1. The men of Kiriath Jearim came and took the Lord’S Holy Box up the hill to the house of Abinadab the priest. They performed a special ceremony to prepare Abinadab’s son, Eleazar, to guard the Lord’S Holy Box.
2. The Box stayed there at Kiriath Jearim for a long time. Twenty years passed while the Holy Box was in Kiriath Jearim, and the Israelites began to follow the Lord again.
3. Samuel told the Israelites, “If you are really coming back to the Lord with all your heart, you must throw away your foreign gods and your idols of Ashtoreth. You must give yourselves fully to the Lord and serve only him. Then he will save you from the Philistines.”
4. So the Israelites threw away their statues of Baal and Ashtoreth. The Israelites served only the Lord.
5. Samuel said, “All Israel must meet at Mizpah. I will pray to the Lord for you.”
6. The Israelites met together at Mizpah. They got water and poured it out before the Lord. In this way they began a time of fasting. They did not eat any food that day, and they confessed their sins. They said, “We have sinned against the Lord.” So Samuel served as a judge of Israel at Mizpah.
7. When the Philistines heard that the Israelites were meeting at Mizpah, they went to fight them. The Israelites were frightened when they heard the Philistines were coming
8. and said to Samuel, “Don’t stop praying to the Lord our God for us. Ask him to save us from the Philistines.”