The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Samuel Subdues the Philistines
1 Samuel 7:1–17 — Samuel Subdues the Philistines. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
1Then the men of Kiriath-jearim came for the ark of the LORD and took it into Abinadab’s house on the hill. And they consecrated his son Eleazar to guard the ark of the LORD.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’an·šê qir·yaṯ yə·‘ā·rîm way·yā·ḇō·’ū ’ă·rō·wn Yah·weh way·ya·‘ă·lū ’eṯ- way·yā·ḇi·’ū ’ō·ṯōw ’el- ’ă·ḇî·nā·ḏāḇ bêṯ bag·giḇ·‘āh wə·’eṯ- qid·də·šū bə·nōw ’el·‘ā·zār liš·mōr ’eṯ- ’ă·rō·wn Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-they-came the-men-of Kiriath-jearim and-they-brought-up the-ark-of YHWH, and-they-brought it into the-house-of Abinadab in-the-hill; and-Eleazar his-son they-consecrated to-guard the-ark-of YHWH.”
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Lost blessings are precious. God was more prized when withdrawn. Happy they to whom darkness brightens that Light which brightens all darkness!
This Eleazar was constituted not priest, but watchman at the grave of the Ark by its corpse, till the future joyful resurrection.Ellicott is quoting Hengstenberg by way of Lange, not speaking in his own voice; the “resurrection” figure is a nineteenth-century reading of the ark's long dormancy, not a claim of the Hebrew text.
It is not stated that Abinadab was a Levites; but this is very probable, because otherwise they would hardly have consecrated his son to be the keeper of the ark, but would have chosen a Levite for the office.
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.
2And from that day a long time passed, twenty years in all, as the ark remained at Kiriath-jearim. And all the house of Israel mournfully sought the LORD.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mî·yō·wm way·yir·bū hay·yā·mîm way·hî ‘eś·rîm šā·nāh way·yih·yū hā·’ā·rō·wn še·ḇeṯ bə·qir·yaṯ yə·‘ā·rîm kāl- bêṯ yiś·rā·’êl way·yin·nā·hū ’a·ḥă·rê Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-it-was from-the-day the-sitting of-the-ark in-Kiriath-jearim, and-the-days multiplied, and-they-became twenty year; and-all the-house-of Israel lamented after YHWH.”
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As a child follows the father who has been forced to turn a way in anger, and with sighs and tears entreats for reconciliation.
The house of Israel lamented after the Lord, i.e. they followed after God with lamentation for his departure and so long estrangement from them, and with prayers for his return and favour to them.
But another reason seems to have been the fall of the Israelites into idolatry, which made them neglect the ark, and brought upon them this Philistine servitudeBarnes is reconstructing history, not translating: his identification of these twenty years with the close of the Judges 13:1 oppression is a judgment call, and he marks it “probably.”
3Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and Ashtoreths among you, prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only. And He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šə·mū·’êl way·yō·mer ’el- kāl- bêṯ yiś·rā·’êl lê·mōr ’im- ’at·tem šā·ḇîm ’el- Yah·weh bə·ḵāl lə·ḇaḇ·ḵem hā·sî·rū ’eṯ- han·nê·ḵār ’ĕ·lō·hê wə·hā·‘aš·tā·rō·wṯ mit·tō·wḵ·ḵem wə·hā·ḵî·nū lə·ḇaḇ·ḵem ’el- Yah·weh wə·‘iḇ·ḏu·hū lə·ḇad·dōw wə·yaṣ·ṣêl ’eṯ·ḵem mî·yaḏ pə·liš·tîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-said Samuel unto all the-house-of Israel, saying: If with-all your-heart you are-returning unto YHWH, put-away the-gods-of the-foreigner from-your-midst, and-the-Ashtaroth; and-fix your-heart unto YHWH and-serve-Him alone — and-He-will-snatch you from-the-hand-of the-Philistines.”
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He had made them as a nation hunger for the lost presence of the Eternal, who had loved them in past days with so great a love
For He is a jealous God, who cannot endure a rival. His command is “Thou shalt have none other gods beside Me.
Put away the strange gods out of your houses, where some of you keep and worship them; and out of your hearts and affections, where they still have an interest in many of you.
4So the Israelites put away the Baals and Ashtoreths and served only the LORD.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
bə·nê yiś·rā·’êl ’eṯ- way·yā·sî·rū hab·bə·‘ā·lîm wə·’eṯ- hā·‘aš·tā·rōṯ way·ya·‘aḇ·ḏū lə·ḇad·dōw ’eṯ- Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-put-away the-sons-of Israel the-Baals and-the-Ashtaroth, and-they-served YHWH alone.”
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Through the land of Israel the graven images of the Phœnician idols were thrown down, and their impious worship everywhere was boldly dishonoured
He could have prayed for them himself alone in private, but he knew it would tend to perfect the repentance and reformation begun among them, and to establish them in God’s service, to engage them to unite with him in that dutyBenson's entry here covers vv. 4–5 together; the sentence quoted looks forward to Samuel's summons in v. 5.
To cast off the Philistine deities was equivalent to a rebellion generally against Philistine supremacy.
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 ScriptureGill is reporting Lightfoot's estimate, not making an exegetical claim from the Hebrew; the parallel Lightfoot draws is with Acts 2–3.
5Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD on your behalf.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šə·mū·’êl way·yō·mer qiḇ·ṣū ’eṯ- kāl- yiś·rā·’êl ham·miṣ·pā·ṯāh wə·’eṯ·pal·lêl ’el- Yah·weh ba·‘aḏ·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-said Samuel: Gather all Israel to-the-Mizpah, and-I-will-pray on-your-behalf unto YHWH.”
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so does our Lord Jesus Christ ever live at God's right hand to make intercession for us.Barnes reaches this by analogy from a chain of Old Testament intercessors (Moses, Elijah, Ezra, the high priest); the link to Christ is his theological inference, not a claim in the Hebrew of v. 5.
His intention could not possibly have been any other than to put the people into the right relation to their God, and thus to prepare the way for their deliverance out of the bondage of the Philistines.
no doubt he prayed for them privately, that the reformation begun might be carried on, and appear to be sincere, and hearty, and general, and universal; but he was desirous that they might appear in a body, and join with him in public prayer
6When they had gathered at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the LORD. On that day they fasted, and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the LORD.” And Samuel judged the Israelites at Mizpah.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yiq·qā·ḇə·ṣū ham·miṣ·pā·ṯāh way·yiš·’ă·ḇū- ma·yim way·yiš·pə·ḵū lip̄·nê Yah·weh ha·hū bay·yō·wm way·yā·ṣū·mū šām way·yō·mə·rū ḥā·ṭā·nū Yah·weh šə·mū·’êl ’eṯ- way·yiš·pōṭ bə·nê yiś·rā·’êl bam·miṣ·pāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-they-gathered-themselves to-the-Mizpah, and-they-drew water and-poured-out before YHWH; and-they-fasted on-that day, and-said there: We-have-sinned to-YHWH. And-Samuel judged the-sons-of Israel in-the-Mizpah.”
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Hence the pouring out of water before God was a symbolical representation of the temporal and spiritual distress in which they were at the time
They made a public confession, We have sinned against the Lord; thus giving glory to God, and taking shame to themselves.
The Chaldee text says that they drew water out of their heart: that is, wept abundantly for their sins.Geneva is citing the Targum's paraphrase, which is an ancient interpretation of the gesture, not a translation of the Hebrew verb.
Others explain the pouring out water as the pouring out the heart in penitence as it were water; or, as a symbolic act expressing their ruin and helplessness
7When the Philistines heard that the Israelites had gathered at Mizpah, their rulers marched up toward Israel. And when the Israelites learned of this, they feared the Philistines
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
p̄ə·liš·tîm way·yiš·mə·‘ū kî- ḇə·nê- yiś·rā·’êl hiṯ·qab·bə·ṣū ham·miṣ·pā·ṯāh p̄ə·liš·tîm sar·nê- way·ya·‘ă·lū ’el- yiś·rā·’êl bə·nê yiś·rā·’êl way·yiš·mə·‘ū way·yir·’ū mip·pə·nê p̄ə·liš·tîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-heard the-Philistines that had-gathered-themselves the-sons-of Israel to-the-Mizpah, and-went-up the-tyrants-of the-Philistines against Israel; and-heard the-sons-of Israel, and-they-feared from-before the-Philistines.”
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They discerned in it the rising spirit of religious patriotism among the Israelites that was prepared to throw off the yoke of their domination.
The lords naturally regarded a national assembly of their vassals as a preliminary step towards revolt, and mustering the army of the confederation, marched up towards Mizpah.
When sinners begin to repent and reform, they must expect Satan will muster all his forces against themAn application, not an exegesis: neither Satan nor his instruments appear in the Hebrew of this verse. Henry makes the same move in almost the same words.
8and said to Samuel, “Do not stop crying out to the LORD our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ḇə·nê- yiś·rā·’êl way·yō·mə·rū ’el- šə·mū·’êl ’al- ta·ḥă·rêš miz·zə·‘ōq ’el- Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·hê·nū mim·men·nū wə·yō·ši·‘ê·nū mî·yaḏ pə·liš·tîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-said the-sons-of Israel unto Samuel: Do-not be-silent from-crying-out for-us unto YHWH our-God, that-He-may-save-us from-the-hand-of the-Philistines.”
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Once more, as in old days, the glorious Arm fought with no earthly weapons for the people; an awful thunderstorm burst over the combatant hosts, the storm probably beating in the faces of the advancing Philistines.Ellicott's vivid reconstruction (the storm beating in the enemy's faces, the smoke still rising) goes beyond the Hebrew, which reports only thunder; he is filling in a scene, partly from Josephus.
We are ashamed and afraid to look God in the face, because of our great wickedness this day remembered and acknowledged; do thou therefore intercede for us, as Moses did for his generation.
Signifying that in the prayers of the godly, there should be a vehement zeal.
9Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. He cried out to the LORD on behalf of Israel, and the LORD answered him.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šə·mū·’êl way·yiq·qaḥ ’e·ḥāḏ ḥā·lāḇ ṭə·lêh way·ya·ʿă·lɛh kā·lîl ‘ō·w·lāh Yah·weh šə·mū·’êl way·yiz·‘aq ’el- Yah·weh bə·‘aḏ yiś·rā·’êl Yah·weh way·ya·‘ă·nê·hū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-took Samuel a-lamb-of-milk, one, and-offered-it-up a-whole ascent-offering to-YHWH; and-Samuel cried-out unto YHWH on-behalf-of Israel, and-YHWH answered him.”
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Olah means that which ascends , and symbolised devotion and consecration to God. Chalil intensified this signification, and showed that all was God's, and no part whatsoever reserved for the priest or the offerer.
