And he said, what is the thing that the [Lord] hath said unto thee?.... The word "Lord" is not in the text, but it is "that it hath said"; the voice that had so often called him in the night, and which yet Eli knew was the voice of the Lord; and as it was, he was sensible there was something of importance said, and he had great reason to believe it respected him and his family; and the rather he might conclude this, by what the man of God had lately said to him, whose words perhaps he had too much slighted, questioning his authority; and therefore the Lord took this way and method to assure him that what was said came from him; for hereby Eli was fully convinced that this voice Samuel heard was of the Lord, and so what was said must be from him, and this he was impatient to know:I pray thee, hide it not from me; and he not only beseeched and entreated him, but adjured him, as in the next clause:God do so to thee, and more also, if thou hide anything from me of all the things that said unto thee; it is the form of an oath or curse, wishing that God would do some great evil to him, and more than he chose to express, if he concealed anything from him that had been told him.
So Kimchi and Abarbinel take it to be an oath; and Josephus, and Procopius Gazaeus on the place say, that Eli obliged Samuel by oaths and curses to declare what had been said to him. Antiqu. l. 5. c.
10. sect.