SEV Biblia, Chapter 4:12
¶ Y corriendo de la batalla un varón de Benjamín, vino aquel día a Silo, rotos sus vestidos y tierra sobre su cabeza;
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 4:12
Verse 12. Came to Shiloh the same day] The field of battle could not have been at any great distance, for this young man reached Shiloh the same evening after the defeat. With his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head.] These were signs of sorrow and distress among all nations. The clothes rent, signified the rending, dividing, and scattering, of the people; the earth, or ashes on the head, signified their humiliation: "We are brought down to the dust of the earth; we are near to our graves." When the Trojan fleet was burnt, AEneas is represented as tearing his robe from his shoulder, and invoking the aid of his gods:- Tum pius AEneas humeris abscindere vestem, Auxilioque vocare Deos, et tendere palmas. VIRG. AEn. lib. v., ver. 685.
"The prince then tore his robes in deep despair, Raised high his hands, and thus address'd his prayer." PITT.
We have a remarkable example in the same poet, where he represents the queen of King Latinus resolving on her own death, when she found that the Trojans had taken the city by storm:- Purpueros moritura manu discindit amictus. AEn. lib. xii., ver. 603.
She tears with both her hands her purple vest.
But the image is complete in King Latinus himself, when he heard of the death of his queen, and saw his city in flames:- - It scissa veste Latinus, Conjugis attonitus fatis, urbisque ruina, Canitiem immundo perfusam pulvere turpans. Ib., ver. 609.
Latinus tears his garments as he goes.
Both for his public and his private woes: With filth his venerable beard besmears, And sordid dust deforms his silver hairs. DRYDEN.
We find the same custom expressed in one line by Catullus:- Canitiem terra, atque infuso pulvere foedans. EPITH. Pelei et Thetidos, ver. 224.
Dishonouring her hoary locks with earth and sprinkled dust.
The ancient Greeks in their mourning often shaved off their hair:- touto nu kai gerav oion oizuroisi brotoisi, keirasqai te komhn, baleein tÆ apo dakru pareiwn. HOM. Odyss. lib. iv., ver. 197.
"Let each deplore his dead: the rites of wo Are all, alas! the living can bestow O'er the congenial dust, enjoin'd to shear The graceful curl, and drop the tender tear." POPE.
And again:- katqemen en leceessi kaqhrantev croa kalon udati te liarw kai aleifati? polla de sÆ amfis dakrua qerma ceon danaoi, keironto te caitav.
Ib., lib. xxiv., ver. 44.
"Then unguents sweet, and tepid streams, we shed; Tears flow'd from every eye; and o'er the dead Each clipp'd the curling honours of his head." POPE.
The whole is strongly expressed in the case of Achilles, when he heard of the death of his friend Patroclus:- Æwv fato? ton dÆ aceeov nefeov nefelh ekaluye melaina amfoterhsi de cersin elwn konin aoqaloessan, ceuato kak kefalhv, carien dÆ hscune proswpon? nektarew de citwni melainÆ amfizane tefrh.
Iliad, lib. xviii., ver. 22.
"A sudden horror shot through all the chief, And wrapp'd his senses in the cloud of grief.
Cast on the ground, with furious hands he spread The scorching ashes o'er his graceful head: His purple garments, and his golden hairs.
Those he deforms with dust, and these with tears." POPE.
It is not unusual, even in Europe, and in the most civilized parts of it, to see grief expressed by tearing the hair, beating the breasts, and rending the garments; all these are natural signs, or expression of deep and excessive grief, and are common to all the nations of the world.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 12. 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 says, which is highly probable; though not at all to be depended on is what the Jews 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 “ Joshua 7:6”).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 12-18 - The defeat of the army was very grievous to Eli as a judge; the tiding of the death of his two sons, to whom he had been so indulgent, an who, as he had reason to fear, died impenitent, touched him as father; yet there was a greater concern on his spirit. And when the messenger concluded his story with, "The ark of God is taken," he is struck to the heart, and died immediately. A man may die miserably, ye not die eternally; may come to an untimely end, yet the end be peace.
Original Hebrew
וירץ 7323 אישׁ 376 בנימן 1144 מהמערכה 4634 ויבא 935 שׁלה 7887 ביום 3117 ההוא 1931 ומדיו 4055 קרעים 7167 ואדמה 127 על 5921 ראשׁו׃ 7218
