1 Samuel 7:2–17

7:2 This verse begins with the transition marker often translated as “and it came to pass that,” and so the paragraph break is better identified as falling before, rather than after, verse 2. No great interest is taken in the ark as it stands in temporary quarters at Kiriath-jearim for “twenty years,” which probably coincides with the second part of the forty-year oppression of the Philistines (Judg. 10:6–7; 13:1), which ends with their defeat at Mizpah (1 Sam. 7:12–13).

“The house of Israel” views the people as the covenant community. Throughout this period there is a growing spiritual movement among them, no doubt stimulated by Samuel’s ministry. The rare verb rendered “lamented” probably conveys the idea of sorrowful groaning. Unlike the earlier mourning at Beth-shemesh (1 Sam. 6:19), this groaning is “after the Lord,” implying not only a sense of loss but also a yearning for restored fellowship with God.

7:3 This verse summarizes the substance of Samuel’s ministry throughout this period as he perceives the change taking place in the Israelites’ outlook and seeks to consolidate it. “With all your heart” comes first in Samuel’s speech to emphasize the need for total inner commitment to God (Deut. 6:5). “Returning” refers to repentance (cf. Deut. 30:2; Hos. 3:5), which goes beyond a vague emotional aspiration to be on good terms with God and also includes adopting inward attitudes and outward conduct conforming to his requirements (cf. Joel 2:12–13).

Samuel uses imperative verbs to set out three aspects of genuine commitment to the Lord:

(1) He echoes the precedents set by Jacob (Gen. 35:2, 4) and Joshua (Josh. 24:14, 23) in advocating a clean break with the idolatrous worship that had kindled the Lord’s anger against them (Judg. 10:6–7). Ashtaroth were images of a Canaanite goddess (cf. comment on 7:4), and their presence betrays Israel’s compromised allegiance to the Lord.

(2) “Direct [lit., “make to stand firm”] your heart to the Lord” emphasizes the positive aspect of true repentance. The Israelites are challenged to pursue an unshakable resolve toward orienting their lives to the Lord’s demands on them (1 Chron. 29:18; 2 Chron. 19:3; Ezra 7:10; Job 11:13) and toward maintaining a tenacious grasp on him.

(3) “Serve him only” highlights the great distinction between true worship of the Lord and the religion of Israel’s neighbors, who thought nothing of worshiping multiple deities. Loyalty to the Lord necessarily excludes any other attachment (Ex. 20:3; Josh. 24:14–15; 1 Kings 18:21). Shared worship is compromised worship—and is really no worship at all—because it fails to recognize that the Lord is unique.

If Israel displays the commitment expected from subjects of the covenant King, they will enjoy the benefits of an unsullied relationship with him: “He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” “Deliver” denotes rescue by snatching someone out of a situation of distress or danger. In the OT, the supreme deliverer is the Lord himself, but the term may also be applied to human rescuers (see, e.g., 1 Sam. 14:48). Whereas “save” focuses more on removal of an adversary, “deliver” concentrates on the one liberated from adverse circumstances.

7:4 The Israelites respond to Samuel’s challenge by renouncing pagan worship and removing “the Baals and the Ashtaroth,” the many images representing the principal god and goddess of the Canaanites. “Baal” (originally a common noun meaning “lord”; cf. comment on 14:49) was an epithet for the Canaanite deity of storm and fertility, while “Ashtoreth” was a scribal conflation of “Astarte” (or “Ashtart”), the name of the goddess of love, fertility, and war, with the vowels of boshet, the Hebrew word for “shame” (cf. comment on 14:49). Together Baal and Astarte represented the debased fertility religion of Canaan, whose rituals included sacred prostitution.

7:5 To encourage this national revival of true religion, Samuel convenes an assembly of “all Israel,” represented by their elders but with many others present as well. They are summoned to Mizpah (a name meaning “guard post” or “watchtower” and shared with several towns). This Mizpah is a site in Benjaminite territory on a main road, 6.8 miles (11 km) north of Jerusalem, a location the Philistines could not easily ambush.¹

Samuel also undertakes to “pray to the Lord for you.” In promising this he limits his role as a judge by excluding military activity. Instead, he will function as the people’s spiritual intercessor before God.

