Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
1. My heart hath rejoiced in the Lord, and my horn is exalted in my God; my mouth is enlarged over my enemies: because I have joyed in thy salvation. 2. There is none holy as the Lord is: for there is no other beside thee, and there is none strong like our God. 3. Do not multiply to speak lofty things, boasting: let old matters depart from your mouth: for the Lord is a God of all knowledge, and to him are thoughts prepared. 4. The bow of the mighty is overcome, and the weak are girded with strength. 5. They that were full before have hired out themselves for bread: and the hungry are filled, so that the barren hath borne many: and she that had many children is weakened. 6. The Lord killeth and maketh alive, he bringeth down to hell and bringeth back again. 7. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, he humbleth and he exalteth. 8. He raiseth up the needy from the dust, and lifteth up the poor from the dunghill: that he may sit with princes, and hold the throne of glory. For the poles of the earth are the Lord’s, and upon them he hath set the world. 9. He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; because no man shall prevail by his own strength. 10. The adversaries of the Lord shall fear him: and upon them shall he thunder in the heavens: the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, and shall give empire to his king, and shall exalt the horn of his Christ. 11. And Elcana went to Ramatha, to his house: but the boy was a minister in the sight of the Lord, before the face of Heli the priest. 12. Now the sons of Heli were children of Belial, not knowing the Lord, 13. nor the office of the priests to the people: but whosoever had offered a sacrifice, the servant of the priest came, while the flesh was in boiling, with a fleshhook of three teeth in his hand, 14. and thrust it into the kettle, or into the cauldron, or into the pot, or into the pan: and all that the fleshhook brought up, the priest took to himself. Thus did they to all Israel that came to Silo. 15. Also before they burnt the fat, the servant of the priest came, and said to the man that sacrificed: Give me flesh to boil for the priest: for I will not take of thee boiled flesh, but raw. 16. And the man that sacrificed said to him: Let the fat first be burnt today according to the custom, and then take to thee as much as thy soul desireth. But he answered, and said to him: Not so, but thou shalt give it me now, or else I will take it by force. 17. Wherefore the sin of the young men was exceeding great before the Lord: because they withdrew men from the sacrifice of the Lord. 18. But Samuel ministered before the face of the Lord, a child girded with a linen ephod. 19. And his mother made him a little coat, which she brought for him on the appointed days, when she came up with her husband to offer the solemn sacrifice. 20. And Heli blessed Elcana and his wife: and said to him: The Lord give thee seed of this woman, for the loan thou hast lent to the Lord. And they went to their own home. 21. And the Lord visited Anna, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters: and the child Samuel became great before the Lord. 22. Now Heli was very old, and he heard all that his sons did to all Israel: and how they lay with the women that waited at the door of the tabernacle: 23. and he said to them: Why do you do such things as I hear, very wicked things, from all the people? 24. Do not so, my sons: for it is no good report that I hear, that you make the people of the Lord to transgress. 25. If one man shall sin against another, God may be appeased in his behalf: but if a man shall sin against the Lord, who shall pray for him? And they hearkened not to the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them. 26. And the child Samuel went on, and grew, and was pleasing both to God and men. 27. And there came a man of God to Heli, and said to him: Thus saith the Lord: Did I not plainly reveal myself to the house of thy father, when they were in Egypt in Pharao’s house? 28. And I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, and to burn incense to me, and to wear the ephod before me: and I gave to the house of thy father all the sacrifices of the children of Israel. 29. Why have you kicked away my victim, and my gifts, which I commanded to be offered in the temple: and thou hast rather honoured thy sons than me, to eat the firstfruits of every sacrifice of my people Israel? 30. Wherefore thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should minister in my sight for ever. But now saith the Lord: Far be this from me: but whosoever shall glorify me, I will glorify him: but they that despise me, shall be lightly esteemed. 31. Behold the days come, and I will cut off thy arm, and the arm of thy father’s house, that there shall not be an old man in thy house. 32. And thou shalt see thy rival in the temple in all the prosperity of Israel, and there shall not be an old man in thy house for ever. 33. Yet I will not altogether take away a man of thee from my altar: but that thy eyes may fail, and thy soul be spent: and a great part of thy house shall die when they come to man’s estate. 34. And this shall be a sign to thee, that shall come upon thy two sons, Ophni and Phinees: in one day they shall both die. 35. And I will raise me up a faithful priest, who shall do according to my heart, and my soul: and I will build him a faithful house, and he shall walk all days before my anointed. 36. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall be left in thy house, shall come that he may be prayed for, and shall offer a piece of silver, and a roll of bread, and shall say: Put me, I beseech thee, to some part of the priesthood, that I may eat a morsel of bread.
