Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 7:6
And they gathered together to Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured [it] out before the LORD, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the LORD. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh.
6. and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord ] A symbolical act which has no exact parallel in the O.T., but was probably significant of the outpouring of their hearts before Jehovah in penitence and supplication. Cp. ch. 1Sa 1:15; Psa 62:8; Lam 2:19. The paraphrase of the Targum is, “And they poured out their heart in repentance before Jehovah.”
and fasted on that day ] As on the great day of Atonement (Lev 16:9), in token of humiliation and contrition for their sin.
We have sinned against the Lord ] They made a public confession. Cp. Jdg 10:10.
And Samuel judged, &c.] As prophet he effected the religions reformation, and then taking his place as the chief magistrate of the state, he provided for the civil and political reorganization of the people. That the assembly lasted some time is clear from 1Sa 7:7. The Philistines had time to muster their army before it dispersed.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Two rites are brought together here which belong especially to the Feast of Tabernacles and the Day of Atonement, respectively, namely, drawing and pouring out water, and fasting. Hence, some think that Samuel chose the Feast of tabernacles, and the fast which preceded it, as the occasion for assembling the people. Others explain the pouring out water as the pouring out the heart in penitence as it were water; or, as a symbolic act expressing their ruin and helplessness 2Sa 14:14; or as typifying their desire that their sins might be forgotten as waters that pass away Job 11:16.
And Samuel judged – This seems to denote the commencement of Samuels Judgeship civil and military, as having taken place at Mizpeh on this occasion. As civil Judge he did exactly what Moses did Exo 18:13-16; as military Judge he did what Othniel, Ehud, Barak, and Gideon had done before him, organized and marshalled the people for effectual resistance to their oppressors, and led them out to victory.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. Drew water, and poured it out] It is not easy to know what is meant by this; it is true that pouring out water, in the way of libation, was a religious ordinance among the Hebrews, (Isa 12:3), and among most other nations, particularly the Greeks and Romans, who used, not only water, but wine, milk, honey, and blood, as we find by Homer, Virgil, Euripides, Sophocles, Porphyry, and Lucian. Our Lord seems to allude to this ceremony, Joh 7:37-38, where see the note.
The Chaldee Paraphrast understands the place differently, for he translates: “And they poured out their hearts in penitence, as WATERS, before the Lord.” That deep penitential sorrow was represented under the notion of pouring out water, we have a direct proof in the case of David, who says, Ps 22:14, I am POURED OUT LIKE WATER, my heart is like wax; it is MELTED in the midst of my bowels. And to repentance, under this very similitude, the prophet exhorts fallen Jerusalem: Arise, cry out in the night; in the beginning of the watches POUR OUT thine HEART LIKE WATER before the face of the Lord; La 2:19. David uses the same image, Ps 62:8: Trust in him at all times, ye people; POUR OUT your hearts before him. The same figure is used by Hannah in 1Sa 1:15 of this book; I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit; I have POURED OUT my soul before the Lord. Perhaps the drawing and pouring out of water mentioned in the text was done emblematically, to represent the contrition of their hearts.
And Samuel judged] He gave them ordinances, heard and redressed grievances, and taught them how to get reconciled to God. The assembly, therefore, was held for religio-politico-military purposes.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
To Mizpeh; not that beyond Jordan, of which Jdg 11:11,29; but another in Canaan, where the Israelites used to assemble, Jdg 20:1; 1Sa 10:17.
Drew water, and poured it out; which they did either,
1. Figuratively; they drew tears out of their hearts, and poured out of their eyes as it were rivers of water; such descriptions of penitential sorrow being not unusual. See Psa 6:7; 119:136; Jer 19:1; Lam 3:48,49. Or rather,
2. Properly, because they are said first to draw it, and then to pour it out. And this agrees well with the state of those times, wherein such rites as this were very customary. Now this course they seem to have used, either,
1. As a mean or instrument of their purification. So they washed themselves in this water, thereby acknowledging their filthiness, and cleansing themselves as the law prescribed. But this seems not probable,
1. Because here is only mention of drawing and pouring forth this water before the Lord, but not of any washing themselves with it.
