1 Samuel 7

²And he and all his troops set out for Baale of Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name—the name of the Lord of Hosts, who is enthroned between the cherubim that are on it.

³They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart,

¹¹Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing; come out from it, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord.

²¹So they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up with you.”

¹⁴On the west side the border curved southward from the hill facing Beth-horon on the south and came out at Kiriath-baal (that is, Kiriath-jearim), a city of the sons of Judah. This was the western side.

⁵So David assembled all Israel, from the River Shihor in Egypt to Lebo-hamath, to bring the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim.

⁶David and all Israel went up to Baalah of Judah (that is, Kiriath-jearim) to bring up from there the ark of God the Lord, who is enthroned between the cherubim—the ark that is called by the Name.

⁶We heard that the ark was in Ephrathah; we found it in the fields of Jaar.

¹³Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the Lord your God. You have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every green tree and have not obeyed My voice,’” declares the Lord.

⁹They will come with weeping, and by their supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk beside streams of waters, on a level path where they will not stumble. For I am Israel’s Father, and Ephraim is My firstborn.”

¹⁰Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

¹¹Consider what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what vindication! In every way you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.

⁴When the angel of the Lord had spoken these words to all the Israelites, the people lifted up their voices and wept.

¹⁰Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

¹¹On that day the wailing in Jerusalem will be as great as the wailing of Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.

²²“Return, O faithless children, and I will heal your faithlessness.” “Here we are. We come to You, for You are the Lord our God.

²³Surely deception comes from the hills, and commotion from the mountains. Surely the salvation of Israel is in the Lord our God.

⁸But Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

⁴You are to follow the Lord your God and fear Him. Keep His commandments and listen to His voice; serve Him and hold fast to Him.

¹⁰“Away from Me, Satan!” Jesus told him. “For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

¹³Fear the Lord your God, serve Him only, and take your oaths in His name.

⁷Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.

¹⁴Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; cast aside the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.

⁸O Ephraim, what have I to do anymore with idols? It is I who answer and watch over him. I am like a flourishing cypress; your fruit comes from Me.

³Assyria will not save us, nor will we ride on horses. We will never again say, ‘Our gods!’ to the work of our own hands. For in You the fatherless find compassion.”

¹³for they forsook Him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

³³For they have forsaken Me to worship Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in My ways, nor done what is right in My eyes, nor kept My statutes and judgments, as Solomon’s father David did.

¹⁵“We have sinned,” the Israelites said to the Lord. “Deal with us as You see fit; but please deliver us today!”

¹⁶So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and He could no longer bear the misery of Israel.

¹¹And the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.

¹Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out, and the congregation assembled as one man before the Lord at Mizpah.

²³As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you. And I will continue to teach you the good and right way.

¹⁶Every year he would go on a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, judging Israel in all these places.

¹⁷After this, Samuel summoned the people to the Lord at Mizpah

¹²Afterward, Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”

³⁸Dilan, Mizpeh, Joktheel,

¹⁴For we will surely die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life, but He devises ways that the banished one may not be cast out from Him.

¹⁵“No, my lord,” Hannah replied. “I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have not had any wine or strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the Lord.

¹⁰Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against You, for we have indeed forsaken our God and served the Baals.”

⁶We have sinned like our fathers; we have done wrong and acted wickedly.

⁸Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge. Selah

¹Oh, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night over the slain daughter of my people.

¹¹On hearing the words of the Philistine, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and greatly afraid.

⁶Seeing that they were in danger because their troops were hard-pressed, the men of Israel hid in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in cellars and cisterns.

¹⁰As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and saw the Egyptians marching after them, and they were terrified and cried out to the Lord.

³Jehoshaphat was alarmed and set his face to seek the Lord. And he proclaimed a fast throughout Judah.

⁴Perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to defy the living God, and He will rebuke him for the words that the Lord your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that still survives.”

¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.

¹⁹They pleaded with Samuel, “Pray to the Lord your God for your servants so that we will not die! For we have added to all our sins the evil of asking for a king.”

²⁰“Do not be afraid,” Samuel replied. “Even though you have committed all this evil, do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.

