1 Samuel 12 - Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

Bible Comments
  • 1 Samuel 12:1-5 open_in_new

    Samuel Makes A Clean Break From His Civic Responsibilities (1 Samuel 12:1-5).

    In his farewell speech Samuel begins by making clear that he is now free from all civil responsibility for Israel. He wants them to know without any shadow of doubt that from now on he will act only as YHWH's prophet. The deliberate detail in which he does this emphasises the cleanness of the break. As far as he is concerned once the people have given him clearance he ceases his duties. From now on they must look to the king whom they have chosen to watch over their interests in all civil matters. He will no longer be their ‘Judge'.

    Analysis.

    a And Samuel said to all Israel, “Look, I have listened to your voice in all that you said to me, and have made a king over you. And now, see, the king walks before you, and I am old and grey-headed, and look, my sons are with you, and I have walked before you from my youth to this day” (1 Samuel 12:1-2).

    b “Here I am. Witness against me before YHWH, and before his anointed, Whose ox have I taken? Or whose ass have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or of whose hand have I taken a ransom with which to blind mine eyes? And I will restore it you.” (1 Samuel 12:3).

    b And they said, You have not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, nor have you taken anything of any man's hand” (1 Samuel 12:4).

    a And he said to them, “YHWH is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.” And they said, “He is witness” (1 Samuel 12:5).

    Note that in ‘a' he points out that he has made a king over them and has walked before them openly since his youth, and in the parallel he charges them in the sight of YHWH and the king to bear witness that he has not failed them in any way. In ‘b' he sets out the charges that might possibly have been laid against him, and in the parallel the people refute them.

    1 Samuel 12:1-2

    And Samuel said to all Israel, “Look, I have listened to your voice in all that you said to me, and have made a king over you. And now, see, the king walks before you, and I am old and grey-headed, and look, my sons are with you, and I have walked before you from my youth to this day.”

    He begins by pointing out that he has listened to their voice and made a king over them. He wants them to be absolutely clear that it was their choice and not his. Let them recognise that he had not wanted them to have a king over them. He had wanted YHWH to be their King. But they have gone their own way and chosen a king.

    How much we all like a king (whether it be a pastor, or a youth leader, or some other person in authority). It is so much easier to have someone who will tell us exactly what to do so that no blame might be laid at our door. And we then hope that he will not make too many demands on us. But what we really do not want to have to do is look to God directly for guidance, and to commit our way totally to Him. For we know that, in His case, any demands that He makes on us will be absolute, and that such a walk requires faith and obedience. It is a call to full surrender.

    Then Samuel stresses that their king walks before them (and he could have added ‘in the prime of life') for he contrasts the king with himself, old in years and grey-headed, with grown up sons who live among them. And he stresses that from his youth he has walked openly before them and served them. But that is now over. Now they must look for their young king to serve them.

    1 Samuel 12:3

    Here I am. Witness against me before YHWH, and before his anointed, Whose ox have I taken? Or whose ass have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or of whose hand have I taken a ransom with which to blind mine eyes? And I will restore it you.”

    So he then calls on them to bear witness concerning him in the sight of YHWH, and of the one whom YHWH has ‘anointed'. For the latter see 1 Samuel 10:1; and compare 1 Samuel 2:10; 1 Samuel 2:35. The anointing indicated someone totally separated to God, and they could see in each one who was anointed by YHWH the potential future coming king who was described in 1 Samuel 2:10. But, alas, one by one each one of them, even David, would prove a disappointment.

    And he asks the people whether, in the sight of these two, YHWH and His representative, they are able honestly to accuse him of any misdemeanour? Has he taken their oxen or asses (deprived them of their most valued possessions)? Has he ever defrauded them? Has he ever oppressed them? Has he ever accepted a bribe which has made him close his eyes to the truth (compare Exodus 23:8; Deuteronomy 16:19; and contrast 1 Samuel 8:3)? If they can rightly accuse him of any of these things he will recompense them now, restoring to them what they claim that they have lost.

    1 Samuel 12:4

    And they said, You have not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, nor have you taken anything of any man's hand.” '

    Their reply is that he is clear of any of those things. They recognise that he has been honest and true in all things.

    1 Samuel 12:5

    And he said to them, “YHWH is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.” And they said, “He is witness.” '

    He then asks them to confirm the fact in front of YHWH and in front of the one whom He has anointed, with both of them acting as witnesses. They reply by affirming that YHWH Himself is witness, and as the Greater includes the lesser, so also is His anointed. Thus Samuel has a twofold witness that he has not failed them in any way. And having sworn to his innocence they now know without any doubt that Samuel's long watch over them as Judge is over. They can no longer look to him to act in civil affairs. From now on they must look to Saul.

  • 1 Samuel 12:6-12 open_in_new

    Samuel First Briefly Recounts The History of YHWH's Goodness In Appointing Deliverers In Order To Deliver Them (The Way In Which He Has Chosen To Rule Them), And Yet Even Then They Have Continually Failed To Respond To Him, Something Which Has Finally Come To A Head In Their Replacing YHWH With An Earthly King (1 Samuel 12:6-12).

    The people having borne witness to his faithfulness and integrity before YHWH as their witness, he now turns the tables on them and bears witness to their faithlessness and lack of integrity in the eyes of God when God acted as their Judge, first of their fathers, and then of themselves. For after He had delivered them from Egypt they had failed Him constantly. And yet even so they had also constantly depended on Him when they were in trouble, and at such times He had appointed Saviours for them. And He had done this even to the last, in appointing Saul as their present war-leader and deliverer, and in doing so He had tried to point them in the way of making him only their war-leader (nagid), and continuing in the old way. But they had refused and had rather chosen to make him their full-blown king.

    1 Samuel 12:6-7

    And Samuel said to the people, “It is YHWH who appointed Moses and Aaron, and who brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still, that I may plead with you before YHWH concerning all the righteous acts of YHWH, which he did to you and to your fathers.” '

    The one ‘on trial' has suddenly become the accuser. He reminds them of God's method of saving and ruling His people, that when they were in bondage in Egypt it was YHWH Who had appointed Moses and Aaron to be His people's deliverers and bring them out of the land of Egypt. YHWH had not failed them then. And he asks them to stand and listen while he goes on to demonstrate before YHWH concerning all the righteous things that YHWH has done for them and their fathers, after which he lists some of YHWH's appointments in terms of the names of the ones whom He sent.

    1 Samuel 12:8

    When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried to YHWH, then YHWH sent Moses and Aaron, who brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and made them to dwell in this place.”

    First, when Jacob had brought the people into Egypt they had cried to YHWH in the time of bondage that had resulted from this, and He had then sent Moses and Aaron who had brought their fathers out of Egypt into this very place that they now were. That they were there at all was due to YHWH.

    1 Samuel 12:9

    But they forgot YHWH their God; and he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them.”

    But they had then forgotten YHWH their God, and so He had, as it were, sold them as slaves into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor (Judges 4-5), and into the hand of the Philistines (Judges 3:31), and into the hand of Moab (Judges 3:12-30), and they had come and fought against them. Note that Samuel here lists them in reverse order as compared with the Book of Judges, while after 1 Samuel 12:10 the next three will be listed forwards. This deliberately centres all the emphasis on their failure described in verse 10, pointing to it like an arrow from both sides.

    1 Samuel 12:10

    And they cried to YHWH, and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken YHWH, and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve you'.”

    Here was the crunch of the matter. Each time they had forsaken YHWH and had served other gods. But when they were in distress and those gods could not help them they had called on YHWH, and had admitted their sin and idolatry, and had then prayed for deliverance and had promised to serve Him. And each time YHWH had heard them.

    1 Samuel 12:11

    And YHWH sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you dwelt in safety.”

    And the result of their pleas was that YHWH had sent Jerub-baal (Gideon - Judges 6-8), Bedan (‘Abdon - Judges 13:13? or Barak - Judges 4-5?), Jephthah (Judges 11-12) and Samuel, and each time He had delivered them from the hands of their enemies so that they dwelt in safety. The mention of Samuel's own name may suggest that he was figuratively ticking off the names of the Judges on a mental list with which the people were familiar, possibly one cited at the annual feasts. It was, of course, important that his name be mentioned because it brought the deliverances right up to date. And yet the citing of his name suggested that he wanted to avoid making it personal.

    Jerub-baal was an alternative name given to Gideon (Judges 6:31-32; Judges 7:1). Bedan (bdn meaning ‘corpulent') may have been a well known judge and deliverer, known to all Israel and not to us (otherwise he is out of order). It may have been a variant of ‘Abdon (‘bdn) who had seventy offspring who rode on seventy asses (Judges 12:13-14). Or it may be a humerous twisting of the name of Barak (in the Hebrew Bedan and Barak look fairly similar) possibly because Barak was remembered in the tradition as corpulent (this thus being given as a nick name, ‘fatty'). However, against the idea that it refers to Barak is the fact that the earlier judges, of which he was one, have already been dealt with previously without being named. Or it has even been suggested that it could be an abbreviation of ben-Dan (son of Dan) referring to Samson, but it seems unlikely. Jephthah we know of from Judges 11-12.

    1 Samuel 12:12

    And 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 YHWH your God was your king.”