2. Because this was not a fit time and place to purify themselves in this great and general assembly. Or,
2. As an external sign, whereby they testified and professed both their own great filthiness and need of washing by the grace and Spirit of God, and blood of the covenant, which are oft signified by water, and their sincere desire to pour out their very hearts before the Lord in true repentance, and to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit.
Before the Lord, i.e. in the public assembly, where God is in a special manner present, as hath been noted before.
Samuel judged the children of Israel, i.e. governed them, reformed all abuses against God or man, took care that the laws of God should be observed and executed, and wilful transgressors punished.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. Samuel judged . . . Israel inMizpehAt the time of Eli’s death he could not have muchexceeded twenty years of age; and although his character and positionmust have given him great influence, it does not appear that hithertohe had done more than prophets were wont to do. Now he entered on theduties of a civil magistrate.
1Sa7:7-14. WHILE SAMUELPRAYS, THE PHILISTINESARE DISCOMFITED.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they gathered together to Mizpeh,…. Even all Israel, at least the heads of the people, and representatives of them:
and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord; drew it from some fountain near at hand, and poured it out as in the presence of God, who was where his people were met together. Jerom k relates it as tradition of the Jews, that curses were cast into this water, as in the water of jealousy, and that idolaters were tried by it; and that whatever idolater, who denied he worshipped idols, and tasted of it, his lips so stuck together that they could not be separated, and by this means was known and put to death; and therefore it is said Samuel judged now at this place: but it should be observed, this water was not drank, but poured out; and that as a token of their humiliation, as Jarchi, that they were before the Lord, as water poured out; and of the sincerity of their repentance, as the Targum, which is,
“they poured out their heart in repentance, as water;”
and of the atonement and expiation of their sins, which passed away as water to be remembered no more, as Kimchi, or rather signifying hereby that they thoroughly renounced idolatry, that nothing of it should remain; as water entirely poured out, there remains not so much as any smell of it in the cask, as does of honey or oil, or such kind of liquor; for what a learned writer l says, that this was in token of joy, like that at the feast of tabernacles, when they drew water out of the fountain of Siloah, seems not so agreeable, since this was a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer, as follows:
and fasted on that day, and said there, we have sinned against the Lord; Samuel prayed in public for them, with whom they joined; and they fasted in a literal sense, abstaining from food, and made a confession of their sins; this was the work of that day:
and Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh; not that he now began to judge them, but went on in a more public and vigorous manner to judge them; he sat, and heard, and tried causes that came before him; explained the laws of God to them, and enforced the obedience of them; reformed abuses that were among them, and punished idolaters.
k Trad. Heb. in lib. Reg. fol. 75. F. l L’Empereur, annot. in Misn. Middot, c. 2. sect. 5. No. 7.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(6) And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh.For some quarter of a century Samuel had been the principal personage among the people, and had, no doubt, long exercised the varied functions of the judges of Israel; but the tribes were scattered, their fortresses in the hand of enemies, there was scarcely any national life in that gloomy period in the people. In the first general assembly of the tribes the rank and position which Samuel had long really filled are publicly acknowledged.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Drew water, and poured it out before the Lord Dr. Kitto thinks that this act was the confirmation of an oath a solemn vow; and tells us that such is an oriental method of confirming an oath or a promise. But, in the absence of any analogous custom recorded in Scripture, (and we have there many forms for oaths,) we adhere to the more common interpretation, and understand this pouring out of water as a symbolical action indicating their humiliation and contrition before God. Thus the Targum paraphrases it: They poured out their heart like water in penitence before the Lord. In accordance with this imagery Hannah is said, in the sorrow of her spirit, to have poured out her soul before the Lord. 1Sa 1:15. Compare also Lam 2:19, and Psa 22:14; Psa 62:8.
Fasted A further sign of their repentance and humiliation.
