The men of Kiriath Jearim came and took Yahweh’s ark, and brought it into Abinadab’s house on the hill, and consecrated Eleazar his son to keep Yahweh’s ark. From the day that the ark stayed in Kiriath Jearim, the time was long; for it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel lamented after Yahweh.
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The men of Kiriath Jearim came and took Yahweh’s ark, and brought it into Abinadab’s house on the hill, and consecrated Eleazar his son to keep Yahweh’s ark. From the day that the ark stayed in Kiriath Jearim, the time was long; for it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel lamented after Yahweh. Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you are returning to Yahweh with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, and direct your hearts to Yahweh, and serve him only; and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” Then the children of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and served Yahweh only. Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to Yahweh for you.” They gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before Yahweh, and fasted on that day, and said there, “We have sinned against Yahweh.” Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah. When the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. When the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. The children of Israel said to Samuel, “Don’t stop crying to Yahweh our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.” Samuel took a suckling lamb, and offered it for a whole burnt offering to Yahweh. Samuel cried to Yahweh for Israel; and Yahweh answered him. As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines came near to battle against Israel; but Yahweh thundered with a great thunder on that day on the Philistines, and confused them; and they were struck down before Israel. The men of Israel went out of Mizpah, and pursued the Philistines, and struck them, until they came under Beth Kar.
Parallel Translations
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The men of Kiriath Jearim came and took Yahweh’s ark, and brought it into Abinadab’s house on the hill, and consecrated Eleazar his son to keep Yahweh’s ark.
From the day that the ark stayed in Kiriath Jearim, the time was long; for it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel lamented after Yahweh.
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And the men of Kirjath-jearim came, and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD.
And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD.
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And the men of Kiriath-jearim came, and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD.
And it came to pass, from the day that the ark abode in Kiriath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel yearned after the LORD.
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Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (13)
- Judges 2:4 (v2) When Yahweh’s angel spoke these words to all the children of Israel, the people lifted up their voice and wept.
- Jeremiah 3:13 (v2) Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under…
- Jeremiah 3:22-25 (v2) Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding. “Behold, we have come to you; for you are Yahweh our God. Truly help…
- Jeremiah 31:9 (v2) They will come with weeping. I will lead them with petitions. I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which…
- Zechariah 12:10-11 (v2) I will pour on David’s house, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom…
Show all 13 cross-references
- Matthew 5:4 (v2) Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
- 2 Corinthians 7:10-11 (v2) For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold, this…
- 2 Samuel 6:2-4 (v1) David arose, and went with all the people who were with him, from Baale Judah, to bring up from there God’s ark, which is called by the…
- Joshua 18:14 (v1) The border extended, and turned around on the west quarter southward, from the mountain that lies before Beth Horon southward; and ended at…
- 1 Samuel 6:21 (v1) They sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have brought back Yahweh’s ark. Come down and bring it…
- 1 Chronicles 13:5-7 (v1) So David assembled all Israel together, from the Shihor the brook of Egypt even to the entrance of Hamath, to bring God’s ark from Kiriath…
- Psalms 132:6 (v1) Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah. We found it in the field of Jaar:
- Isaiah 52:11 (v1) Depart! Depart! Go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Go out from among her! Cleanse yourselves, you who carry Yahweh’s vessels.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (24 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1–2 A city in the tribe of Judah, called also…
A city in the tribe of Judah, called also Kirjath Baal, Josh. 15:60.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–2 1Sa 7:1 And the men of Kirjathjearim came, and…
1Sa 7:1 And the men of Kirjathjearim came, and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD.
Ver. 1. And the men of Kirjathjearim came.] Notwithstanding the recent slaughter at Bethshemesh; Aliorum perditio horum erat cautio: they had seen their neighbours shipwrecked, and would look better therefore to their own tackling.
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And brought it into the house of Abinadab.] Who was a Levite, saith Josephus, and a good man, Civitatis suae integerrimus, as one saith of Phocion, the Athenian.
In the hill.] Which hill, saith Beda, overlooked and commanded the whole town, and was therefore a fit place for the ark, which was quasi arx totius Israelis, the beauty and bulwark of all Israel. As for Shiloh, either it was destroyed when the ark was taken, or else abhorred by God for the filthiness there committed by those profane priests, the two sons of Eli.
To keep the ark of the Lord.] Which was properly the office of the high priest’s son. {Num 4:16}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–2 The men of Kirjath-jearim gladly embraced the motion, as…
The men of Kirjath-jearim gladly embraced the motion, as wisely considering that their great calamity was not to be charged upon the ark, but upon themselves, and their own carelessness, irreverence, and presumption, in looking into the ark. This place is elsewhere called Baalah, and Kirjath-baal, as is evident from Jos 15:9,60; 18:14; 1Ch 13:6,7.
Fetched up the ark, i.e. caused it to be brought up, to wit, by the priests appointed to that work, whom they could easily procure, and undoubtedly would do it, especially having been so lately warned of the great danger of violating God’s commands in those matters. In Scripture use, men are commonly said to do that which they order or cause others to do. They chose
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the house of Abinadab in the hill,
because it was both a strong place, where it would be most safe; and a high place, and therefore visible at some distance, and to many persons, which was convenient for them, who were at that time to direct their prayers and faces towards the ark, 1Ki 8:29,30,35; Psa 28:2; 138:2; Dan 6:10. And for the same reason David afterwards placed it in the hill of Zion. Some translate the word in Gibeah. But that was in the tribe of Benjamin, Jos 18:28; Jdg 19:14, whereas this Kirjath-jearim was in the tribe of Judah, 1Ch 13:6,7.
Sanctified Eleazar; not that they made him either Levite or priest, as some would have it; for in Israel persons were not made, but born such; and since the institution of Levites and priests, none were made such that were born of other tribes or families: but that they devoted or set him apart (as this verb sometimes signifies) wholly to attend upon this work. They chose the son rather than his father, because he was younger and stronger, and probably freed from domestic cares, which might divert him from or disturb him in his work; or because he was more eminent for prudence or piety. To keep the ark of the Lord; to keep the place where it was clean and neat, and to guard it, that none might approach or touch it but such as God required or allowed to do so.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 Here we must attend the ark to Kirjath-jearim, and…
Here we must attend the ark to Kirjath-jearim, and then leave it there, to hear not a word more of it except once (Sa1 14:18), till David fetched it thence, about forty years after, Ch1 13:6.
I. We are very willing to attend it thither, for the men of Beth-shemesh have by their own folly made that a burden which might have been a blessing; and gladly would we see it among those to whom it will be a savour of life unto life, for in every place where it has been of late it has been a savour of death unto death. Now,
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1. The men of Kirjath-jearim cheerfully bring it among them, Sa1 7:1. They came, at the first word, and fetched up the ark of the Lord. Their neighbours the Beth-shemites, were not more glad to get rid of it than they were to receive it, knowing very well that what slaughter the ark had made at Beth-shemesh was not an act of arbitrary power, but of necessary justice, and those that suffered by it must blame themselves, not the ark; we may depend upon the word which God hath said (Jer 25:6), Provoke me not, and I will do you no hurt. Note, The judgments of God on those who profane his ordinances should not make us afraid of the ordinances, but of profaning them and making an ill use of them.
2. They carefully provided for its decent entertainment among them, as a welcome guest, with true affection, and, as an honourable guest, with respect and reverence.
(1.) They provided a proper place to receive it. They had no public building to adorn with it, but they lodged it in the house of Abinadab, which stood upon the highest ground, and, probably, was the best house in their city; or perhaps the master of it was the most eminent man they had for piety, and best affected to the ark. The men of Beth-shemesh left it exposed upon a stone in the open field, and, though it was a city of priests, none of them received it into his house; but the men of Kirjath-jearim, though common Israelites, gave it house-room, and no doubt the best-furnished room in the house to which it was brought. Note, [1.] God will find out a resting-place for his ark; if some thrust it from them, yet the hearts of others shall be inclined to receive it. [2.] It is no new thing for God's ark to be thrust into a private house. Christ and his apostles preached from house to house when they could not have public places at command. [3.] Sometimes priests are shamed and out-done in religion by common Israelites.
(2.) They provided a proper person to attend it: They sanctified Eleazar his son to keep it; not the father, either because he was aged and infirm, or because he had the affairs of his house and family to attend, from which they would not take him off. But the son, who, it is probable, was a very pious devout young man, and zealously affected towards the best things. His business was to keep the ark, not only from being seized by malicious Philistines, but from being touched or looked into by too curious Israelites. He was to keep the room clean and decent in which the ark was, that, though it was in an obscure place, it might no look like a neglected thing, which no man looked after. It does not appear that this Eleazar was of the tribe of Levi, much less of the house of Aaron, nor was it needful that he should, for here was no altar either for sacrifice or incense, only we may suppose that some devout Israelites would come and pray before the ark, and those that did so he was there ready to attend and assist. For this purpose they sanctified him, that is, by his own consent, they obliged him to make this his business, and to give a constant attendance to it; they set him apart for it in the name of all their citizens. This was irregular, but was excusable because of the present distress. When the ark has but recently come out of captivity we cannot expect it to be on a sudden in its usual solemnity, but must take things as they are, and make the best of them.
II. Yet we are very loth to leave it here, wishing it well at Shiloh again, but that is made desolate (Jer 7:14), or at least wishing it at Nob, or Gibeon, or wherever the tabernacle and the altars are; but, it seems, it must lie by the way for want of some public-spirited men to bring it to its proper place. 1. The time of its continuance here was long, very long, above forty years it lay in these fields of the wood, a remote, obscure, private place, unfrequented and almost unregarded (Sa1 7:2): The time that the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim was long, even till David fetched it thence. It was very strange that all the time that Samuel governed the ark was never brought to its place in the holy of holies, an evidence of the decay of holy zeal among them. God suffered it to be so, to punish them for their neglect of the ark when it was in its place and to show that the great stress which the institution laid upon the ark was but typical of Christ, and those good things to come which cannot be moved, Heb 9:23; Heb 12:27. It was a just reproach to the priests that one not of their order was sanctified to keep the ark. 2. Twenty years of this time had passed before the house of Israel was sensible of the want of the ark. The Septuagint read it somewhat more clearly than we do; and it was twenty years, and (that is, when) the whole house of Israel looked up again after the Lord. So long the ark remained in obscurity, and the Israelites were not sensible of the inconvenience, nor ever made any enquiry after it, what has become of it; though, while it was absent from the tabernacle, the token of God's special presence was wanting, nor could they keep the day of atonement as it should be kept. They were content with the altars without the ark; so easily can formal professors rest satisfied in a round of external performances, without any tokens of God's presence or acceptance. But at length they bethought themselves, and began to lament after the lord, stirred up to it, it is probable, by the preaching of Samuel, with which an extraordinary working of the Spirit of God set in. A general disposition to repentance and reformation now appears throughout all Israel, and they begin to look unto him whom they had slighted, and to mourn, Zac 12:10. Dr. Lightfoot thinks this was a matter and time as remarkable as almost any we read of in scripture; and that the great conversion, Acts 2 and 3, is the only parallel to it. Note, (1.) Those that know how to value God's ordinances cannot but reckon it a very lamentable thing to want them. (2.) True repentance and conversion begin in lamenting after the Lord; we must be sensible that by sin we have provoked him to withdraw and are undone if we continue in a state of distance from him, and be restless till we have recovered his favour and obtained his gracious returns. It was better with the Israelites when they wanted the ark, and were lamenting after it, than when they had the ark, and were prying into it, or priding themselves in it. Better see people longing in the scarcity of the means of grace than loathing in the abundance of them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–2 And the men of Kirjathjearim came and fetched up…
And the men of Kirjathjearim came and fetched up the ark of the Lord,.... From Bethshemesh, which was near unto them, as Josephus (g) says; they made no difficulty of fetching it, but gladly received it; for if they knew of what happened to the men of Bethshemesh, they knew it was not owing to the presence of the ark among them, but to their irreverent behaviour to it; and though Kirjathjearim was not a Levite city, and so the men of it could not bear the ark themselves, yet they might have proper persons from Bethshemesh to do this service:
and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill; which; hill was within the city of Kirjathjearim, and is mentioned either to distinguish this Abinadab that dwelt on it from another of the same name in the city, as Kimchi observes; or else to remark the propriety of the place, and the reason of the choice of it for the ark to be placed in; hills and high places being in those times accounted fittest for sacred services to be performed in, as well as places of safety; who this man was is not certain. Josephus (h) says he was a Levite, but if so he could only be a sojourner in this place; however he might be, as he suggests he was, a man of great esteem for religion and righteousness:
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and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lord; not only to watch it that it might not be taken away, but to keep persons from it, from touching it, or using it irreverently; and such as were not allowed to come nigh it; as well as to keep the place clean where it was put; and for this he was appointed by the priests, or the elders of the city; and was set apart for this service, and prepared for it by washings and sacrifices; and the rather he and not his father was invested with this office, because he was a young man, and his father might be old and decrepit; and this his son also a holy goodman, wise and prudent, and active and zealous for God, and true religion; and on all accounts a fit person for this post.
(g) Antiqu. l. 6. c. 1. sect. 4. (h) Ibid.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–2 The ark remains at Kirjath-jearim twenty years, ver. 1,…
The ark remains at Kirjath-jearim twenty years, ver. 1, 2. Samuel reforms Israel from idolatry, and Judg. Israel, ver. 3-6. The Philistines come up against Israel, are overthrown, and restore the cities they had taken, ver. 7-14. Samuel administers justice thro' all the land, ver. 15-17.
Fetch up - That is, by the priests appointed to that work. Hill - This place they chose, both because it was a strong place, where it would be the most safe; and an high place, and therefore visible at some distance, which was convenient for them, who were at that time to direct their prayers and faces towards the ark. And for the same reason David afterwards placed it in the hill of Zion. Sanctified Eleazar - Not that they made him either Levite or Priest; for in Israel persons were not made but born such; but they devoted, or set him apart wholly to attend upon this work. His son - Him they chose rather than his father, because he was younger and stronger, and probably freed from domestic cares, which might divert him from, or disturb him in this work. To keep the ark - To keep the place where it was, clean, and to guard it that none might touch it, but such as God allowed to do so.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–2 The men of Kirjah-jearim bring the ark from Beth-shemesh,…
CHAPTER VII
The men of Kirjah-jearim bring the ark from Beth-shemesh, and
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consecrate Eleazar, the son of Abinadab, to keep it; and there
it continued twenty years, 1, 2.
Samuel reproves and exhorts the people, and gathers them
together at Mizpeh, where they fast and pray, and confess
their sins, 3-6.
The Philistines go up against them; the Israelites cry unto the
Lord for help; Samuel offers sacrifices; and the Lord confounds
the Philistines with thunder; Israel discomfits and pursues
them to Beth-car, 7-11.
Samuel erects a stone for a memorial, and calls it Eben-ezer,
12.
The Philistines are totally subdued, and Israel recovers all
its lost cities, 13, 14.
Samuel acts as an itinerant judge in Israel, 15-17.
NOTES ON CHAP. VII
Verse 1. Fetched up the ark] When these people received the message of the Beth-shemites, they probably consulted Samuel, with whom was the counsel of the Lord, and he had encouraged them to go and bring it up, else they might have expected such destruction as happened to the Beth-shemites.
