1 Samuelchapter 7
17 verses · Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition · 10th century BC · History
Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben–ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.
Introduction
Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition, History, 1 Samuel Overview.
Twenty years pass inside this chapter, and it closes the account of the ark. It was told to Israelites who kept household idols beside the worship of the LORD and knew those idols by name. Samuel stands here as judge, prophet and intercessor at once, and this is the one chapter in the book where he leads Israel with no king in view. It is a narrative of national repentance followed by a battle. Listen for the order in which things happen, and set this battle beside the defeat of chapter 4. Notice the name of the stone at the end.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who had kept household idols alongside the LORD and knew the names Baal and Ashtaroth from their own villages
- What
- Israel puts away its foreign gods at Samuel's call, gathers at Mizpah, and the LORD routs the Philistines while Samuel prays.
- Where
- Kiriath-jearim in the hills west of Jerusalem, then Mizpah, and the ground between Mizpah and Beth-car.
- When
- About 1084 to 1064 BC, the twenty years named at verse 2 and the victory that closed them.
- Why
- To show that turning back to the LORD comes before deliverance, and that He is Israel's help.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Samuel, now grown and acting as judge, prophet and intercessor in one person. It is the only chapter in the book where he leads Israel with no king in view.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The ark rests twenty years at Kiriath-jearim in the house of Abinadab, a private man rather than a priest, with his son Eleazar set apart to keep it. That caution follows directly on the judgment at Beth-shemesh, and it reads as Israel learning the lesson of the previous chapter.
The occasion is Samuel's call to put away the foreign gods. Baal was the storm god of Canaan and Ashtaroth the fertility goddess, and both were kept in Israelite houses alongside the worship of the LORD. A first hearer knew the figurines and the household shrines that the word Ashtaroth named.
Mizpeh becomes the site of a national assembly. Water is drawn and poured out before the LORD, a fast is kept, and the confession is spoken aloud. The poured water is not explained in the law and the older commentators read it as the heart emptied out before God.
The Philistines march the moment Israel gathers, because an assembly of that size read as a muster. Israel's answer is the opposite of chapter 4. There the elders sent for the ark to force a victory. Here the people ask Samuel only to cry to the LORD, and Samuel offers a lamb and prays.
The stone Samuel raises at verse 12 carries the name Eben-ezer, stone of help. The same name has already appeared at 4:1 and 5:1 for the camp where the ark was lost, so the narrative uses the name before the stone is set up.
Significance
Repentance came before deliverance and not after it. The chapter puts the order beyond argument by giving the reform at verses 3 and 4 and the battle at verses 10 and 11.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The word Samuel writes on the stone looks back across the whole twenty years, the defeat at Aphek, the exile of the ark and the reform just finished, and calls all of it help.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
Rashi is the only commentator the corpus carries with text on this chapter, in the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., under CC-BY. On the men of Kiriath-jearim appointing a keeper for the ark he glosses the verb as designating (Rashi on I Samuel 7:1:1). On the twenty years he says the people had seen the retribution that fell on the house of Eli, and the deed done to the Philistines (Rashi on I Samuel 7:2:1). On the house of Israel drawn after the LORD he says it came about "Through Shmuel who would travel from city to city, judging and reproving them" (Rashi on I Samuel 7:2:2). The water drawn and poured out at Mizpah is the act in this chapter a reader most often asks about. Rashi gives the reading of Targum Yonoson first, that they "poured out their hearts like water, in repentance" before the LORD (Rashi on I Samuel 7:6:1). By its simple meaning, he says, the act is a sign of humility, that they stood before God like poured out waters (same ref). On Samuel judging there he says the cases were monetary matters between two litigants, or sins they had committed (Rashi on I Samuel 7:6:2). On the lamb offered whole he points to the written form of the verb, which carries the feminine (Rashi on I Samuel 