1 Samuel 7:3

7:3 Samuel said to all the people of Israel, “If you are really turning to the Lord with all your hearts, remove from among you the foreign gods and the images of Ashtoreth. ¹  Give your hearts to the Lord and serve only him. Then he will deliver you ²  from the hand of the Philistines.”

1 Samuel 7:2

Further Conflict with the Philistines

7:2 It was quite a long time – some twenty years in all – that the ark stayed at Kiriath Jearim. All the people ³  of Israel longed for ⁴  the Lord.

1 Raja-raja 13:5

13:5 The altar split open and the ashes ⁵  fell from the altar to the ground, ⁶  in fulfillment of the sign the prophet had announced with the Lord’s authority. ⁷ 

Yesaya 19:20

19:20 It ⁸  will become a visual reminder in the land of Egypt of ⁹  the Lord who commands armies. When they cry out to the Lord because of oppressors, he will send them a deliverer and defender ¹⁰  who will rescue them.

[7:3]  ¹ tn Heb “the Ashtarot” (plural; also in the following verse). The words “images of” are supplied for clarity.

[7:3]  sn The Semitic goddess Astarte was associated with love and war in the ancient Near East. The presence of Ashtarot in Israel is a sign of pervasive pagan and idolatrous influences; hence Samuel calls for their removal. See 1 Sam 31:10, where the Philistines deposit the armor of the deceased Saul in the temple of the Ashtarot, and 1 Kgs 11:5, 33; 2 Kgs 23:13, where Solomon is faulted for worshiping the Ashtarot.

[7:3]  ² tn Following imperatives, the jussive verbal form with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result.

[7:2]  ³ tn Heb “house” (also in the following verse).

[7:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “mourned after”; NIV “mourned and sought after”; KJV, NRSV “lamented after”; NAB “turned to”; NCV “began to follow…again.”

[13:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “the fat.” Reference is made to burnt wood mixed with fat. See HALOT 234 s.v. דשׁן.

[13:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “were poured out from the altar.”

[13:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.”

[19:20]  ⁸ tn The masculine noun מִזְבֵּחַ (mizbbeakh, “altar”) in v. 19 is probably the subject of the masculine singular verb הָיָה (hayah) rather than the feminine noun מַצֵּבָה (matsevah, “sacred pillar”), also in v. 19.

[19:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “a sign and a witness to the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts] in the land of Egypt.”

[19:20]  ¹⁰ tn רָב (rav) is a substantival participle (from רִיב, riv) meaning “one who strives, contends.”