¹For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep still, until her righteousness shines like a bright light, her salvation like a blazing torch.

⁶On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord shall take no rest for yourselves,

⁷nor give Him any rest until He establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.

¹Then the Lord said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go!

⁶Moses and Aaron were among His priests; Samuel was among those who called on His name. They called to the Lord and He answered.

¹⁷Then he would return to Ramah because his home was there, and there he judged Israel and built an altar to the Lord.

¹⁵Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

²“How can I go?” Samuel asked. “Saul will hear of it and kill me!” The Lord answered, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’

¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.

¹⁰Those who oppose the Lord will be shattered. He will thunder from heaven against them. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth and will give power to His king. He will exalt the horn of His anointed.”

¹⁷Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call on the Lord to send thunder and rain, so that you will know and see what a great evil you have committed in the sight of the Lord by asking for a king.”

¹⁴The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.

¹⁵He shot His arrows and scattered the foes; He hurled lightning and routed them.

²⁰From the heavens the stars fought; from their courses they fought against Sisera.

¹⁰And the Lord threw them into confusion before Israel, who defeated them in a great slaughter at Gibeon, pursued them along the ascent to Beth-horon, and struck them down as far as Azekah and Makkedah.

⁶So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts.

¹⁰He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. In Him we have placed our hope that He will yet again deliver us,

⁹Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant stood. And the stones are there to this day.

²²But I have had God’s help to this day, and I stand here to testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen:

¹⁴And Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. So to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

¹⁴So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where God had spoken with him—a stone marker—and he poured out a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil.

¹After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod,

¹Again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord, so He delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.

⁴⁹Then David reached into his bag, took out a stone, and slung it, striking the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.

⁵⁰Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.

¹Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before them, and many fell slain on Mount Gilboa.

²The Philistines hotly pursued Saul and his sons, and they killed Saul’s sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua.

²⁰Then Saul and all his troops assembled and marched to the battle, and they found the Philistines in total confusion, with each man wielding the sword against his neighbor.

²¹And the Hebrews who had previously gone up into the surrounding camps to join the Philistines now went over to the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan.

¹Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel forty-two years.

²He chose for himself three thousand men of Israel: Two thousand were with Saul at Michmash and in the hill country of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin. And the rest of the troops he sent away, each to his own home.

⁵For behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son. And no razor shall touch his head, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

³⁴They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord had commanded them,

²and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.

¹⁶You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

¹⁷Meanwhile, Sisera had fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.

⁶When they had gathered at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. On that day they fasted, and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel judged the Israelites at Mizpah.

²⁰All this took about 450 years. After this, God gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet.

²¹Then the people asked for a king, and God gave them Saul son of Kish, from the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years.

¹⁶Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them from the hands of those who plundered them.

¹Then Samuel said to all Israel, “I have listened to your voice in all that you have said to me, and I have set over you a king.

¹When Samuel died, all Israel gathered to mourn for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David set out and went down to the Wilderness of Paran.

¹¹So the Lord sent Jerubbaal, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel, and He delivered you from the hands of your enemies on every side, and you dwelt securely.

²“When I choose a time, I will judge fairly.

³Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; uphold the rights of the afflicted and oppressed.

⁴Rescue the weak and needy; save them from the hand of the wicked.

⁴He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys. And they had thirty towns in the land of Gilead, which to this day are called Havvoth-jair.

¹⁰You who ride white donkeys, who sit on saddle blankets, and you who travel the road, ponder

¹⁴He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. And he judged Israel eight years.

¹⁹The next morning they got up early to bow in worship before the Lord, and then they returned home to Ramah. And Elkanah had relations with his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her.

⁴So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.

¹Now there was a man named Elkanah who was from Ramathaim-zophim in the hill country of Ephraim. He was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.

²⁰There he set up an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

⁷There Jacob built an altar, and he called that place El-bethel, because it was there that God had revealed Himself to Jacob as he fled from his brother.

¹⁸So David ran away and escaped. And he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there.

¹⁹When Saul was told that David was at Naioth in Ramah,