9 Hide not Your face from me; turn not Your servant away in anger, You Who have been my help! Cast me not off, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation!
9 Please don’t hide it from me! Don’t push your servant aside angrily— you have been my help! God who saves me, don’t neglect me! Don’t leave me all alone!
“And you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father. Serve God with a pure heart. Be happy in your heart (mind) to serve God. Why? Because the Lord knows what is in every person’s heart (mind). The Lord understands everything you think. If you go to the Lord for help, you will get an answer. But if you turn away from the Lord, he will leave you forever.
Hurry, answer me Lord!\par I have lost my courage.\par Don’t turn away from me.\par Don’t let me die and become like\par the dead people lying in the grave.\par
The Lord says,\par “\{People of Israel, you say that I divorced\par your mother, Jerusalem.\}\par But where is the legal paper\par that proves I divorced her?\par My children, did I owe money to someone?\par Did I sell you to pay a debt?\par No! You were sold\par because of the bad things you did.\par Your mother (Jerusalem) was sent away\par because of the bad things you did.\par
“‘I will make an Agreement with the people of Israel and Judah. This Agreement will last forever. In this Agreement, I will never turn away from those people. I will always be good to them. I will make them want to respect me. Then they will never turn away from me.
After this, Samuel set up a special stone. {He did this to help people remember the things God did.} Samuel put the stone between Mizpah and Shen. [87] Samuel named the stone “Stone of Help.” [88] Samuel said, “The Lord helped us all the way to this place!”