1 Samuel 1:1

Contextual Overview

¹ There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephrathite. ¹ Now there was a certain man from Ramathaim of the Zuphites, of the hill-country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite: ¹ There was a man named Elkanah who lived in Ramah in the region of Zuph in the hill country of Ephraim. He was the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, of Ephraim. ¹ Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim–zophim, of the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite: ¹ There was a man named Elkanah son of Jeroham from Ramathaim in the mountains of Ephraim. Elkanah was from the family of Zuph. (Jeroham was Elihu's son. Elihu was Tohu's son, and Tohu was the son of Zuph from the family group of Ephraim.) ¹ There was a man from Ramathaim Zophim, from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah. He was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. ¹ Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name [was] Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite: ¹ Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim, of the hill-country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite: ¹There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim, of the hill country of Ephraim, named Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.¹ `A man was of `Ramathym of Sophym, of the hil of Effraym, and his name was Elchana, the sone of Jeroboam, sone of Elyud, sone of Thau, sone of Suph, of Effraym.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Ramathaimzophim: This ancient town, now called Ramla, is, according to Phocas, about thirty-six miles west of Jerusalem, and, according to modern travellers, about nine miles from Joppa and a league from Lydda, between which it is situated. It is built on a rising ground, on a rich plain, and contains about two thousand families. 1 Samuel 1:19, Matthew 27:57, Arimathea

mount: Judges 17:1, Judges 19:1

Elkanah: 1 Chronicles 6:25-27, 1 Chronicles 6:34

Zuph: 1 Samuel 9:5

Ephrathite: 1 Samuel 17:12, Judges 12:5, Ruth 1:2, 1 Kings 11:26

Reciprocal: Genesis 35:11 - a nation Genesis 48:7 - Rachel Exodus 6:24 - Elkanah Joshua 18:25 - Ramah Judges 4:5 - between 1 Samuel 7:17 - his return 1 Chronicles 6:26 - Zophai 1 Chronicles 6:27 - Eliab 1 Chronicles 6:35 - Zuph Luke 23:51 - Arimathaea

Cross-References

Genesis 1:4
And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1:4
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1:4
God saw that the light was good, so he divided the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1:4
God saw that the light was good, so God separated the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1:4
And God saw the light, that [it was] good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1:4
God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1:4
God saw that the light was good (pleasing, useful) and He affirmed and sustained it; and God separated the light [distinguishing it] from the darkness.

Genesis 1:4
And God seiy the liyt, that it was good, and he departide the liyt fro derknessis; and he clepide the liyt,

Genesis 1:4
And God seeth the light that [it is] good, and God separateth between the light and the darkness,

Genesis 1:4
And seeing that the light was good, God separated the light from the darkness.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Now there was a man of Ramathaimzophim, of Mount Ephraim,.... Ramathaim is a word of the dual number, and signifies two Ramahs; the city consisted of two parts, being built perhaps on two hills, and were called Zophim; because, as the Rabbins say, they looked one to another; or rather, because situated on eminences, there were watchtowers in them, where watchmen were placed; or because they were inhabited by prophets, who were sometimes called watchmen, Ezekiel 3:17 and here is thought to be a school of the prophets, see

1 Samuel 19:19 and which seems to be countenanced by the Targum, in which the words are paraphrased thus, "and there was one" man of Ramatha, of the disciples of the prophets; or, as others think, the sense is this, this man was one of the Ramathites, the inhabitants of Ramah, and of the family of Zuph, or the Zuphites, which gave the name to the land of Zuph, and the grand ancestor of Elkanah is in this verse called Zuph, see 1 Samuel 9:5. According to Jerom e, this is the same with Arimathaea, of which Joseph was, Matthew 27:57 for thus he writes,

