5 And he said H559 unto them, The LORD H3068 is witness H5707 against you, and his anointed H4899 is witness H5707 this day, H3117 that ye have not found H4672 ought H3972 in my hand. H3027 And they answered, H559 He is witness. H5707
Oh that H5414 one would hear H8085 me! behold, my desire H8420 is, that the Almighty H7706 would answer H6030 me, and that mine adversary H376 H7379 had written H3789 a book. H5612 Surely I would take H5375 it upon my shoulder, H7926 and bind H6029 it as a crown H5850 to me. I would declare H5046 unto him the number H4557 of my steps; H6806 as a prince H5057 would I go near H7126 unto him. If my land H127 cry H2199 against me, or that the furrows H8525 likewise H3162 thereof complain; H1058 If I have eaten H398 the fruits H3581 thereof without money, H3701 or have caused the owners H1167 thereof to lose H5301 their life: H5315 Let thistles H2336 grow H3318 instead of wheat, H2406 and cockle H890 instead of barley. H8184 The words H1697 of Job H347 are ended. H8552
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on 1 Samuel 12
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.