21 and ye do not turn aside after the vain things which do not profit nor deliver, for they `are' vain,
What profit hath a graven image given That its former hath graven it? A molten image and teacher of falsehood, That trusted hath the former on his own formation -- to make dumb idols?
O Jehovah, my strength, and my fortress, And my refuge in a day of adversity, Unto Thee nations do come from the ends of earth, And say, Only falsehood did our fathers inherit, Vanity, and none among them is profitable.
Concerning the eating then of the things sacrificed to idols, we have known that an idol `is' nothing in the world, and that there is no other God except one;
Are there among the vanities of the nations any causing rain? And do the heavens give showers? Art not Thou He, O Jehovah our God? And we wait for thee, for Thou -- Thou hast done all these!
Be gathered, and come in, Come nigh together, ye escaped of the nations, They have not known, Who are lifting up the wood of their graven image, And praying unto a god `that' saveth not.
And in one they are brutish and foolish, An instruction of vanities `is' the tree itself.
`Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be enticed, and ye have turned aside, and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them,
For two evils hath My people done, Me they have forsaken, a fountain of living waters, To hew out for themselves wells -- broken wells, That contain not the waters.
Framers of a graven image `are' all of them emptiness, And their desirable things do not profit, And their own witnesses they `are', They see not, nor know, that they may be ashamed. Who hath formed a god, And a molten image poured out -- not profitable?
`Lo, all of them `are' vanity, Nought `are' their works, Wind and emptiness their molten images!'
Their idols `are' silver and gold, work of man's hands, A mouth they have, and they speak not, Eyes they have, and they see not, Ears they have, and they hear not, A nose they have, and they smell not, Their hands, but they handle not, Their feet, and they walk not; Nor do they mutter through their throat, Like them are their makers, Every one who is trusting in them.
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:-