(10) And they cried unto the Lord.--As soon as they were convinced of their sin and rebellion, and accused themselves, and returned to their old allegiance, their invisible King, ever full of pity and tender compassion, forgave them, and sent them quick deliverance.

And have served Baalim and Ashtaroth.--Baal and Ashtaroth were the well-known leading Ph?nician deities; the worship, with most of its details, was imported probably from Carthage, the great Ph?nician centre. The temple of Baal-shemesh, the Sun god, at Carthage, was renowned in that luxurious and splendid city. (For a detailed and picturesque account of the worship and ritual of Baal at Carthage, see M. Gustave Flaubert's romance of Salombo.) Baal and Ashtaroth, the Greek Astarte, were probably originally worshipped simply as the sun and moon. The plural form refers to the various personifications and different titles of the god and goddess.

Verse 10. - We have served [the] Baalim and [the] Ashtaroth. I.e. the numerous Baals and Astartes, which were worshipped under various titles by the heathen. For though representing the same power, each people had their own epithets for their own particular personification of the god (see on 1 Samuel 7:4).

12:6-15 The work of ministers is to reason with people; not only to exhort and direct, but to persuade, to convince men's judgments, and so to gain their wills and affections. Samuel reasons of the righteous acts of the Lord. Those who follow God faithfully, he will enable to continue following him. Disobedience would certainly be the ruin of Israel. We mistake if we think that we can escape God's justice, by trying to shake off his dominion. If we resolve that God shall not rule us, yet he will judge us.And they cried unto the Lord,.... When in the hands of their enemies, and in bondage to them, and cruelly oppressed by them:

and said, we have sinned; the word for "said" is in the Cetib, or written text, singular, and in the Keri, or marginal reading, plural; and may signify, that everyone of them had a sense of their sin, and made acknowledgment of it; their confession was universal, as their sin was:

because we have forsaken the Lord; the Word of the Lord, as the Targum:

and have served Baalim and Ashtaroth; See Gill on Judges 2:11; see Gill on Judges 2:13.

but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee; they did not ask for a king to go before them, and fight their battles, as they did now, but applied to the Lord for deliverance, promising to serve him as their King and their God.