Then Samuel took a stone, and set [it] between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.
Ver. 12. Then Samuel took a stone, and set it.] As a trophy or lasting monument of that day's victory. So when the Spanish armada was defeated here in 1588, money was coined with a navy flying away at full sail, and this inscription, Venit, Vidit, Fugit. It came, it saw, it fled.
Between Mizpeh and Shen.] Where, before, the Israelites had been beaten, and the ark taken. 1Sa 4:1
And called the name of it Ebenezer,] i.e., The stone of help. So the place where Charles the Great vanquished his enemies was called Mons adiutorii, the hill of help a Alexander the Great called the mountain where he overcame Darius, Nicatorium, or the place of conquest. b
Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.] And we trust he will do so still; for every former mercy is a pledge of a future.
a Crantz., Har., lib. ii. cap. 4.
b Strabo.