7:9:1). From that, he says, the Rabbis deduced that a female animal is acceptable as a burnt offering on a private altar (same ref). On the rout he places the pursuit below Beis Sharon, and on the stone Samuel set up he reads the name as the peak of the rock (Rashi on I Samuel 7:11:1 and 7:12:1). Radak, Malbim and Metzudat David comment at sixteen verses, and the corpus holds no English version of any of them, so they stand as citations. They are Radak on I Samuel 7:1:1, 7:5:1, 7:8:1, 7:13:1, 7:14:1, 7:15:1 and 7:17:1. Beside them stand Malbim on I Samuel 7:3:1, 7:4:1, 7:5:1 and 7:7:1, and Metzudat David on I Samuel 7:3:1, 7:7:1, 7:8:1, 7:10:1 and 7:16:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-one of them Midrash and nine Talmud, each a locator without text. The ark brought up to Kiriath-jearim draws Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 6:1:5 and Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 8:3:3. The twenty years it stayed there draw Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Zevachim 14:3, Ein Yaakov, Zevakhim 14:8, Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 6:11:3, Midrash Shmuel 12:4 and Seder Olam Rabbah 13:1. Verse 3 draws Midrash Tehillim 119:36 and Otzar Midrashim, Midrash on Psalms, Addendum to Psalm 118 83. Verse 4 draws Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 14:2:4, and verse 5 draws Taanit 17a:2. The fast, the water poured out and the judging draw five locators. They are Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introductions to Tractates of the Mishnah, Sukkah 39, Jerusalem Talmud Taanit 2:7:2, Midrash Shmuel 13:1, Midrash Tehillim 80:1 and Otzar Midrashim, Aggada on Shemona Esrei Prayer 10. Verse 8 draws Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 17:1. The lamb offered whole draws Avodah Zarah 24b:8, Avot DeRabbi Natan 4:1, Bamidbar Rabbah 14:1, Midrash Shmuel 13:2 and Midrash Tanchuma, Ha'Azinu 4:1. The thunder against the Philistines draws Esther Rabbah 7:23, Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 28:7:1, Midrash Shmuel 13:3, Midrash Tehillim 18:16 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 360:3. Verse 13 draws Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 16:18:24 and Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 36:22. Samuel judging Israel draws Bamidbar Rabbah 3:8, Bamidbar Rabbah 3:11 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 16:19:7. Verse 16 draws Aggadat Bereshit 53:3, Bamidbar Rabbah 18:10, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 5:7 and Ein Yaakov, Shabbat 5:11. Verse 17 draws Berakhot 10b:21, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Nedarim 4:4, Ein Yaakov, Nedarim 4:7 and Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 1:12:2. The rabbis teach in these places, and this site reports them as their teaching rather than as a rule of the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Samuel 7:1:1, 7:2:1, 7:2:2, 7:6:1, 7:6:2, 7:9:1, 7:11:1 and 7:12:1, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY; Radak, Radak on I Samuel 7:1:1, 7:5:1, 7:8:1, 7:13:1, 7:14:1, 7:15:1 and 7:17:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus; Malbim, Malbim on I Samuel 7:3:1, 7:4:1, 7:5:1 and 7:7:1, cited only; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Samuel 7:3:1, 7:7:1, 7:8:1, 7:10:1 and 7:16:1, cited only.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Twenty years of lament; put away the strange gods
1 Samuel 7:1-2
The ark rests in Abinadab's house at Kiriath-jearim, with Eleazar consecrated to guard it, after the men of Beth-shemesh were struck down for looking into it. The hill town and the set-apart keeper show Israel learning caution. Through the “twenty years in all”, most of Samuel's rise from child to judge, “all the house of Israel mourned and sought after the LORD”.
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 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
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
John Wesley read the twenty years as the time before Israel felt its loss, for the ark stayed at Kiriath-jearim until David's reign in 2 Samuel 6. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown saw indifference in the long delay. Then the house of Israel mourned.
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 more voices on this verse
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 7:3-4
Samuel's charge to “all the house of Israel” is his first recorded word to the nation since the ark was taken. It names the idols kept in Israelite homes, the Baals and Ashtoreths of Canaan, and puts returning “with all your hearts” before any promise of deliverance. The people obey in verse 4, before the assembly at Mizpah, so reform is the ground of deliverance.
