12 When you saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, you said to me, No, but a king shall reign over us; when Yahweh your God was your king.
Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: Yahweh shall rule over you.
and they said to him, Behold, you are old, and your sons don't walk in your ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. Samuel prayed to Yahweh. Yahweh said to Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people in all that they tell you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them.
but you have this day rejected your God, who himself saves you out of all your calamities and your distresses; and you have said to him, [No], but set a king over us. Now therefore present yourselves before Yahweh by your tribes, and by your thousands.
Then Nahash the Ammonite came up, and encamped against Jabesh Gilead: and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you. Nahash the Ammonite said to them, On this condition will I make it with you, that all your right eyes be put out; and I will lay it for a reproach on all Israel.
I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your seed after you.
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.' These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel."
He has not saw iniquity in Jacob; Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel: Yahweh his God is with him, The shout of a king is among them.
and you are risen up against my father's house this day, and have slain his sons, seventy persons, on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his maid-servant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother);
His sons didn't walk in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted justice.
But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; and they said, No: but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.
For Yahweh is our judge, Yahweh is our lawgiver, Yahweh is our king; he will save us.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 1 Samuel 12
Commentary on 1 Samuel 12 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 12
We left the general assembly of the states together, in the close of the foregoing chapter; in this chapter we have Samuel's speech to them, when he resigned the government into the hands of Saul, in which,
1Sa 12:1-5
Here,
1Sa 12:6-15
Samuel, having sufficiently secured his own reputation, instead of upbraiding the people upon it with their unkindness to him, sets himself to instruct them, and keep them in the way of their duty, and then the change of the government would be the less damage to them.
1Sa 12:16-25
Two things Samuel here aims at:-