We are not told, in what precedes this passage, of any act of declension from Jehovah, and according to chap. iv. the Israelites showed no want of faith in Jehovah in the unfortunate battle with the Philistines.  This taking for granted that the yoke of a foreign rule was laid on them as a punishment for their sins is characteristic.  A further example occurs in the speech of Samuel (1Samuel. xii.), which, as the introduction to the time of the kings, may be compared with Judges ii., the introduction to the time of the judges.  “Stand still that I may reason with you before Jehovah of all the righteous acts of Jehovah with which He did right to you and to your fathers!  When Jacob was come into Egypt, your fathers cried to Jehovah, and He sent Moses and Aaron and brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this land.  And when they forget Jehovah their God, He sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and the Moabites, and they fought against them.  And they cried unto Jehovah, and said, We have sinned, because we have forsaken Jehovah and have served Baal and Astarte, but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies and we will serve Thee.  And Jehovah sent Jerubbaal, and Barak, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and ye dwelled safe.  And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay, but a king shall reign over us, when Jehovah your God is your king.  Now therefore behold the king whom ye have desired; behold, Jehovah has set a king over you.  If ye will hear Jehovah and serve Him and obey His voice, and not rebel against the commandment of Jehovah, good:  but if ye rebel against the commandment of Jehovah, then shall the hand of Jehovah be against you as it was against your fathers.”  It is the familiar strain:  rebellion, affliction, conversion, peace, Jehovah the keynote, and the first word and the last.  The eye does not dwell on the details of the story; the gaps in the tradition are turned to account as well as its contents, which are concentrated at so few points.  Details are regarded only as they bear on the whole; the periods are passed in review in a broad and general style, and the law enunciated which connects them with one another.  In doing this Samuel seems to presuppose in his hearers a knowledge of the biblical history in a distinct form; and he even speaks without hesitation of his own historical significance.  The hearers are bidden to look back upon a period in the living movement of which they themselves are standing, as if it were a dead past.  As they are thus lifted up to the height of an objective contemplation of themselves and their fathers, in the end the result which was to be expected takes place:  they become conscious of their grievous sin.  Confronted with the Deity they have always an uneasy feeling that they deserve to be punished.