And it came to pass, when the angel of the LORD spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept.
The people lifted up their voice, and wept. The angel's expostulation made a deep and painful impression, and they engaged in a solemn act of worship by offering sacrifices, which, though forbidden except at the appointed place of the sanctuary, were in not a few extraordinary instances presented elsewhere without any reprehension (cf. 1 Samuel 7:17; 1 Samuel 9:12; 1 Kings 18:19; 1 Kings 18:32). Besides, this sacrificing might possibly have been at Shiloh. But the reformation was but temporary, and the gratifying promise of a revival which this scene of emotion held out was ere long blasted by speedy and deeper relapses into the guilt of defection and idolatry. This is the hist. praeter. cum vau consec, which does not intimate the sequence of time between this verse and the preceding context. For Joshua had been dead and buried for about twenty-five years.