Yeremia 40:10

40:10 I for my part will stay at Mizpah to represent you before the Babylonians ¹  whenever they come to us. You for your part go ahead and harvest the wine, the dates, the figs, ²  and the olive oil, and store them in jars. Go ahead and settle down in the towns that you have taken over.” ³ 

Hakim-hakim 20:1

Civil War Breaks Out

20:1 All the Israelites from Dan to Beer Sheba ⁴  and from the land of Gilead ⁵  left their homes ⁶  and assembled together ⁷  before the Lord at Mizpah.

Hakim-hakim 20:1

Civil War Breaks Out

20:1 All the Israelites from Dan to Beer Sheba ⁸  and from the land of Gilead ⁹  left their homes ¹⁰  and assembled together ¹¹  before the Lord at Mizpah.

1 Samuel 7:5-17

7:5 Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord on your behalf.” 7:6 After they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. They fasted on that day, and they confessed ¹²  there, “We have sinned against the Lord.” So Samuel led ¹³  the people of Israel at Mizpah.

7:7 When the Philistines heard that the Israelites had gathered at Mizpah, the leaders of the Philistines went up against Israel. When the Israelites heard about this, they were afraid of the Philistines. 7:8 The Israelites said to Samuel, “Keep ¹⁴  crying out to the Lord our ¹⁵  God so that he may save us ¹⁶  from the hand of the Philistines!” 7:9 So Samuel took a nursing lamb ¹⁷  and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. Samuel cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord answered him.

7:10 As Samuel was offering burnt offerings, the Philistines approached to do battle with Israel. ¹⁸  But on that day the Lord thundered loudly against the Philistines. He caused them to panic, and they were defeated by ¹⁹  Israel. 7:11 Then the men of Israel left Mizpah and chased the Philistines, striking them down all the way to an area below Beth Car.

7:12 Samuel took a stone and placed it between Mizpah and Shen. ²⁰  He named it Ebenezer, ²¹  saying, “Up to here the Lord has helped us.” 7:13 So the Philistines were defeated; they did not invade Israel again. The hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.

7:14 The cities that the Philistines had captured from Israel were returned to Israel, from Ekron to Gath. Israel also delivered their territory from the control ²²  of the Philistines. There was also peace between Israel and the Amorites. 7:15 So Samuel led ²³  Israel all the days of his life. 7:16 Year after year he used to travel the circuit of Bethel, ²⁴  Gilgal, and Mizpah; he used to judge Israel in all of these places. 7:17 Then he would return to Ramah, because his home was there. He also judged ²⁵  Israel there and built an altar to the Lord there.

[40:10]  ¹ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[40:10]  ² tn Heb “summer fruit.” “Summer fruit” is meaningless to most modern readers; dates and figs are what is involved.

[40:10]  ³ tn This plus “Things will go well with you” is in essence the substance of the oath. The pronouns are emphatic, “And I, behold I will stay…and you, you may gather.” The imperatives in the second half of the verse are more a form of permission than of command or advice (cf. NJPS, REB, TEV and compare the usage in 40:4 and the references in the translator’s note there).

[20:1]  ⁴ sn Dan was located in the far north of the country, while Beer Sheba was located in the far south. This encompassed all the territory of the land of Canaan occupied by the Israelites.

[20:1]  ⁵ sn The land of Gilead was on the eastern side of the Jordan River.

[20:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “went out.”

[20:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the assembly was convened as one man.”

[20:1]  ⁸ sn Dan was located in the far north of the country, while Beer Sheba was located in the far south. This encompassed all the territory of the land of Canaan occupied by the Israelites.

[20:1]  ⁹ sn The land of Gilead was on the eastern side of the Jordan River.

[20:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “went out.”

[20:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and the assembly was convened as one man.”

[7:6]  ¹² tn Heb “said.”

[7:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “judged”; NAB “began to judge”; TEV “settled disputes among.”

[7:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “don’t stop.”

[7:8]  ¹⁵ tc The LXX reads “your God” rather than the MT’s “our God.”

[7:8]  ¹⁶ tn After the negated jussive, the prefixed verbal form with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result.

[7:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “a lamb of milk”; NAB “an unweaned lamb”; NIV “a suckling lamb”; NCV “a baby lamb.”

[7:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “approached for battle against Israel.”

[7:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “before.”

[7:12]  ²⁰ tn Cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT “Jeshanah.”

[7:12]  ²¹ sn The name Ebenezer (אֶבֶן הָעָזֶר) means “stone of help” in Hebrew (cf. TEV); NLT adds the meaning parenthetically after the name.

[7:14]  ²² tn Heb “hand.”

[7:15]  ²³ tn Heb “judged” (also in v. 17).

[7:16]  ²⁴ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[7:17]  ²⁵ tn Or perhaps “settled disputes for” (cf. NLT “would hear cases there”; NRSV “administered justice there”).