"Armatha Sophim, the city of Helcanah and Samuel, in the Thamnitic region near Diospolis (or Lydda), from whence was Joseph, who in the Gospels is said to be of Arimathaea;''

but Reland f thinks it cannot be the same that was about Lydda, which was all a champaign country; whereas this was in the mountains of Ephraim, which must be sought to the north of Jerusalem, and not the west, and so it follows:

of Mount Ephraim: which is added to distinguish it from other Ramahs in several tribes, as in Benjamin, Naphtali, c. though this may refer not to the situation of Ramathaim, but to the country of this man, who was originally of Mount Ephraim, as was the Levite in Judges 19:1 who was the cause of much evil to Israel, as this was of great good, as Kimchi observes:

and his name was Elkanah which signifies "God hath possessed"; that is, possessed him, or he was in possession of God; he had an ancestor of the same name, 1 Chronicles 6:23. This man was a Levite, one of the Kohathites, and a descendant of Korah; so that the famous prophet Samuel was of the sons of Korah:

the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph; the three last of these names are somewhat differently read in 1 Chronicles 6:26, where they are Eliab, Nahath, Zophai; and in 1 Chronicles 6:34. Eliel, Toah, Zuph:

an Ephrathite; which appellation is to be connected, according to Kimchi, not with Elkanah, but with Zuph; though neither of them were so called from Bethlehemjudah, the inhabitants of which were indeed called Ephrathites from Ephratah, another name of it; so Elimelech, and his sons Mahlon and Chilion, being of that city, were so called, Ruth 1:2 not from their being of the tribe of Ephraim, as Jeroboam of that tribe is called an Ephrathite, 1 Kings 11:26, see Judges 12:5 for these were Levites, the descendants of Kohath, in the line of Korah; but because they sojourned in Mount Ephraim, or dwelt there, as Elkanah did; and it is well known that the Kohathites had cities given them in the tribe of Ephraim, Joshua 21:5.

e De loc. Heb. fol. 88. K. f Palestin. Illustrat. tom. 2. p. 581.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ramathaim-zophim may signify “the two hills 1 Samuel 9:11-13 of the watchmen,” so called from its being a post from which the watchmen looked out. But since Zuph is the name of the head of the family, it is more probable that Zophin means the Zuphites, the sons of Zuph (see Zophai, 1 Chronicles 6:26), from whom the land about Ramah was called “the land of Zuph,” 1 Samuel 9:5.

There is reason to believe that Elkanah - an Ephrathite, or inhabitant of Bethlehem 1 Samuel 17:12; Ruth 1:2 and of the territory of the tribe of Ephraim 1 Kings 11:26 - the father of Samuel, represents the fifth generation of settlers in Canaan, and therefore that Samuel was born about 130 years after the entrance into Canaan - four complete generations, or 132 years - and about 40 years before David.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL

-Year from the Creation, 2833.

-Year before the Incarnation, 1171.

-Year before the first Olympiad, 395.

-Year before the building of Rome, 418.

-Year of the Julian Period, 3543.

-Year of the Dionysian Period, 351.

-Cycle of the Sun, 15.

-Cycle of the Moon, 9.

CHAPTER I

Some account of Elkanah and his two wives, Peninnah and Hannah,

1, 2.

His annual worship at Shiloh and the portions he gave at such

times to his wives, 3-5.

Hannah, being barren, is reproached by Peninnah, especially in

their going up to Shiloh; at which she is sorely grieved, 6, 7.

Elkanah comforts her, 8.

Her prayer and vow in the temple, that if God would give her a

son, she would consecrate him to His service, 9-11.

Eli, the high priest, indistinctly hearing her pray, charges her

with being drunk, 12-14.

Her defence of her conduct, 15, 16.

Eli, undeceived, blesses her; on which she takes courage,

17, 18.

Hannah and Elkanah return home; she conceives, bears a son, and

calls him Samuel, 19, 20.

Elkanah and his family go again to Shiloh to worship; but Hannah

stays at home to nurse her child, purposing, as soon as he is

weaned, to go and offer him to the Lord, according to her vow,

21-23.

When weaned, she takes him to Shiloh, presents hear child to Eli

to be consecrated to the Lord, and offers three bullocks, an

ephah of flour, and a bottle of wane, for his consecration,

24-28.

NOTES ON CHAP. I

Verse 1 Samuel 1:1. Ramathaim-zophim — Literally, the two high places of the watchman; these were, no doubt, two contiguous hills, on which watchtowers were built, and in which watchmen kept continual guard for the safety of the country and which afterwards gave name to the place.