1 Samuel 7:14

14 The towns the Philistines had captured from Israel, from Ekron to Gath, were returned to Israel. Israel also recovered the territory around those two cities from the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.

1 Samuel 7:14 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 7:14

And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel
were restored to Israel
We nowhere read that the Israelites went out to war with them, and took these cities from them by besieging and assaulting them; but they made a demand of them after the above victory obtained, by which the Philistines were so intimidated, that they quietly surrendered them to them:

from Ekron even unto Gath, and the coasts thereof, did Israel deliver
out of the hands of the Philistines;
not by dint of sword, but by demand, to which they submitted; and though Ekron, if not Gath, fell to the tribe of Judah by lot, yet were never in their possession; and so are to be understood exclusively here, that not they, but the cities and towns that lay between them and the coasts thereof, which the Philistines had seized upon, these they were obliged to deliver up again to Israel; and if Ekron and Gath were delivered, they were not long held by them, for we soon read of them as in the hands of others:

and there was peace between Israel and the Amorites;
who were a principal nation of the Canaanites, and are put for the whole of them that remained; and so Josephus ^F16 calls them the remnant of the Canaanites; these, finding the Philistines were subdued, were quiet and peaceable, and gave Israel no more trouble.

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FOOTNOTES:

F16 Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 6. c. 2. sect. 2.)

1 Samuel 7:14 In-Context

12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Jeshanah. He named it Ebenezer, explaining, "The LORD helped us to this very point."

13 So the Philistines were defeated, and they stopped coming into Israelite territory. The LORD's hand was against the Philistines throughout Samuel's life.

14 The towns the Philistines had captured from Israel, from Ekron to Gath, were returned to Israel. Israel also recovered the territory around those two cities from the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.

15 Samuel served as Israel's judge his whole life.

16 Each year he traveled between Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, serving as Israel's judge in each of those locations.