Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 7:6

"And they gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before Jehovah, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against Jehovah. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah." — 1 Samuel 7:6 (ASV)

And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh. —For some quarter of a century Samuel had been the principal personage among the people, and had, no doubt, long exercised the varied functions of the “judges” of Israel; but the tribes were scattered, their fortresses in the hands of enemies, and there was scarcely any national life among the people in that gloomy period. In the first general assembly of the tribes, the rank and position which Samuel had long really filled were publicly acknowledged.