Approximately twenty years elapse before the Israelites gain any lasting relief from Philistine oppression. Finally, Samuel senses that a genuine repentance is under way, so he challenges the people to rid themselves of their “foreign gods,” identified as their “Baals and Ashtoreths” (7:2–6). Throughout the period of the judges, many Israelites worshiped these deities. Baal was the Canaanite god of rain and agriculture and, ironically, was sometimes described as the son of Dagon. The Ashtoreths were female deities such as Astarte (the Babylonian Ishtar), goddess of fertility, love, and war. As in Judges 10:16, the Israelites stop worshiping these gods and return to being loyal to the Lord. Samuel gathers “all Israel” at Mizpah, about seven and a half miles north of Jerusalem, and promises…