1 Samuelchapter 7
17 verses · BSB1 Samuel book hub →
Key verse
Afterward, Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.”
It stands in scene B of the chapter, verses 7 to 12.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The ark rests at Kiriath-jearim twenty years while all Israel laments after Jehovah. Samuel's terms are plain: return with all your heart, put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth, and serve him only. At Mizpah they fast, pour out water before Jehovah, and confess. The Philistines march on the assembly; Samuel offers a sucking lamb whole, and Jehovah thunders with a great thunder and discomfits them. Samuel sets a stone and calls it Ebenezer: 'Hitherto hath Jehovah helped us' (7:12). He judges Israel all his days on a yearly circuit: Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah, and home to Ramah.
Context
History · Samuel, Nathan, Gad · 1 Samuel overview
Where the chapter sits
1 Samuel 7 falls in Samuel's rise (chapters 1–7). Hannah's prayer; Samuel's call (‘Speak, for thy servant heareth’); Eli's house judged; the ark captured and returned; Samuel judges all Israel at Mizpah.
After it: The demand for a king, chapters 8.
The whole shape of 1 Samuel→The world behind this chapter
1 Samuel 7The history
The ark stays at Kiriath-jearim in a private house on a hill, with a man consecrated to keep it, for twenty years, and then for decades more, until David finally brings it to Jerusalem. Shiloh is gone. Israel has no functioning central sanctuary through this whole stretch, which is the practical religious situation behind everything Samuel does.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
Samuel's demand is specific: put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you. Not add the LORD to the collection, remove the others. The word for turning back is the same one used for repentance throughout the prophets, and the covenant renewal at Mizpah is the first national turning in a very long time.
Two ritual acts frame that day. They draw water and pour it out before the LORD, a gesture found nowhere else in the Law, most naturally read as a sign of pouring out the self in humility or of a life poured out that cannot be gathered back. And they fast. Samuel offers a nursing lamb as a whole burnt offering, the entire animal given, nothing kept back for the priest or the worshiper.
The Philistines hear about the assembly and read it as a muster, which is what a gathering at Mizpah usually meant. They attack while Samuel is mid-sacrifice, and the LORD thunders against them. Israel does not win a battle here so much as chase a rout, and the stone Samuel sets up is named Ebenezer, stone of help, saying thus far the LORD has helped us, planted deliberately near the field where the ark had been lost.
What it meant to them
The last time Israel faced the Philistines they carried the ark into the field and lost everything. This time the ark stays on its hill and a man prays, and the enemy is broken by weather.
For first hearers the contrast was the whole point, and the closing note completes it. Samuel rode a yearly circuit, Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah, and home to Ramah, judging Israel all his days. This is what Israel looked like when it was governed well without a king, which makes the next chapter's demand harder to explain.
Sources cited
- Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Books of Samuel
- Eugene H. Merrill, Kingdom of Priests: A History of Old Testament Israel
A. Twenty years of lament; put away the strange gods
1. (vv. 1-2)
a.The ark rests at Kirjath-jearim for twenty years, in the house of a private man rather than a priest's household, with his son Eleazar set apart to keep it. The men of Beth-shemesh had just been struck down for looking into the ark at the close of chapter six, and the caution shown here, a hill town, a sanctified keeper, no public procession, reads as Israel learning that lesson. The twenty years cover most of Samuel's rise from child to judge, and the house of Israel spends them lamenting after the Lord rather than moving to bring the ark home.
1 Samuel 7:1, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, in their own words.
1 Samuel 7:1
“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.”
1 Samuel 7:1
“Commentary on Chapter VII 1. 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.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Samuel 7:2, 3 voices
1 Samuel 7:2
“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)reformed
1 Samuel 7:2
“Twenty years - He saith not, that this twenty years was all the time of the ark's abode there, for it continued there from Eli's time 'till David's reign, 2 Sam. vi, 2, which was forty years: but that it was so long there before the Israelites were sensible of their sin and misery.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Samuel 7:2
“It was a just reproach to the priests that one not of their order was sanctified to keep the ark. 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.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 3-4)
a.Samuel's charge is the first recorded word to reach all Israel since the ark's capture, and it names the actual idols kept in Israelite houses, Baalim and Ashtaroth, the storm god and the fertility goddess of Canaan. Returning unto the Lord with all your hearts is put before any promise of deliverance, and the people obey at verse four before Samuel calls the assembly at Mizpeh. The order of the chapter argues that reform is the ground of deliverance, not deliverance the reward for asking.