He made intercession with the sacrifice. So Christ intercedes in virtue of his satisfaction.Benson moves from Samuel to Christ by analogy; the identification is his (and the tradition's) theological reading, not a statement of the Hebrew text.
And Samuel took a milk-lamb (a lamb that was still sucking, probably, according to Leviticus 22:27 , a lamb seven days old), and offered it whole as a burnt-offering to the Lord.
10As the Philistines drew near to fight against Israel, Samuel was offering up the burnt offering. But that day the LORD thundered loudly against the Philistines and threw them into such confusion that they fled before Israel.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ū·p̄ə·liš·tîm nig·gə·šū lam·mil·ḥā·māh bə·yiś·rā·’êl šə·mū·’êl way·hî ma·‘ă·leh hā·‘ō·w·lāh ha·hū bay·yō·wm Yah·weh way·yar·‘êm bə·qō·wl- gā·ḏō·wl ‘al- pə·liš·tîm way·hum·mêm way·yin·nā·ḡə·p̄ū lip̄·nê yiś·rā·’êl
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-Samuel was offering-up the-ascent-offering, and-the-Philistines drew-near for-the-battle against Israel; and-YHWH thundered with-a-great-voice on-that day upon the-Philistines and-threw-them-into-panic, and-they-were-struck-down before Israel.”
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The Heb. word expresses the confusion of a sudden panic , and is especially used of supernatural defeats.
The thunder, which alarmed the Philistines and threw them into confusion (יהמּם, as in Joshua 10:10 ), was the answer of God to Samuel's crying to the Lord.
as Josephus (n) says, was attended with lightning, which flashed in their faces, and shook their weapons out of their hands, so that they fled disarmedGill is relaying Josephus (Antiquities vi.2.2). The lightning that disarms and the earth that opens are Josephus's embellishments; the Hebrew text of v. 10 reports thunder and panic only.
The prophet's prayers and sacrifice were answered by such a tremendous storm of thunder and lightning that the assailants, panic-struck, were disordered and fled.
11Then the men of Israel charged out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, striking them down all the way to an area below Beth-car.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’an·šê yiś·rā·’êl way·yê·ṣə·’ū min- ham·miṣ·pāh way·yir·də·p̄ū ’eṯ- pə·liš·tîm way·yak·kūm ‘aḏ- mit·ta·ḥaṯ lə·ḇêṯ kār
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-went-out the-men-of Israel from the-Mizpah and-pursued the-Philistines, and-struck-them as-far-as from-under Beth-car.”
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Quest. Whence had they weapons wherewith to smite them? Answ. Divers of them probably brought them to the assembly; others borrowed them at Mizpeh
This victory was the more wonderful, since it does not appear that the Israelites came provided with any weapons to Mizpeh
Of this place we know nothing; it was, no doubt, a Philistine fortress, where the scattered remains of the beaten host were able to rally and defend themselves.
12Afterward, Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šə·mū·’êl way·yiq·qaḥ ’a·ḥaṯ ’e·ḇen way·yā·śem bên- ham·miṣ·pāh ū·ḇên haš·šên way·yiq·rā ’eṯ- šə·māh ’e·ḇen hā·‘ā·zer way·yō·mar hên·nāh ‘aḏ- Yah·weh ‘ă·zā·rā·nū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-took Samuel a-stone, one, and-set it between the-Mizpah and-between the-Tooth, and-called its-name Eben-ha-ezer, and-said: As-far-as here has-helped-us YHWH.”
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He hath begun to help us in some measure, though not completely to deliver us; by which wary expression he exciteth both their thankfulness for their mercy received
In giving his reason for it, hitherto hath Jehovah helped us, there is a plain indication of the need of further assistance.
so that in the selfsame place where the Israelites were twice beaten by the Philistines, and the ark taken, was this salvation wrought for them
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.The inscription is JFB's conjecture — “is thought to have been” — and the text says only that Samuel called the stone's name Ebenezer.
13So the Philistines were subdued, and they stopped invading the territory of Israel. And the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hap·pə·liš·tîm way·yik·kā·nə·‘ū wə·lō- lā·ḇō·w biḡ·ḇūl yiś·rā·’êl yā·sə·p̄ū ‘ō·wḏ yaḏ- Yah·weh wat·tə·hî bap·pə·liš·tîm kōl yə·mê šə·mū·’êl
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-were-bowed-down the-Philistines, and-they-did-not add again to-come into-the-border-of Israel; and-was the-hand-of YHWH against-the-Philistines all the-days-of Samuel.”
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It is obvious therefore that the Hebrew historian could use the expression relatively and not absolutelyCambridge is candidly harmonizing an apparent contradiction with the later chapters; he sets out the difficulty at length before proposing the solution.
they no more invaded the territory of Israel, i.e., with lasting success, as they had done before.
from this time forward the power of the Philistines gradually decayed. while the strength of Israel steadily increased, until King David completely subdued them
In this great revival of true religion, the ark was neither removed to Shiloh, nor placed with the tabernacle any where else. This disregard to the Levitical institutions showed that their typical meaning formed their chief use; and when that was overlooked, they became a lifeless service, not to be compared with repentance, faith, and the love of God and man.Henry's entry covers vv. 13–17 as a block; the observation is about the close of the chapter as a whole, not about v. 13 alone.