Sanctified Eleazar] Perhaps this sanctifying signifies no more than setting this man apart, simply to take care of the ark.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1–2 1Sa 7:1. The men of Kirjath-jearim fetched up the…
1Sa 7:1. The men of Kirjath-jearim fetched up the ark — That is, by the priests appointed to that work. Into the house of Abinadab — As the care of the ark belonged to the Levites, doubtless Abinadab was of that tribe, otherwise, indeed, he could not have consecrated, that is, set apart, or solemnly appointed his son to keep, or to attend it, and see that no rudeness was offered to it; to keep the place, where it was, clean, and to guard it that none might touch it but such as God had allowed so to do. In the hill — This place they chose, both because it was a strong place, where it would be most safe; and a high place, and therefore visible at some distance, which was convenient for them, who were at that time to direct their prayers and faces toward the ark. And for the same reason David afterward placed it on the hill of Sion. If it be inquired why they did not carry the ark to Shiloh, its ancient seat; the answer is, that the Philistines had destroyed that place; and the tabernacle, upon the death of Eli, was removed from thence unto Nob; where it remained till the death of Samuel.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–2 This verse belongs more properly to 1 Sam. 6.…
This verse belongs more properly to 1 Sam. 6. Abinadab and his sons were probably of the house of Levi. The catastrophe at Bethshemesh must inevitably have made the Israelites very careful to pay due honor to the ark in accordance with the Law: but to give the care of the ark to those who were not of the house of Levi would be a gross violation of the Law.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1–2 In Gabaa. That is, on the hill, for Gabaa…
In Gabaa. That is, on the hill, for Gabaa signifieth a hill. (Challoner) (1 Paralipomenon xiii. 6.) --- It was perhaps the citadel, (Haydock) or an elevated situation, such as were generally chosen for the temples both of the true and of false gods. (Calmet) --- Abinadab was a Levite of renowned virtue. (Menochius) --- The people of this city knew that the ark was a source of blessings to those who received it with respect; and, that the Bethsamites had been punished only for their irreverence. (Worthington) --- Samuel was first consulted before the people, in a body, undertook to remove the ark; and here he was probably recognized for the judge of Israel, in which character he henceforward appears, exhorting all to obey the Lord with sincerity. He appoints a general assembly at Masphath, to enter into a solemn covenant with the Lord, and to adopt means for recovering their liberty. We have only a very concise account of these important transactions, owing to the modesty of the author, which the Holy Spirit would teach us to imitate. (Calmet) --- Sanctified. Chaldean, "set over," (Menochius) prepared by suitable purifications, &c. (Calmet) --- Some think, that Eleazar received the priestly or the Levitical consecration, Numbers viii. 7. We have no proof that he was of the family of Aaron, nor does his name occur in the genealogies of the Levites, as they are perhaps too short. Josephus ([Antiquities?] vi. 2.) asserts that he was a Levite. (Calmet) --- But even a laic, like Obededon of Geth, might have been the guardian of the ark, as he would not have to touch it. (Salien, the year before Christ 1112) --- Eleazar had two brothers, who acted in the same capacity when David intended to remove the ark to Sion. At that time he was perhaps dead, or decrepit, as his father might be on this occasion. (Haydock) --- It is not improbable but they were of the race of Aaron. (Tirinus)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v2 The Reformation of Israel by Samuel
SECOND SECTION
The Reformation of Israel by Samuel
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1Sa_7:2-17
I. Israel’s Repentance and Conversion by Means of Samuel’s Prophetical Labors. 1Sa_7:2-6
2And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjathjearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years. [And it came to pass, after the day when the ark rested in K., a long time, even twenty years, elapsed], and all the house of Israel 3lamented after the Lord [Jehovah]; And1 Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord [Jehovah] with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods [ins. from among you] and [ins. the] Ashtaroth2 from among you [om. from among you], and prepare [direct3] your hearts unto the Lord [Jehovah], and serve him only; and he will deliver you out of the hands of the Philistines. 4Then the children of Israel did put away [ins. the] Baalim and [ins. the] Ashtaroth, 5and served the Lord [Jehovah] only. And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpeh 6[Mizpah], and I will pray for you unto the Lord [Jehovah]. And they gathered together to Mizpeh [Mizpah], and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord [Jehovah], and said there,4 We have sinned against the Lord [Jehovah]. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh [Mizpah].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Sa_7:2-4. The penitential return of the people from idolatry to the sole service of the living God. First, as to the union and connection of these sentences, their close union is so distinctly marked by the five-times occurring Waw [“and”] that to suppose (with Thenius) a gap between 1Sa_7:2-3 is unwarranted. And also the connection of the individual statements is opposed to such a view. In 1Sa_7:2 the phrase “ after or from the day” [ מִיּוֹם Eng. A. V. “while”] marks a terminus a quo, on which follows the statement of a period of time, of a condition of things which lasted during5 this period, and of a definite fact which introduced a new era. The point of time, from which reckoning is made, is the day when the ark rested at Kirjathjearim, important enough, after its long absence, to form the beginning of a new development. The following period of twenty years is characterized as disproportionally long by the added words “and the days grew many.” [The sentence reads literally: “and it came to pass, from the resting of the ark in K., and the days were many, and they were twenty years”]. This is done to set forth more distinctly the condition of the people during this period, after the restoration of the ark. The condition of “all the people of Israel” is described by the words וַיִּנָּהוּ, etc. [Eng. A. V. “ lamented, etc.”] according to the inner side of their life in relation to God. The meaning assigned to this verb (וַיִּנָּהוּ) by Gesenius and others, “assembled,” rests merely on Buxturf’s “congregati sunt” (Lex. Chald., p. 1310), which is here and elsewhere an utterly incorrect translation of the Chald. Reflexive. Böttcher (Æhrenlese I., p. 111) translates: “the people of Israel quieted themselves, and (in quiet devotion) followed Jahveh,” and sees in this the contrast to the “great disquietude” mentioned in 1Sa_6:19 sq. But, in the first place, against this view is the phrase “after Jehovah,” which, in this translation, requires the arbitrary insertion of another verb “and followed,” without which insertion the expression “and quieted themselves after Jehovah” gives no sense. Further, the reference to 1Sa_6:19 sq. is irrelevant, because there it is only a local “disquietude” that is spoken of, not one that touched all the people. Rather, according to Böttcher’s own remark—that נחה, in the first place, expresses remarkable breathing in general, heavy respiration, with sighing and lamentation, and hence נָהָה is used of wailing—we must accept as well-grounded the translation: “And sighed or lamented after the Lord.” (So נָהָה is used in Mic_2:4; Eze_32:18).6 The matter or the cause of the lamentation is determined by the connection between these words and the following, and by the external condition of Israel during this period. In respect to the latter, Böttcher asks: “Why should the Israelites still mourn after twenty years of immunity and quiet? And how could they have lamented ‘after Jahveh,’ unless it was that their sanctuary had to move again?” To which we reply by pointing to the uninterrupted oppression of the Philistine domination; for, though the Philistines had brought the ark humbly back (Then.), there is no conflict between this and 1Sa_7:3 “He will save you from the hand of the Philistines,” since according to the narrative, the restoration of the ark had a definite religious ground, and noways involved the abandonment of the dominion which had been gained anew over Israel by the victory recorded in chap, iv. Indeed, it is expressly assumed in 1Sa_7:3 that this dominion had continued. It is, therefore, incorrect to suppose that the Israelites could have had cause and occasion for lamentation only by a new loss of the ark. Their external condition under the weight of the Philistine rule was cause enough for sighing and lamenting.
The tone and content of the lamentation is more precisely stated by the context. The succeeding address of Samuel (1Sa_7:3) “if ye return” (properly, “ if ye are returning,” “are in a state of conversion”) and the mention of the sincere penitence of the people (1Sa_7:6), presuppose a very deep sorrow and suffering, in which the foreign Philistine rule was felt to be a judgment of God, there being throughout the whole people a tone of feeling, which led them to return humbly to God, and to sigh and long after Him, now that He had turned away from His people: a return back to the living God, on whom they had often turned their back,7 to whom, however, they now, in consequence of His continuing judgments, again turned, just as, in the period of the Judges, return so often alternated with apostasy. The “lamenting after the Lord” therefore expresses the penitent disposition and decided direction of the innermost life of the people to their God, in which, with sorrow and pain over the self-incurred national misfortune under the rule of the Philistines, they seek God’s mercy and saving help, He having hitherto turned His back on them, and forsaken them. The image is that of a child that goes weeping after its father or mother, that it may be relieved of what hurts it. An allusion to such a relation might perhaps be found in the expression “the whole house of Israel.” S. Schmid: “The phrase ‘lament after God’ is taken from human affairs, when one follows another, and entreats him with lamentations till he assents. An example of this is the Syrophenician woman, Matthew 15”—After the lapse of the twenty years occurred this decided return of the whole people to their God. As, besides the constant pressure of the Philistine rule, no special calamity is mentioned, we must suppose a gradual preparation for this penitential temper of the people, which now, after the lapse of twenty years from the return of the ark, was become universal. The preparation came from within. By what means? by the prophetic labors of Samuel, from the summary description of which, according to their intensive power, their extensive manifestation, and their results in the whole nation (1Sa_3:19-21), we may clearly see, that Samuel without ceasing proclaimed to the people the word of God. And as in 1Sa_3:19 it is said that “none of his words fell to the ground,” we shall have to recognize this penitential temper and this following after God with sighing and lamentation from the consciousness of being forsaken and needing help, as a fruit of Samuel’s prophetic labors, which were directed to the relation of the innermost life of the people to their God. So by his influence the way was secretly and gradually paved for a reformation of the religious-moral life from within outwards. Certainly the lamentation of the people after the Lord was already the turning-point to a better God-ward direction of the inner life (against Keil); the important thing was only that the people should maintain this following after God, should anew devote themselves in heart firmly and decidedly to the living God, and should give an outward confirmation of their resolution by completely breaking with idolatry. This it is to which Samuel will yet further lead the people; on this it depended whether the help of the Lord should be obtained, and the true covenant-relation restored; in this was first thoroughly completed the reformation of the innermost life of the people; therefore the narrator describes this in detail in 1Sa_7:3 sqq., while he sets forth that preparation for the reformation only in its last stage of development, and even then merely by hints.
In 1Sa_7:3 Samuel’s word of exhortation is in the first place described as addressed to the whole people (comp. 1Sa_3:20); we see him here in the performance of his prophetical work, which embraces all Israel. The content of this word is first a conditionally expressed preliminary: “ If ye return to the Lord with all your hearts.” Two things are here assumed and recognized as facts: 1) That a conversion to God had already taken place in the whole nation, and 2) that this conversion was a permanent condition, and that a permanent tendency towards God existed, as we may see from the Particip. “if ye are turning.” He thus points back to what is said before of Israel’s sighing and lamenting after the Lord. The phrase “with all the heart” involves an exhortation to what must be inseparably connected with conversion, if the latter is to be true and thorough, demands, that is, an internalizing and deepening of what is described in 1Sa_7:2 as lamenting after the Lord, in order that the right attitude of soul towards God may exist. Since the heart8 is the centre and source of all movements of the inner life, as the bodily heart is the centre of the bloodflow and the life thereon founded, to turn “with all the heart” is so to turn one’s self to God, from the central innermost kernel of the personal life, that is, of all thinking, feeling, desiring, willing, that the whole life shall be controlled by the fellowship with Him. To this deeply and thoroughly heartfelt turning, conversion of the whole inner life to the holy God, must now correspond the external confirmation of such a disposition. The demand is in conformity with the condition: “Put away the strange gods from among you,” which is exactly the same with the demand that Jacob (Gen_35:2) once made of his house, and Joshua (Jos_24:23, comp. 1 Samuel 14.) of his people. “After the return of the ark an earnest longing after the Lord arose among Israel. Samuel, availing himself of this, exhorted them to remove all idolatry from their midst” (Hengst., Beitr. [Contrib.] I. 153 sqq.). The strange gods here spoken of, and called Ashtaroth and Baalim9 (comp. 1Sa_7:4) are the gods of the Philistines, whose worship had gained entrance during the decline of the theocratic life and of the worship of the living God, as indeed during the whole Period of the Judges the idol-worship of the heathen nations was constantly forcing its way in, wherefore the Lord gave them again and again into the hand of the latter (Jdg_2:11; Jdg_2:13; Jdg_10:6-7). The fellowship with the living God, to which conversion with all the heart leads, is incompatible with idol-worship, the putting away of which is therefore the sign of an upright and thorough conversion. As to the “from among you,” comp. Gen_35:2; Jos_24:23.—To this negative side of the renovation of the religious life is to be added the positive, which is stated in the following two-fold demand. “Fix your hearts towards or in trust in God.” The fix (וְהָבִינוּ) is opposed to the wavering, vacillating state of mind, which may always co-exist with sighing and lamenting, and sets forth, as an indispensable condition, the energy of religious-moral life, with which the man who turns heartily to God must put away everything opposed to God. The “to Jehovah” expresses the fact that movement and tendency towards God must be the aim, as it is the centre and source, of the whole inner life. In this tendency and movement it is required that there be stability, fixedness, steadfastness, proceeding from a heart which is immovably and unshakably fixed on Him alone. Thereby is the second requirement fulfilled: serve Him only; for the heart fixed firmly on Him excludes completely everything, consecration to which might bring it into opposition with God, and cause the surrender of the whole inner life; it attaches itself to God alone, and excludes all other gods.—The following words “and He will deliver you,” etc., suppose that the hand, that is, the might and power, of the Philistines was on Israel, and that the foreign rule continued; they contain the promise of deliverance from the Philistine power, holding it out as the consequence of the previously described conversion. The foundation-thought here is this: Re-establish your covenant-relation to God by honest and thorough conversion, manifested by the putting away of all idol-deities, and then God also will turn to you, so that you shall no longer have to lament after Him, and will again announce His relation to you as your covenant-God by saving you from your enemies.
1Sa_7:4 witnesses that, in these circumstances also, no word of Samuel fell to the ground. Two things are stated: the complete removal of the worship of the strange gods, and the restoration of the exclusive worship of the living God. On the one hand, the designation of the strange gods is here enlarged (see 1Sa_7:3) by the addition of Baalim to Ashtaroth; it is thus intimated that there was a complete and comprehensive purification of the religious life and service. On the other hand, the word “only” is repeated from 1Sa_7:3, and it is thus expressly said, that the covenant-God alone and exclusively became the object of worship, while it is at the same time involved that the general service of Jehovah had not ceased, but that the worship of strange gods had existed only along with Jehovah-worship.
According to the preceding explanation of the section, 1Sa_7:2-4, its particular parts stand in close connection with one another, and there is nothing at all which compels us to suppose either a gap in the narrative, or interpolations of foreign matter, in order to make a connection. The second supposition is adopted by Ewald, who conjectures that 1Sa_7:3-4 are interpolated, assuming without ground that they break the connection; the first is adopted by Thenius, who assumes a gap between 1Sa_7:2 and 1Sa_7:3, of which he himself, however, says, that it is possibly as old as our Book, since it is not filled up by any of the old translations. Since, now, he throws the alleged defect back on the original authorities which are here used, the question is, whether his grounds for its existence are tenable, apart from the fact that the context and the narrative exhibit no gap in any essential point. When the Philistines brought back the ark, their dominion over Israel, as Keil properly remarks, was not thereby given up; its continuance is assumed in the words “He will save you,” and did not need to be expressly mentioned. As little need was there for express mention of an apostasy to idolatry, when it is stated that Samuel exhorted them to give it up; for in this period, as in that of the Judges, it was a usual thing for idolatry to make its way into Israel, and besides, there had been no complete apostasy from the living God. On the incorrect presupposition that, in consequence of the unmentioned apostasy, Israel had again been given into the hand of the Philistines, Thenius supposes that Samuel, in this time of stress, had been chosen Judge, and that the account of this choice, which, however, is implied in the words: “And Samuel judged Israel in Mizpah,” has fallen out. Against which Keil remarks well: “The appearance of Samuel as Shophet [Judge] does not imply that the assumption of this office must have been before mentioned. In general there was no formal assumption of the office of Judge, least of all in the case of Samuel, who had already been recognized by all Israel as an authenticated prophet of Jehovah (1Sa_3:19 sqq.).” Bunsen: “There is no gap here, but a chronological statement.”