    And when they had seen Nahash, the king of the children of Ammon, coming against them they had been provided with Saul as a war-leader (nagid - 1 Samuel 9:16), but had demanded rather that they might have him as a king, even though YHWH their God was their King. (This verse presents what has been said previously, in abbreviated form). So the line of deliverers right up to the present day had ended in the rejection of YHWH as their King.

  • 1 Samuel 12:13-15 open_in_new

    Samuel Then Stresses That YHWH Has Graciously Given Them Their Desire And Calls On Them To Respond In Like Manner (1 Samuel 12:13-15).

    Samuel now stresses that, in spite of their attitude towards Him, it is still YHWH Who has set over them this king whom they had demanded, and have now chosen. Therefore if both they and their king will continue to hear His voice and obey Him then all will go well with them. But if they refuse to listen to His voice and do not obey Him and His commandments, than they must rather expect that it will go ill with them. Thus although their choosing a king other than YHWH will make if more difficult for them to continue looking to YHWH, how it eventually turns out will depend on them and them alone.

    1 Samuel 12:13

    Now therefore see the king whom you have chosen, and whom you have asked for, and see, YHWH has set a king over you.”

    He presents Saul to them as the one that they have themselves chosen. Notice the emphasis on the fact that it is their choice which has been effective (even though guided by him and approved by lot), which suggests again that Samuel has been keeping himself in the background during the confirmation of kingship. And he stresses they have chosen him as a result of the fact that they had first asked for him. All the responsibility for these actions thus lies on them. And it is because of all this that YHWH had set him as king over them.

    (What the people had done should be a reminder to us of how often we manoeuvre God into doing our will, something to which He responds out of His compassion for us, and then we blame Him when things go wrong, whereas if only we had really listened to His voice in the first place, it would never have happened).

    1 Samuel 12:14

    If you will fear YHWH, and serve him, and listen to his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of YHWH, and both you and also the king who reigns over you be followers of YHWH your God, then it will be well with you.”

    The new situation need not turn out badly. It is up to them. For the appointment of a king has not altered YHWH's basic requirements, nor has it let the people off from obedience. It is still required of them that they fear YHWH, and serve Him, and listen to His voice. Both they and the king must be followers of YHWH. And the implication is that if they do this, it will be well with them. (‘Then it will be well with you' is not expressed in the Hebrew, but is the implication to be read in).

    1 Samuel 12:15

    But if you will not listen to the voice of YHWH, but rebel against the commandment of YHWH, then will the hand of YHWH be against you, as it was against your fathers.”

    “Go in peace.” So he arose, and went to Hebron (2 Samuel 15:9).

    b But Absalom sent scouts throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “As soon as you hear the sou

    f the trumpet, then you shall say, ‘Absalom is king in Hebron.' ” (2 Samuel 15:10).

    a And with Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem, who were invited, and went in their simple innocence, and they knew nothing (2 Samuel 15:11).

    Note that in ‘a' Absalom wished to go to Hebron on a special occasion to pay his vow, and in the parallel he did so accompanied by two hundred men. In ‘b' his pretence is that he is going to serve YHWH, and in the parallel his intended service of YHWH will turn out to be a very different one than David had thought. Centrally in ‘c' David wishes him peace, and he goes off in order to rebel.

    2 Samuel 15:7

    And it came about at the end of forty years, that Absalom said to the king, “I pray you, let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to YHWH, in Hebron.” '

    It is quite apparent from what follows that Absalom's plotting continued, extending further and further through disaffected people until it had spread throughout large parts of Israel and Judah, especially in key cities, with the result that gradually he felt that his support had become wide enough for him to be able to act with a good chance of success. It is also apparent that one powerful group of such conspirators was in Hebron, a group which was sufficiently powerful to guarantee his acceptance there as king. Thus he appears to have had support in both Israel and Judah. This suggests that David's popularity had, through the years, waned outside the capital away from the court. It may well be that once his military successes were behind him and the grateful country gradually began to accept its security as its right, it began to have greater expectations than David was fulfilling. It serves to bring out that David was perhaps not as good at local administration as he was at winning battles. Indeed much of his concentration would have been on the wider empire. As a consequence he had tended to overlook the need to keep his own people happy. All this must have been so for the rebellion to take hold so easily.

    Hebron itself may also have become disillusioned because he had moved the centre of his government, and part of the emphasis on worship, away from that ancient sanctuary and from the Tabernacle, to Jerusalem with its sacred Tent containing the Ark. While Jerusalem was an equally ancient sanctuary with an ancient priesthood, it had until recently been a Canaanite sanctuary, and the enthusiasm of David had not necessarily been infectious outside the ranks of his own supporters.

