Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together,
&c.] At some place of rendezvous appointed; these were the heads of the tribes, and fathers of the houses and families of Israel, the principal persons of age and authority:
and came to Samuel unto Ramah;
the place of his nativity and abode, and where he now dwelt, and judged Israel; they went in a very respectable body with an address to him.