1Sa_7:5-6. The day of penitence and prayer in Mizpah exhibits the whole people there assembled as sincerely penitent, and Samuel as their representative with his petition in the presence of the Lord. The content of these verses is the carrying on further of what is related in 1Sa_7:3-5. After idolatry has been expelled, and the worship of God alone restored, Samuel takes another step forward: he calls at Mizpah an assembly of the whole people, through their elders and representatives, for an exclusively religious purpose; they are to declare and set forth as a body the sincere, hearty conversion of their individual members, while he, Samuel, as their head chosen by God, will perform the priestly function of prayer for them before the Lord. “His purpose in this,” as Keil well remarks, “could be only to bring the people back to the proper relation to their God, and so to pave the way for their deliverance from the bondage of the Philistines.” This assembly was, however, by no means intended, as Keil supposes, to make immediate preparation for the war of deliverance against the Philistines. That the people did not regard the assembly as a military one, and that Samuel therefore had not spoken of such a one, is clear from 1Sa_7:7, where it is said, that the children of Israel were afraid of the Philistines, when they heard that their lords had marched forth to fight with them. The Philistines, indeed, thought the assembly a military one, and opened hostilities in the opinion that the assembly was called to make an attack on them, so that Samuel was compelled to consecrate the people to battle against the Philistines, though they had been called together for a purely religious end (1Sa_7:8 sq.), and to go out with them to battle against the Philistines. The place of assembly is Mizpah (“watch-tower”) in the Tribe of Benjamin on its western border, north of Jerusalem, and to be distinguished from Mizpeh in the lowland of Judah (Jos_15:38). According to Robinson, Tobler, v. d. Velde, Furrer, it is the present Neby Samwil (“Prophet Samuel”), five hundred feet above the elevated table-land, two thousand, four hundred and eighty-four feet above the level of the sea, near Ramah and Geba (comp. 1Ki_15:22; 2Ch_16:6), visible from Jerusalem, 1Ma_3:46 (κατέναντι ’Ιερουσαλήμ, “over against Jerusalem,” comp. Jos. Ant. XI. 8, 5), affording an extensive prospect as far as the sea and the transjordanic mountains. The present place is, however, neither the ancient Shiloh, as some hold, nor Ramah of Samuel, as others suppose. The latter view, which Ewald also (Gesch. II. 583) is inclined to maintain, has been completely set aside by Robinson (II. 356–362 [Amer. ed. I. 458–460]).10 Samuel chose this place for the assembly of the people, not, as Keil supposes, because, “being on the western border of the mountains, it was the fittest place at which to begin the struggle against the Philistines,” but because it was one of the holy places of the land, and, being in the middle of the territory on an extensive plateau, and thus protected against the attacks of enemies, was specially suited for such assemblies. While Shiloh, from Joshua’s time on, was the permanent seat of the Sanctuary, the Tabernacle remaining there, even after the removal of the ark, till its transference to Nob (1Sa_21:6), there were, especially in the central part of the land, several other places, “which, for various reasons, from before or after the time of Moses, had a certain sanctity, and where smaller altars were found” (Ew. II. 583); thus, Shechem (Jos_24:25-26), famous from the Patriarchal time on account of its conquest by Simeon and Levi, and as the resting-place of Joseph’s bones (Genesis 34; Gen_47:1)—Gilgal, sacred as the first camping-place of the people after the passage of the Jordan, as the memorial-spot of God’s saving help, and as the place where the old covenant-fellowship with God was renewed by the circumcision and passover which were anew ordained by Joshua (Jos_5:2-12—especially 15), and Bethel, consecrated as a holy place by Jacob, and temporarily the seat of the ark during the civil war between Benjamin and the other tribes (Jdg_20:18; Jdg_20:23; Jdg_20:26; Jdg_21:2). At that time Mizpah—which also was one of the holy places (Jdg_11:11)—was the place where Israel assembled “unto the Lord” (Jdg_20:1), to save the honor of the people against the outrage of the inhabitants of Gibeah, and resolved on the war against Benjamin. In this place, consecrated to the worship of God, called therefore in 1Ma_3:46 an ancient τόπος προσευχῆς [“place of prayer”] for Israel, remarkable by its historical antecedents (Jdg_20:21), and favorably situated in the middle of the land, Samuel appointed an assembly of the people. “In the wearisome oppression of a trying time the people gathered at last, like frightened chickens around the hen, with more and more accord about Samuel, in whom they learned to trust; he calls an assembly of the people, which willingly allows itself to be guided, instructed, warned and directed by him” (Ew. II. 510).—The words “and I will pray,” etc., exhibit the highest end which Samuel had in calling this assembly: “I will pray for you to God.” That is, his purpose is to bring the people back to their God and renew the old covenant-fellowship with him by the intercession of prayer, by a priestly representation of the people before God by prayer and intercession. The object of the prayer is not mentioned, but, from the connection, can have been nothing else than the manifestation of the divine grace and mercy in the forgiveness of sins and the blotting out of the guilt of sin. Thenius: “For your sins up to this time, that they may be forgiven you.” That deliverance from the hand of the Philistines was not, at least not immediately, the object of the intercession, is clear not only from the phrase “for you” (בַּעַדְכֶם), since otherwise Samuel must have used another expression, so as to include himself, but also from the following words, which can be referred only to the deep consciousness of sin and of guilt which was awakened in the people.—In 1Sa_7:6 the symbolic act of drawing and pouring out water does not set forth the confirmation of an oath, as some have supposed: “as the poured out water cannot be gathered again, so our word shall not be taken back”—for this signification of the act must in that case have been somehow intimated in the narrative; nor does it appear from the context that an oath, and what sort of a one, was to be confirmed. The water, drawn and poured out, can no more indicate simply tears, as Grotius and others think. Others, again, referring to 1Sa_1:15, explain it of prayer (Clericus: “to pour out the heart before God, i.e., to pray to Him from the heart, and open the heart to Him”); but they overlook the fact that then it would have been necessary to annex a preciser statement of this meaning to the symbolic use of water. Nor can the pouring out of water be regarded as signifying purification from sin, or as the sign of their hope that their sins were now blotted out (so O. v. Gerlach), since the water is not here designated at all as a means of purification, and there is no mention of an act of purification. It is rather a symbolical act of penitence that is here described. Water, which is poured out and disappears, is a frequent image of the state of dissolution and melting away which characterizes human life, especially on its inner side, and is used sometimes of particular aspects of life, sometimes of the whole personality. It is thus used to set forth moral dissoluteness and ethical godlessness in Gen_49:4; Genesis 11 comp. Jude 1Sa_7:13. It further denotes the destruction, the perishing of all the happiness and prosperity of the physical life, Psa_58:8; 2Sa_14:14; and often also the complete dissolution and breaking up of the psychical-spiritual life in fear and spiritlessness, Jos_7:5, in care, anxiety, deep misery, Psa_22:15. The latter application of the image is the one here employed, and (since it is the act of pouring out water “before the Lord” that is described) in the sense that the people make confession and present themselves before the Lord in deepest consciousness of their wretchedness and in sadness for their sin and the misery that flowed from it. Comp. Lam_2:19.—That we have to regard the action as symbol of the heart and the whole inner life poured out “before the Lord,”—that is, completely carried away and dissolved by the feeling of guilt and consequent misery,—is clear from what follows. The fasting which was performed the same day is the sign of the repentant, humble soul, bowed down before God, the expression of grief in sincere penitence, designated in the Law as “afflicting the soul” (עִנָּה נַפְּשׁוֹ), and ordained, as symbol of the humiliation of the whole people in repentance and penitence, for the festival of the great Day of Atonement, Lev_16:29; Lev_16:31; Lev_23:27; Lev_23:32; Num_29:7. The word צוּם[“fast”], which denotes the form of “wearying and chastening the soul,” is not found in the Law, comp. Isa_58:3 sqq. The bodily deprivation which the man imposes on himself expresses his prostration and humiliation of soul. To the twofold confession of sin and guilt, thus set forth in the symbolical act of pouring out water and fasting, answers, as indication of the contrition thus expressed, the verbal confession: “We have sinned against the Lord.” The “there” (שָׁם) is not to be understood of time, to which it never refers, but of the place, Mizpah. The person against whom the sin is committed is here introduced by the Prep. לְ [“to,” “against,”] as in 1Sa_2:25. While the two symbolical acts set forth their state of grief and suffering on account of the disturbance through sin of their relation to God, and their consequent misery, these words point not only to sin as the source and object of this prostrate and humbled feeling, but also to the proper essence of sin as opposition to the holy will of God as Lawgiver and Judge of His people. It is a grand and touching self-presentation of the whole people before their God in true, thorough penitence and conversion, which is here (1Sa_7:3-6) portrayed in its separate features. Samuel’s position in this picture exhibits him in his prophetic work, which takes deep hold on the whole people, and brings them back to the Lord; his words to the people, here reported, form the culmination of all preceding announcements of God’s word, and complete the work of the conversion of the people to the Lord, with which he had as faithful prophet hitherto occupied himself. The people, who repent before the Lord in this powerfully moving way, are the fruit of his previous prophetic work. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah.—These words cannot, with Keil, be considered as embracing the whole work just before narrated; that is, as showing that Samuel’s judging consisted in “Samuel’s calling the people together to Mizpah for humiliation before Jehovah, effecting there by his intercession the forgiveness of their sins, bringing back the divine favor, and so restoring Israel’s true relation to their God.” All this belongs to Samuel’s work as Prophet of Israel, comp. 1Sa_4:1. Since the statement “Samuel judged Israel in Mizpah” follows immediately on the narration of the solemn act of repentance instituted by Samuel, and afterwards (1Sa_7:15) his judicial work is again mentioned in connection with all that precedes, we must here understand by this “judging” something else than those labors in connection with the religious relation of the people to their God. After Samuel had restored this last by his prophetic work, his succeeding labors were those not only of a prophet, but also of a judge. His judicial office is here named for the first time. The connection in which it occurs shows how it proceeded from and was founded on his prophetic office. It is not, however, the beginning or origin of this office that is here mentioned, as if the Verb (יִשְׁפֹּט) meant “he became judge,” but Samuel is here set before us in the exercise of his judicial position. It is too narrow a view of this to restrict it to judicial decisions proper, or (as Thenius does) to the punishment of individuals (R. David: “he punished every one according to his offence”). We must rather regard Samuel’s judging as a directing and ordering, in accordance with the above act of repentance, of the inner affairs of the people, who were by that religious act inwardly again purified. It consisted both in the administration of right and justice according to the law of the Lord, and in government proper, in the wise carrying out of measures that looked to the good of the people. In their history hitherto the deliverance of the people from the power of their enemies belonged also to the judicial office; with the Judges this, as a judicial function, generally came first, and then followed the direction of internal affairs. With Samuel it was the reverse. The deliverance of the people from the dominion of the Philistines began under his rule as Judge, after he had, as Prophet, brought them back into their right relation to God, and ordered and purified them in their inner life.
HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL
1. The course of true penitence and conversion consists in mourning after God, in a sorrowful seeking after Him, in a complete devotion of the heart to the Lord, which attests itself by a decided breaking with the power of evil, in energetic putting away of everything opposed to God, and in humble subordination of the will to the sole authority of the Lord (1Sa_7:2-4).
2. After the ark had lost its significance as theocratic centre of the national life, and Shiloh had ceased to be the central seat of the national sanctuary, after, too, the priesthood, with the rejection of the sanctuary, had lost its prominent middle place between God and the people, then the prophetic office, in the person of Samuel filled with the Spirit of the Lord, took this position, in order to restore the true covenant-relation between God and the people. For this it was necessary that Israel, confessing and repenting of their sin against the Lord, should return in sincere penitence to their God, and put away the abomination of heathendom, which they had taken to them, that God should turn again to His people with grace and mercy, and that the whole national life should assume a completely new form in a righteous disposition and walk, whereby God’s holy will would be performed. The point of time to which we have now come is the great turning-point between the Period of the Judges which was just ending and the new era of the theocracy which was just beginning, when Samuel in a threefold point of view forms the centre of the people, and in his mediating position between them and their covenant-God, becomes the instrument and founder of a new life: 1) as Prophet, in the power of God’s Spirit, by which he was filled, he announces to the people the word of the law, in order to lead them to repentance and conversion, and to a life again devoted to the Lord in faithfulness and believing obedience; 2) he appears in the exercise of the priestly function, praying and sacrificing, between God and the people, in order to turn His grace and mercy to the people, that the return of God to His people in the manifestation of His help may correspond to the return of the people to God; 3) as Judge, he governs and directs the whole national life, which was inwardly united and bound fast together on the basis of a religious-moral elevation and renewal, in order that they might be consecrated to the Lord in all their members and in all the affairs of life, and serve Him in right and righteousness.—“ Samuel’s judicial work not only proceeded from the prophetical, but was constantly guided by it. For we may presume not only that he gave legal decisions with prophetical wisdom, but also that in general he conducted the affairs of the people as a man who had the Spirit of the Lord.—Samuel showed himself here (1Sa_7:12 sq.) a hero by the spiritual power of faith and prayer (Heb_11:32 sqq.). This latter may be called an inreaching of his priestly work into the judicial. For certainly it is especially the business of the priest to pray for the people.” (Nägelsbach, Herz. R.-E. XIII. 397.)
3. The reality of a thorough conversion to the Lord with all the heart must be shown by an earnest and decided breaking with everything that is opposed to God, especially with everything to which the heart clings as its idol. The heart must not desire to be divided between the service of idols and the service of God, and cannot be divided between two mutually exclusive powers. “No one can serve two masters,” Mat_6:24. God the Master lays claim to the whole heart; He requires that its service be given to Him alone and exclusively in the obedience of faith. Exclusiveness in respect to the living God, who claims all honor exclusively for Himself, is of the essence of revealed religion; and in this exclusiveness is grounded its universality, everything must serve and be subject to Him alone.
4. The true welfare of a people’s life is based on its proper attitude towards the living God. As defection from Him brings calamity and destruction on all the inward and outward possessions of the national life, infringement or suppression of freedom by foreign power, disruption of unity by strife and discord, so only by return to Him can true inward freedom and elevation and true unity be secured. And, when the national life, in consequence of defection from God, is covered with moral abominations, purification from the defilement of sin must proceed from the innermost life by the complete and thorough conversion of the hearts of individuals to the Lord. Sanctification, purification, unification of the whole national life to a life consecrated to God, serving Him alone, happy under His rule in His kingdom, exists only so far as the individual life has its root in the right attitude of heart towards God, and there stands firm and immovable.
5. The fixed heart (“fixing [Eng. A. V. ‘preparing’] the heart unto the Lord ”) is, on the one hand, the attestation of the conversion and purification of the inner life, and, on the other hand, the condition, on which alone the whole life can remain permanently and exclusively in the Lord’s service, temptations to defection from Him be victoriously withstood, and idolatry in the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life be thoroughly put away. The exhortation “confirm, prepare your hearts,” does not exclude, but presupposes the truth “it is good that the heart be confirmed by grace” [Heb_13:9].
6. Samuel’s intercession for the whole people was a priestly act, whereby he, with the same right as Moses, who also was not officially a priest, could come into God’s presence as representative of the people. “He, too, who by His personal dignity stands near to God, the Prophet, may thus approach with intercession and expiatory acts for his people. So Moses, Exo_32:10 sq., 32; Num_14:12 sqq. (Lev_8:15; Lev_8:19; Lev_8:28). But it pertains, to the office of the priesthood, and may be done by them, therefore, in the whole body of their official acts.” (Schultz, Alttest. Theol., 189 sq.).
7. The confession “We have sinned against the Lord,” made by the whole people, presupposes the correct knowledge of the essence of sin as the transgression of His holy will, involves the admission that they were worthy of punishment before the Lord, to whom man is bound by his sin as a debtor, and is the condition of help and salvation from the living God. As the individual can regain his proper relation to the Lord only by such humble, sincere, penitent confession, so for the people in general there is no other way out of grievous sin-wrought corruption and self-incurred misery to a new national life in the fear of God but this way of a common abasement before the Lord, with reflection on their relation to the holy God, and the penitent confession “Against thee have I sinned.” Comp. Psa_51:6 [4].
8. Fasting is one of those outward things which are an expression and therefore a symbol of the sorrowful spirit and humble disposition before the Lord, like rending the garments, strewing ashes on the head, and putting on a coarse garment (comp. Joe_2:12-13). Later this religious-morally significant fasting was expressed by a word (צוּם) which indicated its form, namely, bodily privation; but in the Law itself we find only a phrase which expresses its significance, namely, “afflict the soul” (Lev_16:24; Lev_16:31; Lev_23:27; Lev_23:32; Num_29:7; comp. Isa_58:3 sq.; Psa_35:13 sq.).—Legal provision for fasting by the whole people was made only in the single case of the Day of Atonement, when they were as a body thus to manifest the penitent, humble disposition, without which they could not hope for forgiveness of their sin, Lev_16:29. Elsewhere fasting is merely allowed by Moses.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1Sa_7:3. Osiander: Those who wish to be shielded against misfortune or delivered from it, must begin, not with weapons of warfare, but with true repentance, Jer_3:12.—Cramer: True repentance is the best reformation in religious matters, Ezr_9:6 sq.; 1Sa_10:1 sq.—Halle Bib.: Conversion that is not with all the heart, is only a hateful hypocrisy, Deu_4:29.—S. Schmid: Only that is a true conversion which does away with all ungodliness, and especially with idolatry, and thus prepares the heart to serve God alone, Hos_7:16.—[Hall: How happily effectual is a word spoken in season! Samuel’s exhortation wrought upon the hearts of Israel, and fetched water out of their eyes, confessions and vows out of their lips, and their false gods out of their hands.—Tr.]
[1Sa_7:4. “And served Jehovah only.” It is a mournfully common thing among those who have knowledge of the true God to be striving to combine His service with that of idols, or of the world. Not only is it seen here, but in Elijah’s exhortation: Either Jehovah or Baal, whichever is God, but not first one and then the other (1Ki_18:21); in our Lord’s great word: “No man can serve two masters.……Ye cannot serve God and Mammon” (Mat_6:24); and in that of the last surviving apostle: “Love not the world..… If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1Jn_2:15). Yet how many of us to-day are endeavoring, perhaps with painful earnestness, to love both the Father and the world, to serve both God and Mammon. The many cases of this sort do far more weaken our current Christianity than the few cases of gross vice.—Tr.]
1Sa_7:5-6. [Henry: Ministers should pray for those to whom they preach, that God by His grace would make the preaching effectual. And when we come together in religious assemblies, we must remember that it is as much our business there to join in public prayers, as it is to hear a sermon.—Tr.]—Starke: No intercession, not even that of Christ Himself, can stand a man in stead, if he is not truly penitent.—Legislatures and Congresses, if any thing good is to be done in them, should be opened with penitence and prayer.—S. Schmid: Then especially is it proper to pray for our neighbor, when he is so conducting himself as to afford hope that, according to the divine plan, the prayer may be heard.—If candid confession of sin is wanting, the repentance is not honest.
1Sa_7:2. The blessing of national mourning in a time of universal distress: 1) Penitent recognition of the national sin which has occasioned the distress; 2) Painful experience of the mighty hand of the Lord which has inflicted it; 3) Sorrowful, penitent seeking after the Lord’s consolation and help, which ends in finding.
1Sa_7:3. Samuel’s sermon on repentance to Israel when again seeking the Lord’s face: 1) The instruction as to what true repentance is (if ye return with all your hearts); 2) The demand for that by which this repentance shall be really and fruitfully shown: (a) put away the strange gods from among you, b) direct your hearts unto the Lord, and serve Him only); 3) The promise of deliverance and help (and He will deliver you).
1Sa_7:4. Proofs of genuine and hearty repentance by actions: 1) By doing away with all idolatry of worldly life; 2) By serving the Lord only in a life exclusively consecrated to him.
1Sa_7:5. Intercession to the Lord, for the salvation of others: 1) Its exercise unlimited, the individual as well as the whole people being its subject (comp. 1Ti_2:1-2); 2) Its answer conditioned by the need of salvation and the capacity for salvation of those for whom it is made.
