NOTES for Sa1 4:1-22

Until now Israel had suffered military defeats after turning away from the Lord. This time the people seem to place their hope in Him, yet even now the army is defeated. But now the pagans not only prevail, as had happened more than once before, but for the first time they also capture Israel’s sacred object, the Ark of the Covenant.

It seems that this happened not only because of the unworthiness of Hophni and Phinehas, who defiled the priesthood by their sins, but also because of a defect in the people’s faith. The elders of Israel, who decided to bring the Ark of the Covenant to the battlefield, hope that salvation will come from the Ark. Alas, they place greater trust in the sign of the Lord’s visible presence among His people than in the Lord Himself.

While performing a pious ritual, the people had in fact abandoned hope in the Lord Himself. They are certainly not pagans, but their relationship with the Lord is already clouded by thoroughly pagan patterns of behavior.