1 Samuel 7:8-17

7:8 The Israelites said to Samuel, “Keep ¹  crying out to the Lord our ²  God so that he may save us ³  from the hand of the Philistines!” 7:9 So Samuel took a nursing lamb ⁴  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. ⁵  But on that day the Lord thundered loudly against the Philistines. He caused them to panic, and they were defeated by ⁶  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. ⁷  He named it Ebenezer, ⁸  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.

7:14 The cities that the Philistines had captured from Israel were returned to Israel, from Ekron to Gath. Israel also delivered their territory from the control ⁹  of the Philistines. There was also peace between Israel and the Amorites. 7:15 So Samuel led ¹⁰  Israel all the days of his life. 7:16 Year after year he used to travel the circuit of Bethel, ¹¹  Gilgal, and Mizpah; he used to judge Israel in all of these places. 7:17 Then he would return to Ramah, because his home was there. He also judged ¹²  Israel there and built an altar to the Lord there.

[7:8]  ¹ tn Heb “don’t stop.”

[7:8]  ² tc The LXX reads “your God” rather than the MT’s “our God.”

[7:8]  ³ tn After the negated jussive, the prefixed verbal form with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result.

[7:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “a lamb of milk”; NAB “an unweaned lamb”; NIV “a suckling lamb”; NCV “a baby lamb.”

[7:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “approached for battle against Israel.”

[7:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “before.”

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

[7:12]  ⁸ sn The name Ebenezer (אֶבֶן הָעָזֶר) means “stone of help” in Hebrew (cf. TEV); NLT adds the meaning parenthetically after the name.

[7:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “hand.”

[7:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “judged” (also in v. 17).

[7:16]  ¹¹ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[7:17]  ¹² tn Or perhaps “settled disputes for” (cf. NLT “would hear cases there”; NRSV “administered justice there”).