Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only.
Then the children of Israel did put away the Baalim and the Ashtaroth, and served Jehovah only.
And the sons of Israel turn aside the Baalim and Ashtaroth, and serve Jehovah alone;
And the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths and served Jehovah only.
1 Samuel — The transition from judges to monarchy. Samuel rises as prophet-judge; Israel demands a king; Saul rises and is rejected; David is anointed in obscurity and flees across the wilderness. Three lives overlapping — the prophetic-judicial-royal handoff.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The verses this one reaches7
O Ephraim, what have I to do anymore with idols? It is I who answer and watch over him. I am like a flourishing cypress; your fruit comes from Me.
Assyria will not save us, nor will we ride on horses. We will never again say, ‘Our gods!’ to the work of our own hands. For in You the fatherless find compassion.”
for they forsook Him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
For they have forsaken Me to worship Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in My ways, nor done what is right in My eyes, nor kept My statutes and judgments, as Solomon’s father David did.
“We have sinned,” the Israelites said to the LORD. “Deal with us as You see fit; but please deliver us today!”
And the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.
The king also desecrated the high places east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
Voices4
God alone is substantially and essentially God. When I say "alone," I set forth the holy and uncreated essence and substance of God. For the word alone is used in the case of any individual and generally of human nature. In the instance of Paul, that he alone was caught into the third heaven and "heard unspeakable words that are not lawful for a man to utter," and of human nature, as when David says, "as for man his days are as grass," not meaning any particular man but human nature generally; for every human is short-lived and mortal.
Basil of Caesarea· LETTER 8.3, 379patristic
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.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed
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, 1832evangelical
The re-establishment of the faith of their fathers was inaugurated at a great public meeting, held at Mizpeh in Judah, and hallowed by the observance of impressive religious solemnities.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871reformed
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Hosea 14:3Assyria will not save us, nor will we ride on horses. We will never again say, ‘Our gods!’ to the work of our own hands. For in You the fatherless find compassion.”
leads to
But You have regarded trouble and grief; You see to repay it by Your hand. The victim entrusts himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless.
A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in His holy habitation.
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy…
Through
Hosea 14:8O Ephraim, what have I to do anymore with idols? It is I who answer and watch over him. I am like a flourishing cypress; your fruit comes from Me.
leads to
Teach me what I cannot see; if I have done wrong, I will not do it again.’
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.
So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and…
Through
Judges 2:13for they forsook Him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
leads to
And again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD. They served the Baals, the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and Philistines. Thus…
The whole web at once: see the Arc.
