John Gill's Exposition on 1 Samuel 4:12

A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.

Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.

And there ran a man of Benjamin out of the army, etc.] Out of the rank in which he was, before the whole army was quite broken up. This was a young man as Josephus f83 says, which is highly probable; though not at all to be depended on is what the Jews f84 say, that this was Saul, later king of Israel: and came to Shiloh the same day; which, according to Bunting f85, was forty two miles from Ebenezer, near to which the battle was fought; and that it was a long way is pretty plain by the remark made, that this messenger came the same day the battle was fought; though not at such a distance as some Jewish writers say, some sixty, some one hundred and twenty miles f86; which is not at all probable: with his clothes rent, and earth upon his head; which were both tokens of distress and mourning, and showed that he was a messenger of bad tidings from the army; (see Gill on “<060706>Joshua 7:6”).

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