1 Samuel 7 (KJV With Strong's) - 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 the Lord. (1 Sam. 1:15)

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2 Sam. 14:14• ¹⁴For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him. (2 Sam. 14:14)

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Job 16:20• ²⁰My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God. (Job 16:20)

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

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

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Psa. 119:136• ¹³⁶Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law. (Psa. 119:136)

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

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Lam. 2:11,18• ¹¹Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings 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 river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease. (Lam. 2:11,18)

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

fasted.

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

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Ezra 8:21‑23• ²¹Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict 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: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him.
²³So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was entreated of us. (Ezra 8:21‑23)

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Neh. 9:1‑3• ¹Now in the twenty and 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 strangers, 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 the Lord their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the Lord their God. (Neh. 9:1‑3)

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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 the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
⁵We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: (Dan. 9:3‑5)

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Joel 2:12• ¹²Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: (Joel 2:12)

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Jonah 3:1‑10• ¹And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
²Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
³So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. 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.
⁵So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
⁶For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him 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 any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
⁸But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
⁹Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and 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 that he would do unto them; and he did it not. (Jonah 3:1‑10)

We have sinned.

Lev. 26:40• ⁴⁰If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; (Lev. 26:40)

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

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1 Kings 8:47• ⁴⁷Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness; (1 Kings 8:47)

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Ezra 9:5‑10• ⁵And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the Lord 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 unto the heavens.
⁷Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.
⁸And now for a little space grace hath been showed from the Lord 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 were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
¹⁰And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments, (Ezra 9:5‑10)

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Job 33:27• ²⁷He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; (Job 33:27)

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

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

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Psa. 38:3‑8• ³There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.
⁴For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
⁵My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.
⁶I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
⁷For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.
⁸I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. (Psa. 38:3‑8)

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

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

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

judged.

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

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Neh. 9:27• ²⁷Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies. (Neh. 9:27)

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Ezek. 20:4• ⁴Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge them? 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.