1 Kings 7:12
And Samuel took a stone, and laid it between Masphath and Sen: and he called the place, the Stone of help. And he said: Thus far the Lord hath helped us.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Tulit autem Samuel lapidem unum, et posuit eum inter Masphath et inter Sen : et vocavit nomen loci illius, Lapis adjutorii. Dixitque : Hucusque auxiliatus est nobis Dominus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἔλαβεν Σαμουὴλ λίθον ἕνα καὶ ἔστησεν αὐτὸν ἀνὰ μέσον Μασσηφὰθ καὶ ἀνὰ μέσον τῆς παλαιᾶς, καὶ ἐκάλεσεν τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἀβενέζερ, Λίθος τοῦ βοηθοῦ, καὶ εἶπεν Ἕως ἐνταῦθα ἐβοήθησεν ἡμῖν Κύριος.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיִּקַּ֨ח שְׁמוּאֵ֜ל אֶ֣בֶן אַחַ֗ת וַיָּ֤שֶׂם בֵּֽין הַמִּצְפָּה֙ וּבֵ֣ין הַשֵּׁ֔ן וַיִּקְרָ֥א אֶת שְׁמָ֖הּ אֶ֣בֶן הָעָ֑זֶר וַיֹּאמַ֕ר עַד הֵ֖נָּה עֲזָרָ֥נוּ יְהוָֽה
Haydock's commentary
Sen, "the tooth," a craggy rock of that appearance. Syriac Bethjasan. (Calmet)
Some take it to be the same with Bethchar. (Malvenda)
It was before ignoble, (Salien) and the situation not known, till this monument was erected, with the inscription, Thus far, &c.
Help; "Aben-ezer," mentioned before, chap. iv. 1. These religious monuments were not prohibited by the law, Leviticus xxvi. 1. Samuel would take every precaution that they should not become objects of idolatry, as he was under the immediate influence of the Holy Spirit. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine City of God, Of the Disruption of the Kingdom of Israel, by Which the Perpetual Division of the Spiritual from the Carnal Israel Was Prefigured
We see that this sentence concerning this division of the people of Israel, divinely uttered in these words, has been altogether irremediable and quite perpetual. For whoever have turned, or are turning, or shall turn thence to Christ, it has been according to the foreknowledge of God, not according to the one and the same nature of the human race. Certainly none of the Israelites, who, cleaving to Christ, have continued in Him, shall ever be among those Israelites who persist in being His enemies even to the end of this life, but shall for ever remain in the separation which is here foretold. For the Old Testament, from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, profiteth nothing, unless because it bears witness to the New Testament. Otherwise, however long Moses is read, the veil is put over their heart; but when any one shall turn thence to Christ, the veil shall be taken away. …
Theodoret Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus, To Jobius, Presbyter and Archimandrite
The patriarch Abraham won a victory in his old age. The great Moses was now an old man when, so long as he stretched out his hands in prayer, he vanquished Amalek. The divine Samuel was an old man when he put the aliens to flight. These are emulated by your venerable old age. In our wars for true religion’s sake you are playing the man, and championing the cause of the gospel doctrines, and putting young men in the shade by the vigour of your spirit.