6 And they are gathered to Mizpeh, and draw water, and pour out before Jehovah, and fast on that day, and say there, `We have sinned against Jehovah;' and Samuel judgeth the sons of Israel in Mizpeh.
And the sons of Israel cry unto Jehovah, saying, `We have sinned against Thee, even because we have forsaken our God, and serve the Baalim.'
We have sinned with our fathers, We have done perversely, we have done wickedly.
And Hannah answereth and saith, `No, my lord, A woman sharply pained in spirit I `am', and wine and strong drink I have not drunk, and I pour out my soul before Jehovah;
having risen, I will go on unto my father, and will say to him, Father, I did sin -- to the heaven, and before thee,
Cried hath their heart unto the Lord; O wall of the daughter of Zion, Cause to go down as a stream tears daily and nightly, Give not rest to thyself, Let not the daughter of thine eye stand still. Arise, cry aloud in the night, At the beginning of the watches. Pour out as water thy heart, Over against the face of the Lord, Lift up unto Him thy hands, for the soul of thine infants, Who are feeble with hunger at the head of all out-places.
Trust in Him at all times, O people, Pour forth before Him your heart, God `is' a refuge for us. Selah.
Who doth make my head waters, And mine eye a fountain of tears? And I weep by day and by night, For the wounded of the daughter of my people.
And there is a word of Jehovah unto Jonah a second time, saying, `Rise, go unto Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim unto it the proclamation that I am speaking unto thee;' and Jonah riseth, and he goeth unto Nineveh, according to the word of Jehovah. And Nineveh hath been a great city before God, a journey of three days. And Jonah beginneth to go in to the city a journey of one day, and proclaimeth, and saith, `Yet forty days -- and Nineveh is overturned.' And the men of Nineveh believe in God, and proclaim a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even unto their least, seeing the word doth come unto the king of Nineveh, and he riseth from his throne, and removeth his honourable robe from off him, and spreadeth out sackcloth, and sitteth on the ashes, and he crieth and saith in Nineveh by a decree of the king and his great ones, saying, `Man and beast, herd and flock -- let them not taste anything, let them not feed, even water let them not drink; and cover themselves `with' sackcloth let man and beast, and let them call unto God mightily, and let them turn back each from his evil way, and from the violence that `is' in their hands. Who knoweth? He doth turn back, and God hath repented, and hath turned back from the heat of His anger, and we do not perish.' And God seeth their works, that they have turned back from their evil way, and God repenteth of the evil that He spake of doing to them, and he hath not done `it'.
and I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek `by' prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. And I pray to Jehovah my God, and confess, and say: `I beseech Thee, O Lord God, the great and the fearful, keeping the covenant and the kindness to those loving Him, and to those keeping His commands; we have sinned, and done perversely, and done wickedly, and rebelled, to turn aside from Thy commands, and from Thy judgments:
Dost thou judge them? Dost thou judge, son of man? The abominations of their fathers cause them to know,
Mine eye is poured out, And doth not cease without intermission,
For after my turning back I repented, And after my being instructed I struck on the thigh, I have been ashamed, I have also blushed, For I have borne the reproach of my youth.
`And -- they have confessed their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they have trespassed against Me, and also, that they have walked with Me, in opposition,
Only, know thine iniquity, For against Jehovah thy God thou hast transgressed, And thou dost scatter thy ways to strangers, Under every green tree, And to My voice thou hast not hearkened, An affirmation of Jehovah. Turn back, O backsliding sons, An affirmation of Jehovah. For I have ruled over you, And taken you one of a city, and two of a family, And have brought you to Zion,
Rivulets of waters have come down mine eyes, Because they have not kept Thy law!
My tear hath been to me bread day and night, In their saying unto me all the day, `Where `is' thy God?'
Soundness is not in my flesh, Because of Thine indignation, Peace is not in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities have passed over my head, As a heavy burden -- too heavy for me. Stunk -- become corrupt have my wounds, Because of my folly. I have been bent down, I have been bowed down -- unto excess, All the day I have gone mourning. For my flanks have been full of drought, And soundness is not in my flesh. I have been feeble and smitten -- unto excess, I have roared from disquietude of heart.
I have been weary with my sighing, I meditate through all the night `on' my bed, With my tear my couch I waste.
Therefore do I loathe `it', And I have repented on dust and ashes.
He looketh on men, and saith, `I sinned, And uprightness I have perverted, And it hath not been profitable to me.