14The cities from Ekron to Gath, which the Philistines had taken, were restored to Israel, who also delivered the surrounding territory from the hand of the Philistines. And there was peace between the Israelites and the Amorites.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
he·‘ā·rîm mê·‘eq·rō·wn wə·‘aḏ- gaṯ wə·’eṯ- ’ă·šer p̄ə·liš·tîm mê·’êṯ lā·qə·ḥū- yiś·rā·’êl wat·tā·šō·ḇə·nāh lə·yiś·rā·’êl yiś·rā·’êl hiṣ·ṣîl gə·ḇū·lān mî·yaḏ pə·liš·tîm way·hî šā·lō·wm bên yiś·rā·’êl ū·ḇên hā·’ĕ·mō·rî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-returned the-cities which had-taken the-Philistines from-Israel, to-Israel, from-Ekron and-unto Gath; and-their-territory snatched Israel from-the-hand-of the-Philistines. And-there-was peace between Israel and-between the-Amorite.”
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In this war the Amorites, finding the Philistines worse masters than the Israelites, made common cause with Samuel, and assisted the Israelites in their wars against the Philistines.A historical reconstruction: v. 14 reports peace with the Amorites but says nothing about them making common cause with Samuel.
The towns which lay on the Danite frontier between these places were restored to Israel, not however including Ekron and Gath themselves.
the Canaanitish tribes also kept peace with Israel after this victory of the Israelites over the Philistines, and during the time of Samuel.
15So Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.
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šə·mū·’êl ’eṯ- way·yiš·pōṭ yiś·rā·’êl kōl yə·mê ḥay·yāw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-judged Samuel Israel all the-days-of his-lives.”
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yet Samuel did not then quite cease to be a judge, being so made by God’s extraordinary call, which Saul could not destroy
Clearly his sons supplemented but did not supersede their father’s judicial office; and Samuel retained a civil and religious authority even after Saul had become the military leader of the people.
The Jews say (q) he judged Israel thirteen years only, eleven by himself, and two with Saul; but his government must be much largerGill cites Seder Olam Rabbah and the Midrash on Psalms for the thirteen-year figure and then rejects it; the tradition is reported, not endorsed.
16Every year he would go on a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, judging Israel in all these places.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šā·nāh bə·šā·nāh wə·hā·laḵ wə·sā·ḇaḇ mid·dê bêṯ- ’êl wə·hag·gil·gāl wə·ham·miṣ·pāh wə·šā·p̄aṭ ’eṯ- yiś·rā·’êl ’êṯ kāl- hā·’êl·leh ham·mə·qō·w·mō·wṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-he-went year by-year and-circled Bethel and-the-Gilgal and-the-Mizpah, and-judged Israel in-all the-places these.”
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he went to those several places, partly in compliance with the people, whose convenience and benefit he was willing to purchase with his own trouble, making himself an itinerant judge and preacher for their sakes
as the Targum, from the middle of it, that is, every half year; and so Josephus says (s), that he went twice a year in circuitGill is stacking the Targum against Josephus; the twice-yearly circuit is Josephus's report (Antiquities vi.3.1), not a statement of the Hebrew.
These centres, it is observable, were all situated in the southern part of the land, in the tribe of Benjamin. This leads us to the conclusion that the power of Samuel, if not exclusively, was chiefly exercised among the southern tribes.
17Then he would return to Ramah because his home was there, and there he judged Israel and built an altar to the LORD.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ū·ṯə·šu·ḇā·ṯōw hā·rā·mā·ṯāh kî- bê·ṯōw šām wə·šām šā·p̄āṭ ’eṯ- yiś·rā·’êl way·yi·ḇen- miz·bê·aḥ Yah·weh šām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-his-returning was to-the-Ramah, for there was his-house, and-there he-judged Israel; and-he-built there an-altar to-YHWH.”
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there lies in the background the idea of a higher priesthood, and with this Samuel was invested, as being a type of him who is a Priest forever after the order of MelchisedekPulpit is arguing a typology, not translating; the Melchizedek connection is imported from Psalm 110 and Hebrews, and is his inference from Samuel's irregular priestly acts.
Indeed, Shiloh being now laid waste, and no other place yet appointed for them to bring their offerings to, the law which obliged them to one place was for the present suspended.
Which was not contrary to the Law: for as yet a certain place was not appointed.
It is quite possible that Samuel may have removed the tabernacle from Shiloh to some place near to RamahBarnes is explicit that this is conjecture: he begins by admitting “we are in complete ignorance as to where the tabernacle was at this time.”
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The chapter opens with the holiest object in Israel put under guard in a private house on a hill, and then with nothing happening for twenty years. Ellicott preserves Hengstenberg's phrase (through Lange) that Eleazar was made “not priest, but watchman at the grave of the Ark by its corpse” — a dormancy, not a ministry. K&D and Cambridge both note what the narrator does not explain: Kiriath-jearim was neither priestly nor Levitical, and nobody took the ark home to Shiloh. K&D offer the most careful conjecture — the capture was read as judgment on the desecrated sanctuary, and no word of God came to move it back.
Then the one verb that carries the whole period: וַיִּנָּהוּ (nâhâh, H5091, Niphal). The Verifier confirms it is rare — three verses in the canon — and its other two homes are Micah 2:4 and Ezekiel 32:18, where it is the professional wail raised over the dead. ⚙ Israel keens after YHWH as over a corpse. Pulpit concedes the versions all differ on the word; K&D report and reject Gesenius's “to assemble,” as forced in from the Chaldee; Cambridge softens it to a child sobbing after an angry father; Poole keeps both grief and pursuit. Maclaren alone turns the twenty years into their own argument: “Lost blessings are precious. God was more prized when withdrawn.” Barnes, more historically, suspects the neglect of the ark was itself idolatry's fruit, and links these years to the close of the Judges 13:1 oppression. Note the coldest fact in the passage: nothing in vv. 1–2 says God did anything.