1Sa_7:6. The penitent confession—“We have sinned against the Lord:” 1) Who has to make it (the individual, family, congregation, school and church, the whole people); 2) How it is to be made (with attestation of its truth and uprightness by deeds of repentance); 3) What are its consequences (forgiveness of sin, deliverance from the power of the wicked one, salvation).
II. Israel’s Victory over the Philistines under the Lead of Samuel. 1Sa_7:7-14
7And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpeh [Mizpah12], the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And 8when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord [Jehovah] our 9God for us,13 that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it14 for a burnt-offering wholly unto the Lord [Jehovah], and Samuel cried unto the Lord [Jehovah] for Israel, and the Lord 10[Jehovah] heard [answered] him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt-offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel; but [and] the Lord [Jehohovah] thundered with a great thunder [noise] on that day upon the Philistines, 11and discomfited15 them, and they were smitten before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpeh [Mizpah], and pursued the Philistines, and smote them 12until [as far as] they came [om. they came] under Bethcar.16 Then [And] Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh [Mizpah] and Shen,17 and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying [and said], Hitherto18 hath the Lord [Jehovah] helped us 13So [And] the Philistines were subdued,19 and they [om. they] came no more into the coast of Israel; and the hand of the Lord [Jehovah] was against the Philistines all 14the days of Samuel. And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even [om. even] unto Gath; and the coasts thereof20 did Israel deliver21 out of the hands of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.22
III. Summary Statement of Samuel’s Judicial Work. 1Sa_7:15-17
15, 16And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went from year to year23 in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh [Mizpah], and judged Israel 17 in all those places.24 And his return was to Ramah,13 for there was his house; and there he built an altar unto the Lord [Jehovah].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Sa_7:7-14. Israel’s victory over the Philistines under the lead of Samuel.—The last words in 1Sa_7:6 referred to Samuel’s judicial work in Mizpah, after the general assembly for repentance and prayer had been held with the whole people. The express mention of this judicial work at the end of the narrative in 1Sa_7:2-6 confirms the view (which is besides suggested from the whole connection) that this popular assembly was not concerned with military preparations for an attack on the Philistines, but only with arranging the internal affairs of the national life, the religious-moral and civil, according to the divine law. We have seen how Samuel there acted at the same time as prophet and judge, and how the function of priest connected itself immediately with that of prophet. It now falls to his lot, like the earlier judges, to fulfil his judicial mission against foreign enemies also, and show himself the leader of the people against their oppressors; this he does indeed in quite a different manner, not sword in hand, but wielding the weapons of prayer, and gaining for his people a victory, from which dates the history of Israel’s deliverance from the hands of the Philistines.
1Sa_7:7. The Philistines hear of the assembly of the children of Israel. Either they supposed it to be a military one, knowing nothing of its real end (Berl. Bib.), or they well knew this end, and wished to surprise the Israelites in their unarmed condition (Joseph.). Their princes went up, since the assembly was held on the high land, and on Mizpah, which was still higher than this.—The following description of the behaviour of the children of Israel and the conduct of Samuel, there being no hint of arming against the Philistines, or of an attempt by Israel to make a military movement against the advancing foe, shows clearly that the Israelites were not in readiness for such an attack, and had made no military preparations. Not the arms of Israel put the Philistines to flight, but the prayers of Samuel, and the thunders above their heads manifesting the might of the Lord, the terrors of which the Philistines had not forgotten since their experience with the ark.—When the Israelites heard of the advance of the Philistine princes with their hosts, they were afraid of them. This is inconceivable, if the assembly was held to equip themselves inwardly and outwardly for the war of freedom against the Philistines. In 1Sa_7:8 the people press Samuel to beseech God with unceasing and instant crying for their deliverance out of the hand of the Philistines. The solicitude corresponds with Samuel’s previous promise to pray to the Lord for the people in this assembly (1Sa_7:5). The object of the petition, salvation out of the hand of the Philistines, had already been promised by him on the condition of sincere return to the Lord (1Sa_7:3). Now the moment of fulfilment has come. The condition is complied with, the children of Israel beseech Samuel: “cease not to cry to the Lord, our God.” They have found their God again, after whom they had till now sighed and mourned. Samuel, having by his intercession first restored the covenant-communion between the penitent people and the pardoning God, now intercedes for the deliverance of the people, and thus performs the judicial act which, for the earlier judges, was coincident with their entrance into their office. Samuel had first, as prophet and judge, to lead the people to a thorough reformation of their inner life, before he could begin the work of external deliverance. He began it as judge and as priest at the same time, as is further related in 1Sa_7:9. Samuel represented the people in twofold priestly function before the Lord, with offering and prayer. The offering consisted of a young tender lamb, which was still nourished with milk; though, according to the Law, Lev_22:27, it must have been seven days “with its mother.” A burnt-offering (עוֹלַה) is offered as sign of the complete consecration of the whole man, here of the whole people, to the Lord in the consecration and devotion of the whole life to Him, as is set forth by the fact that the whole animal (הַכֹּל Lev_1:9) was burnt in the fire of the altar, and so ascended [the Heb. word means “that which ascends”], in distinction from the offerings which were only partially burnt on the altar. This is expressed by the addition of the word “wholly” (בָּלִיל) which is also used of the vegetable and meat-offerings which were to be wholly burned (Lev_6:15). In poetic language (Deu_33:10) it stands for עוֹלָה, burnt offering, while here, as in Ps. 51:21 [19] (there connected by וְ “and”) it is an explanatory addition to indicate that the burnt-offering is a whole-offering, the offerers not receiving a part of it, as in the Shelamim [peace-offerings] or Zebachim [slain-offerings]. The idea of the whole-offering is thus specially again expressed, because the resolution to devote themselves to the Lord fully and undividedly, a devotion conditioned on the whole-hearted conversion and the purpose to serve the Lord alone (1Sa_7:3 sqq.) is expressed by the presentation of the burnt-offering. In accordance with the people’s demand (1Sa_7:8) Samuel combined with the offering earnest, instant prayer for them.—And the Lord answered him, is the declaration that the prayer for help and deliverance was heard, comp. Psa_3:5; Psa_4:2. [See also Psa_9:6; Jer_15:1, for the estimation in which Samuel’s power in prayer was held.—Tr.]. The answer of the Lord is given in the occurrence related in 1Sa_7:10 sqq. in the factual help of the Lord, not merely in the thunder (Keil), though the latter was the cause of the consternation and confusion of the Philistines. The vividness of the description is noticeable: Samuel is engaged in offering the sacrifice, during which the Philistines approach nearer and nearer, Israel is waiting on Samuel’s prayer for the Lord’s help, terrific peals of thunder follow one after another, thereby the Philistines are confused and confounded (comp. Jos_10:10), they take to flight, their plan is frustrated.
1Sa_7:11. The men of Israel now advance from Mizpah, and pursue them as far as under Bethcar = “House of the lamb or of the meadow, the field.” Jos. Ant. VI., 2, 1 Samuel 2 : Corrœ. A place called Corrœ lay between Jericho and Bethshean; V. Raumer (4 ed., p. 178, R. 158 sq.) thinks that it could not be this place. It remains at least doubtful.—After this victory was won, a monument was set up in remembrance of the help of the Lord there experienced. Samuel set a memorial stone between Mizpah and Shen (“Tooth,” either a prominent rock-formation (comp. 1Sa_14:4) or a place situated on a crag near Mizpah). The name Ebenezer [“stone of help”], which he gives it, is at the same time explained: Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.—This was the thanksgiving in the name of the whole people as answer to the Lord’s answer, the accompanying explanation of the act of thanks. The “hitherto” points to the fact that this victory did not complete the deliverance from the yoke of the Philistines. [Wellhausen would explain Ebenezer as = “this be witness (עֵד) that Jahveh hath helped us.”—Tr.].
1Sa_7:13-14, state the happy results for Israel of this victory over the Philistines, gained without arms, the wonderful gift of God’s hand. First is mentioned the humiliation [Eng. A. V. “subdued”] of the enemy, in consequence of the manner in which this victory was gained.25 It is then declared that, in consequence of this victory, the Philistines made no more such incursions into the coasts of Israel. The following words: “and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel,” are improperly restricted to the period of his active judgeship (Lyra, Brent, Nägelsb., Herz. XIII. 403 sq.); since Samuel, according to 1Sa_7:15, judged Israel all the days of his life, they must be understood of his whole life-time. During this time the Philistines continued to occupy the land (1Sa_9:16; 1Sa_10:5; 1Sa_13:5; 1Sa_13:13), though the occupation was territorially restricted. The continuance of the Philistine oppression is presupposed in these words themselves: “the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines,” comp. 1Sa_14:52. After the victory at Mizpah they could gain no more territory, and in Israel’s battles with them, however much of the land they still held, the hand of the Lord was mighty against them so long as Samuel lived, therefore during Saul’s reign also, since Samuel died only a short time before Saul; the help of the Lord against these mightiest foes of the land continued during Samuel’s life-time. See Introduction, p. 9 sq. Thus is intimated the mediating position which Samuel in this respect also assumed between God and the people of Israel as their representative and intercessor.
1Sa_7:14. A further consequence of the victory was the regaining of the cities which belonged to the land of Israel with the territories appertaining to them, lying on the Philistine frontier from Ekron to Gath. These two cities are not included, but indicate on the Philistine side the direction and limits of the space in which the Israelites regained the lost cities and territories. The sense is: “Israel recovered their cities which lay on the Philistine borders, reckoning those borders from Ekron to Gath” (Seb. Schmid). Finally, a consequence of the abasement of the Philistines was the peace between Israel and the Amorites. These “are mentioned here, because they were in the region in question next to the Philistines the mightiest enemies of Israel, comp. Joshua 10; Jdg_1:34 sqq.” (Thenius). According to the latter passage (Jdg_1:34) they “especially forced the Danites back out of the plain into the mountains” (Keil).26
1Sa_7:15-17. Summary view of Samuel’s judicial work. 1Sa_7:15 gives the duration of his office; that the latter dates from the day of Mizpah (Keil) is by no means certain; but its precise commencement is not stated. All the days of his life denotes the period up to his death. His sons were his assistants up to the establishment of the kingdom. During Saul’s government he kept unchanged the position of a prophet, who employed the authority of the divine will for the direction of the national life, the mediating priestly position between God and the people; but he also, as last Judge, held in his hands the highest control of the theocracy and the kingdom.
1Sa_7:16 sqq. The way in which he fulfilled the dnties of the office. He went round every year, holding court at three places: Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpah. These were at the same time holy places, in which Jehovah was worshiped, where therefore the people could be more easily brought together in large assemblies, and those who desired legal decisions could more easily meet Samuel. Ewald’s supposition that Samuel visited one of these places at each of the great annual feasts is properly objected to by Thenius, with the remark “that at that time there was hardly a regular feast.” The question whether this Gilgal was the old place in the Jordan-valley between the Jordan and Jericho (Jos_4:19), or the one southwest of Shiloh near the Jerusalem-road, now Jiljilia (Deut. 11:38; 1Ki_2:1), must be decided in favor of the former, for the reason that Samuel would certainly choose for such assemblies the place which was consecrated by its historical association and its religious importance. The order of the names here does not warrant us in deciding (Keil) in favor of the other, the northern Gilgal.—אֵת כָּל־הַמְּ׳ [Eng. A. V.: “in all those place”] must be taken as local Accus., and אֵת as Acc. particle. It cannot here mean “near;” “it is used indeed to express the proximity of one place to another (Jdg_4:11; 1Ki_9:26), and still oftener of things or persons to persons, but not that things or persons are close by places, for which we find only עִם or בְּ (Jos_24:26; Jdg_18:3)” (Böttcher).
1Sa_7:17. From his circuits Samuel returned always to Ramah. Here was his permanent residence as householder. In respect to his work there, we have two brief statements: 1) he acted as judge, when he was not absent on his circuit. (On שָׁפָט, Ew., Gr., § 138 a: “the ã of the Perf. becomes â only in pause, except once in 1Sa_7:17.”) His judicial labors were therefore uninterrupted. 2) There he built an altar to the Lord.—The priesthood had declined, the central sanctuary was broken up; instead of the local and the institutional-personal uniting point in the high-priest, Samuel forms from now on for the religious life and service also of Israel the personal centre consecrated by God’s choice and guidance. His priestly work continues along with his judicial, both embraced and supported by the prophetical. Besides the already-existing holy places, where prayer and sacrifice were offered to God, he makes his residence a place of worship. The direction and furtherance of matters of religious life and worship is in his hands. Having effected a thorough reformation of the deep-sunken theocratic life on the basis of the renewed relation between God and the people, he now proceeds vigorously, as judge, priest and prophet, to build it up and finish it on this foundation.
HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL
1. On the significance of the burnt-offering as a whole offering, see on 1Sa_7:8. It is the sacrificium latreuticum [latreutic sacrifice, or sacrifice of service], since, by the complete consecration of the animal, it denotes, for the individual and the nation, the complete consecration and devotion of the whole life to the Lord. The burnt-offering has a propitiatory significance for the offerer in a general way (not, however, in respect to particular offences which require special expiation), on which see Oehler in Herz., R. E. X. 635. The fresh, tender, sucking lamb, which was used in the offering at Mizpah, was intended, perhaps, to set forth how the people, new-born by their conversion, should, in the first freshness of their new life, dedicate themselves wholly and undividedly to the Lord, to be His property and serve Him. The conjunction of the burnt-offering with prayer is founded on the fact, that both express the same disposition of complete consecration of the heart to God.
2. The sacrificial service, together with prayer, was conducted for the whole people by Samuel (as formerly by Moses, Exo_17:9; Exo_32:25 sqq.), though he was simply a Levite, and not a priest; for he acted as mediator between God and His people by virtue of His prophetical character and work alone. He therefore filled the office of priest in an extraordinary way, sentence of rejection having been passed on its legal incumbents. On Samuel’s further priestly work in offering sacrifices at the holy places of the land, comp. 1Sa_9:12; 1Sa_10:8; 1Sa_11:15; 1Sa_13:8 sqq.; 1Sa_16:2 sqq. Samuel exercised the priestly function of prayer and intercession elsewhere, 1Sa_12:16 sqq.; 1Sa_15:11; 1Sa_15:35.
3. In the period of the Judges the prophetic work was completely (with the single exception of Deborah, Jdg_4:4 sqq.) separate from the judicial, and the former was as good as absorbed in the latter; both are again united in the person of Samuel, in that he thus shows how the external guidance of the covenant-people can and ought to rest essentially only on an internal, religious-legal foundation. “As he is thus the founder of the Kingdom in its genuine theocratic form, so is his priestly work also the preparation for the flourishing condition to which the cultus attained in the Davidic-Solomonic period; it was necessary to break with the law-opposing priesthood of Eli and his race, in order that the establishment of a true priesthood, as it was new-formed under David and Solomon, might become possible” Hävern., Vorles. über bibl. Theol.). The basis for this was given in the Law itself by its teaching of the ideal priesthood, which was to find its realization in the whole people, comp. Exo_19:6 : “Ye shall be to me a kingdom of priests.” Like Moses, who during the seven days of the consecration of the ordinary priests, acted as priest (Leviticus 8.), and with priestly petition interceded for the people with the Lord (Exo_32:31-32; Psa_106:23), so Samuel also, on the ground of this ideal priesthood, whose essential elements were sincere union and communion with God, the might of faith, and the gift of the Holy Spirit and the power of prayer, had the divinely-given right, under existing circumstances, when the institution of the priesthood had sunk and left a terrible gap, to discharge the duties of the ordinary priesthood in sacrifice and prayer; and the first exercise of this priestly calling, to represent the people before God with intercession and prayer, was at the request of the people themselves who through him had been turned to God. See the two-fold testimony of the Scripture to Samuel’s power in prayer, Psa_99:6; Jer_15:1, and comp. Sir_46:19 sqq. As to his subsequent praying, see 1Sa_8:6; 1Sa_12:16-23; 1Sa_15:18.
4. The monument between Mizpah and Shen represents an important epoch in the history of Samuel. What he, and through him the Lord, had hitherto done for Israel stamped him as the great reformer of the Theocracy, and secured the restoration of a united national and theocratic life in its fundamental characteristics, and on the most essential foundations. The victory over the Philistines supplied the capstone. In all that happened up to this victory and the consequent freer position of the people over against the world without, he recognizes the Lord’s help, setting forth this recognition in the humble acknowledgment “hitherto,” etc., while he at the same time points to the future, and shows the need for further help from the Lord in respect to what is still to be done. The stone Ebenezer is a monument of those revelations of the might and the grace of the living God, occasioned by sin and penitence, wandering and return, which are the impelling power in the whole political history of the Old Covenant.
[Wordsworth: What a contrast between the event now recorded at Ebenezer, and that recorded as having occurred a few years before at the same place (1Sa_4:1)! At that time Israel had the ark with them, the visible sign of God’s presence; but the Lord Himself had forsaken them on account of their sins;.… the priests were slain, and the ark was taken. Now they have not the ark, but they have repented of their sins, and Samuel is with them, and the Lord hearkens to His prayers, and the Philistines are smitten..… Hence it appears that outward ordinances are of no avail without holiness, and that God can raise up Samuels, and endue them with extraordinary graces, and enable them to do great acts, and give comfort and victory to the Church of God by their means.—Tr.]
