# "they did not know the Lord" 1 Samuel 2:12,3:7



## Eoghan (Apr 23, 2013)

I am intrigued by the use of the phrase 'knowing the Lord'. The sons of Eli are characterised as worthless men who did not know the Lord (and were destined for destruction) yet the same phrase is used of Samuel. Admittedly Samuel is described as _not yet_ knowing the Lord but there is an absence of relationship described in both cases.

What especially intrigues me is the phrase "nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him". On the one hand this is the wisdom of hindsight, on the other it speaks of God's purpose for Samuel (elect).

What do others think of this latter phrase, is the word the written word or the prophetic word (voice?) of God?


----------



## Contra_Mundum (Apr 23, 2013)

The Hebrew terms,2:12 ( לא ידעו את־יהוה ) 
3:7 ( ושׁמואל טרם ידע את־יהוה )​are different expressions. The first emphatically declares of the two sons, "Not they knew the LORD." And being grown men, and priests, they really had no excuse. Samuel is yet a child. But the language of 3:7 really isn't to the purpose of this comparison. Samuel might well have a child's knowledge of the LORD at this moment, but he is soon to be a *prodigy* respecting such knowledge.

Furthermore, 3:7 uses the same word (for "not yet") twice, to the effect the the second phrase functions as a kind of elaboration on the first. That is, he did not know the LORD after this manner, a conversation as it were. Then there is the matter of translation/sense. The sentence might be rendered: "Samuel not-yet knew _it was_ the LORD" [who spoke to him]. Supply a copula (be-verb) instead of a "did" and the sentence opens up. The second half of the verse goes on to remind us that little Samuel had not *until now* been the vehicle of direct revelation, "and not before was revealed to him the Word of the LORD."

So, I don't think that the cases (Eli's sons vs. Samuel) are perfectly parallel. The hidden things of God (election) as the possession of each person is not the interest of the sacred historian. But rather, the subjective state of knowledge each person has, relative to what has been shown to each. The grown sons should have known God very well, given nothing but the written Word they had access to; but they were ignorant. Samuel was about to become a prophet of divine revelation as a mere stripling, not only knowing God by the written or spoken Word (mediated to him from Eli perhaps), but by the direct speech of God himself.


----------