Samuel's demand turns on a participle and a noun. שָׁבִים (shûwb, H7725) is present and continuous — if you are ones-returning — which is why Gill suspects Samuel feared “hypocrisy and dissimulation at least in some of them.” And the sentence ends on לְבַדּוֹ (bad, H905), a noun of separateness. Maclaren states the logic: “Real religion is exclusive, as real love is. In its very nature it is indivisible, and if given to two is accepted by neither.” Cambridge grounds it in the first commandment; K&D render the middle imperative not “prepare” but “direct your heart firmly upon the Lord,” which is what the Hiphil of kûwn (H3559) actually asks — to make the heart stand.
Ellicott and Pulpit see, better than the others, what this cost politically. Baal and Ashtoreth were the occupier's gods — Cambridge notes that Ashtoreth appears among the Philistines as a war-goddess, and Pulpit that these were “especially Phoenician idols.” Pulpit says the smashing of the images was “an overt act of rebellion,” and Ellicott asks whether a disarmed people had “faith and courage to plunge unarmed, undisciplined, into so perilous a contest.” Then the strangest act in the unit: they draw water and pour it out (shâphak, H8210) with no object stated. The voices divide honestly. Geneva and Cambridge follow the Targum's “they poured out their heart in repentance”; JFB reads the emblem of cleansing; K&D, from Psalm 22:15 and Lamentations 2:19, hear a confession — behold, we are before Thee like water poured out; Barnes lists three options and settles on none; Gill reports and dismantles Jerome's account of a Jewish trial-by-water tradition. ⚙ The Hebrew hands us a gesture and withholds its meaning, and the safest thing to say is that the people put their own dissolution on the ground in front of God before asking Him for anything.
Israel's request is precisely worded: אַל־תַּחֲרֵשׁ, “be not silent from crying out” (chârash, H2790 — to be deaf or dumb), a construction Pulpit renders literally because English cannot. They do not ask for a general. They ask that a man not fall silent. And the answer, when it comes, is a voice: Cambridge insists on the literal “with a great voice” at v. 10, and Geneva hears Hannah's prophecy of 1 Samuel 2:10 landing.
Between the plea and the thunder stands the lamb. טְלֵה חָלָב — a lamb of milk, the noun ṭâleh (H2924) so rare that the Verifier finds it in only two canonical verses, its one other home being the wolf and the lamb feeding together in Isaiah 65:25. Barnes notes it never appears in the Pentateuch; K&D, Cambridge and Gill all tie the choice to Leviticus 22:27 — the youngest animal the law permits. And it is offered כָּלִיל (H3632), whole: Pulpit draws out that nothing at all was reserved “for the priest or the offerer,” and Gill records the rabbinic note that even the skin burned. ⚙ The liturgy performs the sermon: Samuel preached Him alone and then offered a victim of which no part was kept back.
The grammar of v. 10 is decisive. Samuel is mid-offering (a circumstantial participle) when YHWH thunders and וַיְהֻמֵּם — Cambridge: a word for “the confusion of a sudden panic,” used “especially of supernatural defeats,” the vocabulary of the Red Sea and Joshua's long day. The Philistines were struck in the Niphal, agent unnamed; only in v. 11 does Israel become the subject of a verb of violence. Poole and Benson both worry about where a disarmed people found weapons, and both admit they are guessing. Ellicott and Gill both reach for Josephus's lightning and earthquake; neither is in the Hebrew. Then the stone. Gill and Poole notice that Ebenezer is not new ground but the ground of the catastrophe of 1 Samuel 4 — the same name over the same field, now meaning the opposite. Poole catches the reticence of the inscription exactly: “He hath begun to help us in some measure, though not completely to deliver us.”
The battle report closes in the vocabulary of the Judges: וַיִּכָּנְעוּ, they were bowed low (kânaʻ, H3665 — to bend the knee), which Cambridge is careful to say “does not imply complete subjugation.” And then the unit's most contested sentence, that the Philistines came no more. Cambridge sets the counter-evidence out plainly — a garrison at Gibeah, a disarmed Israel, three later invasions, all in Samuel's lifetime — and offers two honest solutions rather than pretending there is none; K&D narrow it to lasting success and cite Seb. Schmidt; Poole says they came, but only in raiding parties. ⚙ The most defensible reading is Cambridge's second: a summary written from the standpoint of Samuel's active judgeship, not a claim about every year of his life. That is a limitation of the text's scope, not an error in it, and it should be stated rather than smoothed.
What follows is quieter and more remarkable. The cities return (shûwb again, the verb of v. 3) and Israel snatches its border back (nâtsal, the verb of Samuel's promise). There is peace with the Amorite. And the man who won a battle by praying spends the rest of his life riding a circle — çâbab, H5437 — between three towns, and builds an altar at home. Henry's observation is the sharpest in the chapter: through all this revival the ark was never fetched back, and “this disregard to the Levitical institutions showed that their typical meaning formed their chief use.” Poole and Benson know the altar is legally irregular (Deuteronomy 12) and defend it from necessity and from God's acceptance of the offerings — an argument from outcome, which should be labelled as one. Pulpit, most daringly, calls Samuel a type of “a Priest forever after the order of Melchisedek.”