5. On the total significance of Samuel’s position and work at this epoch of the development of the Old Testament history, see the remarks in the preceding exegetical elucidations.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1Sa_7:7-14. Need teaches to pray: 1) Whom? Only him who (a) lets himself be drawn by need with penitent heart and believing mind unto God, in order to seek help from Him, and (b) despairs of helping himself by his own power, and relies only on God’s hand; 2) How? (a) heartily, (b) unceasingly; 3) With what result? (a) God hears, (b) God delivers from the need.
[1Sa_7:7. Henry: 1) How evil sometimes seems to come out of good. The religious meeting of the Israelites at Mizpah brought trouble upon them from the Philistines, which, perhaps, tempted them to wish they had staid at home.…So when sinners begin to repent and reform, they must expect that Satan will muster all his force against them. 2) How good is at length brought out of that evil. Israel could never be threatened more seasonably than at this time, when they were repenting and praying … bad policy for the Philistines to make war upon Israel at a time when they were making their peace with God.…Thus He makes man’s wrath to praise Him.—Tr.]
1Sa_7:8-10. The power of believing prayer in threatening peril: 1) As an earnest pressing to the heart of God in view of the greatness of the peril; 2) As a constant supplication for His help in view of the tardiness of help in the midst of peril; 3) As a perfect self-devotion to the Lord in view of the ever-increasing peril.
1Sa_7:7-12. The life of prayer in communion with God: 1) Calling on the Lord; 2) Answer from the Lord; 3) Thanksgiving to the Lord.
[1Sa_7:9. (“And Samuel cried… and the Lord answered him”). Samuel’s power in prayer. 1) Asking such great things; 2) Answered so promptly. Note that Samuel was himself the child of prayer. Also that “ the forty years’ domination of the Philistines over Israel (Jdg_13:1) could not be overthrown by the supernatural strength of Samson, but was terminated by the prayers of Samuel” (Wordsworth). As Abraham was the great pattern of faith and Job of patience, so Samuel appears to have been always afterwards regarded as a grand example of power in prayer, Psa_99:6; Jer_15:1.—Tr.]
1Sa_7:12. The cry, Ebenezer, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us, a cry 1) Of thankful recollection of past experiences of the Lord’s help (hitherto!); 2) Of humble testimony before the Lord, that nothing has been done by our power, and that His help alone has maintained and preserved our life; 3) Of confident hope, in view of further need of help to the same end.
“Here I raise my Ebenezer,
Hither by Thy help I’m come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.”
[These well-known lines are given as equivalent to a German hymn which Erdmann refers to but does not quote.—Tr.]
[Samuel a pattern to religious Reformers: (1) In early life, amid evils he could not cure, he yet gained the confidence of all (1Sa_3:19-21; 1Sa_4:1; 1Sa_12:2-4). (2) After long waiting he saw and seized the opportunity of effecting a reformation (1Sa_7:2-3). (3) He put the inward first, but insisted also on outward reform (1Sa_7:3-4). (4) He did not rely on preaching alone, but was much in prayer (1Sa_7:5; 1Sa_7:8-9). (5) He gave all the glory to God (1Sa_7:12). (6) He strove by wise and faithful administration to make the reformation permanent.—Tr.]
Footnotes:
[1][1Sa_7:3. Erdmann makes the whole of 1Sa_7:2 protasis, and begins the apodosis with 1Sa_7:3, in which the result is not materially different from the translation given above, where the apodosis is made to begin with “a long time, so as to preserve as far as possible the peculiar Heb. connection by the conjunction “and.”—Tr.]
[2][1Sa_7:3. Syr. “fanes.”—Tr.]
[3][1Sa_7:3. The Heb. word (הָקִין) means “fix,” “establish.”—Tr.]
[4][1Sa_7:6. Syr. “because,” as if the Heb. were אֲשֶׁר, which gives in some respects a preferable sense, but it is not externally supported.—Tr.]
[5][Or we may just as well understand the repentance to have occurred at the end of the period, the intermediate time representing Samuel’s labors in exhortation, the result of which was the repentance and conversion of the people.—Tr.]
[6][The word נהה is variously treated by the ancient versions and commentators. The Greek renders ἐπέβλεψε “looked to” (perhaps a loose rendering, or possibly they read נבט [Schleusner]), and ἐπέστρεψε “turned to” (general rendering, or perhaps from נחה), the Syr. has shedo “inclined to,” and the Arab, aqbala “approached,” both of which resemble the second Greek rendering. (It may be noted that Heb. נהנ, the Niph. of which would mean “were led” “turned,” is also used in the sense of “lamenting,” Nah_2:8). The Lat. “requievit” and the Lat. transl. of Targ. “quieti fuerunt” (so Böttcher) suggest the stem נוּח As to the Chald. rendering (נהי) Böttcher’s remark (quoted and accepted by Thenius and Erdmann), that Buxtorf’s translation “assembled” is without foundation, seems somewhat rash, for the Ithp. of this verb is employed in Jer_3:17 to render Niph. of קוה, and elsewhere (Jer_30:21; Jer_31:22) is to be so rendered. (Levy, Chald., Lex.). Rashi explains the Heb. נהה as = משך “to draw,” and so explains the Chald., but Abarbanel renders the former “lament.” It would seem therefore that the word was read sometimes with ה, sometimes with ח, and that there was a strong disposition to render it by “assembled” (so Philippson and Davies); yet altogether it appears better to say with Maurer “prior significatio (lament) certior est.”—Tr.]
[7][Germ.: rückkehr zu … Gott, dem man ... den rücken gekehrt hatte.—Tr.]
[8][In the Old Test. (as in the New) the word “heart” (לֵב) means not merely the seat or faculty of feeling, but the whole spiritual incorporeal nature, thinking, feeling, willing.–Tr.]
[9][Baalim and Ashtaroth are the plurals of Baal and Ashtoreth (the plu. form signifying different deities of the name, or gods in general, or statues of the gods), ancient deities of Babylon and Assyria, and thence adopted by the Canaanitish nations. Baal, Bil, Bel, is “lord” or supreme deity. Ashtoreth, Astarte, Istar, was the goddess of war, and probably also the Assyrian Venus; the origin of the name is uncertain (it is not ἀστήρ). See Rawlinson, “Ancient Monarchies,” I. 138, Schraer, “Die Keilinschriften u. das A. T.,” p. 79 sq., Bunsen, “Egypt’s Place in Univ. Hist.,” Eng. Tr., IV. 349 sq.—Tr.]
[10][Stanley (Sin. and Pal., Ch. 4) identifies Neby Samwil with the “high place of Gibeon” (1Ki_3:4), and Mizpah with Scopus, which, he says, meets all the requirements of the notices of Mizpah, “the assemblies held there by Samuel—the fortification of it by Asa with the stones removed from ‘the Mount’ of Benjamin (1Ki_11:22)—the seat of the Chaldean governor after the capture of Jerusalem (Jer_40:6)—the wailing place of the Maccabees (1Ma_3:46).” Mr. Grove (Smith’s Bib. Dict., Art. Mizpah) also adopts this view, laying stress on the κατέναντι of 1Ma_3:46, for which, he thinks, Mizpah is too far from Jerusalem (five miles). Scopus is described by Josephus (B. J. 2,19, 4) as on the north quarter of the city, seven stadia therefrom, and is now generally held to be “the broad ridge which forms the continuation of the Mount of Olives to the north and east [west?], from which the traveler gains his first view of the Holy City.” This view seems probable. Dr. Hackett, however, remarks, in a note to Mr. Grove’s Art., that Neby Samwil “is so marked a feature of the landscape, that it may very justly be said to confront (κατέναντι) the observer as he looks towards it from Jerusalem.”–Tr.]
[11][In Gen_49:4 the image is the boiling up of water—denoting rash and heedless passion.—Tr.]
[12][1Sa_7:7. Mizpah is written always with the Art.=“the watch-tower”—the significance of the name continuing to be felt. It is every where Mizpah, except in Jos_18:26. Mizpeh was a town in the plain of Judah.—Tr.]
[13][1Sa_7:8. Literally: “keep not silence from us, from crying,” etc. Comp. Psa_28:1.—Tr.]
[14][1Sa_7:9. The Kethib has the shorter personal suffix, the Qeri the longer.—Tr.]
[15][1Sa_7:10. ויהמם—Qal Imperf. of המם with pronom. suffix.—Tr.]
[16][1Sa_7:11. For Beth-car Chald. has Beth-sharon, “house of the plain;” and Syr. Bethyashan, “house of age.” The second seems a corruption or clerical error; the first is apparently translation of Bethcar, “house of the plain.” Whether there is here a reference to the plain of Sharon is uncertain.—Tr.]
[17][1Sa_7:12. Shen, always with the Art.—“the tooth;” that is, “the crag,”—whether name of a town or a rock is not clear. Syr. has Yashan, “ancient,” and Sept. τῆς παλαιᾶς, both apparently reading ישׁן in the Heb., “old,”—from which, however, we can hardly infer that Shen was an inhabited place (Wellhausen).—Tr.]
[18][1Sa_7:12. Hitherto—that is, “up to this time,” not “up to this place.”—Tr.]
[19][1Sa_7:13. Literally: “humbled.” Erdmann: gedemüthigt.—Tr.]
[20][1Sa_7:14. That is, of the cities; not (as Sept.) of Israel.—Tr.]
[21][Ver 14. Syr. wrongly: “the Lord delivered Israel,” etc. The reference here is to Israel’s military prowess.—Tr.]
[22][1Sa_7:14. Erdmann has, by typographical error, Ammonites.—Tr.]
[23][1Sa_7:16. מדי, from מִן, “from,” and דַּי, “sufficiency”—“as often as.”—Tr.]
[24][1Sa_7:17. Sept.: “sacred places”—an exegetical paraphrase; or, they read מקדשׁים instead of מקומות. For Ramah Sept. has ’Αρμαθαίμ. See on 1Sa_1:1.—Tr.]
[25][The word here employed (כנע), meaning originally “to humble,” is also frequently used in the sense of “subdue,” and it is better so to understand it here, and not, as Erdmann takes it, in the sense of a humiliation from their perception of the miraculous intervention of God.—In this sentence the words “of the enemy” are not in the German, probably from typographical error; the sense requires some such insertion.—Tr.].
[26][The name “Amorite” is given to various tribes on both sides of the Jordan, and either the race was a widely extended one, or the name is sometimes used in a general way for the inhabitants of Palestine. The word is now generally held to mean “mountaineers” (Num_13:29), and is by some supposed to be a local, rather than a tribal designation, but in Jdg_1:34 the Amorites seem to be dwellers in the plain. Apparently they had been at war with the Israelites before Samuel’s victory.—Tr.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v2 the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim . . . twenty…
the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim . . . twenty years--It appears, in the subsequent history, that a much longer period elapsed before its final removal from Kirjath-jearim (2Sa. 6:1-19; Ch1 13:1-14). But that length of time had passed when the Israelites began to revive from their sad state of religious decline. The capture of the ark had produced a general indifference either as to its loss or its recovery.
all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord--They were then brought, doubtless by the influence of Samuel's exhortations, to renounce idolatry, and to return to the national worship of the true God.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–2 1. This verse belongs to the narrative of the…
1. This verse belongs to the narrative of the sixth chapter, and should not have been separated from it.
Brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill — Why the ark was not taken back to Shiloh and placed in the tabernacle we are nowhere informed. Some have supposed that that place was destroyed by the Philistines after the capture of the ark, and others that it had been so profanely desecrated by the wickedness of Eli’s sons as to be no longer an appropriate place for it. Its location in the house of Abinadab, who was, perhaps, a Levite, and the consecration of Eleazar to keep it, were probably all done by the advice and direction of Samuel. Here the ark remained until David removed it to Jerusalem. 2 Samuel 6.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Ch. 1Sa_7:1. into the house of Abinadab in the…
Ch. 1Sa_7:1. into the house of Abinadab in the hill] On the hill, some eminence in or near the town. In 2Sa_6:4-5, the E. V. wrongly takes the same word as a proper name, “in Gibeah.”
Abinadab was probably (as Josephus says) a Levite: for the Israelites would scarcely have ventured to violate the law by entrusting the Ark to a layman after the late judgment.
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sanctified Eleazar] Consecrated him and set him apart for the special duty. “Nothing is said of Eleazar’s consecration as priest … He was constituted not priest, bat watchman at the grave of the Ark, by its corpse, until its future joyful resurrection.”
The words of Psa_132:6, “We found it in the fields of the wood,” refer to this sojourn of the Ark at Kirjath-jearim. The word translated “wood” is jaar, which is the singular of jearim.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–2 (1) The ark of the Lord.—Kirjath-jearim, the home of…
(1) The ark of the Lord.—Kirjath-jearim, the home of the Ark for nearly fifty years, was probably selected as the resting-place of the sacred emblem as being the nearest large city to Beth-shemesh then in the hands of the Israelites. It was neither a priestly nor a Levitical city, but it no doubt had preserved something of its ancient character of sanctity even among the children of Israel. In old days before the Hebrew invasion, it was a notable “high place,” and a seat of worship of Baal. This was also, no doubt, taken into account when it was resolved to locate the Ark there. The words “in the hill” remind us that the old “high place” was still marked, and was from its sacred associations looked on as a fitting temporary resting-place for the sacred treasure of Israel.
Eleazar—It is most likely that this Abinadab was a Levite. The names Eleazar and Uzzah, and Ahio of the same family (2Sa_6:3), are Levitical appellations. Samuel—who, though he is not named in this transaction, was, no doubt, the director—would, of course, have endeavoured to find a man of the tribe of Levi for the sacred trust. “This Eleazar was constituted not priest, but watchman at the grave of the Ark by its corpse, till the future joyful resurrection.”—Hengstenberg, quoted in Lange. Here the Ark remained until King David brought it from “the house on the hill,” in the city of woods, first to the home of Obed-edom, and then to his own royal Zion. (2 Samuel 6. See too Psa_132:6.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–2 At Kirjath-jearim the people reverently undertook the charge of…
At Kirjath-jearim the people reverently undertook the charge of the ark, and carried out their arrangements so carefully that no further calamity occurred. On its arrival they placed it in the house of Abinadab in the hill. More probably at Gibeah, as it is translated in 2Sa_6:3, 2Sa_6:4. In Jos_15:57 a village of this name is mentioned in the tribeof Judah not far from Kirjath-jearim (ibid. ver. 60), and probably Abinadab, who lived there, was a Levite, and so his house was chosen, and his son Eleazar sanctified to keep the ark. The names of both father and son are common in the Levitical genealogies, and none but a member of this tribe would have been selected for so holy a duty. If, however, the translation in the hill be preferred, we may suppose that it was because lofty heights were still considered fit places for Jehovah"s worship, or there may even have been a "high place" there, of which Abinadab was the keeper. What exactly were the duties of Eleazar we cannot tell, as the word to keep is very indefinite; but probably, after the fearful ruin at Shiloh, all regular services and sacrifices were in abeyance until the return of happier times. Even here it was the men of the city who sanctified Eleazar, and not a priest.
Vers. 1, 2.
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Fitness for service.
The facts are
1. At the request of the terrified men of Beth-shemesh the men of Kirjathjearim bring the ark to their high place.
2. Arrangements are made in the house of Abinadab for the due care of the ark.
3. The time of the sojourn Of the ark in this place, up to the date ofSamuel"s test of repentance, was twenty years.
4. Towards the close of this period the people long for the full restorationof the Divine favour. A new stage was being entered on in the process of restoration to full privileges, and God must have men fitted to the occasion. The ark could not go to Shiloh for evident reasons; so far as the Divine will could be gathered from the controlled action of the kine, Bethshemesh was the place for it in which to rest. But the profane conduct of the officials proved that the privilege must be forfeited, and the unmitigated terror of the survivors indicated that they possessed not the spiritual qualifications for the respectful, loving guardianship of Israel"s glory. For some reason the men of Kirjath-jearim had a reputation which justified the belief that they dared and could safely convey and keep what their neighbours dare not touch. Their actions justified this belief.
I NEW FORMS OF SERVICE ARE CONSTANTLY ARISING IN THE UNFOLDING OF GOD"S PURPOSES. There was once a need of workmen to build the ark, of men to bear it, of kine to bring it back, and now of men to carry and keep it in all decency and order. Emergencies are inherent in the outworking of the Church"s mission. Ages bring their demands. Education, national affairs, assaults on truth, openings for the gospel in foreign lands, and many other things, call for new lines of action or modifications of old. And thus it will be till the world is brought to Christ.
II THERE ARE ALWAYS IN RESERVE THE MEN FITTED FOR THE WORK GOD HAS TO RE DONE. If Beth-shemesh cannot supply the men who know how to behave properly towards the sacred symbol, there are others elsewhere. The qualities are being acquired parallel with the providential processes that evolve the new demand. God takes care of all sides of his holy cause. Those disqualified must yield the privilege of new and important service to the qualified, and God knows where these are. In every age he has his chosen, secret methods of laying hold of ability, learning, strength of purpose, and whatsoever else may be required to do his will.
