Samuel’s Victory at Mizpah

All the time the city of Kiriath-jearim had the ark, the whole people devoted themselves to offering prayers and sacrifices to God, and showed great concern and zeal for his worship. So Samuel the prophet, seeing how ready they were to do their duty, thought this a fitting moment, while they were in this good frame of mind, to speak to them about recovering their freedom and the blessings that go with it. He used the words he thought most likely to stir up that desire and persuade them to attempt it. “Israelites,” he said, “the Philistines are still harsh enemies to you, but God is beginning to be gracious to you. You must not only want freedom; you must take the right steps to win it. Nor should you be content with wishing to be rid of your lords and masters while you go on doing the very things that keep you under them. Be righteous, then. Throw wickedness out of your souls, seek the Divine Majesty in your worship with all your hearts, and keep on giving him honor. If you do this, you will prosper; you will be freed from your slavery and win the victory over your enemies. These are blessings you cannot obtain by weapons of war, or by the strength of your bodies, or by the number of your allies. God has not promised to grant them by those means, but for being good and righteous men; and I stand surety to you that God will keep his promises.” When Samuel had said this, the people applauded his speech, were pleased with his urging, and agreed to give themselves up to doing what pleased God. So Samuel gathered them at a city called Mizpah, which in the Hebrew language means “watchtower.” There they drew water and poured it out to God, fasted all day, and gave themselves to prayer. [a]

Their assembly did not escape the Philistines’ notice. When they learned that so large a company had gathered, they fell on the Hebrews with a great army and powerful forces, hoping to attack them when they were neither expecting it nor ready for it. This frightened the Hebrews and threw them into disorder and terror. They came running to Samuel and said that their courage had sunk because of their fear and of the defeat they had suffered before: “That is why we kept still, so as not to stir up the power of our enemies against us. Now, while you have brought us here to offer our prayers and sacrifices and to take oaths, our enemies are marching against us while we are defenseless and unarmed. So we have no other hope of rescue than through you: by the help God will give us in answer to your prayers, we will be delivered from the Philistines.” At this Samuel told them to take heart and promised them that God would help them. He took a suckling lamb and sacrificed it for the people, and begged God to hold his protecting hand over them when they fought the Philistines, not to overlook them, and not to let them fall into a second disaster. God listened to his prayers, and accepting their sacrifice graciously and with a will to help them, he granted them victory and power over their enemies. While the sacrifice was still on the altar and the sacred fire had not yet entirely consumed it, the enemy army marched out of its camp and was drawn up for battle. They hoped to win, because the Jews had been caught in a helpless position, with no weapons and not gathered there to fight. But things turned out in a way that would scarcely have been believed even if someone had foretold it. First, God shook their enemies with an earthquake, moving the ground under them so violently that it trembled and made them stagger; by its shaking he made some unable to keep their feet and threw them down, and by opening chasms in it he sent others plunging into them. After that he sent such a crash of thunder among them, and made lightning blaze so terribly all around them, that it nearly burned their faces; and he shook their weapons out of their hands so suddenly that he sent them fleeing unarmed. Samuel went out after them with the people, killed many of them, and pursued them as far as a place called Beth-car. There he set up a stone to mark the limit of their victory and of their enemies’ flight, and he called it the Stone of Power, as a sign of the power God had given them against their enemies. [b]

After this blow the Philistines made no more expeditions against the Israelites, but kept still out of fear and the memory of what had happened to them; and the courage the Philistines had once had against the Hebrews passed, after this victory, to the Hebrews. Samuel also marched against the Philistines, killed many of them, and thoroughly humbled their pride. He took from them the land they had cut off from the Jews when they had been victorious in battle, the country stretching from the borders of Gath to the city of Ekron. At this time the remnant of the Canaanites were at peace with the Israelites.