And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the LORD: and Samuel cried unto the LORD for Israel; and the LORD heard him.
Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord. Samuel was not a priest, nor of the priestly tribe; yet, as the priesthood lay at that time prostrate, he offered sacrifices, no doubt with the divine sanction: the sacrifices were not offered at the altar of the tabernacle, but at Mizpeh, in that as in other things exempting himself from the law in a troublous and corrupt age (Delitzsch). This fact will serve to explain several anomalies in the life of Samuel-not only his offering sacrifices, but his wearing an ephod, consecrating kings, and being classed (Psalms 99:6) with persons of the priestly order. He was only a Levite, and therefore, by an unalterable statute in the divine law, which guaranteed the priesthood to Aaron's family, incapable of being appointed to the sacerdotal office, as there was probably no need-for Hophni and Phinehas might have sons old enough to enter upon the priestly function. The other acts, such as sacrificing away from the sanctuary, wearing an ephod, and anointing kings, were performed by other commissioned servants of God (Judges 8:27; 1 Samuel 6:14; 1 Kings 18:1; 1 Kings 19:16; 2 Kings 9:6); while the association of his name with those of Moses and Aaron, by the Psalmist, is done in a manner that shows him to have been only in the common order of the Levites.
The prophet's prayers and sacrifice were answered by such a tremendous storm of thunder and lightning that the assailants, panic-struck, were disordered, and fled. The Israelites, recognizing the hand of God, rushed courageously on the foe they had so much dreaded, and committed such immense havoc that the Philistines did not recover for long from this disastrous blow. This brilliant victory secured peace and independence to Israel for twenty years, as well as the restitution of the usurped territory.