1 Samuel — Chapter 3

The word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no manifest vision. Lapide: rare because of the crimes of Heli's sons and the people alike. As the priest is, so is the people. Samuel shone like a new sun of Israel in the midst of darkness of sin and ignorance.

The lamp of God was not yet put out, and Samuel slept in the temple of the Lord. Periphrasis for night: the lamps of the tabernacle burned through the night and were extinguished at dawn. Lapide: learn from this to pray in the morning, as soon as you awaken, before any journey or labour, that God may direct them. \"Go not out of your lodging without prayer arming you\" (Jerome).

God calls \"Samuel, Samuel.\" Lapide (citing Gregory): the name is repeated when the soul is received into the great familiarity of the divine majesty — so that beyond what it hears, it desires nothing else, and longs to remain forever in the joy of hearing. So also \"Saul, Saul\" (Acts 9), \"Moses, Moses\" (Exod. 3), \"Abraham, Abraham\" (Gen. 22).

Samuel runs to Heli crying \"Here am I, for thou calledst me.\" Lapide: note the obedient promptness of Samuel — he runs, not walks; and God directed him through Heli even three times, to teach that divine oracles must be examined and guided by superiors, to preserve due order and subordination and to prevent diabolical delusion (Cassian, Collat. II, 14).

Heli counsels Samuel: \"Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.\" Model prayer for receiving divine inspiration. Bernard: \"Happy and blessed is the soul that perceives the veins of the divine whisper in silence, frequently repeating that word of Samuel: Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.\" Ephrem: \"Samuel was made worthy to hear the voice of God through the obedience he rendered to the priest Heli.\"

The Lord came and stood; and he called as at other times: Samuel, Samuel. God appeared to Samuel in an assumed body with a corporeal voice (Chaldaean: \"the glory of the Lord was revealed to him\"). Lapide: God chose a pure child over the aged Heli, showing \"how much better youth adorned with virtue is than old age\" (Theodoretus). \"With the upright his converse is\" (Prov. 3:32).

For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever, for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons did wickedly, and he restrained them not. Heli had corrected them but too gently, with paternal affection rather than pontifical authority. Gregory: \"He who tolerates the sinner when he could chastise, punishes him with his own death.\"

The iniquity of Heli's house shall not be expiated with victims or offerings for ever. This refers to the house (posterity) of Heli, not to Heli himself; Lapide holds Heli was likely saved (with Theodoretus, Procopius, Lyranus, Cajetanus, Chrysostom, citing Heli's submission in v. 18).

It is the Lord; let him do what is good in his sight. Lapide: a response worthy of a penitent, equanimous High Priest fully resigned to all God's will and most terrible chastisement — for which Heli appears to have been saved (Theodoretus, Procopius, Lyranus, Chrysostom). Gregory is more severe, holding it a hidden obstinacy; but the predominant Fathers read it as true resignation.

Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and not one of all his words fell to the ground. (1) Nothing said by Samuel was void or unfulfilled — all his words and prophecies were accomplished in reality. (2) Samuel's word was not contemptible but in great honour and esteem among all. Symbolically (Hugo): Samuel did not speak of earthly things — his words were heavenly, for he himself was heavenly, like an angel among men.

All Israel from Dan to Bersabee knew that Samuel was a faithful prophet of the Lord. \"Faithful\" = veracious, prophesying not from ambition or vanity, but in the Spirit of God — not seeking men's applause nor fearing their threats, but grounded in God alone, aiming to please him alone (Rupert).