1 Samuel 4:8

these mighty Gods The heathen polytheists naturally suppose that Israel like themselves had -gods many."

with all the plagues Better, with an utter overthrow, lit. -with every kind of smiting." The word used is the same as that rendered slaughterin 1 Samuel 4:10, and the allusion is to the overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, the shores of which are called wildernessin Exodus 13:20, not to the ten plagues, for which a different word is used in Exodus. The effect of the news of the destruction of Pharaoh upon the Philistinesis alluded to in the Song of Moses, "Sorrow shall take hold upon the inhabitants of Palestina" (Exodus 15:14): and Rahab speaks of it as inspiring the Canaanites with terror (Joshua 2:9-11).