1 Samuel 7:5-13

7:5 Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord on your behalf.” 7:6 After they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. They fasted on that day, and they confessed ¹  there, “We have sinned against the Lord.” So Samuel led ²  the people of Israel at Mizpah.

7:7 When the Philistines heard that the Israelites had gathered at Mizpah, the leaders of the Philistines went up against Israel. When the Israelites heard about this, they were afraid of the Philistines. 7:8 The Israelites said to Samuel, “Keep ³  crying out to the Lord our ⁴  God so that he may save us ⁵  from the hand of the Philistines!” 7:9 So Samuel took a nursing lamb ⁶  and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. Samuel cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord answered him.

7:10 As Samuel was offering burnt offerings, the Philistines approached to do battle with Israel. ⁷  But on that day the Lord thundered loudly against the Philistines. He caused them to panic, and they were defeated by ⁸  Israel. 7:11 Then the men of Israel left Mizpah and chased the Philistines, striking them down all the way to an area below Beth Car.

7:12 Samuel took a stone and placed it between Mizpah and Shen. ⁹  He named it Ebenezer, ¹⁰  saying, “Up to here the Lord has helped us.” 7:13 So the Philistines were defeated; they did not invade Israel again. The hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.

[7:6]  ¹ tn Heb “said.”

[7:6]  ² tn Heb “judged”; NAB “began to judge”; TEV “settled disputes among.”

[7:8]  ³ tn Heb “don’t stop.”

[7:8]  ⁴ tc The LXX reads “your God” rather than the MT’s “our God.”

[7:8]  ⁵ tn After the negated jussive, the prefixed verbal form with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result.

[7:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “a lamb of milk”; NAB “an unweaned lamb”; NIV “a suckling lamb”; NCV “a baby lamb.”

[7:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “approached for battle against Israel.”

[7:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “before.”

[7:12]  ⁹ tn Cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT “Jeshanah.”

[7:12]  ¹⁰ sn The name Ebenezer (אֶבֶן הָעָזֶר) means “stone of help” in Hebrew (cf. TEV); NLT adds the meaning parenthetically after the name.