7:6 The people engage in three acts of worship at Mizpah:

(1) The first ritual, in which they “drew water and poured it out before the Lord,” is not attested elsewhere (but cf. 2 Sam. 23:16). It seems to represent total commitment to God, as in a later prophet’s plea to “pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord” (Lam. 2:19). Perhaps it also indicates recognition that the Lord, and not Baal, is the true source of water and fertility in the land.

(2) They “fasted on that day.” It is not simply abstinence from food and drink that is commendable; true fasting must be an outward expression of a correct inner attitude of contrition before the Lord (Isa. 58:1–7). The Israelites demonstrate in their fasting that they are giving higher priority to spiritual, not material, concerns in their lives.

(3) Lastly, the people make confession: “We have sinned [cf. comment on 1 Sam. 2:17] against the Lord.” Mere ritual without spiritual submission to the Lord is an abomination to him (15:22–23; Isa. 1:11–17; Amos 5:21–24). Here Israel recognizes how offensive its conduct has been to the Lord.

“Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah” indicates that Samuel is publicly acknowledged in this leadership role on this occasion of covenant renewal. He is the last in a series of judges divinely raised up to guide and deliver Israel in the period between Joshua and the establishment of the monarchy.

7:7 When news that large numbers of Israelites have assembled reaches the Philistines (who no doubt keep themselves well informed of the affairs of their subject people), it provokes a swift response. Fearing that such a gathering is for hostile purposes, “the lords of the Philistines went up” from the coastal zone to take speedy action “against Israel” in order to quell the perceived threat to their domination of the land.

Although Israel has genuinely returned to the Lord, news of the approaching Philistine army causes them to become “afraid.” They remember how they have previously suffered at the hands of the superior Philistine forces. Still, fearful though they are, they do not flee.

7:8 The Israelites consider themselves to be unworthy and incapable of approaching God directly in prayer, but the Philistine advance impels them to implore Samuel to pray on their behalf (cf. Moses’ intercession in Ex. 33:12–16; Num. 14:13–19). Their request acknowledges their need of God’s power to save them from the domination and control of their enemies. “Cry out” goes beyond “pray” (1 Sam. 7:5), implying desperate circumstances—as it did throughout the period of the judges (Judg. 3:9, 15; 4:3; 6:7; 10:10). “Save” (cf. comment on 7:3) also uses terminology found in the book of Judges related to the Lord’s intervention on Israel’s behalf (e.g., Judg. 2:16, 18).

7:9 In response Samuel takes a “nursing lamb,” just over a week old—in line with the stipulations of Exodus 22:30 and Leviticus 22:27. A “whole burnt offering” would be consumed by fire on the altar, with no part being reserved for priest or worshiper, in order to “make atonement” for the worshiper (Lev. 1:4). Samuel himself likely acted as priest in the presentation of this offering.

Samuel also “cried out to the Lord for Israel”—the same term as in verse 8—and his plea on their behalf is divinely heard and approved. Just as the Lord responded to Hannah’s prayer in 1:19, so he reacts positively to Samuel’s intercession in order to rescue Israel.

7:10 The predicament of the Israelites—who had gathered not for war but for religious renewal—is vividly portrayed. Even as Samuel is offering the sacrifice, the Philistines launch their attack. But the desperate situation is dramatically reversed as the Lord raises a mighty thunderstorm, which causes turmoil in the Philistine ranks because they believe the phenomenon represents the gods’ fighting against them. In fact, the storm is a sign of the Lord’s power and judgment (cf. 12:17; Ps. 29:3), as it is elsewhere in Scripture (Ex. 9:23–24; Isa. 29:6).

