Ashtaroth · definite article + noun, common feminine plural absolute
served
וַיַּעַבְד֥וּvai.ya.'av.Du
H5647
to work (in any sense) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
LORD
יְהוָ֖הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Hosea 14:8 Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fru…
Hosea 14:3 Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee…
Judges 2:11 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim:
Judges 2:13 And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
Judges 10:15-16 And the children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray t…
1 Kings 11:33 Because that they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 7:3-6
We may well wonder where Samuel was and what he was doing all this while, for we have not had him so much as named till now, since Sa1 4:1, not as if he were unconcerned, but his labours among his people are not mentioned till there appears the fruit of them. When he perceived that they began to lament after the Lord he struck while the iron was hot, and two things he endeavoured to do for them, as a faithful servant of God and a faithful friend to the Israel of God: -
I. He endeavoured to separate between them and their idols, for there reformation must begin. He spoke to all the house of Israel (Sa1 7:3), going, as it should seem, from place to place, an itinerant preacher (for we find no…
THE ISRAELITES, THROUGH SAMUEL'S INFLUENCE, SOLEMNLY REPENT AT MIZPEH. (Sa1 7:3-6)
Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel--A great national reformation was effected through the influence of Samuel. Disgusted with their foreign servitude, and panting for the restoration of liberty and independence, they were open to salutary impressions; and convinced of their errors, they renounced idolatry. The re-establishment of the faith of their fathers was inaugurated at a great public meeting, held at Mizpeh in Judah, and hallowed by the observance of impressive religious solemnities. The drawing water, and pouring it out before the Lord, seems to have been a symbolical act by which, in the people…
Put away Baalim and Ashtaroth - These were not two particular deities, but two genera of idols; the one masculine, Baalim; the other feminine, Ashtaroth; both the words are in the plural number, and signify all their gods and goddesses.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 7:4
Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth,.... Both their male and female deities, of which see Judges 2:13.
and served the Lord Only; Dr. Lightfoot (i) observes, that a spirit of repentance and conversion came generally upon all the people; a matter and a time as remarkable as almost any we read of in Scripture, one only parallel to it; and that is in Acts, chapters two and three, at the great conversion there.
(i) Works, vol. 1. p. 54.
The Church Fathers
So the children of Israel removed Baalim and Ashtaroth, etc. These idols are from the Sidonians; of which Baalim signifies the higher or ascending ones, and Ashtaroth the workmanship of explorers. Therefore, whoever of the children of Israel served the true God the Father at the preaching of the Savior, cast out all profane thoughts, which, ascending into the heart from the lowest, and not from above from the Father of lights, among the best and perfect gifts descending, desired to be above good; they removed every device of unclean spirits from their chest, who, going around the folds of the faithful, seek whom they may devour.
10. For it is the custom of the elect that when they receive the exhortations of divine preaching, they are kindled to zeal for the good works they have heard. For the reprobate frequently hear the words of God, yet from those same words they undertake no good works. They remain sluggish in their actions, because, cast out from the divine light, they do not see by inward contemplation the glory of almighty God whose words they hear. Rightly, therefore, those who obey are called children of Israel, because the more openly they behold His majesty in its manifestation, the more devoutly they are known to obey His commandments. But since he is speaking to those who have been converted, let us hear what he perceives is still lacking in them.
God alone is substantially and essentially God. When I say "alone," I set forth the holy and uncreated essence and substance of God. For the word alone is used in the case of any individual and generally of human nature. In the instance of Paul, that he alone was caught into the third heaven and "heard unspeakable words that are not lawful for a man to utter," and of human nature, as when David says, "as for man his days are as grass," not meaning any particular man but human nature generally; for every human is short-lived and mortal. So we understand these words to be said of the nature, "who alone has immortality" and "to God only wise," and "none is good save one, that is God," for here "one" means the same as alone.… In Scripture "one" and "only" are not predicated of God to mark distinction from the Son and the Holy Spirit but to exclude the unreal gods falsely so called. As for instance, "The Lord alone did lead them and there was no strange god with them," and "then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth and served the Lord only."
