1 Samuel 7 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~1080 to 1060 BC, covering a twenty year gap and then a national assembly late in the period of the judges
Location
Kiriath-jearim in the hills west of Jerusalem, then Mizpah, a highland assembly site north of Jerusalem, with fighting toward Beth-car on the western slopes
Audience
Israelites of the early monarchy, shown what national life looked like under a faithful judge before any king existed
Situation
The ark rests at Kiriath-jearim for twenty years while Israel drifts, until Samuel calls the nation to Mizpah to put away foreign gods and repent. The Philistines attack the gathering, God throws them into confusion with thunder, and Samuel sets up a memorial stone he names Ebenezer, meaning stone of help.
Key Background
Mizpah served as a tribal meeting place where the loosely joined tribes could act together, since Israel at this stage had no capital, no standing army, and no central government. The Baals and Ashtoreths that Samuel tells them to discard were the Canaanite storm god and fertility goddess whose worship promised rain and crops, so abandoning them was an economic risk as much as a religious one. Pouring out water before the Lord and fasting were public acts of self humbling, and erecting a named standing stone was the standard way to fix a memory in the landscape for people who kept records in stone rather than on paper.
The men of came and brought Yahweh's up and took it to the house of Abinadab on the hill. They out his son Eleazar to guard the of Yahweh.
From the day the chest settled in Kiriath-jearim, a long time passed — twenty years in all. And all the house of Israel for Yahweh.
Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, "If you're to Yahweh with your get rid of the foreign gods among you — the too — and set your hearts firmly on Yahweh. Serve him alone, and he will you from the Philistines' grip."
So the Israelites got rid of the and the Ashtoreths, and served Yahweh alone.
Samuel said, "Gather all of Israel at and I will to Yahweh on your behalf."
They gathered at Mizpah, and it out before Yahweh. They that day and said there, "We have Yahweh." And Samuel served as over the Israelites at Mizpah.
When the Philistines heard that the Israelites had gathered at Mizpah, the Philistine marched up against Israel. When the Israelites heard about it, they were terrified of the Philistines.
The Israelites said to Samuel, "Don't stop out to Yahweh our God for us — so that he will rescue us from the Philistines' grip."
Samuel took a young lamb and offered it as a to Yahweh. Samuel cried out to Yahweh on Israel's behalf, and Yahweh answered him.
While Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines moved in to attack Israel. But Yahweh with a against the Philistines that day and them and they were crushed before Israel.
The men of Israel charged out of Mizpah and chased the Philistines, striking them down all the way to below
Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and He named it — "The Stone of Help" — saying, "Up to this point, Yahweh has helped us."
So the Philistines were subdued and didn't invade Israel's territory again. was against the Philistines for the rest of Samuel's life.
The towns that the Philistines had taken from Israel were returned to Israel — from all the way to Gath. Israel recovered the surrounding territory from Philistine control. And there was also peace between Israel and the
Samuel served as judge over Israel for the rest of his life.
Every year he would travel a — Bethel, and Mizpah — and he judged Israel at all these places.
But he always came back to because that was his home. He judged Israel there too, and he built an to Yahweh there.