1 Samuel 7:3, 4 voices
1 Samuel 7:3
“6. But since, with God as our guide, we have followed the ark on its journey all the way to the place of its exaltation, let us see with what zeal the preacher keeps watch over the correction of those subject to him. For it continues: 'And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel: If you return to the Lord with your whole heart, remove the foreign gods from your midst.' Now what does Sacred Scripture customarily call foreign gods, if not demons, which dwell in handmade idols?”
Gregory the Dialogist· written before 604· Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 3, Chapter 5patristic
1 Samuel 7:3
“Compare the marginal references. Twenty years of Samuel’s life had passed away since the last mention of him 1Sa 4:1. Now he appears in the threefold character of prophet, Judge, and the acknowledged leader of the whole people. His words were an answer to a profession of repentance on the part of Israel, the practical proof of which would be the putting away all their false gods. (Compare Jdg 6:10 note.)”
1 Samuel 7:3
“With all your heart - Sincerely and in good earnest. Put - Out of your houses, where some of you keep them; and out of your hearts, where they still have an interest in many of you. Ashtaroth - And especially, Ashtaroth, whom they, together with the neighbouring nations, did more eminently worship.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Samuel 7:3
“O what a comfort is it to all believers that our great intercessor above never ceases, is never silent, for he always appears in the presence of God for us! Samuel intercedes with God for them, and does it by sacrifice,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 7:4, 2 voices
1 Samuel 7:4
“Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth,.... Both their male and female deities, of which see Jdg 2:13. and served the Lord Only; Dr. Lightfoot (i) observes, that a spirit of repentance and conversion came generally upon all the people; a matter and a time as remarkable as almost any we read of in Scripture, one only parallel to it; and that is in Acts, chapters two and three, at the great conversion there. (i) Works, vol. 1. p. 54.”
1 Samuel 7:4
“Put away Baalim and Ashtaroth - These were not two particular deities, but two genera of idols; the one masculine, Baalim; the other feminine, Ashtaroth; both the words are in the plural number, and signify all their gods and goddesses.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3. (vv. 5-6)
a.Mizpeh becomes the site of national repentance: water drawn and poured out before the Lord, a fast kept, and the confession spoken aloud, We have sinned against the Lord. The older writers read the poured water as a picture of the heart emptied out before God, whether or not it also marked a fixed rite of the day. Samuel judges Israel at Mizpeh in the same verse as the confession, so the judge's office and the intercessor's task meet in one man.
1 Samuel 7:5, 2 voices
1 Samuel 7:5
“And Samuel said, gather all Israel to Mizpeh,.... Not Mizpeh in Gilead, on the other side Jordan, but a city which lay on the borders of Judah and Benjamin, where the tribes met on the account of the Levite's concubine, Jdg 20:”
1 Samuel 7:5
“Gather all Israel to Mizpeh - This appears to have been an armed assembly, though probably collected principally for religious and political purposes; but Samuel knew that an unarmed multitude could not safely be convened in the vicinity of the Philistines.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 7:6, 5 voices
1 Samuel 7:6
“At one time the Hebrew people and all the Israelite tribes, because of the offensiveness of their sins, were held under the heavy domination of the Philistines. In order to be able to overcome their enemies, as the sacred history shows, they restored strength of soul and body with a self-imposed fast. They had judged rightly that they deserved that hard and wretched subjection because of neglect of God's commandments and the corruption of their lives, and that in vain did they fight with weapons unless they had first made war on their sins.”
Leo the Great· written before 461· SERMON 39 (RECENSION A) 1.2patristic
1 Samuel 7:6
“Drew water, and poured it out - It is not easy to know what is meant by this; it is true that pouring out water, in the way of libation, was a religious ordinance among the Hebrews, (Isa 12:3), and among most other nations, particularly the Greeks and Romans, who used, not only water, but wine, milk, honey, and blood, as we find by Homer, Virgil, Euripides, Sophocles, Porphyry, and Lucian. Our Lord seems to allude to this ceremony, Joh 7:37-38 (note), where see the note.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 7:6
“Israel in Mizpeh--At the time of Eli's death he could not have much exceeded twenty years of age; and although his character and position must have given him great influence, it does not appear that hitherto he had done more than prophets were wont to do. Now he entered on the duties of a civil magistrate. WHILE SAMUEL PRAYS, THE PHILISTINES ARE DISCOMFITED.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Samuel 7:6
“Poured it out - As an external sign, whereby they testified, both their own filthiness and need of washing by the grace and Spirit of God, and blood of the covenant, and their sincere desire to pour out their hearts before the Lord, in true repentance, and to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Samuel 7:6
“And, if we thus confess our sins, we shall find our God faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Samuel judged them at that time in Mizpeh, that is, he assured them, in God's name, of the pardon of their sins, upon their repentance, and that God was reconciled to them. It was a judgment of absolution.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
B. Ebenezer: hitherto hath Jehovah helped us
1. (vv. 7-9)
a.The Philistines march the moment Israel gathers, reading the assembly as a threat rather than the repentance it is, and Israel answers with fear rather than the presumption of chapter four. There the elders sent for the ark itself to force a victory and lost it; here the people ask Samuel only to cry unto the Lord, and Samuel offers a lamb and prays rather than carrying any object into the field. The chapter's quiet argument is that obedience without the ark does what taking the ark by presumption could not.