III THE FUNDAMENTAL FITNESS FOR GOD"S SERVICE ON NEW OCCASIONS IS TRUE REVERENCE AND INTEREST. Many minor qualities were requisite to the bringing and caring for the ark, but the primary was that of proper reverence for the ark of God and due interest in its sanctity and use The men of Beth-shemesh lacked this; for they lost true reverence in terror and dread, and they were distrustful of their ability to keep the ark with due honour to it and benefit to themselves. Here we have in incidental contrast a religion characterised by dread, and a religion of true reverence.
1. The religion of dread is a sense of infinite holiness and power unrelieved by a recognition of other Divine attributes. The men of Beth-shemesh had been struck with the awful holiness of Jehovah, and of his mighty power expressing holiness in acts of swift judgment. Thus, generally, when religion consists mainly in this there is a shrinking from God"s presence; attention to ordinances under the sheer force of conscience. In so far as Christian men so called know only such a religion they approximate towards paganism. The religion of true reverence is a sense of infinite holiness and power toned by a trustful love. The men of Kirjath-jearim were not perfect, but they had as correct views as their neighbours of the holiness and power of Jehovah; and yet it is obvious, from the quiet, interested manner in which they received and provided for the ark, that they in some degree loved and trusted their God. In true reverence the awe created by ineffable holiness and almighty power is mitigated by the remembrance that HE is merciful and gracious, and cares for his people, even in their self-brought sorrows. When this reverence is perfected in Christian life by a due appreciation of the august majesty and love seen in the sacrificial work of Christ, the heart rests in God with all the reverential love of a child. Duty and privilege then are coincident.
General lessons:
1. We should be on the look out for any new work God may have for us todo.
2. Never despair of God finding agents for the various enterprises opened up by his own providence.
3. Cultivate every possible quality, and hold it in readiness for any usewhich God may make clear.
4. Court the honour and bliss of welcoming to city or home the treasuresdear to God, be they ordinances of worship or those commissioned to do his will; for such bring blessings with them unawares.
Divine reserve.
The return of the ark was an outward sign of the returning favour of God, and was so understood by the men of Beth-shemesh. But the full service of the tabernacle, with the ark as its centre and glory, was not established. Nor were the Philistines deprived of their hold on Israel. The Divine power was held in reserve. The set time to favour Zion in plenitude had not arrived. The reasons for this are clear. The people were too degraded to enjoy the full benefit of the services and festivals. A degenerate priesthood, steeped in vice, cannot at once pass on to the holy duties of Jehovah"s worship. A regenerative process requires time, and twenty years was not too long for the old generation of priests to die off and give way to men brought up under better influences. The general truth here set forth is, that it is in the heart of God to do great things for his people, but that for good reasons he holds himself, so to speak, in reserve veiling his glory, bestowing his blessing sparsely. Indeed, there is even a wider application of the truth than in relation to the Church. Take a few illustrations.
I CREATION. The material and spiritual universe is the outcome of the power and wisdom of God. But vast and intricate as it is, no one can suppose that it is coextensive with all that is in his nature.. There are not two infinites. The power and wisdom of God are in excess of what are traceable in the works he has formed. There is a vast reserve, which for aught we know may some time come out in an order of things not now conceived or deemed possible. It is a crude philosophy which teaches that God has done all he intends to do in the way of positive creation. Every new spirit that comes into being is an evidence of the Divine reserve.
II REVELATION. There is a varied revelation of God, but in each case it may be said that, supposing we have learnt all they teach, we "know only in part." For as there is more in God than in his works and word, there is a reserve of truth which may yet be drawn upon. In the gradual bestowment of revelation we see how God keeps back from one age what he gives to another. Christ had many things to say once which his disciples could not then bear to hear. There must be deep and far reaching principles of the Divine government which underlie the at present revealed facts of the Trinity, atonement, human responsibility, and future punishment; and these are kept out of full view till, perhaps, we become free from the flesh.
III NATIONAL PROSPERITY. All true national prosperity is of God. If it comes not to men, it is because he withholds the blessings desired. The absence of prosperity has a practical side; it means that God reserves good because conduct and motive are not what he approves. There was nigh at hand all the power and wisdom by which Israel should cease to depend on Philistines for axes and coulters, but it came not forth. Had Israel in earlier or later times been more true to God, he would have "fed them also with the finest of the wheat". (Psa_81:13-16)
IV CHURCH PRIVILEGES AND USEFULNESS. "Glorious things" are spoken of Zion. The Church inherits a wondrous destiny. She is to be the envy of the world. Her "feet" are to be "beautiful;" her garments "white;" her influence as the "light" and "salt." And all this not by virtue of what may be in the Church of herself, but because of the power and grace of God within her. If she is "in the dust," we ask the cause; the first answer is, because God stays his hand, keeps the residue of the Spirit, holds himself in reserve. The second answer is, that this Divine reserve is in consequence of the Church having backslidden from her God and disqualified herself from being a vehicle for the full flow of the blessing that is to enrich mankind. the Divine light is to shine from "golden candlesticks.
V PERSONAL RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. Personal religion is, in one sense, the passing into and dwelling within the soul of the power and love of God by the Holy Spirit. It is the proper heritage of a believer to enjoy a sense of the Divine favour not known to the unbelieving. A vision of God sweet and blessed comes to the pure in heart. Christ manifests himself as he does not to the world. But the backsliding soul does not share in the full bliss. "Why art thou cast down?" is often asked. The answer is, there is not the spiritual fitness for perfect fellowship. Some "idols" have been cherished. Divine reserve is a discipline to cause the heart to lament after God.
General lessons:
1. There is ample ground for believing that all things shall be subdued unto Christ. His great power is yet to be put forth.
2. Inquiry should be made as to the existence of anything in motive,conduct, or spirit which keeps the Church from enjoying the full exercise of the power of God.
3. We may profitably reflect on what might be ours in private life if by ourdevotedness to God we secured more of the "residue of the Spirit.
HOMILIES BY D. FRASER. Vers. 1-12.
Steps of return to God.
The whole interest of this passage is moral. No stress is laid on the forms, or even the authorised appurtenances, of religion. The ark, of which we have heard so much, and which had been treated with a singular mixture of superstition and profanity, plays no part in the history. It is left for years in a quiet retreat. Israel had backslidden from the Lord. The steps of their return have a meaning and a moral lesson for all generations.
I THE FEELING OF A GREAT MORAL AND SPIRITUAL WANT. ("The house of Israel lamented after the Lord." For twenty years the ark had been withdrawn, and under the yoke of the Philistines the spirit of Israel seemed to be quelled and stupefied. Even Samuel appears to have held himself in reserve till a time should arrive more favourable for the moral suasion and admonition of a prophet. And heathen worship crept over the land. But at last conscience began to stir, the soul of the people was weary, and there rose a wistful, sorrowful cry after the God of their fathers. This surely is always the beginning of a backslider"s restoration, he wearies, and is ashamed of his own ways; feels his folly and wickedness, and then sighs after a forfeited blessedness laments after the Lord.
II REPENTANCE PREACHED AND PRACTISED. When the time came for the people to hear him with an awakened conscience, Samuel addressed all the tribes with a voice of moral authority that recalls the admonitions of Moses and the last words of Joshua (ver. 3). And the people obeyed his word, showing their repentance in the most thorough and practical way by "putting away Baalim and Ashtaroth." So must every true prophet or preacher of righteousness summon men to repentance, and testify to them that God will not take their part while their hearts are disloyal to him. It is useless to lament after the Lord and still retain false gods. Our God is not mocked, nor can his favour be gained by mere words and empty sighs.
III A NEW ORDER BEGUN. At Mizpah, after solemn public confession of sin against Jehovah, "Samuel judged the people of Israel." He seized the opportunity to institute a more authoritative and vigorous administration of public affairs. He knew well the need of establishing order and discipline under the sacred law. And the people consented. So when there is sincere repentance a new order begins. The authority of the law of the Lord over conscience and life is acknowledged, and there is evinced a new obedience.
IV A FIGHT FOR HOLY LIBERTY. The Philistines had no objection to the Israelite worship of Baal and Astarte; but so soon as they heard of their return to the service of Jehovah and of the increased authority of Samuel, they mustered their forces to attack them. And the faith of the penitent tribes was not yet sufficiently established or assured to prevent their being "afraid of the Philistines." They stood their ground, however, and asked Samuel to pray for them to the Lord. So they got the victory. When a backslider returns to God, endeavouring to regain his self-respect, and to resume his place as a well doer, he finds that evil rises up within him and fights hard for the mastery. As Pharaoh would not let the people go and the Philistines would not let them restore religion or regain national independence without a struggle to keep them down, so does sin strive to retain under its yoke the sinner who is escaping through repentance. But let faith appeal to God along with the burnt offering of entire consecration to him. He gives the victory to the weak.
V GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HELP FROM GOD. Samuel knew the value to a nation of inspiriting recollections, and therefore set up a stone or pillar to commemorate the great victory. But he was careful to make it a witness not to Israel"s. prowess, but to Jehovah"s timely help. It was Ebenezer, the stone of help. It said "Te Deum Landamus." The spiritual life has its Ebenezers, many of them. Nations are ready enough to raise proud pillars and triumphal arches to celebrate their feats in war. Europe has ever so many columns, streets, squares, and boulevards, and bridges named after battles. Let us remember the battles of principle, the fights with temptation through which we have passed. When we have failed, ours is the shame. When we have overcome, to God be the glory. We recommend not remembrance only, but some stone of remembrance. It is a true and wise impulse which has often led Christians to commemorate a great deliverance or consolation vouchsafed to themselves by building a church, a hospital, or an almshouse, or by founding a mission, or some institution of learning or benevolence. Such a stone of remembrance helps him who rears it to resist the tendency to let religious impressions and memories fade from the mind, and it proclaims to others that some men, at all events, have proved God as the Hearer of prayer and the Helper of the needy. F.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v2 The time was long, for it was twenty years.
1Sa_7:2
The time was long, for it was twenty years.
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An absent God
Well might it be said, The time was long. Twenty hours, without Thy presence, are long indeed, and cloud the brightest day, and veil the loveliest scenes. How should you like to be twenty years away from your beloved father or mother? Would not the time seem very long? And have you ever mourned an absent God? Have you been like Job, when he looked on every side and found Him not? (Job_23:8-9); or, like Mary Magdalene, whose tears were her meat, day and night, until she found Him whom her soul loved? See how she stands beside the empty gravel Peter may leave--John may leave--they may go to their house, or to their nets. The place where the body of Jesus had lain was sweeter and dearer to Mary than all the sweets of earth: and though her tearful eyes had too plainly told her His precious body was not there, yet again she stoops, again she looks in, as though she hoped her ardent wishes might bring Him back again. Yes, blessed woman, and they have power with thy God, and prevail. Quickly was He at her side whom she sought sorrowing: and quickly, at His presence, are tears exchanged for joy unspeakable, Happy art thou, O Israel, when thou canst mourn an absent God! We have a beautiful description given us of real, godly sorrow, in 2Co_7:10-11. If one of you were to ask a gentleman or lady to come and see you, would you sit with the cottage all in litter and confusion? would you not be tidying it, cleaning out every corner, dusting every piece of furniture, and getting it as nice as you could? Oh! when you truly cry to the Lord to return unto you, how diligent you will be preparing your hearts unto the Lord! (2Ch_30:19.) What carefulness, lest there should be anything left undone! What clearing of idols and rubbish! what indignation against the things which have usurped His place in your heart, and robbed you of all your joy! what vehement desire to see Him again filling the whole, and bringing every thought into captivity! what zeal to make up for lost time! what revenge against ungrateful, treacherous self! Would you wish to know the first step a soul takes in departing from God? You may find it in your secret chamber--beside the little bed or chair, where you once used to hold sweet communion with Him. Thou hast restrained prayer, is the print of the first footstep in the downward road. Would you know the first step of the returning soul? Go again, and look in the secret chamber: now that distressed soul seeks Him early; and soon its youth is renewed like the eagles--it walks, it runs, it flies (Isa_11:81). (Helen Plumptre.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1
CHAPTER V I I I.
REPENTANCE AND REVIVAL.
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1Sa_7:1-9.
WITH the men of Bethshemesh the presence of the ark had become the same terror as it had been successively at Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron. Instead of the savour of life to life, it had proved a savour of death to death. Instead of a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, it had become a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. They sent therefore to their neighbours at Kirjath-jearim, and begged them to come down and remove the ark. This they readily did. More timid men might have said, The ark has brought nothing but disaster in its train; we will have nothing to do with it. There was faith and loyalty to God shown in their readiness to give accommodation to it within their bounds. Deeming a high place to be the kind of situation where it should rest, they selected the house of Abinadab in the hill, he being probably a Levite. To keep the ark they set apart his son Eleazar, whose name seems to indicate that he was of the house of Aaron. They seem to have done all they could, and with due regard to the requirements of the law, for the custody of the sacred symbol. But Kirjath-jearim was not turned into the seat of the national worship. There is no word of sacrificial or other services being performed there. There is nothing to indicate that the annual feasts were held at this place. The ark had a resting-place there - nothing more.
And this lasted for twenty years. It was a long and dreary time. A rude shock had been given to the sacred customs of the people, and the comely order of the Divine service among them. The ark and the other sacred vessels were separated from each other. If, as seems likely (1 Sam. 21), the daily offerings and other sacred services ordained by Moses were offered at this time at Nob, a sense of imperfection could not but belong to them, for the ark of the covenant was not there. Incompleteness would attach to any public rites that might now be celebrated. The service of Baal and Ashtaroth would have a less powerful rival than when the service of Jehovah was conducted in all due form and regularity at Shiloh. During these years the nation seems to have been somewhat listless on the subject, and to have made no effort to remove the ark to a men suitable place. Kirjath-jearim was not in the centre, but on the very edge of the country, looking down into the territory of the Philistines, not far from the very cities where the ark had been in captivity, a constant reminder to the Israelites of its degradation. That Samuel was profoundly concerned about all this we cannot doubt. But he seems to have made no effort to remedy it, most probably because he knew it to be God's order first to make the people sensible of their wickedness, and only thereafter to restore to them free access to Himself.
What then was Samuel doing during the twenty years that the ark was at Kirjath-jearim? We can answer that question only conjecturally, only from what we know of his general character. It cannot be doubted that in some way or other he was trying to make the nation sensible of their sins against God; to show them that it was to these sins that their subjection to the Philistines was due; and to urge them to abandon their idolatrous practices if they desired a return to independence and peace. Perhaps he began at this period to move about from place to place, urging those views, as he moved about afterwards when he held the office of Judge (1Sa_7:16). And perhaps he was laying the foundations of those schools of the prophets that afterwards were associated with his name. Whenever he found young men disposed to his views he would doubtless cultivate their acquaintance, and urge them to steadfastness and progress in the way of the Lord. There is nothing said to indicate that Samuel was connected with the priestly establishment at Nob.
There are two great services for God and for Israel in which we find Samuel engaged in the first nine verses of this chapter 1. In exhorting and directing them with a view to bring them into a right state before God. 2. This being accomplished, in praying for them in their time of trouble, and obtaining Divine help when the Philistines drew near in battle.
1. In the course of time the people appear to have come to feel how sad and desolate their national life was without any tokens of God's presence and grace. "All the house of Israel lamented after the Lord." The expression is a peculiar one, and some critics, not understanding its spiritual import, have proposed to give it a different meaning. But for this there is no cause. It seems to denote that the people, missing God, under the severe oppression of the Philistines, had begun to grieve over the sins that had driven Him away, and to long after Him, to long for His return. These symptoms of repentance, however, had not shown themselves in a very definite or practical form. Samuel was not satisfied with the amount of earnestness evinced as yet. He must have more decided evidence of sincerity and repentance. He insisted on it that they must "put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among them, and prepare their hearts unto the Lord and serve Him only."
Now the putting away of the strange gods and Ashtaroth was a harder condition than we at first should suppose. Some are inclined to fancy that it was a mere senseless and ridiculous obstinacy that drew the Israelites so much to the worship of the idolatrous gods of their neighbours. In reality the temptation was of a much more subtle kind. Their religious worship as prescribed by Moses had little to attract the natural feelings of the human heart. It was simple, it was severe, it was self-denying. The worship of the pagan nations was more lively and attractive. Fashionable entertainments and free-and-easy revelries were superadded to please the carnal mind. Between Hebrew and heathen worship, there was something of the contrast that you find between the severe simplicity of a Puritan meeting and the gorgeous and fashionable splendour of a great Romish ceremonial. To put away Baalim and Ashtaroth was to abjure what was fashion- able and agreeable, and fall back on what was unattractive and sombre. Was it not, too, an illiberal demand? Was it not a sign of narrowness to be so exclusively devoted to their own religion that they could view that of their neighbours with no sort of pleasure? Why not acknowledge that in other religions there was an element of good, that the services in them were the expression of a profound religious sentiment, and were therefore entitled to a measure of praise and approval? It is very certain that with this favourite view of modern liberalism neither Samuel nor any of the prophets had the slightest sympathy. No, If the people were in earnest now, they must show it by putting away every image and every object and ornament that was connected with the worship of other gods. Jehovah would have their homage on no other terms. If they chose to divide it between Him and other gods, they might call on them for help and blessing; for it was most certain that the God of Israel would receive no worship that was not rendered to Him alone.