1. MY HEART HATH REJOICED IN THE LORD.—This is the canticle of Anna, or, as St. Augustine calls it, a “hymn,” in which she gives thanks for past and present benefits, and prophesies of the future in Christ, verses 5 and 10. It is therefore partly a Eucharistic canticle, partly a prophecy, say Theodoret, Procopius and Abulensis, although St. Augustine, book 17 On the City of God, chapter 4, will have it to be wholly a prophecy of Christ and the Church, which is true in the allegorical sense. For Anna, say Theodoret and Procopius, because she conceived a prophet, also shared in the grace of prophecy, as did Elizabeth and the Blessed Virgin.
Whence the canticle of Zachary for the birth of John the Baptist, and the canticle of the Blessed Virgin for the conceiving of Christ, “My soul doth magnify the Lord,” etc.; with this canticle of Anna they are very much alike, and at times agree word for word, as is plain to one who compares them.
Hear what St. Bernard writes of the Canticle, sermon 1 on the Canticle: “It is not the noise of the mouth, but the jubilation of the heart, not the sound of the lips, but the movement of joys; concord of wills, not consonance of voices; it is not heard outside, nor does it sound in public; but she alone who sings hears it, and he to whom it is sung, that is, the bridegroom and the bride.
From what has been said it is plain that this canticle was inspired in Anna by the Holy Spirit and is part of Holy Scripture.
AND MY HORN IS EXALTED IN MY GOD.—“Horn,” that is, my strength and glory; for the horn is the symbol of both; oxen, stags and rhinoceroses have in their horns their strength, ornament and glory: hence also royal crowns and their rays are called horns, as Pierius shows, Hieroglyphics 7; for Samuel gave the royal crown to Saul and David. The sense is as if she said: God made me, feeble and abject, indeed infamous on account of barrenness and exposed to the taunts of Phenenna, strong and glorious, by miraculously making me fruitful and giving me a son, Samuel, who will be the strength and glory both of me and of all Israel. So Abulensis, Vatablus and others. Whence St. Jerome in the Questions takes by horn the son Samuel, who had come forth from Anna, as the horn comes forth from the head of the rhinoceros. For as the rhinoceros tosses and pierces wild beasts, even elephants, with his horn, so Samuel tossed and scattered the Philistine enemies of Israel. Whence St. Gregory: “She, therefore,” he says, “whose horn is lifted up in God by exaltation, confesses her God singularly; because that supreme infusion of divine sweetness makes the exalted mind receptive of Him, and very familiar.”
MY MOUTH IS ENLARGED OVER MY ENEMIES,—as if she said: Now I have what to answer with my mouth to Phenenna and her sons and kinsfolk, who are my rivals and upbraid me with barrenness; for by showing my Samuel to them I shall impose silence.
BECAUSE I HAVE JOYED IN THY SALVATION.—In Hebrew, I have rejoiced in thy salvation, by which thou hast saved me and freed me from evil and from the reproach of barrenness, by God alone. So the Chaldee, Vatablus, Jansenius, Cajetan. Mystically, in Christ; for He is our salvation; whence the Septuagint render sōtēriō, In our version, salutare or salutarem, that is, the Saviour of the world. So St. Augustine, book 17 On the City of God. Hence it is plain that there is no true joy in the world except in God and Christ. Hear St. Chrysostom, book 3 On Anna: “Not because I am saved, but because I am saved by thee, therefore I rejoice and exult. Such are the souls of the saints, who rejoice more in God who gave than in the gifts; it is the mark of the grateful, that is, of servants, to put their Lord before all that is theirs; when we have sinned, let us grieve not because we are punished but because we have embittered the Lord; and if we have done any good, let us rejoice not for the kingdoms of heaven but because we have done a thing pleasing to the King of heaven; for to one who has a mind, even gehenna is less to be dreaded than to offend God, and to please God is more desirable than any kingdom.” And a little after: “Such was this woman also; she fled to God in all things, and, having received grace, rejoiced more in God the giver.” So also David: “My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God,” Psalm 83, verse 3.