dunghill” (Lam 4:5) are Oriental figures for a condition of extreme degradation and misery, derived probably from the practice of mourners (Job 2:8): to share the company of princes, and occupy a throne of honour (Job 36:7) are metaphors for advancement and prosperity. Psa 113:7-9 is copied almost verbatim from these verses. Cp. too Psa 75:6-7.
for the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s] The creation and maintenance of the natural framework of the earth by Jehovah are a guarantee for His moral government among men. Cp. Psa 75:3. The expression “pillars of the earth” (cp. Job 9:6) is a poetical metaphor derived from the construction of a house (see Jdg 16:26), and need not imply any theory as to the earth’s shape.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1Sa 2:8
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill; to set them among princes.
The poor raised out of the dust
I. By these poor some understand those who are literally beggars. One cannot doubt but that Hannahs heart did bear on the remembrance of her own comparatively obscure condition; I cannot doubt for a moment, that she had in her mind the consciousness that this Samuel was to be a judge, and a prophet in Israel; I do not for one moment doubt, that she remembered Gideon taken from his threshing floor by the wine press to be a judge in Israel. It is not generally true that God takes the poor out of the dust, end lifts the beggar from the dunghill. The instances are rare in which He sets them among princes, and makes them inherit thrones of glory. And I think the next verse takes us something above the mere letter; He shall keep the feet of His saints Some understand by it the Church of God in its low and lost condition; as fallen children of a fallen father. No doubt there is great glory in that interpretation. A sinner is poor man; be is indeed one of the needy, in his poverty. A debtor? owing ten thousand talents. But there is an expression that will not allow me to think this to be the mind of God in this passage. He is spoken of, not only as poor, but as a beggar. It is one thing for a man to be in the dust, and on the dunghill; but it is another thing to know and feel it, and to cry to the Lord on account of it. A sense of beggary is wrought in the soul by the Holy Ghost only. This is the life appointed of God for His saints on earth; it is their vocation. A very painful life it is. The more a man begs, the more he has; the more he has, the more he wants; the more he wants, the more he receives; and the more he receives, the more he begs. But one may say, it is also a happy life. Oh! the relief of a throne of grape! Great is the blessing connected with it.
II. But observe now what is said of the Lord concerning His treatment of these poor, these beggars. Now before we consider what the Lord does, consider for a moment what the Lord is. He is described here as high above all nations, and His glory above the heavens. I believe God is Love; yet when one looks into the infinite, the eternal God centering His love in ones self, one so mean, so worthless, so below all His consideration, who that looks into it does not see there are lengths and depths and breadths and heights, that seem at once above the mind? In the consideration of all that God does, I would never desire to forget what God is. All that God does springs from what God is. His doings are great; but His nature is greater. The Lord looked on His poor suffering Israel in their Egypt state, and heard their cry; their miseries went up before Him and He remembered them. There is infinite pity, too, in it; for He raises up this poor man; we find, He raises him up. The Lord always goes beyond your desires; He never falls short of them But I see, not only infinite pity, but marvellous grace in it. When He takes these beggars, where doth He seat them? Is it amongst delivered beggars? He sets them in the midst of princes, and causes them to inherit a throne of glory. (J. H. Evans.)
The riches of humility
The rain runs off the mountains into the valleys and low-lying meadows. Elevated regions, therefore, do not profit by it so much as the lowlands. The natural fact suggests a spiritual truth. Gods sweet dews and showers of grace, says Leighton, slide off the mountains of pride and fall on the low valleys of humble hearts, and make them pleasant and fertile. This accounts for the fact that you occasionally see persons of high intellect and much culture destitute of the peace and contentment possessed by those of meaner attainments; lacking, too, in richness of moral nature, and usefulness of life. (W. Welters.)
Humility a source of honour
In the evening of the day that Sir Eardley Wilmot kissed the hand of his Sovereign, on being appointed Chief Justice, one of his sons, a youth, attended him to his bedside. Now, said the father, I will tell you, my son, a secret worth your knowing and remembering. The elevation I have met with in life, particularly this lash instance of it, has not been owing to any superior merit or abilities, but to my humility, to my not having set up myself above others, and to a uniform endeavour to pass through life void of offence towards God and man.