1 Samuel 7:7, 2 voices
1 Samuel 7:7
“The Philistines went up against Israel - They went to give them battle before that, by continual accessions of numbers, they should become too powerful.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 7:7
“But we may be in God's way and yet meet with distress; nay, when sinners begin to repent and reform, they must expect that Satan will muster all his force against them, and set his instruments on work to the utmost to oppose and discourage them. How good is, at length, brought out of that evil.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 7:8, 2 voices
1 Samuel 7:8
“They had reason to expect this, because he had promised to pray for them, had promised them deliverance from the Philistines, and they had been observant of him, in all that he had spoken to them from the Lord. Thus they who receive Christ as their lawgiver and judge, need not doubt of their interest in his intercession.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Samuel 7:8
“They were here unarmed, unprepared for war, come together to fast and pray, not to fight; prayers and tears therefore being all the weapons many of them are now furnished with, to these they have recourse.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 7:9, 3 voices
1 Samuel 7:9
“Samuel’s preparation for intercessory prayer, namely, the offering up an atoning sacrifice, is most significant (compare Luk 1:9-10). The term here used for a “lamb” does not occur in the Pentateuch; indeed it is only found besides this place in Isa 65:25. The offering is in accordance with Lev 22:27. The Lord heard him - Better as in margin. The “answer” was not simply the granting the asked-for deliverance, but the great thunder 1Sa 7:10, which was “the voice of the Lord,” the same voice with which the Lord answered Moses Exo 19:19; Psa 99:6.”
1 Samuel 7:9
“He made intercession with the sacrifice. So Christ intercedes in virtue of his satisfaction. And in all our prayers we must have an eye to his great oblation, depending on him for audience and acceptance.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Samuel 7:9
“It was a burnt-offering, which was offered purely for the glory of God, so intimating that the great plea he relied on in his prayer was taken from the honour of God. "Lord, help thy people now for thy name's sake." When we endeavour to give glory to God we may hope he will, in answer to our prayers, work for his own glory.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 10-11)
a.The battle is decided before Israel strikes a blow: thunder from the Lord discomfits the Philistines while Samuel is still offering the burnt offering. The same weapon turns other battles in Scripture, hailstones at Gibeon in Joshua ten and the stars fighting against Sisera in Judges five, and here it answers a lamb and a prayer rather than an army drawn up for war. Israel's pursuit to Beth-car finishes what God had already broken.
1 Samuel 7:10, 1 voice
1 Samuel 7:10
“The Lord thundered with a great thunder - Literally, The Lord thundered with a great voice - he confounded them with a mighty tempest of thunder and lightning, and no doubt slew many by the lightning.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 7:11, 1 voice
1 Samuel 7:11
“Beth-car - This place is nowhere else mentioned. It seems to have stood on a hill overhanging the road from the Philistine territory to Mizpeh, and close to Ebenezer, 1Sa 4:1.”
3. (v. 12)
a.The name Eben-ezer, stone of help, has already marked two places earlier in the narrative, the Israelite camp before the ark was lost in chapter four and the Philistine city of Ashdod in chapter five, both mentioned before this stone is ever set up. The narrator is either naming those places ahead of time by the name this stone will carry, or the ground already bore the name for some other reason; either reading leaves the stone raised here fixing it to this deliverance for good. Hitherto looks back across the whole twenty years, the loss at Aphek, the ark's exile, and the reform just completed, and calls all of it help.
1 Samuel 7:12, 4 voices
1 Samuel 7:12
"That stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone." That is the stone that is called Ebenezer in the book of Kings [Samuel]. That stone is Christ. The name Ebenezer, moreover, means "the stone of help."
Jerome· written before 420· HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 46 (PS 133)patristic
1 Samuel 7:12
“Called the name of it Eben-ezer - אבן העזר Eben haezer, “The Stone of Help;” perhaps a pillar is meant by the word stone.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 7:12
“Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen--on an open spot between the town and "the crag" (some well-known rock in the neighborhood). A huge stone pillar was erected as a monument of their victory (Le 26:1). The name--Eben-ezer--is thought to have been written on the face of it.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Samuel 7:12
“The place where this memorial was set up was the same where, twenty years before, the Israelites were smitten before the Philistines, for that was beside Eben-ezer, ch. iv. The sin which procured that defeat formerly being pardoned upon their repentance, the pardon was sealed by this glorious victory in the very same place where they then suffered loss; see Hos. i.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
C. Samuel judges Israel on his yearly circuit
1. (vv. 13-14)
a.the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel: The cities taken from Israel are restored as far as Gath, the same town Goliath will come from at 17:4, and Israel is said to have peace also with the Amorites, so this was not a single-front war. Samuel's lifetime, not one battle, is named as the span of the rest that follows, and that rest is the season in which Israel will ask for a king at 8:5.
