1 Samuel 7:6

_AND THEY GATHERED TOGETHER TO MIZPEH, AND DREW WATER, AND POURED IT OUT BEFORE THE LORD, AND FASTED ON THAT DAY, AND SAID THERE, WE HAVE SINNED AGAINST THE LORD. AND SAMUEL JUDGED THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL IN MIZPEH._ 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 accustomed to do. Now he entered on the duties of a civil magistrate....

5,6 Israel drew water and poured it out before the Lord; signifying their humiliation and sorrow for sin. They pour out their hearts in repentance before the Lord. They were free and full in their confession, and fixed in their resolution to cast away from them all their wrong doings. They made a public confession, We have sinned against the Lord; thus giving glory to God, and taking shame to themselves. And if we thus confess our sins, we shall find our God faithful and just to forgive us our sins....

Verse 1 Samuel 7:6. _DREW WATER, AND POURED IT OUT_] It is not easy to know what is meant by this; it is true that _pouring out water_, in the way of _libation_, was a religious ordinance among the _Hebrews_, (Isaiah 12:3), and among most other nations, particularly the _Greeks_ and _Romans_, who used, not only _water_, but _wine, milk,_ _honey_, and _blood_, as we find by Homer, Virgil, Euripides, Sophocles, Porphyry, and Lucian. Our Lord seems to allude to this ceremony, John 7:37, where see the note. The _Chaldee Paraphrast_ understands the place differently, for he translates: "And they _poured out_ their _hearts_ in _penitence, as_ WATERS

Two rites are brought together here which belong especially to the Feast of Tabernacles and the Day of Atonement, respectively, namely, drawing and pouring out water, and fasting. Hence, some think that Samuel chose the Feast of tabernacles, and the fast which preceded it, as the occasion for assembling the people. 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 2 Samuel 14:14; or as typifying their desire that their sins might be forgotten “as waters that pass away” Job 11:16. AND SAMUEL JUDGED - This seems to denote the “commencement” of Samuel’s Judgeship civil and military, as having taken place at Mizpeh on this occasion. As civil

EXPOSITION 1 SAMUEL 7:1 At Kirjath-jearim the people reverently undertook the charge of the ark, and carried out their arrangements so carefully that no further calamity occurred. On its arrival they placed it in THE HOUSE OF ABINADAB IN THE HILL. More probably _at Gibeah, _as it is translated in 2 Samuel 6:3, 2 Samuel 6:4. In Joshua 15:57 a village of this name is mentioned in the tribe of Judah not far from Kirjath-jearim (_ibid. _Joshua 15:60), and probably Abinadab, who lived there, was a L

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, that curses were cast into this water, as in the water of jealousy, and that idolaters were tried by it; and that whatever idolater, who denied he worshipped idols, and tasted of it, his lips so stuck together that they could not be separated, and by this means was known and put to death; and therefore it is said Samuel judged now at this place: but it should be observed, this water was not drank, but poured out; and that as a token of their humiliation, as Jarchi, that they were before the Lord, as water poured out; and of the sincerity of thei...

7. THE RETURN UNTO JEHOVAH AND THE DELIVERANCE CHAPTER 7:3-14 _ 1. Samuel's message and the response of the people (1 Samuel 7:3)_ 2. Gathered at Mizpah (1 Samuel 7:5) 3. The deliverance (1 Samuel 7:7) Samuel now is seen beginning his great national ministry. The message he brings is the message of repentance and the assurance of faith. In simple words he addressed the people, who no doubt were prepared for it by their long period of humiliation. He demands that their true return to the Lord must be practical; the strange gods and Ashtaroth must be put away. If they serve the Lord only, deliverance out of the hands of the Philistines would come. The message was at once obeyed. Every true

SAMUEL AS JUDGE. Philistines subdued by Divine intervention; probably an ideal picture, by the Deuteronomic writer, of the happy results of Israel's repentance and Samuel's piety peace, victory, and orthodoxy. The section is the typical form of the Deuteronomic accounts of the Judges apostasy, oppression, repentance, deliverance. The statements that the Philistines ceased to invade Israel, and that the Israelites recovered the Philistine cities from Ekron to Gath, are inconsistent with the older narratives. On the other hand, the writer sees no difficulty in Samuel building an altar at Ramah, because his view was that the limitation of sacrifice to a central sanctuary did not come into force till Solomon built the Temple. 1 SAMUEL 7:2. The return of the Ark leads the people to repent; Samuel encourages them in this by promising deliverance if they worship Yahweh only....

SINNED. Hebrew. _chata'._ App-44....

The National Repentance and Reformation under Samuel 2. _And it came to pass_, &c. Better, AND IT CAME TO PASS, FROM THE DAY WHEN THE ARK RESTED IN KIRJATH-JEARIM, THAT A LONG TIME ELAPSED, EVEN TWENTY YEARS. Twenty years was not, as the E. V. seems to imply, the whole duration of the Ark's sojourn at Kirjath-jearim, but the time that elapsed before the reformation now to be recorded. The period here passed over in silence was a dark page in Israel's history, politically and religiously. They were vassals of the Philistines, reduced apparently to abject submission. The public worship of Jehovah was intermitted; for the Tabernacle seems to have been dismantled, and the Ark was in a private house. The people sank into gross idolatry. But meanwhile Samuel was growing in strength and influence, and when the right moment came and the desire for better things sprang up as the fruit of his pr...