⚙ Under Sola Scriptura, and offered to be tested: this chapter is the Bible's cleanest correction of religion used as a machine. In chapter 4 Israel fetched the ark into the camp and lost both the battle and the ark, and Maclaren names that for what it was — “pure heathenism… Not the name of the Deity, but the spirit of the worshipper, makes the ‘idolater.’” In chapter 7 Israel brings no sacred object to Mizpah at all. It brings a confession (we have sinned), an emptied jar, a mouth stopped by fasting, and a man who will not fall silent. The ark stays on its hill the whole time, and the deliverance comes anyway.
Read that way, the theological weight of the unit rests on three Hebrew words the English necessarily softens. Lᵉbaddô (v. 3): God alone, a noun of separateness, not an adverb of emphasis. Kālîl (v. 9): a victim entirely consumed, nothing reserved — the doctrine of v. 3 turned into smoke. And ʻad-hênnâh (v. 12): help as far as here, a stone that commemorates a mercy and promises nothing. ⚙ The honest shape of faith in this chapter is exclusive in its object, total in its offering, and modest in its claims about tomorrow — which is precisely the opposite of a talisman. Where this reading could be wrong: it leans on the deliberateness of the contrast with chapter 4, which the narrator implies (by reusing the name Ebenezer) but never states; and it treats the poured-out water as confession, which is the Targum's reading and the majority of our voices', but not a certainty of the Hebrew.
The ark never moved; the people did — and the thunder came anyway.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The verb behind the BSB's gentle “mournfully sought” at v. 2 is וַיִּנָּהוּ (nâhâh, H5091, Niphal), and the Verifier confirms it occurs in only three verses in the canon. Its other two are Micah 2:4, where a taunt-song is raised over a plundered Israel, and Ezekiel 32:18, where the prophet is told to wail over the multitude of Egypt and bring them down to the pit. In both, the word belongs to a funeral. K&D, quoting Seb. Schmidt, read the idiom as human pursuit — following someone “with earnest solicitations and complaints, until he at length assents” — and note that Gesenius's alternative “to assemble” is imported from the Chaldee and cannot be shown for the Hebrew. ⚙ The lexical company suggests something harder than Cambridge's image of a child crying after a father: Israel mourns for YHWH the way a nation mourns its dead.
Micah 2:4 · Ezekiel 32:18
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H5091 nâhâh, a rare root occurring in only 3 verses canon-wide (1 Samuel 7:2; Micah 2:4; Ezekiel 32:18). The link is lexical, not a quotation — the rarity of the root is what makes the verbal connection real.
טְלֵה חָלָב in v. 9 is not the ordinary kebeś of the sacrificial system. The noun ṭâleh (H2924) occurs, on the Verifier's count, in only two verses of the entire canon: here, and Isaiah 65:25 — “the wolf and the lamb shall feed together.” Barnes noticed the oddity without the concordance: “The term here used for a ‘lamb’ does not occur in the Pentateuch; indeed it is only found besides this place in Isaiah 65:25.” K&D and Cambridge tie the choice of a still-nursing animal to Leviticus 22:27, which fixes seven days as the minimum age — so Samuel offers the youngest lawful victim at the moment of Israel's greatest helplessness. ⚙ The verbal link to Isaiah is genuine but the theology of it must stay modest: a rare word joins a lamb burned whole while an army advances to a lamb grazing unafraid beside its predator in the new creation. That is a resonance, and worth hearing; it is not an argument Isaiah is making.
Isaiah 65:25 · Leviticus 22:27
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H2924 ṭâleh, occurring in only 2 verses canon-wide (1 Samuel 7:9; Isaiah 65:25) — the rarest shared lexeme in this unit. The Leviticus 22:27 reference is a legal cross-reference supplied by K&D, Cambridge and Gill, not a Verifier-computed lexical link.
The Verifier's strongest structural candidate for this unit is 1 Samuel 4:1, and with reason: at 4:1 Israel encamped at a place already called Eben-ezer and was routed, the ark taken; here Samuel sets up a stone and gives the place that name. Gill states the reversal plainly: “in the selfsame place where the Israelites were twice beaten by the Philistines, and the ark taken, was this salvation wrought for them.” Poole makes the same comparison; Cambridge, more cautiously, records the identification and then flags a dissenting note in its own appendix. 1 Samuel 5:1 belongs to the same arc — the ark carried into Philistine territory as a trophy. ⚙ The contrast runs deeper than geography: at Eben-ezer I, Israel brought the ark and lost; at Eben-ezer II, Israel brought nothing and the ark never left its hill.
1 Samuel 4:1 · 1 Samuel 5:1
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes with 1 Samuel 4:1 — H8050 Shᵉmûwʼêl (120 vv), H6430 Pᵉlishtîy (244 vv); with 1 Samuel 5:1 — H727 ʼârôwn (174 vv), H6430 Pᵉlishtîy. All are common lexemes, so the verbal overlap alone proves nothing; the link is the shared place-name Eben-ezer and the inverted battle pattern, which is structural, not a quotation. Caveat recorded: Cambridge appends a dissenting cross-reference (its Additional Note IX) to the claim that the two Eben-ezer sites are geographically identical, which this synthesis cannot check; the shared name in the received text is not in dispute.
