1 Samuel 7 (JND) - Bible Truth Library

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 Nu. 29:35.)

1 Sam. 1:15• ¹⁵And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before Jehovah. (1 Sam. 1:15)

;

2 Sam. 14:14• ¹⁴For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; and God has not taken away his life, but devises means that the banished one be not expelled from him. (2 Sam. 14:14)

;

Job 16:20• ²⁰My friends are my mockers; mine eye poureth out tears unto +God. (Job 16:20)

;

Psa. 6:6• ⁶I am wearied with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I dissolve my couch with my tears. (Psa. 6:6)

;

Psa. 42:3• ³My tears have been my bread day and night, while they say unto me all the day, Where is thy God? (Psa. 42:3)

;

Psa. 119:136• ¹³⁶Mine eyes run down with streams of water, because they keep not thy law. (Psa. 119:136)

;

Jer. 9:1• ¹Oh that my head were waters, and mine eye a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! (Jer. 9:1)

;

Lam. 2:11,18• ¹¹Mine eyes are consumed with tears, my bowels are troubled; my liver is poured upon the earth, because of the ruin of the daughter of my people; because infant and suckling swoon in the streets of the city.
¹⁸Their heart cried unto the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a torrent day and night: give thyself no respite; let not the apple of thine eye rest. (Lam. 2:11,18)

;

Lam. 3:49• ⁴⁹Mine eye poureth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, (Lam. 3:49)

fasted.

2 Chron. 20:3• ³And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek Jehovah, and proclaimed a fast throughout Judah. (2 Chron. 20:3)

;

Ezra 8:21‑23• ²¹And I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.
²²For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way; for we had spoken to the king saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his anger is against all them that forsake him.
²³And we fasted, and besought our God for this; and he was entreated of us. (Ezra 8:21‑23)

;

Neh. 9:1‑3• ¹And on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them.
²And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.
³And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of Jehovah their God a fourth part of the day; and a fourth part they confessed, and worshipped Jehovah their God. (Neh. 9:1‑3)

;

Dan. 9:3‑5• ³And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes;
⁴and I prayed unto Jehovah my God, and made my confession, and said, Alas Lord! the great and terrible *God, keeping covenant and loving-kindness with them that love him, and that keep his commandments:
⁵we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from thy commandments and from thine ordinances. (Dan. 9:3‑5)

;

Joel 2:12• ¹²Yet even now, saith Jehovah, turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning; (Joel 2:12)

;

Jonah 3:1‑10• ¹And the word of Jehovah came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
²Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I shall bid thee.
³And Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of Jehovah. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.
⁴And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!
⁵And the men of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
⁶And the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
⁷And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything: let them not feed, nor drink water;
⁸and let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God; and let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
⁹Who knoweth but that God will turn and repent, and will turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
¹⁰And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto them, and he did it not. (Jonah 3:1‑10)

We have sinned.

Lev. 26:40• ⁴⁰And they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, through their unfaithfulness wherein they were unfaithful to me, and also that they have walked contrary unto me, (Lev. 26:40)

;

Judg. 10:10• ¹⁰And the children of Israel cried to Jehovah, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served the Baals. (Judg. 10:10)

;

1 Kings 8:47• ⁴⁷and if they shall take it to heart in the land whither they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captive, saying, We have sinned, and have done iniquity, we have dealt perversely; (1 Kings 8:47)

;

Ezra 9:5‑10• ⁵And at the evening oblation I arose up from my humiliation; and with my mantle and my garment rent, I fell on my knees, and spread out my hands to Jehovah my God,
⁶and said: O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God; for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up to the heavens.
⁷Since the days of our fathers, we have been in great trespass to this day; and for our iniquities we, our kings, our priests, have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, and to captivity, and to spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.
⁸And now for a little space there hath been favour from Jehovah our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.
⁹For we are bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us before the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God and to repair the ruins thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
¹⁰And now, what shall we say, our God, after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments, (Ezra 9:5‑10)

;

Job 33:27• ²⁷He will sing before men, and say, I have sinned, and perverted what was right, and it hath not been requited to me; (Job 33:27)

;

Job 40:4• ⁴Behold, I am nought: what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. (Job 40:4)

;

Job 42:6• ⁶Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. (Job 42:6)

;

Psa. 38:3‑8• ³There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine indignation; no peace in my bones, because of my sin.
⁴For mine iniquities are gone over my head: as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
⁵My wounds stink, they are corrupt, because of my foolishness.
⁶I am depressed; I am bowed down beyond measure; I go mourning all the day.
⁷For my loins are full of burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh.
⁸I am faint and broken beyond measure; I roar by reason of the agitation of my heart. (Psa. 38:3‑8)

;

Psa. 106:6• ⁶We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. (Psa. 106:6)

;

Jer. 31:19• ¹⁹Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after I knew myself, I smote upon my thigh. I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, for I bear the reproach of my youth. (Jer. 31:19)

;

Luke 15:18• ¹⁸I will rise up and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee; (Luke 15:18)

judged.

Judg. 3:10• ¹⁰And the Spirit of Jehovah was upon him, and he judged Israel; and he went out to war, and Jehovah gave Chushan-rishathaim king of Syria into his hand; and his hand prevailed against Chushan-rishathaim. (Judg. 3:10)

;

Neh. 9:27• ²⁷And thou gavest them into the hand of their oppressors, and they oppressed them; and in the time of their distress, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from the heavens, and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their oppressors. (Neh. 9:27)

;

Ezek. 20:4• ⁴Wilt thou judge them, wilt thou judge, son of man? Cause them to know the abominations of their fathers, (Ezek. 20:4)

• The pouring out of water was the acknowledgment of utter weakness and emptiness. This figure was employed by the wise woman of Tekoah in her reasoning with David. “We...are as water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again” (2 Sam. 14:14). (“Acknowledged Weakness” by W.W. Fereday)

• Mizpah is under the judges the usual place of gathering after the angel went up from Gilgal to Bochim, the place of weeping, where conclusive ruin is undeniably established. Mizpah is the place of repentance without which there is no victory. (“1 Samuel 7” by H.L. Rossier)

• The fruits of repentance are different from the fruits of conversion; here we have three of them: "1. water poured out, that is to say, affliction combined with the realization of irremediable weakness before God (2 Sam. 14:14; Psa. 22:14); {contrast the Laodicean} 2. fasting, for in mourning one does not feed the flesh; and lastly, 3. a true confession of evil: "We have sinned against the Lord." (“1 Samuel 7” by H.L. Rossier)

J. N. Darby Translation

And they gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before Jehovah, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against Jehovah. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah.