19 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 7 This chapter gives an account of the ark being brought to Kirjathjearim, where it continued twenty years, 1 Samuel 7:1 of the exhortation of Samuel to the people of Israel to reform from idolatry, and which had its desired effect, 1 Samuel 7:3 of Samuel's praying for the people, and offering sacrifices for them, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the men of Kirjathjearim came and fetched up the ark of the Lord,.... From Bethshemesh, which was near unto them, as Josephus (g) says; they made no difficulty of fetching it, but gladly received it; for if they knew of what happened to the men of Bethshemesh, they knew it was not owing to the presence of the ark among them, but to their...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
In this chapter we have, I. The eclipsing of the glory of the ark, by its privacy in Kirjath-jearim for many years, ver. 1, 2. II. The appearing of the glory of Samuel in his public services for the good of Israel, to whom he was raised up to be a judge, and he was the last that bore that character. This chapter gives us all the account we have of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjathjearim, that the time was long,.... It could not be less than between forty and fifty years, for it remained here until the times of David, who removed it from hence after he was made king over all Israel, and when he had reigned over Judah seven years; and from the death of Eli to that time,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel,.... When they assembled at one of their three yearly feasts, or as he went from place to place, exhorting them to repentance and reformation; and perceiving they began to be awakened to a sense of their sins, and seemed desirous of returning to God, and restoring his worship: saying, if ye do return...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth,.... Both their male and female deities, of which see Judges 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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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, Judges 20:1. This order Samuel gave by messengers sent to the several tribes, or the heads of them, to meet him at this place:...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they gathered together to Mizpeh,.... Even all Israel, at least the heads of the people, and representatives of them: and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord; drew it from some fountain near at hand, and poured it out as in the presence of God, who was where his people were met together. Jerom (k) relates it as tradition of the Jews,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpeh,.... Not knowing it was upon a religious account; but supposing they met to form schemes and measures to cast off their yoke, and deliver themselves out of their hands; and were preparing to take up arms, and fall upon them: the lords of the Philistines...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the children of Israel said to Samuel,.... To whom they applied, not as the general of their forces, but as the prophet of the Lord; believing his prayers for them would be of more avail to them than an army of men ever so numerous, or so well accoutred: cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us: he had been praying for them that day, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Samuel took a sucking lamb,.... Which it might be, and yet more than eight days old, for under that it might not be sacrificed, Exodus 22:30 and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord; the whole of it was burnt, skin and all, whereas the skin was the priest's in other burnt offerings; and this is remarked (m) as one of the three...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering.... Which he might do by a priest, as Ben Gersom suggests, he being only a Levite; though he being a prophet, and an extraordinary person, and this an extraordinary case, he might do it himself, as Gideon and others, as well as offer it in another place than where the tabernacle was; Shiloh being...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the men of Israel went out of Mizpeh,.... To which they were encouraged by hearing or perceiving that the army of the Philistines was discomfited by the thunder, and lightning, and earthquake: and pursued the Philistines; who, when they came out, were fleeing from the opening earth, and frightened with thunder and lightning, and many were...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Samuel took a stone, and set it,.... Not for worship, but as a monument of the victory obtained by the help of God: and this he placed between Mizpeh and Shen; which latter signifies a tooth, and designs the precipice of a rock which juts out, and hangs over in the form of one: and called the name of it Ebenezer; which signifies "the stone of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
So the Philistines were subdued,.... Not that their country was conquered, or they made subject and become tributaries to Israel; but they were so humbled, as not to attempt to give the people of Israel any further trouble and distress, who were now delivered from their oppression and tyranny: and came no more into the coast of Israel; at this...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel,.... We nowhere read that the Israelites went out to war with them, and took these cities from them by besieging and assaulting them; but they made a demand of them after the above victory obtained, by which the Philistines were so intimidated, that they quietly...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he went from year to year in circuit,.... As judges do; or "from the year in the year" (r) from the time of the year in the year, 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 circuit: and the places he went to, and where he held his courts of judicature, were Bethel, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And his return was to Ramah,.... When he had gone his circuit, he came back to this city, which was his native place, and where his father and mother had dwelt, see 1 Samuel 1:1 for there was his house; and his father's house before him, and perhaps the same, 1 Samuel 1:19 and there he judged Israel; here was his fixed residence, and here he was...