Elevation of the lowly
Edward Smith, in his most interesting book, Three Years in Central London, tells of a poor working man coming into the church exclaiming, Before the Mission started I was a nobody here; but now I am a somebody. Yes, it is the mission of Christianity to make the lowliest man feel his personal dignity and his great importance as one of the workers of the world. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Poor rising to distinction
So also it pleases God to give conspicuous proofs from time to time that qualities that in poor men are often associated with a hard-working, humble career are well-pleasing in His sight. For what qualities on the part of the poor are so valuable, in a social point of view, industry, self-denying diligence, systematic, unwearying devotion even to work which brings them scanty remuneration? By far the greater part of such men and women are called to work on, unnoticed and rewarded, and when their day is over to sink in an undistinguished grave. But from time to time some such persons rise to distinction. The class to which they belong is ennobled by their achievements. When God wished in the sixteenth century to achieve the great object of punishing the Church which had fallen into such miserable inefficiency and immorality, and wrenching half of Europe from its grasp, he found his principal agent in a poor miners cottage in Saxony. When he desired to summon sleeping Church to the great work of evangelising India, She man he called to She front was Carey, a poor cobbler of Northampton. When it was his purpose to present His Church with an unrivalled picture of the Christian pilgrimage, its dangers and trials, its joys, its sorrows, and its triumphs, the artist appointed to the task was John Bunyan, the tinker of Elstow. When the object was to provide a man that would open the great continent of Africa to civilisation and Christianity, and who needed, in order to do this, to face dangers and trials before which all ordinary men had shrunk, he found his agent in a poor spinner boy, who was working twelve hours a day in a cotton mill on She banks of the Clyde. In all such matters, in humbling the rich and exalting the poor, Gods object is not to punish the one because they are rich, or to exalt the other because they are poor. In the one case it is to punish vices bred from an improper use of wealth, and in the other to reward virtues that have sprung from the soil of poverty. Poor and pious parents, wrote David Livingstone on the tombstone of his parents at Hamilton, when he wished to record the grounds of his thankfulness for the position in life which they held. (W. G. Blaikie, D. D.)
For the pillars of the earth are the Lords, He has set the world upon them.
The God of nature also the God of Providence and of grace
Verse 6 sets forth that God has absolute power over human life. He it is who makes pale with mortal disease the once ruddy cheek of health and beauty. He it is, again, who snatches a man from the jaws of death, when his recovery seems beyond all hope. The seventh verse and the first part of the eighth set forth Gods absolute power over human circumstances. He it is who gives a fortune to one, and reduces another to beggary. He who brought Joseph out of the dungeon and made him ride in the second chariot which King Pharaoh had. All these are instances of Gods power in Providence–in the management of human affairs. And now observe how Hannah passes on to speak of the power of God in Nature; for, she adds, the pillars of the earth are the Lords, and he hath set the world upon them. The earth is spoken of as if it were a great temple or palace, held up by pillars like the house of Dagon–firm and settled, so long as those pillars remain unshaken, bus sure to fall into ruin the moment the pillars are thrown down. Now we may take Hannahs expression in the same way, as a figurative one, meaning not that the earth does literally stand upon pillars, but that the mighty God, who created it, upholds it every instant by an act of His will, and that, if that act of will were for a moment withdrawn, it would drop at once into that nothingness, out of which it was drawn by creation. Hannah, then, according to this view of her meaning, adds to the instances she has given of Gods power in Providence this wondrous instance of His power in Nature. Science since Hannahs time has taught us the way in which God does this–namely, by She law of gravitation, which, as the earth pursues its course in space, pulls it in every moment towards the sun; but assuredly the operation is not lees wonderful, because we happen to have found out the principle on which it is conducted. And now observe the force of the for in the words–for the pillars (the sustaining, preserving power) of the earth are the Lords, and he hath set the world