What Does 1 Samuel 5:1 Mean in the King James?
And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Eben-ezer unto Ashdod.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The ark leaves the “stone of help,” showing that the sign of help can move while help itself is not held captive.
THE MEANING
The verse holds the shock of a sacred sign in hostile hands, carried away from the place whose name means “stone of help.” A sign of help can be displaced; the help it names is not secured by possessing that sign or keeping it in a familiar place. The movement exposes the difference between the ark and the One whose presence it signifies.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God can be controlled by securing a sacred object in the proper place.
THE ROOT
אֶבֶן הָעֵזֶר
ʾEven ha-ʿēzer
GROWS FROM
עזר
Help, aid, support.
Eben-ezer reads “stone of help,” and the ark moves away from the very name that carries help. The stone-name also holds the father-and-son image: אָב (av, father) + בֵּן (ben, son); the help in עֵזֶר (ʿēzer) points beyond possessing its sign to the source of help.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāzar: To help or support.
עָזַר
The verb shares the name’s עזר root; in 1 Samuel 7:12, the LORD “helped” is this same root in action.
ʿazārah: Help or aid.
עֲזָרָה
This related noun keeps help concrete as aid given, rather than a power secured by a place or object.
THE PATTERN
God’s presence cannot be confined to a place or possessed as an object.
But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;THE THREAD
Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.Here “helped” is עָזַר (ʿāzar), from the same עזר root as עֵזֶר (ʿēzer) in Eben-ezer. The name’s help is not stored in the location or the ark; it is the help the LORD gives.
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