SEV Biblia, Chapter 25:1
¶ Y murió Samuel, y se juntó todo Israel, y lo lloraron, y lo sepultaron en su casa en Ramá. Y se levantó David, y se fue al desierto de Parán.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 25:1
Verse 1. And Samuel died] Samuel lived, as is supposed, about ninety-eight years; was in the government of Israel before Saul from sixteen to twenty years; and ceased to live, according to the Jews, about four months before the death of Saul; but according to Calmet and others, two years. But all this is very uncertain; how long he died before Saul, cannot be ascertained. For some account of his character, see the end of the chapter. Buried him in his house] Probably this means, not his dwelling-house, but the house or tomb he had made for his sepulture; and thus the Syriac and Arabic seem to have understood it. David-went down to the wilderness of Paran.] This was either on the confines of Judea, or in Arabia Petraea, between the mountains of Judah and Mount Sinai; it is evident from the history that it was not far from Carmel, on the south confines of Judah.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 1. And Samuel died , etc.] In the interval, when Saul and David were parted, and before they saw each other again; according to the Jewish chronology f483 , Samuel died four months before Saul; but other Jewish writers say he died seven months before; Abarbinel thinks it was a year or two before; which is most likely and indeed certain, since David was in the country of the Philistines after this a full year and four months, if the true sense of the phrase is expressed in ( 1 Samuel 27:7); and Saul was not then dead; and so another Jewish chronologer says, that Saul died two years after Samuel, to which agrees Clemens of Alexandria f486 ; and according to the Jews f487 , he died the twentieth of Ijar, for which a fast was kept on that day: and all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him ; his death being a public loss, not only to the college of the prophets, over which he presided, but to the whole nation; and they had reason to lament his death, when they called to mind, the many good offices he had done them from his youth upwards; and when the government was in his hands, which was administered in the most prudent and faithful manner; and after that they had his wise counsel and advice, his good wishes and prayers for them; and the rather they had reason to lament him, since Saul their king proved so bad as he did, and at this time a difference was subsisting between David and him: and buried him in his house at Ramah ; where he lived and died; not that he was buried in his house, properly so called, or within the walls of that building wherein he dwelt; though the Greeks and Romans used to bury in their own dwelling houses; hence sprung the idolatrous worship of the Lares, or household gods; but not the Hebrews, which their laws about uncleanness by graves would not admit of, (see Numbers 19:15,18); but the meaning is, that they buried him in the place where his house was, as Ben Gersom interprets it, at Ramah, in some field or garden belonging to it. The author of the Cippi Hebraici says f490 , that here his father Elkanah, and his mother Hannah, and her two sons, were buried in a vault shut up, with, monuments over it; and here, some say f491 , Samuel’s bones remained, until removed by Arcadius the emperor into Thrace; Benjamin of Tudela reports f492 , that when the Christians took Ramlah, which is Ramah, from the Mahometans, they found the grave of Samuel at Ramah by a synagogue of the Jews, and they took him out of the grave, and carried him to Shiloh, and there built a large temple, which is called the Samuel of Shiloh to this day: and David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran ; on hearing of the death of Samuel, there to indulge his mourning for him; or rather that he might be in greater safety from Saul, being further off, this wilderness lying on the south of the tribe of Judah, and inhabited by Arabs, and these called Kedarenes; and now it was that he dwelt in the tents of Kedar, ( <19C005> Psalm 120:5).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1 - All Israel lamented Samuel, and they had reason. He prayed daily for them. Those have hard hearts, who can bury faithful ministers withou grief; who do not feel their loss of those who have prayed for them and taught them the way of the Lord.
Original Hebrew
וימת 4191 שׁמואל 8050 ויקבצו 6908 כל 3605 ישׂראל 3478 ויספדו 5594 לו ויקברהו 6912 בביתו 1004 ברמה 7414 ויקם 6965 דוד 1732 וירד 3381 אל 413 מדבר 4057 פארן׃ 6290