upon them. No wonder, she means to say, that God does such great things, brings about such strange vicissitudes in the life and fortunes of feeble men. For only, see what tremendous irresistible forces He is always exerting in Nature. Now this gives rise to one or two edifying thoughts. The God of Providence, Hannah asserts, is the God of Nature also; and His ways in Nature, she implies, seem us to be more amazing and stupendous than His ways in Providence. I say seem to us to be–not that in reality they are so. Why do Gods works in Providence strike us with much less wonder than His works in Nature? I suppose because we are comparatively so familiar with His works of Providence; life and death, health and sickness, the rise in one mans fortunes and the fall in anothers, are around us on all sides; and, being matter of every days experience, make slight impressions. Another reason is that we ourselves have some part in bringing about results in Providence; a man can bring himself to the gates of the grave by carelessness of his health, or may recover by the skill of the physician–may make a fortune by assiduous industry, or may lose one by neglect of his accounts and wasteful expenditure; but no man can arrest the sun in his course, or shake the earth to its foundations. The lesson is that we should try more and more to regard the God of Nature and of Providence as one, and to throw those notions of magnificence and power, which we derive from Nature, into other spheres of Gods action–into the sphere of Gods Providence and also of His Grace. Do I see design on every side of me in Nature, wise contrivance for the well-being of the creatures? Let me be assured that in human affairs also this same wise design is contriving and arranging all things, with a moral aim, for the exaltation of the humble, the humiliation of the proud, and the highest good to them that love God. (Dean Goulburn.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. To set them among princes] There have been many cases where, in the course of God’s providence, a person has been raised from the lowest and most abject estate to the highest; from the plough to the imperial dignity: from the dungeon to the throne; from the dunghill to nobility. The story of Cincinnatus is well known; so is that of the patriarch Joseph; but there is one not less in point, that of Roushen Akhter, who was brought out of a dungeon, and exalted to the throne of Hindustan. On this circumstance the following elegant couplet was made: –
[——Arabic——]
[——Arabic——]
“He was a bright star, but now is become a moon,
Joseph is taken from prison, and is become a king.”
There is a play here on Roushen Akhter, which signifies a bright star; and there is an allusion to the history of the patriarch Joseph, because of the similarity of fortune between him and the Mohammedan prince.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s] He is almighty, and upholds all things by the word of his power.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Out of the dust, i.e. out of their low and miserable condition, as this phrase is used, 1Ki 16:2; Psa 113:7; Compare Job 16:15; Psa 22:15.
From the dunghill; from the most sordid place and mean estate. Compare 1Ki 16:2; Job 36:11; Psa 7:5.
Dunghill; which the poor are said to embrace, Lam 4:5.
To make them inherit; not only possess themselves, but transfer them to their posterity, as hath oft happened in the world; or, possess.
The throne of glory, i.e. a glorious throne or kingdom.
The pillars; either,
1. The foundations of the earth, which God created and upholds, and wherewith he sustains the earth find all its inhabitants, as a house is supported with pillars; and therefore it is not strange if he disposeth of persons and things therein as he pleaseth. Or,
2. The princes or governors of the earth, which are called the corners, or corner-stones, of a land or people, Jdg 20:2; 1Sa 14:38; Zep 3:6, and are fitly called pillars, because they uphold the world, and keep it from sinking into confusion. See Psa 74:2; Jer 1:18; Rev 3:12. And these are here said to be the Lords, by creation and constitution, because he advanceth them to their state, and preserves them in it, Pro 8:15,16, and puts the world, or the kingdoms of the world, upon them, as burdens upon their shoulders: see Isa 9:6.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. He raiseth up the poor out of thedust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghillThe dunghill,a pile of horse, cow, or camel offal, heaped up to dry in the sun,and used as fuel, was, and is, one of the common haunts of thepoorest mendicants; and the change that had been made in the socialposition of Hannah, appeared to her grateful heart as auspicious andas great as the elevation of a poor despised beggar to the highestand most dignified rank.