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 more voice on this verse
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
Baals and Ashtoreths are plural names. Adam Clarke read them as the male and female gods together, every idol Israel had taken up. Matthew Henry saw the people destroy the images and altars as well as give up the worship, and then serve the LORD only.
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 more voice on this verse
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
1 Samuel 7:5-6
At Mizpah Israel “drew water and poured it out before the LORD”, fasted, and confessed, “We have sinned against the LORD”. The older writers read the poured water as the heart emptied out before God, whether or not it was also a fixed rite. Samuel judges Israel in the same verse as the confession, so judge and intercessor meet in one man.
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
Samuel judged the Israelites at Mizpah, the first time the book gives him that office. Matthew Henry read this judging as Samuel assuring the penitent people of God's pardon. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown dated his civil rule from here.
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
4 more voices on this verse
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
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
“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
Ebenezer: hitherto hath Jehovah helped us
1 Samuel 7:7-9
The Philistines march as soon as Israel gathers, and Israel answers with fear, where in chapter four the elders sent for the ark to force a victory and lost it. Here the people ask Samuel, “Do not stop crying out to the LORD our God for us”, and he offers a lamb and prays. Obedience without the ark does what presumption with it could not.
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 more voice on this verse
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
Matthew Henry pictured the Israelites gathered at Mizpah unarmed, there to fast and pray, while Adam Clarke held the assembly was armed. Their plea to keep crying out to the LORD rests on the promise Samuel made at verse 5. John Wesley saw them holding him to it.
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 more voice on this verse
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
Samuel offers a whole burnt offering before he cries out, and Matthew Henry read it as offered purely for the glory of God. Adam Clarke raised the question of a sacrifice offered by Samuel, a prophet, and allowed that Eleazar may have offered the lamb for him. The LORD answered him.
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.”
2 more voices on this verse
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
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 7:10-11
The battle is decided before Israel strikes a blow, for while Samuel is sacrificing, “the LORD thundered loudly against the Philistines”. The same weapon turns other battles, the hailstones at Gibeon in Joshua 10 and the stars fighting against Sisera in Judges 5, and here it answers a lamb and a prayer. Israel's pursuit to Beth-car finishes what God had already broken.
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
Albert Barnes placed Beth-car on a hill over the road from Philistine land to Mizpah, close to the Ebenezer of 4:1, while Adam Clarke left its site unknown. The pursuit ends near the field of Israel's first defeat. The LORD's thunder had already won the battle.
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.”
The name Ebenezer, stone of help, appears in chapters four and five before this stone is set up, so the narrator either names that ground ahead of time or it already bore the name. The stone raised here fixes the name to this deliverance. The words “Thus far the LORD has helped us” look back across twenty years of loss, exile and reform, and call all of it help.
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
3 more voices on this verse
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
“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
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
Samuel judges Israel on his yearly circuit
1 Samuel 7:13-14
the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines: 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
“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 more voice on this verse
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
Adam Clarke judged that the cities came back over several years. Albert Barnes saw Samuel carry the war into Philistine land to recover towns that belonged to Israel. John Wesley and Matthew Henry read the Amorites as the Canaanites who remained in the land.
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 more voice on this verse
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
1 Samuel 7:15-17
Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life: This closes the line Judges left open with its refrain of no king in Israel, and Samuel is the last man to judge Israel by that older office. His circuit runs Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpah, and at his home in Ramah he “built an altar to the LORD”, a judge who worships as well as rules. The office ends when chapter eight asks for something else.
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 more voice on this verse
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.”
Samuel takes his judging to the people. Adam Clarke placed the three towns of the circuit among the tribes: Bethel for Ephraim, Gilgal for Benjamin and the tribes beyond the Jordan, and Mizpah for Judah. John Wesley saw a judge who took the trouble of travel on himself so all Israel could reach him.
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…”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
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
Ramah was the home of Samuel's parents at 1:19, and he made it his base. Matthew Henry explained the altar there: Shiloh lay waste, and no other place had yet been chosen for Israel's offerings. John Wesley held that Samuel built it by prophetic direction.