“Threw them into confusion” denotes a panicked loss of morale and consequent disarray leading to ineffective fighting (cf. Ex. 14:24; 23:27; Josh. 10:10; Judg. 4:15; 2 Sam. 22:15). This distress is a fulfillment of Hannah’s words, “The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven” (1 Sam. 2:10). “They were defeated before Israel” employs a divine passive in order to emphasize the source of the victory, while also implying that Israel followed through on the Lord’s intervention on their behalf.

7:11 The Israelites consolidate the defeat of the Philistines by pursuing them and inflicting casualties as they flee west beyond “Beth-car,” a settlement not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture but presumably lying between Mizpah and the Philistine territory. As the route is downhill, “below” indicates that the chase continued beyond Beth-car.

7:12 Samuel, who has not been involved in the battle or the pursuit, sets up a large stone as a monument “between Mizpah and Shen,” the latter possibly being a tooth-shaped crag. He names the stone “Ebenezer” (lit., “stone of help”; ESV mg.), the same name as the more northerly site mentioned in 4:1. There Israel through their folly had suffered abject defeat, but now Samuel reuses that name in its fullest sense in order to celebrate what has been achieved with divine assistance. “Till now” (or “as far as here”) may be a spatial or a temporal indicator, reminding the people to display continuing loyalty to God so that his help might be available in their lives.

7:13 The closing verses of the chapter echo the way in which earlier narratives of the judges were brought to a conclusion (cf. Judg. 3:30; 8:28). The battle marked a turning point in the relationship between Israel and the Philistines, ending forty years of Philistine oppression (Judg. 13:1). That the Philistines were “subdued” (or “humbled”) implies not that they lost their military prowess but that God exercised his power to restrain their aggression and keep them from appropriating Israelite territory and interfering in their neighbors’ affairs (but note 1 Sam. 10:5; 13:3). This was solely due to the fact that “The hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel,” that is, as long as Samuel remained judge over Israel.

7:14 Moreover, Israel recovered territory that had been lost to the Philistines. Ekron and Gath lay further to the east than the other Philistine cities (5:8).² The text does not assert that the two cities themselves fell under Israelite control, but rather that the Israelites recovered all of the territory east of those cities.

Tension with the Philistines was not the only international conflict that subsided during Samuel’s judgeship: “There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites.” The Amorites were the original inhabitants of the land of Canaan at the time of the conquest, as distinct from the Philistines, who were more recent settlers in the area. Any Amorites who remained in the land at the time of Samuel were now at peace with Israel.

7:15 “Samuel judged Israel” is not a negative evaluation of the people, but rather denotes Samuel’s role of “judge” among them. The judgeship of Samuel, whose commencement was noted in verse 6, continued “all the days of his life.” While he continued to enjoy the status and prestige of a judge for the remainder of his life, he nevertheless relinquished exercise of the office on the accession of Saul to the throne.

7:16 Samuel’s annual circuit covered a limited area. Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah were all within a day’s walk of Ramah.³ Bethel, an important sacred site (cf. Gen. 35:15; Judg. 20:26–27) was in the hills 10 miles (16 km) north of Jerusalem, on the boundary between Benjamin and Ephraim. The site of Gilgal has not been precisely identified, but it was probably roughly a mile from Jericho, which was uninhabited at this period. For its significance, cf. comment on 1 Samuel 11:14. For Mizpah, cf. comment on 7:5.

Although Samuel’s circuit was limited, he dealt with issues from throughout the land. As a judge, he did not simply deliver verdicts in lawsuits brought before him; he also bore responsibilities in every area of the social and military life of the land. No doubt Samuel also provided religious instruction, as he held the offices of prophet and priest as well. His range of activities rivaled that of Moses in its comprehensiveness.

7:17 When Samuel returned from his annual circuit to his hometown of Ramah (1:19), he continued to adjudicate cases brought before him from throughout the land. “And he built there an altar to the Lord” demonstrates that, since there was no recognized central sanctuary following the fall of Shiloh, Samuel organized worship at Ramah. In all his activity he did not neglect to function as a priest, maintaining the worship of the Lord—with one or more notable Passovers being particularly remembered (2 Chron. 35:18).