inherit the throne ofglorythat is, possesses seats of honor.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill,…. This is but a further illustration of what is before expressed. Literally; such poor as are beggars, are those that are extremely poor, that sit in the dust and beg, and have nothing but a dunghill to lie on; yet God is able to raise and lift up persons in such an extremely low condition to a very high one: spiritually; such are the poor, who are poor in spirit, and spiritually poor, and are sensible of it, and they, and they only, are beggars. For all that are poor, as they are not sensible of their poverty, so they beg not; but some are and beg; they knock at the door of grace and mercy; their language is petitionary, they entreat the grace and mercy of God; their posture is standing, and waiting till they have an answer; they are importunate, and will not easily take a denial; and they observe all opportunities to get relief, and are thankful for everything that is given then. Their conditions, in which they are, is represented by the “dust” and “dunghill”; which in general denotes that they are in a mean estate, in a sinful one, and in a very polluted and loathsome one; in this condition the Lord finds them, when he calls them by his grace; and from this he raises and lifts them up by his Spirit and grace, out of which they could never have raised themselves; and in which estate of sin and misery they must have lain, had he not exerted his powerful efficacious grace, in bringing them into a glorious one, next described:
to set them among princes the people of God called by grace, who are the sons of the King of kings by adoption, manifested in their regeneration and faith; have a princely spirit, the spirit of adoption, a free, generous, and bountiful one; live and look like princes, are well fed and clothed, and attended; have the riches of princes, and are heirs of a kingdom: and to be set among them, is to be made one, and ranked as such; to have a place and a name in the church, and among the people of God; to sit down with them at the table of the Lord, and have communion with them: and to make them inherit the throne of glory; eternal glory and happiness, which as it is signified by a kingdom and crown, so by a throne, and is the same with Christ’s, Re 3:21 and therefore must be a glorious one: and this is had by way of inheritance; not obtained by industry, nor purchased with money; but comes by adoption grace, and belongs only to children, is a bequest of our heavenly Father, and comes through the death of Christ the testator; and this phrase denotes not barely the right unto, but the possession of his happiness and glory:
for the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and he hath set the world upon them; the earth has its foundations on which it is laid, and its pillars by which it is supported; but these are no other than the power and providence of God; otherwise the earth is hung upon nothing, in the open circumambient air: and that God can and does do this may well be thought, and to do all the above things in providence and grace, related in the preceding verses; in the support, and for the proof of which, this is observed. Figuratively, the pillars of the earth may design the princes of the world, the supreme rulers of it, and civil magistrates, who are sometimes called cornerstones, and the shields of the earth, Zec 10:4, and so pillars, because they are the means of cementing, supporting, and protecting the people of the earth, and of preserving their peace and property. Likewise good men may be meant in a figurative sense, who, as they are the salt of the earth, are the pillars of it, for whose sake it was made, and is supported, and continued in being; the church is the pillar and ground of truth; and every good man is a pillar in the house of God, and especially ministers of the Gospel; see Re 3:12.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(8) The pillars of the earth.And the gracious All-Ruler does these things, for He is at once Creator and Upholder of the universe. The words of these Divine songs which treat of cosmogony are such as would be understood in the childhood of peoples. The quiet thinker, however, is tempted to ask whether after 3,000 or 4,000 years, now, with the light of modern science shining round us, we have made much real progress in our knowledge of the genesis and government of the universe.
The pillars.Or columnsJerome, in the Vulgate, translates this unusual word by hingescardines terr.
Gesenius prefers the rendering foundations. On the whole, the word used in the English Version, pillars, is the best.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Lifts from the dust the poor Compare Psa 113:7-8, which is borrowed from this prayer of Hannah.
A throne of glory A position of eminence and power. How many has God’s providence raised up from obscurity to thrones of honour! Joseph, Gideon, Saul, David, Daniel, and others are examples.
To Jehovah Belonging to Jehovah; his work.
