Mizpah in Benjamin

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Mizpah ("watch-tower; the look-out") was a city of Benjamin. It has been supposed to be the same as Nob by some scholars (1 Sam. 21:1; 22:9-19). It was some 4 miles north-west of Jerusalem, and was situated on the loftiest hill in the neighbourhood, some 600 feet above the plain of Gibeon. Nabi Samuel is probably to be identified with Biblical Mizpah of Benjamin. When the Levite's concubine was raped by the men of Gibeah, the sons of Israel met at Mizpah of Benjamin, where they decided to attack the men of Benjamin for this grievous sin (Judg 20:1-11). After the debacle at Aphek, where they lost the ark to the Philistines, Samuel gathered all Israel to Mizpah to offer sacrifices to the Lord and ask Him to forgive their sin. To memorialize this event, Samuel set up a stone between Mizpah and Shen and named it Eben-Ezer ("stone of help"), because the Lord had helped them (1 Sam 7:5-12). Samuel gathered the people of Israel to Mizpah for the Lord to identify their first king. There, Saul was chosen by lot from all the tribes and families of Israel (1 Sam 10:17-24). After the Babylonians had destroyed Jerusalem, they appointed Gedaliah governor in Mizpah over the remaining residents. Many returned to Mizpah from where they had fled. The prophet Jeremiah came to Mizpah from Ramah, where the Babylonians had released him. Later Ishmael, a member of the royal family, assassinated Gedaliah. Despite Jeremiah's warning that the people would be a reproach and die if they went to Egypt, they persisted in going there (2 Kgs 25:23-26; Jer 40:6- 42:22).