And Samuel judged in Mizpeh He declared to them the greatness of their sins, the necessity of their reformation, and the methods by which such reformation must be accomplished. He also, perhaps, gave judgment on individual cases of difficulty.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Sa 7:6. They gathered together to Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured it out The reason why they drew water and poured it out, says Houbigant, is expressed in the next words; for they fasted that day. So David poured on the ground the water which some of his soldiers brought him at the hazard of their lives through the midst of the enemy; for this was a part of the ceremonial of fasting. The Chaldee, however, renders the words, they poured out their souls in penitence, like waters before the Lord; and Grotius expressly asserts, that the waters poured out signify tears. There are a variety of other conjectures on this passage. L’Empereur refers the words to those in Isa 12:3 compared with Joh 7:37-38; supposing that the water was poured out in token of joy, after they had fasted and confessed their sins, (for he translates the words after they had fasted on that day,) as they always did on the feast of tabernacles: libations of water were anciently very common. We learn from Porphyry, that at the beginning libations were usually made with water; honey was afterwards employed, and then wine. See Porphyry de Abstinent. lib. ii. p. 156. We have proofs of this in Homer too, Od. lib. xiv. ver. 350. and Virg. AEn. iv. ver. 512. Though the law ordains nothing respecting libations of water, it nowhere forbids them, especially upon extraordinary occasions. See Calmet on the place.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Sa 7:6 And they gathered together to Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured [it] out before the LORD, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the LORD. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh.
Ver. 6. And drew water, and poured it out before the Lord. ] That is, saith the Chaldee Paraphrast, They wept abundantly, as if their hearts had been springs, and their eyes as the fish pools of Heshbon. Some think that they did really draw water and pour it out, in token that they did pour out their souls to God in prayer; a and by this ceremony they did further stir up themselves also so to do. They seemed to say in effect, We could wish to shed as many tears for our sins as there are drops of water in this bucket; but because we cannot do this, behold, we do what we can. Some think that by this “water poured out,” they washed off the ashes that they had sprinkled on their heads, in token of their true repentance. Others, that hereby they acknowledged themselves to be in no better condition than as water spilt on the ground, &c.
a Hyperbolica expressio ingentis lamentationis. – Jun.
sinned. Hebrew. chata’. App-44.
drew water: Grotius says, that the pouring out of water means the shedding of tears; and the Targum reads, “And they poured out their hearts in penitence, as waters, before the Lord.” Others suppose that it was done emblematically, to represent the contrition of their hearts, and their desire to wash away their past offences. But some learned men conceive that it was poured out as a libation, in token of joy, after they had fasted and confessed their sin, as they were wont to do in the feast of tabernacles. – See note on Num 29:35.1Sa 1:15, 2Sa 14:14, Job 16:20, Psa 6:6, Psa 42:3, Psa 119:136, Jer 9:1, Lam 2:11, Lam 2:18, Lam 3:49
fasted: 2Ch 20:3, Ezr 8:21-23, Neh 9:1-3, Dan 9:3-5, Joe 2:12, Jon 3:1-10
We have sinned: Lev 26:40, Jdg 10:10, 1Ki 8:47, Ezr 9:5-10, Job 33:27, Job 40:4, Job 42:6, Psa 38:3-8, Psa 106:6, Jer 3:13, Jer 3:14, Jer 31:19, Luk 15:18
judged: Jdg 3:10, Neh 9:27, Eze 20:4
Reciprocal: Jos 15:38 – Mizpeh Jdg 2:4 – the people Jdg 20:1 – in Mizpeh Jdg 20:26 – wept 1Sa 7:15 – judged 1Sa 10:17 – unto the Lord 2Sa 23:16 – poured it 1Ch 11:18 – poured 2Ch 16:6 – Mizpah Jer 40:6 – Mizpah Lam 2:19 – pour
1Sa 7:6. They drew water and poured it out As an external sign, whereby they testified both their own filthiness and need of washing by the grace and Spirit of God, and the blood of the covenant, and their sincere desire to pour out their hearts before the Lord, in true repentance, and to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit. Before the Lord That is, in the public assembly, where God is in a special manner present. Samuel judged That is, governed them, reformed all abuses against God or man, took care that the laws of God should be observed, and wilfil transgressions punished.
7:6 And they gathered together to Mizpeh, and {d} drew water, and poured [it] out before the LORD, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the LORD. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh.
(d) The Chaldee text says that they drew water out of their heart: that is, wept abundantly for their sins.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes