HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 620
1 S A MU EL 7
cows were hitched to the cart, and their newborn calves were shut up in a pen. 11 Then the
Ark of the Lord and the chest containing
the gold rats and gold tumors were placed on
the cart. 12 And sure enough, without veering
off in other directions, the cows went straight
along the road toward Beth-shemesh, lowing as
they went. The Philistine rulers followed them
as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.
13 The people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley, and when they saw the
Ark, they were overjoyed! 14 The cart came into
the field of a man named Joshua and stopped
beside a large rock. So the people broke up the
wood of the cart for a fire and killed the cows
and sacrificed them to the Lord as a burnt offering. 15 Several men of the tribe of Levi lifted
the Ark of the Lord and the chest containing
the gold rats and gold tumors from the cart and
placed them on the large rock. Many sacrifices
and burnt offerings were offered to the Lord
that day by the people of Beth-shemesh. 16 The
five Philistine rulers watched all this and then
returned to Ekron that same day.
17 The five gold tumors sent by the Philistines
as a guilt offering to the Lord were gifts from
the rulers of Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath,
and Ekron. 18 The five gold rats represented the
five Philistine towns and their surrounding villages, which were controlled by the five rulers.
The large rock* at Beth-shemesh, where they
set the Ark of the Lord, still stands in the field
of Joshua as a witness to what happened there.
The Ark Moved to Kiriath-Jearim
19 But the Lord killed seventy men* from Bethshemesh because they looked into the Ark of
the Lord. And the people mourned greatly
because of what the Lord had done. 20 “Who is
able to stand in the presence of the Lord, this
holy God?” they cried out. “Where can we send
the Ark from here?”
21 So they sent messengers to the people at
Kiriath-jearim and told them, “The Philistines
have returned the Ark of the Lord. Come here
and get it!”
7
So the men of Kiriath-jearim came to get the
Ark of the Lord. They took it to the hillside
home of Abinadab and ordained Eleazar, his
son, to be in charge of it. 2 The Ark remained in
Kiriath-jearim for a long time—twenty years in
all. During that time all Israel mourned because
it seemed the Lord had abandoned them.
Samuel Leads Israel to Victory
3 Then Samuel said to all the people of Israel,
“If you want to return to the Lord with all your
hearts, get rid of your foreign gods and your
images of Ashtoreth. Turn your hearts to the
Lord and obey him alone; then he will rescue
page 250
you from the Philistines.” 4 So the Israelites got
rid of their images of Baal and Ashtoreth and
worshiped only the Lord.
5 Then Samuel told them, “Gather all of Israel
to Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.”
6 So they gathered at Mizpah and, in a great
ceremony, drew water from a well and poured
it out before the Lord. They also went without
food all day and confessed that they had sinned
against the Lord. (It was at Mizpah that Samuel
became Israel’s judge.)
7 When the Philistine rulers heard that Israel
had gathered at Mizpah, they mobilized their
army and advanced. The Israelites were badly
frightened when they learned that the Philistines were approaching. 8 “Don’t stop pleading
with the Lord our God to save us from the Philistines!” they begged Samuel. 9 So Samuel took a
young lamb and offered it to the Lord as a whole
burnt offering. He pleaded with the Lord to help
Israel, and the Lord answered him.
10 Just as Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines arrived to attack Israel.
But the Lord spoke with a mighty voice of thunder from heaven that day, and the Philistines
were thrown into such confusion that the Israelites defeated them. 11 The men of Israel chased
them from Mizpah to a place below Beth-car,
slaughtering them all along the way.
12 Samuel then took a large stone and placed
it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah.*
He named it Ebenezer (which means “the stone
of help”), for he said, “Up to this point the Lord
has helped us!”
13 So the Philistines were subdued and didn’t
invade Israel again for some time. And throughout Samuel’s lifetime, the Lord’s powerful
hand was raised against the Philistines. 14 The
Israelite villages near Ekron and Gath that the
Philistines had captured were restored to Israel, along with the rest of the territory that
the Philistines had taken. And there was peace
between Israel and the Amorites in those days.
15 Samuel continued as Israel’s judge for the
rest of his life. 16 Each year he traveled around,
setting up his court first at Bethel, then at Gilgal, and then at Mizpah. He judged the people of
Israel at each of these places. 17 Then he would
return to his home at Ramah, and he would hear
cases there, too. And Samuel built an altar to
the Lord at Ramah.
Israel Requests a King
As Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons
to be judges over Israel. 2 Joel and Abijah,
his oldest sons, held court in Beersheba. 3 But
8
6:18 As in some Hebrew manuscripts and Greek version; most
Hebrew manuscripts read great meadow or Abel-haggedolah.
6:19 As in a few Hebrew manuscripts; most Hebrew
manuscripts read 70 men, 50,000 men. Perhaps the text should
be understood to read the Lord killed 70 men and 50 oxen.
7:12 As in Greek and Syriac versions; Hebrew reads Shen.