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 more voice on this verse
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
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative, a reform and deliverance account closed by a summary of Samuel's judgeship, as guide classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The same battle, answered in reverse | Chapter 4 and this chapter share the enemy, the ground and the outcome, and reverse every step between. There the elders fetched the ark and asked nothing of God, and here the people ask Samuel only to cry to the LORD. There Israel shouted and lost, and here Samuel offers a lamb and God thunders. The two accounts are built to be read against each other.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Samuel 7:7 to 11. | 1 Samuel 4:3, 1 Samuel 4:10, 1 Samuel 7:8, 1 Samuel 7:10 |
| The name the ground already carried | Samuel sets a stone at verse 12 and calls it Eben-ezer, stone of help. The same name has already stood in the account twice, at 4:1 for the camp where Israel lost and at 5:1 for the field the ark was carried from. Either the narrator names those places ahead of time by the name this stone will carry, or the ground already bore the name. The stone fixes it to this deliverance for good.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel, 1875, on 1 Samuel 7:12. | 1 Samuel 4:1, 1 Samuel 5:1, 1 Samuel 7:12 |
| The whole heart, said twice | Samuel's charge at verse 3 asks Israel to return unto the LORD with all their hearts, and the conditions follow in order, put away the strange gods, prepare your hearts and serve Him only. Verse 4 reports the obedience in the same words, that they put away Baalim and Ashtaroth and served the LORD only. The command and the compliance are matched clause for clause.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 1 Samuel 7:3 to 4. | 1 Samuel 7:3, 1 Samuel 7:4 |
| The circuit, named town by town | Verses 16 and 17 list Samuel's yearly round, Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpeh, with Ramah as his home and the place where he built an altar. The list is short and exact, and it describes an office carried out on the road rather than from a throne. It is the last description of the judge's office before chapter 8 asks for something else.W. G. Blaikie, The First Book of Samuel, Expositor's Bible, 1887, on 1 Samuel 7:15 to 17. | 1 Samuel 7:16, 1 Samuel 7:17 |
What the chapter is built on
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
The thunder at verse 10 belongs to a pattern the earlier books had already set. Joshua 10:11 has hailstones thrown down on the Amorites, and Judges 5:20 has the stars in their courses fighting against Sisera. In each case the battle is decided before Israel strikes.
The chapter also closes the line the book of Judges left open. That book ends on the refrain that there was no king in Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes. Samuel is named here as the last man to judge Israel by the older office.
The New Testament's use
This chapter is not quoted in the New Testament. Samuel's standing as the head of the prophetic line is stated at Acts 3:24 and Acts 13:20, and Hebrews 11:32 lists him with the judges and prophets who obtained a good report. Those verses look at the man rather than at this chapter.
The pattern the chapter teaches, that turning precedes deliverance, is the pattern James 4:8 to 10 sets out for individuals. The letter does not cite Samuel.
The reading the chapter has drawn argument over
The water poured out at verse 6 is the chapter's one unexplained act, and it has been read two ways.
Matthew Henry and John Gill read it as a sign of repentance, the heart poured out like water before God. Both point to the fast and the confession standing beside it in the same verse. Keil and Delitzsch weigh the possibility that it marked a fixed rite of the day known to the participants and not recorded in the law.
The law commands no such pouring at any assembly, and the text gives the act without a word of explanation. Both readings rest on the same verse.
The thing the chapter states before its time
Verse 13 says that the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel, and verse 14 adds that the cities taken from Israel were restored as far as Gath. The rest that follows is measured by a man's lifetime rather than by a battle. It is that rest, and not a crisis, that Israel is living in when the elders ask for a king at 8:5.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Samuel 7:7 to 11; This site's published book guide, src/components/book/guides/1-samuel/Book1SamuelGuide.tsx, which closes act I, Samuel Rises, at 7:17 and W. G. Blaikie, The First Book of Samuel, Expositor's Bible, 1887, on 1 Samuel 7:15 to 17.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. G. Blaikie, The First Book of Samuel (Expositor's Bible).