20 And Samuel saith unto the people, `Fear not; ye have done all this evil; only, turn not aside from after Jehovah -- and ye have served Jehovah with all your heart,
`Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be enticed, and ye have turned aside, and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them,
and say unto Moses, `Speak thou with us, and we hear, and let not God speak with us, lest we die.' And Moses saith unto the people, `Fear not, for to try you hath God come, and in order that His fear may be before your faces -- that ye sin not.'
for I have known that after my death ye do very corruptly, and have turned aside out of the way which I commanded you, and evil hath met you in the latter end of the days, because ye do the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, to make Him angry with the work of your hands.'
and ye have been very strong to keep and to do the whole that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, so as not to turn aside from it right or left,
O the happiness of the man Who hath made Jehovah his trust, And hath not turned unto the proud, And those turning aside to lies.
As to those turning `to' their crooked ways, Jehovah causeth them to go with workers of iniquity. Peace on Israel!
Saying, `Lo, one sendeth away his wife, And she hath gone from him, And she hath been to another man, Doth he turn back unto her again? Greatly defiled is not that land? And thou hast committed whoredom with many lovers, And turn again to Me, an affirmation of Jehovah.
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:-