"Were the Philistines subdued all the days of Samuel?" (Alleged Contradiction #E7120)
So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the coast of Israel: and the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.
I Samuel 7:13
And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea shore in multitude: and they came up, and pitched in Michmash, eastward from Bethaven. … And he offered the burnt offering. And it came to pass, that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might salute him.
I Samuel 13:5, 10
Response
I Samuel 7:13 conveys two separate ideas; that the Philistines stopped coming into the land of Israel, and that “the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.” It does not say that the Philistines never came into Israel all the days of Samuel, just that they stopped coming into Israel for that time, and even when they decided to come back, the hand of the LORD was against them.
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