Pillars of the earth Supporters of the earth, foundations on which the world is represented as resting. A metaphorical way of representing Jehovah as the Creator and Upholder of all things.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Sa 2:8. Helifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, &c. The author of the Observations remarks, that dried dung being usually burnt in the East, heaps of this sort of turf were commonly laid up in their cottages. Hence he thinks the present expression is elucidated; “He raiseth a beggar from a dunghill, out of a cottage, that is, in which heaps of dried dung are piled up for fuel, as some of the worst accommodated of the poor practise with respect to the turf of this country: or rather, he raiseth up a poor exile, forced to beg his bread in his wanderings, and to lodge in some out-house where dung is laid up, out of the city, in order to set him on the throne of a royal palace, built in the midst of it.” When Hannah says, that the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, she urges a strong reason in proof of all she had advanced; namely, that GOD, being the founder, supporter, and upholder of the earth itself, could certainly do with the inhabitants of it as he pleased. The true meaning of the word rendered pillars, metzukei, is somewhat doubtful. It seems to express those grand instruments, whatever they be, of supporting and retaining in its orbit the globe of the earth. But did it signify pillars, as we have rendered it, every one sees that the word must be understood in a figurative sense.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Sa 2:8 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, [and] lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set [them] among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth [are] the LORD’S, and he hath set the world upon them.
Ver. 8. He raiseth up the poor. ] See Psa 75:6 . See Trapp on “ Psa 75:6 “
To set them among princes.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s.] He hath hanged it upon nothing; only it hangeth in the midst of the heaven, equally poised with its own weight, and serveth for pillars or foundations to the whole fabric of the universe.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the poor: i.e. the oppressed. Compare Psa 113:7. pillars. Hebrew. mazuk = that which is set fast. Occurs only here and 1Sa 14:5, where it is rendered “situate”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the poor: Job 2:8, Job 42:10-12, Psa 113:7, Psa 113:8, Dan 4:17, Luk 1:51, Luk 1:52
set them: 1Sa 15:17, Gen 41:14, Gen 41:40, 2Sa 7:8, Job 36:6, Job 36:7, Ecc 4:14, Dan 2:48, Dan 6:3, Jam 2:5, Rev 1:6, Rev 3:21, Rev 5:10, Rev 22:5
the pillars: Job 38:4-6, Psa 24:2, Psa 102:25, Psa 104:5, Heb 1:3
Reciprocal: Lev 14:21 – poor Lev 25:47 – sojourner or stranger wax rich Rth 1:21 – and the 1Sa 15:28 – hath given 2Sa 7:9 – a great 2Sa 22:49 – thou also 1Ki 16:2 – I exalted thee 1Ch 29:12 – riches Est 2:17 – so that he set Job 5:11 – set up Job 5:16 – the poor Job 8:19 – out of the earth Job 9:6 – the pillars Job 26:11 – pillars Job 36:22 – God Job 38:6 – Whereupon Psa 49:2 – General Psa 68:10 – thou Psa 75:3 – pillars Psa 75:7 – he putteth Psa 78:69 – earth Psa 78:71 – brought Psa 102:10 – thou hast Psa 107:41 – setteth Psa 136:23 – in our low estate Psa 138:6 – Though Psa 147:6 – lifteth up Pro 8:21 – to inherit Pro 10:22 – it Isa 22:23 – a glorious Isa 40:4 – valley Jer 49:15 – General Eze 17:24 – have brought Eze 21:26 – exalt Dan 2:21 – he removeth Oba 1:2 – General Zec 6:1 – and the Mat 4:9 – I give Luk 1:48 – regarded Luk 6:20 – Blessed Luk 14:21 – the poor Luk 16:20 – a certain Luk 18:35 – begging Joh 9:8 – sat Rom 9:17 – I raised Rom 13:1 – there Col 1:17 – and by Jam 1:9 – in Rev 21:7 – inherit
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 2:8. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, &c. From the most mean estate and sordid place. To set them among princes Instance Joseph, David, and Daniel. To make them inherit the throne of glory That is, a glorious throne or kingdom; not only to possess it themselves, but to transmit it to their posterity, as the word inherit implies. For the pillars of the earth are the Lords The foundations which God created and upholds, and wherewith he sustains the earth and all its inhabitants, as a house is supported with pillars. These words signify the reason of all that is contained in the five preceding verses. For the very earth being founded, upheld, and supported by the Lord, it is no wonder that all the inhabitants of it are in his power, so that he can dispose of them as he pleases.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2:8 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, [and] lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set [them] among {f} princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth [are] the {g} LORD’S, and he hath set the world upon them.
(f) He prefers to honour, and does according to his own will, though man’s judgment is contrary.
(g) Therefore he may dispose all things according to his will.