Home

For Teaching

1 Samuel 7: What the Passage Says

65 claims across 17 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What 1 Samuel 7 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

The ark is taken to Kiriath-jearim, where it stays for twenty years while Israel mourns and turns back toward the LORD. Samuel calls the people to get rid of their foreign gods, gathers them at Mizpah to fast and confess, and prays for them. When the Philistines attack, the LORD thunders against them and Israel drives them back; Samuel sets up a stone called Ebenezer. The chapter ends by describing Samuel's yearly circuit as judge of Israel and his home base at Ramah.

Claim by Claim

  1. 7:1
    • The men of Kirjath-jearim came.
    • They brought up the ark of the LORD.
    • They took the ark into the house of Abinadab.
    • The house of Abinadab was on the hill (the Hebrew wording may instead name the place Gibeah).
    • They consecrated Eleazar, Abinadab's son.
    • Eleazar was consecrated to guard the ark of the LORD.
  2. 7:2
    • The ark stayed at Kirjath-jearim.
    • The time the ark stayed there was long.
    • The time was twenty years.
    • All the house of Israel lamented after the LORD.
  3. 7:3
    • Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel.
    • Samuel said: if you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then remove the foreign gods from among you.
    • Samuel said to remove the Ashtoreths.
    • Samuel said to fix their hearts on the LORD.
    • Samuel said to serve the LORD alone.
    • Samuel said the LORD will deliver them from the hand of the Philistines.
  4. 7:4
    • The children of Israel put away the Baals.
    • The children of Israel put away the Ashtoreths.
    • The children of Israel served the LORD alone.
  5. 7:5
    • Samuel said to gather all Israel to Mizpah.
    • Samuel said he would pray to the LORD on their behalf.
  6. 7:6
    • They gathered at Mizpah.
    • They drew water.
    • They poured the water out before the LORD.
    • They fasted that day.
    • They said there: We have sinned against the LORD.
    • Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah.
  7. 7:7
    • The Philistines heard that the children of Israel had gathered at Mizpah.
    • The lords of the Philistines went up against Israel.
    • The children of Israel heard of it.
    • The children of Israel were afraid of the Philistines.
  8. 7:8
    • The children of Israel said to Samuel: do not stop crying out to the LORD our God for us.
    • They called the LORD their God.
    • They said this was so that he would save them from the hand of the Philistines.
  9. 7:9
    • Samuel took one suckling lamb.
    • Samuel offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD.
    • Samuel cried out to the LORD on behalf of Israel.
    • The LORD answered him.
  10. 7:10
    • Samuel was offering up the burnt offering.
    • The Philistines drew near to fight against Israel.
    • That day the LORD thundered with a great sound against the Philistines.
    • The LORD threw the Philistines into confusion.
    • The Philistines were struck down before Israel.
  11. 7:11
    • The men of Israel went out from Mizpah.
    • They pursued the Philistines.
    • They struck the Philistines down as far as below Beth-car.
  12. 7:12
    • Samuel took one stone.
    • Samuel set the stone between Mizpah and Shen.
    • Samuel named the stone Ebenezer.
    • Samuel said: the LORD has helped us up to this point.
  13. 7:13
    • The Philistines were subdued.
    • The Philistines did not come again into the territory of Israel.
    • The hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.
  14. 7:14
    • The cities the Philistines had taken from Israel were returned to Israel.
    • These cities extended from Ekron as far as Gath.
    • Israel delivered the territory of those cities from the hand of the Philistines.
    • There was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
  15. 7:15
    • Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.
  16. 7:16
    • Samuel went year by year on a circuit.
    • His circuit went to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah.
    • He judged Israel in all those places.
  17. 7:17
    • He returned to Ramah.
    • His house was at Ramah.
    • He judged Israel there.
    • He built an altar to the LORD there.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

7:1
The ark was a gold-covered wooden chest, the most sacred object of Israel's worship, understood as the place where the LORD was present among the people. The Philistines had captured it in battle and then sent it back after a plague broke out among them (chapters 4-6). "Sanctified" in the King James means set apart for a sacred duty; it does not mean Eleazar was made morally pure. "In the hill" may be a place name, Gibeah, which is simply the Hebrew word for hill.
7:2
The King James "lamented after the LORD" translates a rare Hebrew verb whose sense is disputed; it suggests something between grieving, yearning, and being drawn back toward him. Twenty years is counted from the ark's arrival at Kiriath-jearim, not from the end of the events told here.
7:3
"Strange gods" in 1611 English means foreign gods, gods belonging to other nations, not gods that are odd. Ashtoreth was a Canaanite goddess associated with fertility and war; the King James form "Ashtaroth" is the plural, meaning either her images or the local versions of her worshiped in different towns.
7:4
"Baalim" is the plural of Baal, the Canaanite storm and fertility god. The plural refers to his images or to the many local Baals, each attached to a particular town or shrine. Baal also means simply "lord" or "owner" in ordinary Hebrew.
7:5
Mizpah, whose name means "watchtower," was a hilltop town a few miles north of Jerusalem that served as a national gathering place. Israel had no capital at this time, so assemblies met at recognized sites like this one.
7:6
Drawing water and pouring it out before the LORD is not explained anywhere else in the Hebrew Bible; ancient and modern readers have guessed at a sign of self-emptying, of repentance, or of a poured offering. Going without food was a standard way of showing grief or remorse in public. "Judged" covers both settling legal disputes and leading the nation, the role held by the figures in the book of Judges.
7:7
The King James "lords of the Philistines" renders a special Hebrew title, seranim, used only of the rulers of the five Philistine cities. It is not the ordinary word for lord. The Philistines were a people settled on the coastal plain southwest of Israel, with their own language and gods, and were Israel's main military rivals in this period.
7:9
A burnt offering was consumed entirely by fire on the altar, with no part eaten by the worshipers or the priests, which is why the King James adds "wholly." A lamb still nursing was very young, under a year old.
7:10
The Hebrew says the LORD thundered "with a great voice," thunder being spoken of as his voice. "Discomfited" in 1611 English means thrown into panic and routed, far stronger than the modern word; it is the standard term for the confusion sent on an enemy army in Israel's battle accounts.
7:12
Ebenezer means "stone of help," which is why Samuel's saying is attached to it. "Hitherto" means up to this point. Shen means "tooth" and probably refers to a tooth-shaped rock; some ancient copies read a different name here.
7:13
"Coast" in the King James means border or territory, not seashore. The claim that the Philistines came no more is limited by the clause that follows it, "all the days of Samuel"; later chapters describe further Philistine wars.
7:14
Ekron and Gath were two of the five main Philistine cities, marking the northern and southern ends of the recovered strip. "Amorites" is used broadly in the Hebrew Bible for the peoples living in Canaan before Israel, rather than for one single nation.
7:15
Samuel is the last figure the Hebrew Bible describes this way. From chapter 8 onward Israel asks for a king instead, so this verse quietly closes the period of the judges.
7:16
Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpah were long-established places of assembly and worship in the central hill country; Samuel's yearly loop took him to each in turn to hear cases. The King James "circuit" means a fixed route traveled again and again.
7:17
Ramah was Samuel's home town, where his parents had lived (chapter 1). Building an altar there means setting up a place of sacrifice outside the main sanctuary, which was normal in this period, before worship was centralised.

Read 1 Samuel 7