But the people were in earnest; and this first demand of Samuel was complied with. We are to remember that the people of Israel, in their typical significance, stand for those who are by grace in covenant with God, and that their times of degeneracy represent, in the case of Christians, seasons of spiritual backsliding, when the things of this world are too keenly sought, when the fellowship of the world is habitually resorted to, when the soul loses its spiritual appetite, and religious services become formal and cold. Does there begin to dawn on such a soul a sense of spiritual poverty and loneliness? Does the spirit of the hymn begin to breathe from it --
"Return, O holy Dove, return,
Sweet Messenger of rest!
I hate the sins that made Thee mourn
And drove Thee from my breast"
Then the first steps towards revival and communion must be the forsaking of these sins, and of ways of life that prepare the way for them. The sorrow for sin that is working in the conscience is the work of the Holy Ghost; and if the Holy Ghost be resisted in this His first operation - if the sins, or ways toward sin, against which He has given His warning be persisted in, the Spirit is grieved and His work is stopped. The Spirit calls us to set our hearts against these sins, and "prepare them unto the Lord."
Let us mark carefully this last expression. It is not enough that in church, or at some meeting, or in our closet, we experience a painful conviction how much we have offended God, and a desire not to offend Him in like manner any more. We must "prepare our hearts" for this end. We must remember that in the world with which we mingle we are exposed to many influences that remove God from our thoughts, that stimulate our infirmities, that give force to temptation, that lessen our power of resistance, that tend to draw us back into our old sins. One who has a tendency to intemperance may have a sincere conviction that his acts of drunkenness have displeased God, and a sincere wish never to be drunk again. But besides this he must "prepare his heart" against his sin. He must resolve to turn away from everything that leads to drinking, that gives strength to the temptation, that weakens his power of resistance, that draws him, as it were, within the vortex. He must fortify himself, by joining a society or otherwise, against the insidious approaches of the vice. And in regard to all that displeases God he must order his fife so that it shall be abandoned, it shall be parted with forever. You may say this is asking him to do more than he can do. No doubt it is. But is not the Holy Spirit working in him? Is it not the Holy Spirit that is urging him to do these things? Whoever is urged by the Holy Spirit may surely rely on the power of the Spirit when he endeavours to comply with His suggestions. When God works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure, we may surely work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.
Having found the people so far obedient to his requirements, Samuel's next step was to call an assembly of all Israel to Mizpeh. He desired to unite all who were like-minded in a purpose of repentance and reformation, and to rouse them to a higher pitch of intensity by contact with a great multitude animated by the same spirit. When the assembly met, it was in a most proper spirit. They began the proceedings by drawing water and pouring it out before the Lord, and by fasting. These two acts being joined in the narrative, it is probable they were acts of the same character. Now as fasting was evidently an expression of contrition, so the pouring out of the water must have been so too. It is necessary to remark this, because an expression not unlike to our text, in Isaiah 12, denotes an act of a joyful character, "With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." But what was done on this occasion was to draw water and pour it out before the Lord. And this seems to have been done as a symbol of pouring out before God confessions of sin drawn from the depths of the heart. What they said in connection with these acts was, "We have sinned against the Lord." They were no longer in the mood in which the Psalmist was when he kept silence, and his bones waxed old through his roaring all the day. They were in the mood into which he came when he said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord." They humbled themselves before God in deep convictions of their unworthiness, and being thus emptied of self they were in a better state to receive the gracious visitation of love and mercy.
It is important to mark the stress which is laid here on the public assembly of the people. Some might say would it not have answered the same end if the people had humbled themselves apart - the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart, every family apart, and their wives apart, as in the great mourning of Zechariah (Zec_12:12-14)? We answer, the one way did not exclude the other; we do not need to ask which is best, for both are best. But when Samuel convened the people to a public assembly, he evidently did it on the principle on which in the New Testament we are required not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. It is in order that the presence of people like-minded, and with the same earnest feelings and purposes, may have a rousing and warming influence upon us. No doubt there are other purposes connected with public worship. We need constant instruction and constant reminding of the will of God. But the public assembly and the social prayer-meeting are intended to have another effect. They are intended to increase our spiritual earnestness by the sight and presence of so many persons in earnest. Alas! what a difference there often is between the ideal and the real. Those cold and passionless meetings that our churches and halls often present - how little are they fitted, by the earnestness and warmth of their tone, to give those who attend them a great impulse heavenward! Never let us be satisfied with our public religious services until they are manifestly adapted to this great end.
Thus did Samuel seek to promote repentance and revival among his people, and to prepare the way for a return of God's favour. And it is in this very way that if we would have a revival of earnest religion, we must set about obtaining it.
2. The next scene in the panorama of the text is - the Philistines invading Israel. Here Samuel's service is that of an intercessor, praying for his people, and obtaining God's blessing. It is to be observed that the alleged occasion for this event is said to have been the meeting held at Mizpeh. "When the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpeh, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel." Was not this most strange and distressing? The blessed assembly which Samuel had convened only gives occasion for a new Philistine invasion! Trying to do his people good, Samuel would appear only to have done them harm. With the assembly at Mizpeh, called as it was for spiritual ends, the Philistines could have no real cause for complaint. Either they mistook its purpose and thought it a meeting to devise measures to throw off their yoke, or they had an instinctive apprehension that the spirit which the people of Israel were now showing would be accompanied by some remarkable interposition on their behalf. It is not rare for steps taken with the best of intentions to become for a time the occasion of a great increase of evil, - just as the remonstrances of Moses with Pharaoh led at first to the increase of the people's burdens; or just as the coming of Christ into the world caused the massacre of the babes of Bethlehem. So here, the first public step taken by Samuel for the people's welfare was the occasion of an alarming invasion by their cruel enemies. But God's word on such occasions is, "Be still and know that I am God." Such events are suffered only to stimulate faith and patience. They are not so very overwhelming events to those who know that God is with them, and that "none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate." Though the Israelites at this time were not far advanced in spiritual life, they betrayed no consternation when they heard of the invasion of the Philistines. They knew where their help was to be found, and recognizing Samuel as their mediator, they said to him, "Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that He will save us out of the hand of the Philistines."
With this request Samuel most readily complies. But first he offers a sucking lamb as a whole burnt-offering to the Lord, and only after this are we told that "Samuel cried unto the Lord, and the Lord heard him."
The lesson is supremely important. When sinners approach God to entreat His favour, it must be by the new and living way, sprinkled with atoning blood. All other ways of access will fail. How often has this been exemplified in the history of the Church I How many anxious sinners have sought unto God by other ways, but have been driven back, sometimes farther from Him than before. Luther humbles himself in the dust and implores God's favour, and struggles with might and main to reform his heart; but Luther cannot find peace until he sees how it is in the righteousness of another he is to draw nigh and find the blessing, - in the righteousness of the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. Dr. Chalmers, profoundly impressed with the sinfulness of his past life, strives, with the energy of a giant, to attain conformity to the will of God; but he too is only tossed about in weary disappointment until he finds rest in the atoning mercy of God in Christ. We may be well assured that no sense of peace can come into the guilty soul till it accepts Jesus Christ as its Saviour in all the fullness of His saving power.
Another lesson comes to us from Samuel's intercession. It is well to try to get God's servants to pray for us. But little real progress can be made till we can pray for ourselves. Whoever really desires to enjoy God's favour, be it for the first time after he has come to the sense of his sins; or be it at other times, after God's face has been hid from him for a time through his backsliding, can never come as he ought to come without earnest prayer. For prayer is the great medium that God has appointed to us for communion with Himself. "Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you." If there be any lesson written with a sunbeam alike in the Old Testament and in the New, it is that God is the Hearer of prayer. Only let us take heed to the quality and tone of our prayer. Before God can listen to it, it must be from the heart. To gabble over a form of prayer is not to pray. Saul of Tarsus had said many a prayer before his conversion; but after that for the first time it was said of him, ''Behold, he prayeth." To pray is to ask an interview with God, and when we are alone with Him, to unburden our souls to Him. Those only who have learned to pray thus in secret can pray to any purpose in the public assembly. It is in this spirit, surely, that the highest gifts of Divine grace are to be sought. Emphatically it is in this way that we are to pray for our nation or for our Church. Let us come with large and glowing hearts when we come to pray for a whole community. Let us plead with God for Church and for nation in the very spirit of the prophet: "For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that bumeth."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 1Sa_7:1. “The house of Abinadab,” etc. “Why the ark…
CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES—
1Sa_7:1. “The house of Abinadab,” etc. “Why the ark was not carried back to Shiloh is uncertain. The reason may be that the Philistines had conquered Shiloh, and now held it, as Ewald supposes; or it may be that, without a special revelation of the Divine will, they were unwilling to carry the ark back to the place whence it had been removed by a judgment of God, in consequence of the profanation of the Sanctuary by the sons of Eli (Keil); or simply that the purpose was first and provisionally to carry it safely to a large city as far off as possible, inasmuch as, in view of the sentence which had been passed on Shiloh, they did not dare to select on their own authority a new place for the Sanctuary” (Erdmann). “It is probable that Abinadab and his sons were of the house of Levi.
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1. For the catastrophe at Bethshemesh must inevitably have made the Israelites very careful to pay due honour to the ark in accordance with the law.
2. The fact of there being a high place at Kirjath-jearim makes it highly probable that there were priests there.
3. The names Eleazar, Uzzah, and Ahio are all names in Levitical families, and Abinadab is nearly allied to Nadab and Amminadab, both Levitical names.
4. It is inconceivable that the breaches of the law in looking into the ark, and in Uzzah laying hold of it, should have been so severely punished, but the neglect to employ the sons of Levi according to the law should not be even adverted to.” (Biblical Commentary.) “To keep the ark.” “Not to minister before it; but only to defend it from such profane intrusions as had caused so much suffering to the Bethshemites.” (Wordsworth.)
1Sa_7:2. “Twenty years,” i.e., twenty years before the events occurred which are recorded in this chapter. It was a much longer time before David brought the ark again to the tabernacle (2Sa_6:1-17), although it is not certain whether it remained in Kirjath-jearim until that time. During these twenty years it is obvious (from 1Sa_7:3) that the Philistine domination continued. “All the house of Israel lamented,” etc. “The image is that of a child that goes weeping after its father or mother, that it may be relieved of what hurts it.…, As, beside the constant pressure of the Philistine rule, no special calamity is mentioned, we must suppose a gradual preparation for this penitential temper of the people, which now, after the lapse of twenty years from the return of the ark, was become universal. The preparation came from within. By what means? By the prophetic labours of Samuel, from the summary description of which, according to their intensive power, their extensive manifestation, and their results in the whole nation (1Sa_3:19-21), we may clearly see that Samuel, without ceasing, proclaimed to the people the Word of God. And as in 1Sa_3:19 it is said that “none of his words fell to the ground,” we shall have occasion to recognise this penitential temper, and this following after God with sighing and lamentation, as the fruit of Samuel’s prophetic labours, which were directed to the relation of the innermost life of the people to their God.” (Erdmann.)
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—1Sa_7:1-2
CARE FOR THE ARK OF GOD
I. The judgments of God for contempt of His ordinances often make men more careful in the treatment of them. If the subject of a well-ordered state sets at nought its ordinances he finds himself visited with a penalty which generally leads him to be more careful of his future conduct. He must render honour where honour is due, whether it be to a person or to a law, or he will be visited with punishment which, if he do not profit by himself, will prove a salutary lesson to others. When a child has played with the fire until he has been burnt, he is not only more careful for the rest of his life how he trifles with it, but others learn a lesson from his sufferings and his scars. And when God punishes men for lightly esteeming that which He has commanded them to reverence, it is that those who suffer, and those who see them suffer, may fear to fall into the same sin. A fear which brings reverence is a motive power in the dispensation of the Gospel, as well as in that which preceded it. In the New Testament cases of judgment are recorded which were as swift and terrible as any found in Old Testament history. Men have needed, even in Gospel times, to be taught reverence for holy beings and holy ordinances by punishment which has worked fear. Ananias and Sapphira thought it a light matter to “lie to the Holy Ghost,” and their sudden death wrought “great fear upon all the Church” (Act_5:11) which led to an increased reverence for the spirit of God. Elymas poured contempt upon the message of salvation as preached by Paul, and was struck with blindness by the man whose heart’s desire and prayer to God for all his countrymen was that they should be saved. But the judgment which fell upon the Jew led to the salvation of the Gentile, and taught all who beheld it that God will not hold them guiltless who scoff at the name of His Son (Act_13:6-12). In the case of the “seven sons of Sceva” (Act_19:13-17) men learnt that they must not lightly use the name of the Lord Jesus, and the effect of the punishment of those who did so was that when it “was known to all the Jews and Greeks dwelling at Ephesus that fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. Men of every age have needed to be taught not only that “God is love,” but that He is “a consuming fire” (Heb_12:29), that it is indeed His love which leads Him to visit men with judgment for contempt of His holy name and ordinances, in order that others may see it and fear, as the visitation upon the men of Bethshemesh led those of Kirjath-jearim to be more reverent in their treatment of the ark of God. In all the after history of Israel we never hear of their being guilty of a similar act. The death of the Bethshemites was an effectual preventive of any more attempts of this kind.
II. Those who minister in holy things are especially bound to live holy lives. The men of Kirjath-jearim set apart a man for the special service of the ark. “They sanctifieth Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lord.” For every service in the world some qualification is needed, and men are not made custodians of men’s lives, or even of their property, unless they are believed to possess the qualifications indispensable to the fulfilment of the duties of the office. The setting apart of men in the Old Testament dispensation to the service of the tabernacle sets forth the truth that those who minister in holy things under the Gospel dispensation are especially bound to “come out from the world and be separate,” in a spiritual sense, that whatever else they lack, a high moral character is indispensable. It also suggests the need that such men should remember the apostolic exhortation, and give themselves “wholly” to the special work, and not “entangle themselves with the affairs of this life” (1Ti_4:15; 2Ti_2:4).
III. Men learn the value of Divine ordinances when they are deprived of them. When men have abundance of bread and water they have very little sense of the value of these necessaries of life. But if they are wholly or even partially deprived of them they realise how precious they really are. Want makes us sensible of the blessing of abundance. Sickness teaches us to appreciate the blessing of health, and days of gloom make us sensible how good a gift of God is sunshine. And we never know the true value of religious ordinances until we are deprived of them. Those whom sickness has long kept from the house of God, or those who have sojourned in a land where there were no stated. Divine ordinances, testify to the truth of this. When the soul of a godly man is shut away from God’s house, and has no opportunity of meeting Him in His sanctuary, then the sigh goes up to Heaven “How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the Living God.… Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house: they will be still praising Thee.… For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness” (Psa_84:1-10). This was David’s experience, and thousands since he penned these words have used them to express their own feelings. Israel had for many years before this time had special religious privileges—compared with the rest of the nations they had had a plentiful supply of spiritual bread. But they had treated it as they had treated the manna in the wilderness—familiarity had bred contempt, and they had despised the means of grace, because they had been always in their midst. But the absence of the ark from Shiloh had suspended all the usual tabernacle-service, and the long famine of Divine ordinances caused them to “lament after the Lord.”
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
1Sa_7:1. Shiloh was wont to be the place which was honoured with the presence of the ark. Ever since the wickedness of Eli’s sons, that was forlorn and desolate, and now Kirjath-jearim succeeds to this privilege. It did not stand with the royal liberty of God, no, not under the law, to tie himself unto places and persons. Unworthiness was ever a sufficient cause of exchange. It was not yet His time to stir from the Jews, yet He removed from one province to another. Less reason have we to think that so God will reside among us, that none of our provocations can drive Him from us.—Bp. Hall.
1Sa_7:2. The time was long ere Samuel could bring them to this solemn conversion related in the verses following: so tough is the old Adam, and so difficult a thing it is to work upon such as are habituated and hardened in sinful practices. Samuel’s song had been, as was afterwards Jeremiah’s (Jer_13:27), “Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? When shall it once be? They refused to return until God stopped them with the cross, suffered the Philistines grievously to oppress them, and then “all the house of Israel lamented after the law.”—Trapp.
There is no mention of their lamenting after the Lord while He was gone, but when He was returned and settled in Kirjath-jearim. The mercies of God draw more tears from His children than his judgments do from His enemies. There is no better sign of good nature or grace than to be won to repentance with kindness; not to think of God except we be beaten into it, is servile. Because God was come again to Israel, therefore Israel is returned to God; if God had not come first they had never come; if He, that came to them, had not made them come to Him, they had been ever parted; they were cloyed with God, while He was perpetually resident with them; now that His absence had made Him dainty, they cleave to Him fervently and penitently in His return. This was it that God meant in His departure, a better welcome at His coming back.—Bp. Hall.
I. The persons lamenting. God’s peculiar people. These only love, and mind God’s presence; when the lords and cities of the Philistines are weary of Him, and send Him away, yea, and the inhabitants of Bethshemesh, though a city of Levites belonging to the Church of God, through their ill management of matters send to get a release, yet God’s Israel will look after their God.
II. The object they lament after—not peace, plenty, or victory over their enemies, but after the Lord. Jehovah is the object of their affections; it is He whom they love, and with whom they long for communion.
