1 Samuel 7:8

And the children of Israel said to Samuel,.... To whom they applied, not as the general of their forces, but as the prophet of the Lord; believing his prayers for them would be of more avail to them

And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the LORD our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. No JFB commentary on this verse.

We are ashamed and afraid to look God in the face, because of our great wickedness this day remembered and acknowledged; do thou therefore intercede for us, as Moses did for his generation.

1 Samuel 7:8 And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the LORD our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.Ver. 8. Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us.] Samuel they knew to be a Pethuel, a God persuader, a man mighty in prayer, a favourite, and one that had the royalty of God’ s ear; they beg of him therefore to exercise his faculty, and to improve his interest in God for them in this exigent, Ne destituas nos ope tua quam praestare potes clamando ad Dominum. Help us, say they, now at a dead lift. So the people afterwards told David at Mahanaim, that he should not go into the field with them, but that he "should succour them," viz., by his prayers, "out of the city." Vatab.

(8) Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us.—The fear on the part of Israel was very natural Unarmed—or, at least, very poorly armed and equipped—the assembled Israelites saw from the heights the advancing Philistine army. What hope was there for their ill-disciplined masses when they joined battle with that trained host of fighting men? But they remembered the days of old, and how, when Moses prayed, “the Angel of His presence” saved them. Had they not then with them there a seer equal to Moses, greater than Joshua, one with whom the Eternal of Hosts was wont to speak, as friend speaketh with friend? So in that supreme hour of danger they turned to Samuel the seer. We are just going, they said, all unarmed to meet that armed host; “cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us,” And Samuel, we read in the brief and graphic account before us, hurriedly—for the time was short, and the foe close at hand—and with rites somewhat different from those enjoined in the Law—for the occasion was indeed a critical one—offered up a sacrifice, and raised that weird piercing cry which many in Israel had heard before when Samuel the seer prayed; and while the prophet-statesman was sustaining that loud imploring cry, while the smoke of the slain lamb was still ascending, the first line of the Philistine army appeared on the topmost slope of Mizpeh. Once more, as in old days, the glorious Arm fought with no earthly weapons for the people; an awful thunderstorm burst over the combatant hosts, the storm probably beating in the faces of the advancing Philistines. The tribes welcomed it as the answer to their prophet’s prayer, and with a wild enthusiasm charged down and broke the serried ranks of their oppressors. Josephus tells us of an earthquake, which added fresh horrors to the scene of battle. Each crash of thunder, each wild and furious gust of hail and rain, the men of Israel welcomed as a fresh onslaught on the part of an unseen army fighting by their side. The dismayed Philistines fled, and the rout was complete; the defeated army hurried panic-stricken over the same ground in the neighbourhood of Aphek illustrious twenty years before for their signal victory. The scene of carnage now received the significant name of Eben-ezer, or The Stone of Help.

Verse 8. Cease not to cry unto the Lord] They had strong confidence in the intercession of Samuel, because they knew he was a holy man of God.

8. Cease not — The marginal reading is more accurate, Be not silent from us from crying. They now feel that if deliverance comes at all, it must come from Jehovah.