through the marvellous changes which occur in the circumstances connected with the lives of the righteous and the wicked.
Verses 4-8
1Sa 2:4-8 4 Bow-heroes are confounded,
And stumbling ones gird themselves with strength; 5 Full ones hire themselves out for bread,
And hungry ones cease to be.
Yea, the barren beareth seven (children),
And she that is rich in children pines away. 6 The Lord kills and makes alive;
Leads down into hell, and leads up. 7 The Lord makes poor and makes rich,
Humbles and also exalts. 8 He raises mean ones out of the dust,
He lifts up poor ones out of the dunghill,
To set them beside the noble;
And He apportions to them the seat of glory:
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's,
And He sets the earth upon them.
In 1Sa 2:4, the predicate חתּים is construed with the nomen rectum גּבּרים, not with the nomen regens קשׁת, because the former is the leading term (vid., Ges. §148, 1, and Ewald, §317, d.). The thought to be expressed is, not that the bow itself is to be broken, but that the heroes who carry the bow are to be confounded or broken inwardly. “Bows of the heroes” stands for heroes carrying bows. For this reason the verb is to be taken in the sense of confounded, not broken, especially as, apart from Jer 51:56, חתת is not used to denote the breaking of outward things, but the breaking of men.
Verses 5-8
1Sa 2:5-8 שׂבעים are the rich and well to do; these would become so poor as to be obliged to hire themselves out for bread. חדל, to cease to be what they were before. The use of עד as a conjunction, in the sense of “yea” or “in fact,” may be explained as an elliptical expression, signifying “it comes to this, that.” “Seven children” are mentioned as the full number of the divine blessing in children (see Rth 4:15). “The mother of many children” pines away, because she has lost all her sons, and with them her support in her old age (see Jer 15:9). This comes from the Lord, who kills, etc. (cf. Deu 32:39). The words of 1Sa 2:6 are figurative. God hurls down into death and the danger of death, and also rescues therefrom (see Psa 30:3-4).