III. The universality of the number.—all Israel. The whole house of Israel come; they that had woefully degenerated and had gone after their idols; what a wonderful act of God’s power and sovereignty was this upon their spirits. By this He manifests that He is the true God, and that Samuel was His servant … Christians should lament after the God of ordinances, or God in ordinances.—I. Because God is infinitely more worth than all ordinances; His presence is prizable for itself. This is the marrow of heaven, the want of this is hell, and this the child of God knows. II. God purposely withdraws that men may lament after Him. As when a mother steps out of a child’s sight, and when she seems to be gone, the child raises a cry after her (Hos_5:15). “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face; in their affliction they will seek me early.” III. Bécause sincere lamenting after the Lord may occasion His return. He purposely hovers, waits, and expects, that His people may call Him back by their prayers, entreaties, humiliation; not as though God were moved, or changed by men’s mournful complaints and outcries, but that such an earnest lamenting qualifies the subject, capacitates for mercy, and puts souls into the condition of the promise (Jer_29:12).—Oliver Heywood.
The blessing of national mourning in a time of universal distress.
(1) Penitent recognition of the national sin which has occasioned it.
(2) Painful experience of the mighty hand which has inflicted it.
(3) Sorrowful, penitent seeking after the Lord’s consolation and help, which ends in finding.—Lange’s Commentary.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v1 1 Samuel
1 Samuel
REPENTANCE AND VICTORY
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1Sa 7:1 - 1Sa 7:12.
The ark had spread disaster in Philistia and Beth-shemesh, and the willingness of the men of Kirjath-jearim to receive it was a token of their devotion. They must have been in some measure free from idolatry and penetrated with reverence. The name of the city {City of the Woods, like our Woodville} suggests the situation of the little town, ‘bosomed high in tufted trees,’ where the ark lay for so long, apparently without sacrifices, and simply watched over by Eleazar, who was probably of the house of Aaron. Eli’s family was exterminated; Shiloh seems to have been destroyed, or, at all events, forsaken; and for twenty years internal disorganisation and foreign oppression, relieved only by Samuel’s growing influence, prevailed. But during these dark days a better mind was slowly appearing among the people. ‘All . . . Israel lamented after the Lord.’ Lost blessings are precious. God was more prized when withdrawn. Happy they to whom darkness brightens that Light which brightens all darkness! Our text gives us three main points,-the preparation for victory in repentance and return {1Sa 7:3 - 1Sa 7:9}; the victory {1Sa 7:10 - 1Sa 7:11}; the thankful commemoration of victory {1Sa 7:12}.
I. We have first the preparation for victory in repentance and return. At the time of the first fight at Eben-ezer, Israel was full of idolatry and immorality. Then their preparation for battle was the mere bringing the ark into the camp, as if it were a fetish or magic charm. That was pure heathenism, and they were idolaters in such worship of Jehovah, just as much as if they had been bowing to Baal. Many of us rely on our baptism or on churchgoing precisely in the same spirit, and are as truly pagans. Not the name of the Deity, but the spirit of the worshipper, makes the ‘idolater.’
How different this second preparation! Samuel, who had never been named in the narrative of defeat, now reappears as the acknowledged prophet and, in a sense, dictator. The first requirement is to come back to the Lord ‘with the whole heart,’ and that return is to be practically exhibited in the complete forsaking of Baal and the Ashtoreths. ‘Ye cannot serve God and mammon.’ It must be ‘Him only,’ if it is Him at all. Real religion is exclusive, as real love is. In its very nature it is indivisible, and if given to two is accepted by neither. So there was some kind of general and perhaps public giving up of the idols, and some, though probably not the fully appointed, public service of Jehovah. If we are to have His strength infused for victory, we must cast away our idols, and come back to Him with all our hearts. The hands that would clasp Him, and be upheld by the clasp, must be emptied of trifles. To yield ourselves wholly to God is the secret of strength.
The next step was a solemn national assembly at Samuel’s town of Mizpeh, situated on a conspicuous hill, north-west of Jerusalem, which still is called ‘the prophet Samuel.’ Sacrifices were offered, which are no part of the Mosaic ritual. A significant part of these consisted in the pouring out of water ‘before the Lord,’ probably as emblematic of the pouring out of soul in penitence; for it was accompanied by fasting and confession of sin. The surest way to the true victory, which is the conquest of our sins, is confessing them to God. When once we have seen any sin in its true character clearly enough to speak to Him about it, we have gone far to emancipate ourselves from it, and have quickened our consciences towards more complete intolerance of its hideousness. Confession breaks the entail of sin, and substitutes for the dreary expectation of its continuance the glad conviction of forgiveness and cleansing. It does not make a stiff fight unnecessary; for assured freedom from sin is not the easy prize of confession, but the hard-won issue of sturdy effort in God’s strength. But it is like blowing the trumpet of revolt,-it gives the signal for, and itself begins, the conflict. The night before the battle should be spent, not in feasting, but in prayer and lowly shriving of our souls before the great Confessor.
The watchful Philistines seem to have had their attention attracted by the unusual stir among their turbulent subjects, and especially by this suspicious gathering at Mizpeh, and they come suddenly up the passes from their low-lying territory to disperse it. A whiff of the old terror blows across the spirits of the people, not unwholesomely; for it sets them, not to desire the outward presence of the ark, not to run from their post, but to beseech Samuel’s intercession. They are afraid, but they mean to fight all the same, and, because they are afraid, they long for God’s help. That is the right temper, which, if a man cherish, he will not be defeated, however many Philistines rush at him. Twenty years of slavery had naturally bred fear in them, but it is a wise fear which breeds reliance on God. Our enemy is strong, and no fault is more fatal than an underestimate of his power. If we go into battle singing, we shall probably come out of it weeping, or never come out at all. If we begin bragging, we shall end bleeding. It is only he who looks on the advancing foe, and feels ‘They are too strong for me,’ who will have to say, as he watches them retreating, ‘He delivered me from my strong enemy.’ We should think much of our foes and little of ourselves. Such a temper will lead to caution, watchfulness, wise suspicion, vigorous strain of all our little power, and, above all, it will send us to our knees to plead with our great Captain and Advocate.
Samuel acts as priest and intercessor, offering a burnt-offering, which, like the pouring out of water, is no part of the Mosaic sacrifices. The fact is plain, but it is neither unaccountable nor large enough to warrant the sweeping inferences which have been drawn from it and its like, as to the non-existence at this period of the developed ceremonial in Leviticus. We need only remember Samuel’s special office, and the seclusion in which the ark lay, to have a sufficient explanation of the cessation of the appointed worship and the substitution of such ‘irregular’ sacrifices. We are on surer ground when we see here the incident to which Psa 99:6 refers {‘Samuel among them that call upon His name. They called upon the Lord, and He answered them’}, and when we learn the lesson that there is a power in intercession which we can use for one another, and which reaches its perfection in the prevailing prayer of our great High-priest, who, like Samuel and Moses, is on the mountain praying, while we fight in the plain.
II. We have next the victory on the field of the former defeat. The battle is joined on the old ground. Strategic considerations probably determined the choice as they did in the case of the many battles on the plain of Esdraelon, for instance, or on the fields of the Netherlands. Probably the armies met on some piece of level ground in one of the wadies, up which the Philistines marched to the attack. At all events, there they were, face to face once more on the old spot. On both sides might be men who had been in the former engagement. Depressing remembrances or burning eagerness to wipe out the shame would stir in those on the one side; contemptuous remembrance of the ease with which the last victory had been won would animate the other. God Himself helped them by the thunderstorm, the solemn roll of which was ‘the voice of the Lord’ answering Samuel’s prayer. The ark had brought only defeat to the impure host; the sacrifice brings victory to the penitent army. Observe that the defeat is accomplished before ‘the men of Israel went out of Mizpeh.’ God scattered the enemy, and Israel had only to pursue flying foes, as they hurried in wild confusion down the pass, with the lightning flashing behind them. The same pregnant expression is used for the rout of the Philistines as for the previous one of Israel. ‘They were smitten before,’ not by, the victors. The true victor was God.
The story gives boundless hope of victory, even on the fields of our former defeats. We can master rooted faults of character, and overcome temptations which have often conquered us. Let no man say: ‘Ah! I have been beaten so often that I may as well give up the fight altogether. Years and years I have been a slave, and everywhere I tread on old battlefields, where I have come off second-best. It will never be different. I may as well cease struggling.’ However obstinate the fault, however often it has re-established its dominion and dragged us back to slavery, when we thought that we had made good our escape,- that is no reason to ‘bate one jot of heart or hope.’ We have every reason to hope bravely and boundlessly in the possibility of victory. True, we should rightly despair if we had only our own powers to depend on. But the grounds of our confidence lie in the inexhaustible fulness of God’s Spirit, and the certain purpose of His will that we should be purified from all iniquity, as well as in the proved tendency of the principles and motives of the gospel to produce characters of perfect goodness, and, above all, in the sacrifice and intercession of our Captain on high. Since we have Christ to dwell in us, and be the seed of a new life, which will unfold into the likeness of that life from which it has sprung; since we have a perfect Example in Him who became like us in lowliness of flesh, that we might become like Him in purity of spirit; since we have a gospel which enjoins and supplies the mightiest motives for complete obedience; and since the most rooted and inveterate evils are no part of ourselves, but ‘vipers’ which may be ‘shaken from the hand’ into which they have struck their fangs, we commit faithless treason against God, His message, and ourselves, when we doubt that we shall overcome all our sins. We should not, then, go into the fight downhearted, with our banners drooping, as if defeat sat on them. The belief that we shall conquer has much to do with victory. That is true in all sorts of conflicts. So, though the whole field may be strewed with relics, eloquent of former disgrace, we may renew the struggle with confidence that the future will not always copy the past. We ‘are saved by hope’; by hope we are made strong. It is the very helmet on our heads. The warfare with our own evils should be waged in the assurance that every field of our defeat shall one day see set up on it the trophy of, not our victory, but God’s in us.
III. We have here the grateful commemoration of victory. Where that gray stone stands no man knows to-day, but its name lives for ever. This trophy bore no vaunts of leader’s skill or soldier’s bravery. One name only is associated with it. It is ‘the stone of help,’ and its message to succeeding generations is: ‘Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.’ That Hitherto’ is the word of a mighty faith. It includes as parts of one whole the disaster no less than the victory. The Lord was helping Israel no less by sorrow and oppression than by joy and deliverance. The defeat which guided them back to Him was tender kindness and precious help. He helps us by griefs and losses, by disappointments and defeats; for whatever brings us closer to Him, and makes us feel that all our bliss and wellbeing lie in knowing and loving Him, is helpful beyond all other aid, and strength-giving above all other gifts.
Such remembrance has in it a half-uttered prayer and hope for the future. ‘Hitherto’ means more than it says. It looks forward as well as backward, and sees the future in the past. Memory passes into hope, and the radiance in the sky behind throws light on to our forward path. God’s ‘hitherto’ carries ‘henceforward’ wrapped up in it. His past reveals the eternal principles which will mould His future acts. He has helped, therefore he will help, is no good argument concerning men; but it is valid concerning God.
The devout man’s ‘gratitude’ is, and ought to be, ‘a lively sense of favours to come.’ We should never doubt but that, as good John Newton puts it, in words which bid fair to last longer than Samuel’s gray stone:-
‘Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review
Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through.’
We may write that on every field of our life’s conflicts, and have it engraved at last on our gravestones, where we rest in hope.
The best use of memory is to mark more plainly than it could be seen at the moment the divine help which has filled our lives. Like some track on a mountain side, it is less discernible to us, when treading it, than when we look at it from the other side of the glen. Many parts of our lives, that seemed unmarked by any consciousness of God’s help while they were present, flash up into clearness when seen through the revealing light of memory, and gleam purple in it, while they looked but bare rocks as long as we were stumbling among them. It is blessed to remember, and to see everywhere God’s help. We do not remember aright unless we do. The stone that commemorates our lives should bear no name but one, and this should be all that is read upon it: ‘Now unto Him that kept us from falling, unto Him be glory!’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Samuel delivers Israel from the Philistines
Samuel delivers Israel from the Philistines
The narrative in this chapter is taken from a different source from the account which precedes.
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2. Twenty years] The time is reckoned till Israel's repentance and not to the removal of the ark by David (2Sa_6:2).
3, 4. These vv. appear to be anticipatory and in order of time to follow 1Sa_7:5, 1Sa_7:6.
4. Baalim and Ashtaroth] see on Jdg_2:11, Jdg_2:13.
5. Mizpeh] in Benjamin.
Pray] Samuel was noted as a man of prayer (cp. Psa_99:6).
6. Poured it out] The symbolism of the act is uncertain. The most probable explanation is that of the Targum, that it represented the pouring out of their hearts in repentance before the Lord: cp. 2Sa_23:16 to Lam_2:19.
7. Went up against Israel] for the object of the assembly at Mizpeh was to throw off the Philistine yoke.
9. A burnt offering wholly] RV 'a whole burnt offering.' The offering of the whole animal symbolised the self-dedication of the worshipper.
12. Eben-ezer] see on 1Sa_4:1.
13. All the days of Samuel] The words naturally mean 'all the time he acted as judge.' This must be understood as the optimistic notice of a later writer. The narrative of 1 Samuel 14 shows that Israel did not succeed in recovering from the Philistine oppression: see also on 1Sa_7:1; 1Sa_9:16.
14. The coasts thereof] i.e. the districts round the towns. Amorites] i.e. the old Canaanite inhabitants of the hill-country: see on Jdg_1:34. Israelite and Canaanite made peace in front of a common enemy.
15. All the days of his life] The attitude of Samuel towards Saul in the matters of (a) his sacrifice and (b) Amalek show that he retained some authority even after Saul was elected king.
16. He instituted what in modern language would be called 'courts of assize.' Gilgal] probably the famous site near Jericho.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Reformation in Israel
Reformation in Israel
v. 1. And the men of Kirjath-jearim, to whom the Bethshemites had sent word of the return of the ark, 1Sa 6:21, came, and fetched up the ark of the Lord, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, on an elevation near the city, and sanctified Eleazar, his son, to keep the ark of the Lord, for he was probably of Levitical descent, otherwise he would hardly have been entrusted with this office.
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v. 2. And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long, its length, on account of conditions in Israel and on account of the oppression of the Philistines, seemed unusually great; for it was twenty years, twenty years of servitude and disgrace; and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord, turning to Him again and entreating Him to deliver them
v. 3. And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, with reference to the apparent sincere sorrow of the people, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, if their lamenting was no mere sham and hypocrisy, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth, the male and female idols of the heathen nations of Canaan, from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, firmly established in faith and trust in Him, and serve Him only, for the service of the true God and of false deities of any kind does not agree together; and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines, announcing His relation as covenant God to them by saving them from their enemies and once more establishing them as an independent people.
v. 4. Then the children of Israel, heeding the earnest words of their great prophet and leader, did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, they completely did away with the worship of strange gods, and served the Lord only, they restored His exclusive worship. Here again the fact is brought out that idolatry had been practiced, but in such a manner that the Jehovah worship had outwardly been kept up. It was the same mixture of true and false religion which is now found in so many parts of Christendom, where antichristian religious societies are existing in the very midst of so-called Christian congregations.
v. 5. And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, which was used as a place of assembly at other times also, Jdg 20:1, and I will pray for you unto the Lord, principally with the object of restoring them to the covenant relation with Jehovah, now that their conversion had been shown to be sincere.
v. 6. And they gathered together to Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, a symbolic act of penitence as expressing their deep misery, care, and anxiety, Psa 22:15, and fasted on that day, to express the deep humiliation of their souls, and said there, We have sinned against the Lord. It was a frank, unequivocal confession of their guilt, accompanied by such outward acts of mourning and sorrow as showed the sincerity of their conversion to Jehovah. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh, exercising the functions of his judicial position in Israel, he administered right and justice, and proposed measures that looked to the good of the people.
v. 7. And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpeh, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel, they mobilized an army to attack the children of Israel, for they considered the great assembly a hostile demonstration, if not an actual mustering for war. And when the children of Israel heard it, not being in readiness, evidently, for such an attack, they were afraid of the Philistines.
v. 8. And the children of Israel said to Samuel, the sincerity of their recent conversion showing also in the fact that they now relied entirely upon Jehovah, Cease not to cry unto the Lord, our God, for us, by keeping silence for so much as one moment, that He will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. That is genuine repentance, if a sinner is truly sorrowful over his sins, makes a frank confession of his transgressions, puts away from him everything that displeases God, and places his trust in the Lord alone.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v1 Kiriath Jearim
Kiriath Jearim
This is the name of a place. (See: How to Translate Names)
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Abinadab ... Eleazar
These are the names of men. (See: How to Translate Names)
twenty years
"20 years" (See: Numbers)
translationWords
ark of the covenant
Yahweh
house
set apart
Israel
lament
turn
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1–2 7:1 The men of Kiriath-jearim who transported the Ark…
7:1 The men of Kiriath-jearim who transported the Ark and Eleazar were probably Levites (see 6:15; Num 1:47-51). • in charge of it: The same verb describes the Levites’ duty of guarding the Tabernacle (Num 1:53; 3:7).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.