עַשְׁתָּרוֹת (H6252) is comparatively uncommon — twelve verses canon-wide — and the Verifier's candidates show where it clusters: Judges 2:13 (Israel forsook YHWH and served Baal and the Ashtaroth), Judges 10:6 (the Baals, the Ashtaroth, and the gods of the Philistines), and 1 Samuel 12:10, where Samuel's own farewell speech quotes the people saying “we have sinned, because we have forsaken the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.” Cambridge supplies the background: Ashtoreth is the Babylonian Ishtar, “goddess of battles and victories,” to whom, at 1 Samuel 31:10, the Philistines would dedicate Saul's armour. ⚙ Chapter 7 is the Judges cycle run one more time and run properly — forsaking, oppression, crying out, deliverance — and 1 Samuel 12:10 shows Samuel himself later narrating it in exactly these words. Tiered structural rather than verbal deliberately: the shared roots are real, but they form a recurring formula, not a citation.
Judges 2:13 · Judges 10:6 · 1 Samuel 12:10
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H6252 ʻAshtârôwth (12 vv — moderately rare) and H5647 ʻâbad (262 vv) with Judges 2:13 and Judges 10:6; with 1 Samuel 12:10, H6252 plus H5337 nâtsal (194 vv) and H5647. Tiered structural rather than verbal because the shared wording is a recurring narrative formula of the Judges cycle, not a quotation of one passage by another.
הַמִּצְפָּה carries the article in Hebrew because it is still a common noun: the lookout. Cambridge lists its other national assemblies — the war against Benjamin (Judges 20), Saul's election (1 Samuel 10:17, which the Verifier returns as a candidate on shared H4709 and H8050), and later the muster of Judas Maccabaeus. K&D note Samuel probably chose it partly for the Judges 20 precedent and partly because it commanded the western approach. The Verifier's other Mizpah candidates fill out the picture: Joshua 11:3 (the land of Mizpah in the conquest), 1 Kings 15:22 and 2 Chronicles 16:6 (Asa fortifies it against the north), Jeremiah 40:15 (the remnant gathered there under Gedaliah, and murdered). ⚙ Mizpah is the place Israel goes when the centre has failed — no ark, no king, no temple — which is exactly its role here.
1 Samuel 10:17 · Jeremiah 40:15 · 1 Kings 15:22
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H4709 Mitspâh (37 vv) with all three references, plus H8050 Shᵉmûwʼêl (120 vv) with 1 Samuel 10:17 and H6908 qâbats (121 vv) with Jeremiah 40:15. A shared place-name across independent narratives is a structural motif, not a quotation, so the tier is deliberately not verbal.
Israel's plea at v. 8 is אַל־תַּחֲרֵשׁ מִזְּעֹק — do not be silent from crying out. Barnes sets Samuel in a chain of intercessors (Moses at Rephidim, Elijah at Carmel, Ezra at the evening sacrifice, the high priest on the Day of Atonement) and ends the chain at Christ, who “ever lives at God's right hand to make intercession for us.” Henry, on vv. 7–12, says the same: “our great Intercessor above never ceases, is never silent.” Cambridge adds the canon's own verdict on Samuel — Psalm 99:6 and Jeremiah 15:1 name him as the standard of the effective intercessor. ⚙ This is a cross-Testament link and must be tiered honestly: Greek and Hebrew share no Strong's numbers, and neither Hebrews 7:25 nor Romans 8:34 quotes or alludes to 1 Samuel 7. What is real is the shared pattern — a mediator whose unceasing cry stands between a helpless people and their enemies — and the fact that Barnes, Henry and Benson all independently make the connection.
Hebrews 7:25 · Romans 8:34 · Psalm 99:6
basis: No lexical basis is possible: Hebrews and Romans are Greek, 1 Samuel 7 is Hebrew, so no shared Strong's number can be computed and the link can never be tiered verbal. The recorded basis is a shared pattern (an unceasing mediatorial cry on behalf of a helpless people) plus explicit commentary attestation from Barnes, Henry and Benson. Psalm 99:6 is a Hebrew text that names Samuel as an intercessor whom God answered, and is cited by Barnes and Cambridge, but was not returned as a Verifier lexeme candidate for this unit.
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
Samuel demanded that Israel serve YHWH לְבַדּוֹ — Him alone — and then offered a lamb כָּלִיל, wholly. Pulpit works the grammar and draws the conclusion: ʻōlâh “means that which ascends, and symbolised devotion and consecration to God. Chalil intensified this signification, and showed that all was God's, and no part whatsoever reserved for the priest or the offerer” — so that “Samuel's burnt offering implied that the people gave themselves unreservedly to Jehovah.” Gill preserves the rabbinic note that even the skin, the priest's portion in an ordinary burnt offering, went into the fire here. ⚙ The redemptive-historical line the whole tradition draws from this is that the sacrifice which is wholly given, offered by the one who is also praying, is the shape Scripture later fills with Christ; Benson makes the move explicitly at v. 9 — “He made intercession with the sacrifice. So Christ intercedes in virtue of his satisfaction.” Held honestly, the type is not that the lamb is Christ, but that the two things Israel needed in the same hour — a whole offering and an unceasing cry — were performed by one man, and are joined again in the New Testament in one person.
