1 Samuel 7:3-4

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 1 Samuel 7:3-6

We may well wonder where Samuel was and what he was doing all this while, for we have not had him so much as named till now, since 1 Sam. 4:1; not as if he were unconcerned, but his labours among his people are not mentioned till there appears the fruit of them. When he perceived that they began to lament after the Lord he struck while the iron was hot, and two things he endeavoured to do for them, as a faithful servant of God and a faithful friend to the Israel of God:? I. He endeavoured to... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 7:3

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 unto the Lord with all your hearts ; truly and sincerely; for he might fear there was hypocrisy and dissimulation at least in some of them: ... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 7:4

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 F9 Works, vol. 1. p. 54. 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. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Samuel 7:3

And Samuel spake - We have heard nothing of this judge since he served in the tabernacle. He was now grown up, and established for a prophet in the land of Israel. If ye do return - From your backsliding and idolatry. With all your hearts - For outward services and professions will avail nothing. Put away the strange gods - Destroy their images, altars, and groves: they are strange; you do not know them as helpers, saviours, or defenders. Prepare your... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Samuel 7:4

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. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Samuel 7:1-12

Steps of return to God. The whole interest of this passage is moral. No stress is laid on the forms, or even the authorised appurtenances, of religion. The ark, of which we have heard so much, and which had been treated with a singular mixture of superstition and profanity, plays no part in the history. It is left for years in a quiet retreat. Israel had backslidden from the Lord. The steps of their return have a meaning and a moral lesson for all generations. I. THE FEELING OF A... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Samuel 7:3

If ye do return, etc. At length everything was ripe for a change, and the reformation wrought privately in their hearts was followed by public action. Samuel's secret addresses had no doubt been watched with anger by the Philistines, but he now ventures upon open resistance; for this public summons to Israel to put away its idols by a national act was a summons also to an uprise against foreign domination. We must suppose that the people had often assured Samuel in his wanderings of the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Samuel 7:3-12

Ebenezer. The facts are— 1 . Samuel calls on the people to prove their desire to return to God by putting away idols and preparing their hearts for a blessing. 2 . A response to the call is followed by a summons to Mizpah for prayer and humiliation. 3 . A rumoured approach of the Philistines excites fear, and an urgent request for Samuel's intercession with God. 4 . While Samuel is engaged in worship God discomfits the assailing Philistines by thunder. 5 . The victory... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Samuel 7:4

Then the children of Israel did put away [the] Baalim and [the] Ashtaroth . This must have been done by a public act, by which at some time previously arranged the images of their Baals and Astartes were torn from their shrines, thrown down, and broken in pieces. Of course this was an overt act of rebellion, for these deities were especially Phoenician idols, and subsequently it was the Phoenician Jezebel who tried so fanatically to introduce their worship into Israel in Ahab's time. To... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - 1 Samuel 7:3-5

Compare the marginal references. Twenty years of Samuel’s life had passed away since the last mention of him 1 Samuel 4:1. Now he appears in the threefold character of prophet, Judge, and the acknowledged leader of the whole people. His words were an answer to a profession of repentance on the part of Israel, the practical proof of which would be the putting away all their false gods. (Compare Judges 6:10 note.)Will pray for you ... - So Moses prayed for the people at Rephidim Exodus 17:11-12;... read more

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