Is it not wheat harvest day? — The Canaan wheat harvest is between the middle of May and the middle of June. Rain in that season seldom or never falls, but if it does it is usually severe. This is the testimony of one who spoke as a resident, and his statement is confirmed by the observations of the latest travellers and scholars. The terrible storm of rain accompanied with thunder, at a time of year when these storms of thunder and rain rarely took place, coming, as it did, in direct answer to the seer’s invocation, struck the people naturally with great fear, and for the moment they thoroughly repented of the past, and entreated Samuel — who, they felt, stood on strangely familiar terms with that awful yet loving Eternal — to intercede for them.
Related Commentaries of 1 Samuel 12:17
1 Samuel 12:17
17 Is it not wheat harvest to day? I will call unto the LORD, and he shall send thunder and rain; that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the LORD, in asking you a king.