The cities were restored to Israel by the Philistines, who, it seems, were frightened into this restitution by their dread of Samuel, and of the Divine vengeance. Object. The Philistines had cities and garrisons in Israel's land after this time; as 1 Samuel 10:5, 1 Samuel 13:3. Answ. Either therefore those places were not any of these here mentioned; for it is not said that all their cities were restored, but only indefinitely the cities, and those limited to a certain compass, from Ekron to Gath; or some of the cities now restored by the Philistines, were afterwards retaken by them. There was peace; an agreement for the cessation of all acts of hostility. The Amorites, i.e. the Canaanites, oft called Amorites, because these were formerly the most valiant and terrible of all those nations, and the first enemies which the Israelites met with, when they went to take possession of their land. They made this peace with the Canaanites, that they might be more at leisure to oppose the Philistines, now their most potent enemies.
Related Commentaries of 1 Samuel 7:14
1 Samuel 7:14
14 And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even unto Gath; and the coasts thereof did Israel deliver out of the hands of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.