7:3 Spake - To all the rulers and people too, as he had occasion in his circuit, described below, mixing exhortation to repentance, with his judicial administrations. If - If you do indeed what you profess, if you are resolved to go on in that which you seem to have begun. With all your heart - Sincerely and in good earnest. Put - Out of your houses, where some of you keep them; and out of your hearts, where they still have an interest in many of you. Ashtaroth - And especially, Ashtaroth, whom they, together with the neighbouring nations, did more eminently worship. Prepare your hearts - By purging them from all sin, and particularly from all inclinations to other gods.
7:1-4 God will find a resting-place for his ark; if some thrust it from them, the hearts of others shall be inclined to receive it. It is no new thing for God's ark to be in a private house. Christ and his apostles preached from house to house, when they could not have public places. Twenty years passed before the house of Israel cared for the want of the ark. During this time the prophet Samuel laboured to revive true religion. The few words used are very expressive; and this was one of the most effectual revivals of religion which ever took place in Israel.
