SEV Biblia, Chapter 7:3
¶ Y habló Samuel a toda la casa de Israel, diciendo: Si de todo vuestro corazón os volvéis al SEÑOR, quitad los dioses ajenos y a Astarot de entre vosotros, y preparad vuestro corazón al SEÑOR, y servid a él sólo, y él os librará de mano de los filisteos.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 7:3
Verse 3. And Samuel spake] We have heard nothing of this judge since he served in the tabernacle. He was now grown up, and established for a prophet in the land of Israel. If ye do return] From your backsliding and idolatry.
With all your hearts] For outward services and professions will avail nothing.
Put away the strange gods] Destroy their images, altars, and groves: they are strange; you do not know them as helpers, saviours, or defenders.
Prepare your hearts] Let your hearts be straight and steady.
And serve him only] Have no other religious service but his, and obey his laws.
He will deliver you] Vain are your own exertions; he will deliver you in such a way as to show that the excellence of the power is of himself alone.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 3. And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel , etc.] When they assembled at one of their three yearly feasts, or as he went from place to place, exhorting them to repentance and reformation; and perceiving they began to be awakened to a sense of their sins, and seemed desirous of returning to God, and restoring his worship: saying, if ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts ; truly and sincerely; for he might fear there was hypocrisy and dissimulation at least in some of them: [then] put away the strange gods ; as all but the true God are; or the gods of another people, as the Philistines, Canaanites, etc. Baalim seem chiefly intended, as appears from the following verse: and Ashtaroth from among you ; female deities, such as with other nations went by the name of Juno, Venus, etc. so the Arabic version, “the idols of the women ye secretly worship.”
Aquila renders it, “the images of Astarte”; so they call Venus as Procopius Gazaeus observes, from “aster”, a star; but the word signifies flocks of sheep, and these deities are supposed by some to be in the form of them; but be they what they may, they were to be put away out of their houses, and out of their hearts: and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only ; that is, direct your hearts to him while in his service; let it proceed from the heart, and let it be done to him only, and not to another with him; or to him in and by another, as may be pretended, and commonly is by idolaters: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines ; under whose dominion they had been for many years; for though their power over them was weakened by Samson, yet they were not completely delivered by him; so all the time of Eli they were not wholly free from them; and especially since their last defeat by them; when the ark was taken, they had been under oppression by them; now Samuel promises them deliverance from it, in case they relinquish their idols, and served the Lord solely and heartily.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-4 - God will find a resting-place for his ark; if some thrust it from them the hearts of others shall be inclined to receive it. It is no ne thing for God's ark to be in a private house. Christ and his apostle preached from house to house, when they could not have public places Twenty years passed before the house of Israel cared for the want of the ark. During this time the prophet Samuel laboured to revive tru religion. The few words used are very expressive; and this was one of the most effectual revivals of religion which ever took place in Israel.
Original Hebrew
ויאמר 559 שׁמואל 8050 אל 413 כל 3605 בית 1004 ישׂראל 3478 לאמר 559 אם 518 בכל 3605 לבבכם 3824 אתם 859 שׁבים 7725 אל 413 יהוה 3068 הסירו 5493 את 853 אלהי 430 הנכר 5236 מתוככם 8432 והעשׁתרות 6252 והכינו 3559 לבבכם 3824 אל 413 יהוה 3068 ועבדהו 5647 לבדו 905 ויצל 5337 אתכם 853 מיד 3027 פלשׁתים׃ 6430
