1 Samuel 7:9

9 So Samuel took a young lamb and offered it to the LORD as a whole burnt offering. He pleaded with the LORD to help Israel, and the LORD answered him.

1 Samuel 7:9 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 7:9

And Samuel took a sucking lamb
Which it might be, and yet more than eight days old, for under that it might not be sacrificed, ( Exodus 22:30 )

and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord;
the whole of it was burnt, skin and all, whereas the skin was the priest's in other burnt offerings; and this is remarked ^F13 as one of the three things in which it differed from other offerings; the word being feminine, the Jews gather from hence, as Jarchi notes, that females might be offered at a private altar:

and Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel;
not only offered a sacrifice for them, but prayed for them:

and the Lord heard him;
and answered him, either by causing fire to come down on the sacrifice, by which it was consumed, or by the voice of thunder, which frightened and discomfited the Philistines; and the event of things manifestly showed it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 Midrash Schemuel apud Abarbinel in loc.

1 Samuel 7:9 In-Context

7 When the Philistine rulers heard that Israel had gathered at Mizpah, they mobilized their army and advanced. The Israelites were badly frightened when they learned that the Philistines were approaching.

8 “Don’t stop pleading with the LORD our God to save us from the Philistines!” they begged Samuel.

9 So Samuel took a young lamb and offered it to the LORD as a whole burnt offering. He pleaded with the LORD to help Israel, and the LORD answered him.

10 Just as Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines arrived to attack Israel. But the LORD spoke with a mighty voice of thunder from heaven that day, and the Philistines were thrown into such confusion that the Israelites defeated them.

11 The men of Israel chased them from Mizpah to a place below Beth-car, slaughtering them all along the way.