1 Samuel 7:13, 2 voices
1 Samuel 7:13
“All the days of Samuel - Not (as in 1Sa 7:15), all the days of his life, but all the days of his “government”, when as Judge he ruled over Israel, before they asked for a king.”
1 Samuel 7:13
“Came no more - That is, with a great host, but only with straggling parties, or garrisons. All the days, &c. - All the days of Samuel that is, while Samuel was their sole judge, or ruler; for in Saul's time they did come.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Samuel 7:14, 2 voices
1 Samuel 7:14
“The cities which the Philistines had taken - We are not informed of the particulars of these reprisals, but we may rest assured all this was not done in one day: perhaps the retaking of the cities was by slow degrees, through the space of several years. There was peace between Israel and the Amorites - That is, all the remaining Canaanites kept quiet, and did not attempt to molest the Israelites, when they found the Philistines, the most powerful of the ancient inhabitants of the land, broken and subdued before them.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 7:14
“Peace - An agreement for the cessation of all acts of hostility. Amorites - That is, the Canaanites, often called Amorites, because these were formerly the most valiant of all those nations, and the first Enemies which the Israelites met with, when they went to take possession of their land.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2. (vv. 15-17)
a.Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life: This closes the line the book of Judges left open, there was no king in Israel in that book's own refrain, and Samuel is named here as the last man to judge Israel by that older office before a king is asked for. His circuit runs Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpeh with Ramah as his home, where he also builds an altar, so the closing picture of the judge is a man who worships as well as rules. The office does not end because it failed but because chapter eight will ask Israel's leader for something else.
1 Samuel 7:15, 2 voices
1 Samuel 7:15
“And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. Not only before Saul was made king, but afterwards; for though he had not the exercise of the supreme government of the nation, yet he might act as a judge under Saul, and hear and try causes brought before him, and execute justice and judgment; and as a prophet he taught and instructed the people, and reformed abuses among them; and besides, he held and exercised his extraordinary office, to which he was raised up of God, and even took upon him to reprove Saul himself, and to kill Agag.”
1 Samuel 7:15
“Samuel judged Israel ... - The repetition of the phrase in 1Sa 7:16-17, in connection with Samuel’s circuit, is a proof that it is his civil judgeship which is meant. The military leadership of course belonged to Saul, when he became king.”
1 Samuel 7:16, 2 voices
1 Samuel 7:16
“He went from year to year in circuit - When he was at Beth-el, the tribe of Ephraim, and all the northern parts of the country, could attend him; when at Gilgal, the tribe of Benjamin, and those beyond Jordan, might have easy access to him; and when at Mizpeh, he was within reach of Judah, Simeon, and Gad; but Ramah was the place of his ordinary abode; and there he held his court, for there he judged Israel; and, as it is probable that Shiloh was destroyed, it is said, 1Sa 7:17, that there (viz., at Ramah) he built an altar unto the Lord.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 7:16
“In all places - He went to those several places, in compliance with the people, whose convenience he was willing to purchase with his own trouble, as an itinerant judge and preacher; and by his presence in several parts, he could the better observe, and rectify all sorts of miscarriages.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Samuel 7:17, 2 voices
1 Samuel 7:17
“And there he built an altar - Whether this altar was in connection with the tabernacle or not we have no means of deciding, since we are in complete ignorance as to where the tabernacle was at this time, or who was High Priest, or where he resided. It is quite possible that Samuel may have removed the tabernacle from Shiloh to some place near to Ramah; and indeed it is in itself improbable that, brought up as he was from infancy in the service of the tabernacle, he should have left it.”
1 Samuel 7:17
“Built an altar - That by joining sacrifices with his prayers, he might the better obtain direction and assistance from God upon all emergencies. And this was done by prophetical inspiration, as appears by God's acceptance of the sacrifices offered upon it.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 1 Samuel 7. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on 11 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 3, Chapter 5; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); Jerome, HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 46 (PS 133); John Gill; John Wesley; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel; Leo the Great, SERMON 39 (RECENSION A) 1.2; Matthew Henry and W. G. Blaikie, The First Book of Samuel (Expositor's Bible).