Hebrews 10:5-10 · Ephesians 5:2 · Isaiah 65:25
“Do not be silent from crying out for us” (v. 8) is the people's whole strategy, and it works: and YHWH answered him (v. 9), with a voice (v. 10). Barnes traces the intercessory line through Moses, Elijah, Ezra and the high priest, and ends it with Christ, who “ever lives at God's right hand to make intercession for us”; Henry, on the same verses, marvels that “our great Intercessor above never ceases, is never silent”; Benson tells his readers that “they who receive Christ as their lawgiver and judge, need not doubt of their interest in his intercession.” Cambridge notes that Scripture itself canonizes Samuel's prayers in Psalm 99:6 and Jeremiah 15:1. ⚙ The apostolic reading (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25) does not cite this chapter, and should not be made to. What this chapter contributes is the pattern's hardest edge: the intercessor's cry is offered by a man who could not fight, for a people who could not fight, and the only thing that decided the battle was that he did not stop.
Hebrews 7:25 · Romans 8:34 · 1 Timothy 2:5
Something irregular runs through this chapter and the narrator never defends it. A layman's household keeps the ark (v. 1). A non-priest offers the whole burnt offering outside the tabernacle (v. 9). An altar goes up at Ramah (v. 17) in apparent tension with Deuteronomy 12:5, 13 — Poole raises the objection himself and answers it from necessity and prophetic dispensation; Geneva glosses “as yet a certain place was not appointed”; Benson says Shiloh's ruin suspended the one-place law “for the present.” Henry draws the sharpest conclusion: through this whole revival the ark stayed where it was, and that “disregard to the Levitical institutions showed that their typical meaning formed their chief use.” Pulpit goes furthest, arguing that “there lies in the background the idea of a higher priesthood, and with this Samuel was invested, as being a type of him who is a Priest forever after the order of Melchisedek.” ⚙ This should be marked carefully: the Melchizedek typology is Pulpit's, imported from Psalm 110 and Hebrews, and the other voices in this unit do not make it. What they do agree on is the more modest and more provable point — that in the interval between Shiloh and Zion, God accepted worship that the letter of the Levitical order did not authorize, and that the thing which counted was repentance, faith, and a whole offering.
Psalm 110:4 · Hebrews 7:11-17 · 1 Samuel 2:35
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
Text and interlinear. The word indices in this unit follow the Berean interlinear, which orders words to match the English rendering rather than the Hebrew; so, for example, the verb of v. 1 appears at index 3 though it stands first in the Hebrew clause. The literal renderings above were rebuilt from the Hebrew clause order, not from the index order. A few interlinear cells carry no gloss (marked “vvv” or “. . .”) where one English phrase spans two Hebrew words; notes on those indices describe the Hebrew word, not the empty gloss.
What is uncertain in this unit. Three place-names cannot be located: Beth-car (v. 11) is mentioned nowhere else in Scripture — K&D report only Josephus's Korraia; Shen (v. 12) is unidentified, and Ellicott, Cambridge, Barnes and K&D agree only that it probably names a tooth-like crag; and Cambridge lists two rival sites for Mizpah (Nebi Samwîl and Scopus), giving reasons that favour the latter without settling it, while K&D and Pulpit take it as Nebi Samwîl. Which Gilgal Samuel visited (v. 16) is genuinely open — K&D argue for Jiljilia on the shape of the circuit and then explicitly withdraw the confidence they once had in that argument; Barnes prefers the Jordan-valley site.
Chronology. The “twenty years” of v. 2 is not the length of the ark's stay at Kiriath-jearim: Poole, Benson, Gill, JFB and Cambridge all say so, and they disagree among themselves about the total (Poole “forty,” Gill “between forty and fifty,” Ellicott “nearly fifty”). This synthesis follows the consensus that the twenty measures the time before the reformation, and takes no position on the total.
An internal tension the text does not resolve. Verse 13 says the Philistines came no more into Israel's territory all the days of Samuel, while later chapters record garrisons, a general disarmament, and three invasions in his lifetime. Cambridge sets the evidence out in full and offers two possible readings (a loose summary expression, or a statement limited to Samuel's active judgeship); K&D limit it to lasting success; Poole allows raiding parties. No harmonization is asserted here as certain.
Sources and their layers. Several voices quote others, and this synthesis marks it where it matters: Ellicott quotes Hengstenberg through Lange and Dean Payne Smith at length; Gill relays Josephus for the lightning and the earthquake at v. 10 (not in the Hebrew), Jerome for a Jewish tradition about the water at v. 6 (which Gill himself rejects), Lightfoot at v. 4, and Seder Olam Rabbah for the thirteen-year judgeship at v. 15 (which he also rejects); K&D quote Seb. Schmidt twice; Geneva and Cambridge both report the Targum on the poured-out water. Josephus and the Targum are ancient witnesses, not the Hebrew text, and are labelled as such in the notes and editorial notes.
Minority readings recorded, not adopted. Geneva glosses “the Amorites” in v. 14 as “Meaning, the Philistines,” against Benson, Poole, K&D and Cambridge, who take it of the Canaanite tribes. Pulpit and Cambridge prefer “at Gibeah” to “in the hill” at v. 1, where K&D and Ellicott keep “the height.” K&D deny that v. 6 records Samuel's accession to the judgeship, against JFB and Pulpit, who take it exactly so.
Machine layer. Every paragraph or clause marked ⚙ is this tool's own fallible synthesis, offered to be tested and corrected. The interlinear parses, Strong's numbers, lexeme frequencies and thread bases are sourced; the commentary excerpts are verbatim public-domain text; the weighing of them is not.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)