My interpreter `is' my friend, Unto God hath mine eye dropped:
and Thou givest them into the hand of their adversaries, and they distress them, and in the time of their distress they cry unto Thee, and Thou, from the heavens, dost hear, and, according to Thine abundant mercies, dost give to them saviours, and they save them out of the hand of their adversaries.
And in the twenty and fourth day of this month have the sons of Israel been gathered, with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth upon them; and the seed of Israel are separated from all sons of a stranger, and stand and confess concerning their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers, and rise up on their station, and read in the book of the law of Jehovah their God a fourth of the day, and a fourth they are confessing and bowing themselves to Jehovah their God.
And at the present of the evening I have risen from mine affliction, and at my rending my garment and my upper robe, then I bow down on my knees, and spread out my hands unto Jehovah my God, and say, `O my God, I have been ashamed, and have blushed to lift up, O my God, my face unto Thee, for our iniquities have increased over the head, and our guilt hath become great unto the heavens. `From the days of our fathers we `are' in great guilt unto this day, and in our iniquities we have been given -- we, our kings, our priests -- into the hand of the kings of the lands, with sword, with captivity, and with spoiling, and with shame of face, as `at' this day. `And now, as a small moment hath grace been from Jehovah our God, to leave to us an escape, and to give to us a nail in His holy place, by our God's enlightening our eyes, and by giving us a little quickening in our servitude; for servants we `are', and in our servitude our God hath not forsaken us, and stretcheth out unto us kindness before the kings of Persia, to give to us a quickening to lift up the house of our God, and to cause its wastes to cease, and to give to us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. `And now, what do we say, O our God, after this? for we have forsaken Thy commands,
And I proclaim there a fast, by the river Ahava, to afflict ourselves before our God, to seek from Him a right way for us, and for our infants, and for all our substance, for I was ashamed to ask from the king a force and horsemen to help us because of the enemy in the way, for we spake to the king, saying, `The hand of our God `is' upon all seeking Him for good, and His strength and His wrath `is' upon all forsaking Him.' And we fast, and seek from our God for this, and He is entreated of us.
And Jehoshaphat feareth, and setteth his face to seek to Jehovah, and proclaimeth a fast over all Judah;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on 1 Samuel 7
Commentary on 1 Samuel 7 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 7
1Sa 7:1, 2. The Ark at Kirjath-jearim.
1. the men of Kirjath-jearim—"the city of woods," also Kirjath-baal (Jos 15:60; 18:14; 1Ch 13:5, 6). It was the nearest town to Beth-shemesh and stood on a hill. This was the reason of the message (1Sa 6:21), and why this was chosen for the convenience of people turning their faces to the ark (1Ki 8:29-35; Ps 28:2; Da 6:10).
brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill—Why it was not transported at once to Shiloh where the tabernacle and sacred vessels were remaining, is difficult to conjecture.
sanctified … his son—He was not a Levite, and was therefore only set apart or appointed to be keeper of the place.
2. the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim … twenty years—It appears, in the subsequent history, that a much longer period elapsed before its final removal from Kirjath-jearim (2Sa 6:1-19; 1Ch 13:1-14). But that length of time had passed when the Israelites began to revive from their sad state of religious decline. 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.
1Sa 7:3-6. The Israelites, through Samuel's Influence, Solemnly Repent at Mizpeh.
3-6. Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel—A great national reformation was effected through the influence of Samuel. Disgusted with their foreign servitude, and panting for the restoration of liberty and independence, they were open to salutary impressions; and convinced of their errors, they renounced idolatry. 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. The drawing water, and pouring it out before the Lord, seems to have been a symbolical act by which, in the people's name, Samuel testified their sense of national corruption, their need of that moral purification of which water is the emblem, and their sincere desire to pour out their hearts in repentance before God.
6. Samuel judged … 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.
1Sa 7:7-14. While Samuel Prays, the Philistines Are Discomfited.
7-11. when the Philistines heard, &c.—The character and importance of the national convention at Mizpeh were fully appreciated by the Philistines. They discerned in it the rising spirit of religious patriotism among the Israelites that was prepared to throw off the yoke of their domination. Anxious to crush it at the first, they made a sudden incursion while the Israelites were in the midst of their solemn celebration. Unprepared for resistance, they besought Samuel to supplicate the divine interposition to save them from their enemies. 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. The Israelites, recognizing the hand of God, rushed courageously on the foe they had so much dreaded and committed such immense havoc, that the Philistines did not for long recover from this disastrous blow. This brilliant victory secured peace and independence to Israel for twenty years, as well as the restitution of the usurped territory.
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.