25 But if you still do evil, destruction will overtake you and your king.
Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel: and the men of Israel went in flight before the Philistines, falling down wounded in Mount Gilboa. And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons; and they put to death Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul. And the fight was going badly for Saul, and the archers came across him, and he was wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to the servant who had the care of his arms, Take out your sword and put it through me, before these men without circumcision come and make sport of me. But his servant, full of fear, would not do so. Then Saul took out his sword, and falling on it, put an end to himself. And when his servant saw that Saul was dead, he did the same, and was united with him in death.
But Jeshurun became fat and would not be controlled: you have become fat, you are thick and full of food: then he was untrue to the God who made him, giving no honour to the Rock of his salvation. The honour which was his they gave to strange gods; by their disgusting ways he was moved to wrath. They made offerings to evil spirits which were not God, to gods who were strange to them, which had newly come up, not feared by your fathers. You have no thought for the Rock, your father, you have no memory of the God who gave you birth. And the Lord saw with disgust the evil-doing of his sons and daughters. And he said, My face will be veiled from them, I will see what their end will be: for they are an uncontrolled generation, children in whom is no faith. They have given my honour to that which is not God, moving me to wrath with their false worship: I will give their honour to those who are not a people, moving them to wrath by a foolish nation, For my wrath is a flaming fire, burning to the deep parts of the underworld, burning up the earth with her increase, and firing the deep roots of the mountains. I will send a rain of troubles on them, my arrows will be showered on them. They will be wasted from need of food, and overcome by burning heat and bitter destruction; and the teeth of beasts I will send on them, with the poison of the worms of the dust. Outside they will be cut off by the sword, and in the inner rooms by fear; death will take the young man and the virgin, the baby at the breast and the grey-haired man. I said I would send them wandering far away, I would make all memory of them go from the minds of men: But for the fear that their haters, uplifted in their pride, might say, Our hand is strong, the Lord has not done all this. For they are a nation without wisdom; there is no sense in them. If only they were wise, if only this was clear to them, and they would give thought to their future! How would it be possible for one to overcome a thousand, and two to send ten thousand in flight, if their rock had not let them go, if the Lord had not given them up? For their rock is not like our Rock, even our haters themselves being judges. For their vine is the vine of Sodom, from the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are the grapes of evil, and the berries are bitter: Their wine is the poison of dragons, the cruel poison of snakes. Is not this among my secrets, kept safe in my store-house? Punishment is mine and reward, at the time of the slipping of their feet: for the day of their downfall is near, sudden will be their fate. For the Lord will be judge of his people, he will have pity for his servants; when he sees that their power is gone, there is no one, shut up or free. And he will say, Where are their gods, the rock in which they put their faith? Who took the fat of their offerings, and the wine of their drink offering? Let them now come to your help, let them be your salvation. See now, I myself am he; there is no other god but me: giver of death and life, wounding and making well: and no one has power to make you free from my hand. For lifting up my hand to heaven I say, By my unending life, If I make sharp my shining sword, and my hand is outstretched for judging, I will give punishment to those who are against me, and their right reward to my haters. I will make my arrows red with blood, my sword will be feasting on flesh, with the blood of the dead and the prisoners, of the long-haired heads of my haters. Be glad, O you his people, over the nations; for he will take payment for the blood of his servants, and will give punishment to his haters, and take away the sin of his land, for his people. So Moses said all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Hoshea, the son of Nun.
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Commentary on 1 Samuel 12 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 12
1Sa 12:1-5. Samuel Testifies his Integrity.
1-4. Samuel said unto all Israel—This public address was made after the solemn re-instalment of Saul, and before the convention at Gilgal separated. Samuel, having challenged a review of his public life, received a unanimous testimony to the unsullied honor of his personal character, as well as the justice and integrity of his public administration.
5. the Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness—that, by their own acknowledgment, he had given them no cause to weary of the divine government by judges, and that, therefore, the blame of desiring a change of government rested with themselves. This was only insinuated, and they did not fully perceive his drift.
1Sa 12:6-16. He Reproves the People for Ingratitude.
7-16. Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you—The burden of this faithful and uncompromising address was to show them, that though they had obtained the change of government they had so importunely desired, their conduct was highly displeasing to their heavenly King; nevertheless, if they remained faithful to Him and to the principles of the theocracy, they might be delivered from many of the evils to which the new state of things would expose them. And in confirmation of those statements, no less than in evidence of the divine displeasure, a remarkable phenomenon, on the invocation of the prophet, and of which he gave due premonition, took place.
11. Bedan—The Septuagint reads "Barak"; and for "Samuel" some versions read "Samson," which seems more natural than that the prophet should mention himself to the total omission of the greatest of the judges. (Compare Heb 11:32).
1Sa 12:17-25. He Terrifies Them with Thunder in Harvest-time.
17-25. Is it not wheat harvest to-day?—That season in Palestine occurs at the end of June or beginning of July, when it seldom or never rains, and the sky is serene and cloudless. There could not, therefore, have been a stronger or more appropriate proof of a divine mission than the phenomenon of rain and thunder happening, without any prognostics of its approach, upon the prediction of a person professing himself to be a prophet of the Lord, and giving it as an attestation of his words being true. The people regarded it as a miraculous display of divine power, and, panic-struck, implored the prophet to pray for them. Promising to do so, he dispelled their fears. The conduct of Samuel, in this whole affair of the king's appointment, shows him to have been a great and good man who sank all private and personal considerations in disinterested zeal for his country's good and whose last words in public were to warn the people, and their king, of the danger of apostasy and disobedience to God.