6. So they assembled at Mizpah, and they drew water and poured it out in the Lord’s presence. They fasted that same day and confessed, "We have sinned against the Lord." Samuel served as judge of the Israelites at Mizpah.
7. When the Philistines heard that the Israelites had assembled at Mizpah, the Philistine rulers went up to attack Israel. When the Israelites learned of this, they were afraid of the Philistines.
8. The Israelites said to Samuel, "Please don’t stop praying to the Lord our God for us, so God will save us from the Philistines’ power!"
9. So Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as an entirely burned offering to the Lord. Samuel cried out in prayer to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him.
10. While Samuel was offering the entirely burned offering, the Philistines advanced to attack Israel. But the Lord thundered against the Philistines with a great blast on that very day, throwing the Philistines into such a panic that they were defeated by Israel.
11. The Israelite soldiers came out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines. They struck them down until they reached a place just below Beth-car.
12. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Jeshanah. He named it Ebenezer, explaining, "The Lord helped us to this very point."
13. So the Philistines were defeated, and they stopped coming into Israelite territory. The Lord’s hand was against the Philistines throughout Samuel’s life.
14. The towns the Philistines had captured from Israel, from Ekron to Gath, were returned to Israel. Israel also recovered the territory around those two cities from the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
15. Samuel served as Israel’s judge his whole life.
16. Each year he traveled between Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, serving as Israel’s judge in each of those locations.