and prayed, and prepared themselves there, under his direction, for a great
war against the Philistines, who now marched their whole force toward
Mizpeh, in order to crush the Israelites once for all. At the intercession of
Samuel God interposed in behalf of Israel. Samuel himself was their leader,
the only occasion in which he acted as a leader in war. The Philistines were
utterly routed. They fled in terror before the army of Israel, and a great
slaughter ensued. This battle, fought probably about B.C. 1095, put an end
to the forty years of Philistine oppression. In memory of this great
deliverance, and in token of gratitude for the help vouchsafed, Samuel set
up a great stone in the battlefield, and called it “Ebenezer,” saying,
“Hitherto hath the Lord helped us” (1 Samuel 7:1-12). This was the spot
where, twenty years before, the Israelites had suffered a great defeat, when
the ark of God was taken.
This victory over the Philistines was followed by a long period of peace
for Israel (1 Samuel 7:13, 14), during which Samuel exercised the functions
of judge, going “from year to year in circuit” from his home in Ramah to
Bethel, thence to Gilgal (not that in the Jordan valley, but that which lay
to the west of Ebal and Gerizim), and returning by Mizpeh to Ramah. He
established regular services at Shiloh, where he built an altar; and at Ramah
he gathered a company of young men around him and established a school
of the prophets. The schools of the prophets, thus originated, and
afterwards established also at Gibeah, Bethel, Gilgal, and Jericho, exercised
an important influence on the national character and history of the people
in maintaining pure religion in the midst of growing corruption. They
continued to the end of the Jewish commonwealth.
Many years now passed, during which Samuel exercised the functions of
his judicial office, being the friend and counsellor of the people in all
matters of private and public interest. He was a great statesman as well as
a reformer, and all regarded him with veneration as the “seer,” the prophet
of the Lord. At the close of this period, when he was now an old man, the
elders of Israel came to him at Ramah (1 Samuel 8:4, 5, 19-22); and feeling
how great was the danger to which the nation was exposed from the
misconduct of Samuel’s sons, whom he had invested with judicial
functions as his assistants, and had placed at Beersheba on the Philistine
border, and also from a threatened invasion of the Ammonites, they
demanded that a king should be set over them. This request was very
displeasing to Samuel. He remonstrated with them, and warned them of the