Dictionary and topics
Ashtoreth — The moon goddess of the Phoenicians, representing the passive principle in nature, their principal female deity; frequently associated with the name of Baal, the sun-god, their chief male deity…
Baal — Lord. (1.) The name appropriated to the principal male god of the Phoenicians. It is found in several places in the plural BAALIM (Judg. 2:11; 10:10; 1 Kings 18:18; Jer. 2:23; Hos. 2:17). Baal is…
Baalim — Plural of Baal; images of the god Baal (Judg. 2:11; 1 Sam. 7:4).
David — Beloved, the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, a citizen of Bethlehem. His father seems to have been a man in humble life. His mother’s name is not recorded. Some think she was the Nahash of 2 Sam.…
Idolatry — Image-worship or divine honour paid to any created object. Paul describes the origin of idolatry in Rom. 1:21-25: men forsook God, and sank into ignorance and moral corruption (1:28). The forms of…
Judges, Book of — Is so called because it contains the history of the deliverance and government of Israel by the men who bore the title of the “judges.” The book of Ruth originally formed part of this book, but about…
Samuel — Heard of God. The peculiar circumstances connected with his birth are recorded in 1 Sam. 1:20. Hannah, one of the two wives of Elkanah, who came up to Shiloh to worship before the Lord, earnestly…
Ashtoreth · Worshiped by Israelites — Worshiped by Israelites
Baal · .The Israelites wickedly worshiped in the time of the — .The Israelites wickedly worshiped in the time of the
Baalim · P — P
Revivals · .Samuel — .Samuel
Samuel
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Samuel 7:2-4
Purification of Israel from idolatry. - Twenty years passed away from that time forward, while the ark remained at Kirjath-jearim, and all Israel mourned after Jehovah. Then Samuel said to them, "If ye turn to the Lord with all your heart, put away the strange gods from the midst of you, and the Astartes, and direct your heart firmly upon the Lord, and serve Him only, that He may save you out of the hand of the Philistines." And the Israelites listened to this appeal. The single clauses of Sa1 7:2 and Sa1 7:3 are connected together by vav consec., and are not to be separated from one another. There is no gap between these verses; but they contain the same closely and logically connected thou…
The change in the people’s standing with God, not the presence of the Ark (see 4:3-11), led Israel to victory against the Philistines.
7:3 People cannot expect God’s blessing unless they get rid of what is contrary to his will (see Gen 35:2; Josh 24:14). • Ashtoreth was the Canaanite goddess of fertility associated with Baal (1 Sam 7:4). Worship of Canaanite deities was an ongoing problem throughout Israel’s history. The people started worshiping idols during the twenty-year period mentioned in 7:2, or perhaps they had done so ever since the days of the judges (8:8; Judg 6:25; cp. Amos 5:25-26). Israel’s devastating defeat by the Philistines was due not only to the sins of Eli’s two sons bu…
From the time the Ark came to rest in Kiryas Yearim. And they saw the retribution which befell them because of the sin of Eili's family, and the mighty deed which the Holy One, Blessed is He, had visited upon the Philistines.
The house … was drawn after Adonoy. Through Shmuel who would travel from city to city, judging and reproving them.
וַיִנָּהוּ' is an expression of drawing; in Aramaic, 'תִּתְּנֵהוּ לְפוּלְחָנִי' [they were drawn after My worship]. And similarly 'וְלֹא נֹהַּ בָּהֶם' it is no use to attract them to good.1 Yechezkeil 7:11. Menachem classifies 'וַיִנָּהוּ' as an expression of lamentation, as in 'נְהִי נִהְיָה' [a lament has come to be].2Michoh 2:4. And similarly 'וְלֹא נֹ…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
· Israelites repent be
— Israelites repent be
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