    “And it came about at the end of forty years.” The question that this raises is as to what the ‘end of forty years' refers to. If we take the number literally then it produces a definite problem. There are a number of possibilities:

    · Some have seen it as signifying forty years from the time when the kingship was first established and Saul was anointed king, but that is to ignore other evidence, for elsewhere we learn that Saul himself reigned for about forty years. He seemingly became king as a young man in the first stage of his life, and died alongside his adult sons who themselves had been warriors for many years. Furthermore Acts 13:21 would support such a period.

    · Others see it as referring to forty years from David's anointing, but it is difficult in that case to see why the writer should particularly have had that incident in mind without explaining the fact here.

    · Many consider that the number four has been inaccurately copied as forty so that really we should read ‘four' here. That would certainly be sufficient time for the rebellion to spread. But in our view emendation of the text in such a way without textual evidence must always be seen as the last resort (even granted that number symbols could easily be wrongly copied, or might even change in significance over centuries).

    · The probability, therefore, is that we should rather see it as signifying, not a literal forty years, but the period from Absalom's birth to the time when he attained maturity, sufficiently to rebel. Such a special event as coming to maturity would adequately explain why he took with him two hundred chosen men, who were totally unaware of what was really happening, in order to perform a vow, something which would surely have been suspicious had it not been on a very special occasion.

    We can, for example, compare how in Genesis marriage consistently took place when someone was ‘forty years' old, in other words was seen as mature enough for marriage (Genesis 25:20; Genesis 26:34). It is very unlikely that in either case they would literally have waited until they were forty years of age. But larger numbers were used in this general kind of way. See also Joshua 14:7, where Joshua said of himself that he was ‘forty years old' when he was sent out as a spy into Canaan (which if taken literally would mean that he began the conquest when he was seventy eight years old), and compare the constant use of ‘forty years' as indicating important periods in the books of Judges, Samuel and Kings, where it is unlikely that we should take them too literally (see Judges 3:11; Judges 5:31; Judges 8:28; Judges 13:1; 1 Samuel 4:18; 2 Samuel 2:10; 2 Samuel 5:4; 1 Kings 2:11; 1 Kings 11:42; 2 Kings 12:1). They may well in these cases signify ‘a generation'. This is not to say that the figure is ‘incorrect'. It is, in the terms of the time when it was written, fully correct. It was simply the Hebrew way of indicating a longish period which was complete in itself (compare the similar use of ‘forty days'), something not simply confined to the Hebrews. For we should remember that whereas we have been brought up to think numerically, the majority of ancients were innumerate and saw larger numbers as being used as adjectives in order to give an impression rather than as intended to be numerically accurate. This verse is thus probably saying that Absalom, having attained the age of maturity, wanted to go to Hebron to ‘pay his vow'. The age of maturity may actually have been twenty, the age at which he became eligible to fight for Israel (Numbers 1:3; etc), or twenty five, the age at which the Levite apprenticeship began (Numbers 8:24), or even thirty when the Levite (and presumably the priest) came to full maturity (Numbers 4:3; etc). Absalom was after all one of the king's ‘priests'. This would also make sense as explaining why at this time he wished to fulfil his vow in order to be a true priest to YHWH, that is, to ‘serve YHWH'.

    2 Samuel 15:8

    For your servant vowed a vow while I abode at Geshur in Aram (Syria), saying, ‘If YHWH shall indeed bring me again to Jerusalem, then I will serve YHWH.”

    Absalom then explained how when he was in Geshur he had made a solemn vow to YHWH that if He would restore him to his rightful position in Jerusalem, he would ‘serve Him'. The verb ‘to serve' can have a general significance of obedience to YHWH (e.g. Deuteronomy 6:13) but it can also have the special significance of ‘serving' in a levitical or priestly fashion (e.g. Numbers 3:7; Numbers 18:7). If the king's sons were seen as ‘priests after the order of Melchizedek', and as connected with the sanctuary as intercessory priests (see on 2 Samuel 8:18), this would make good sense. Others see it as signifying his intention to offer freewill sacrifices of thanksgiving. In the end, however, it was only really an excuse to go to Hebron without arousing suspicion.

    2 Samuel 15:9

    And the king said to him, “Go in peace.” So he arose, and went to Hebron.'

    Such a proposal that he should ‘serve YHWH' would have gladdened the king's heart for he would have wanted nothing more than that his sons properly fulfil their responsibilities towards YHWH. So totally unsuspectingly he bade him ‘go in peace'. This was a general farewell wish indicating a situation of wellbeing between the parties, but it gains special significance in this case because the reader and listener know that he is doing anything other than going in peace. And the consequence was that Absalom ‘went to Hebron', to cause war.

    2 Samuel 15:10

    But Absalom sent scouts throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, ‘Absalom is king in Hebron.' ”

    And it was from Hebron, where he was seemingly greeted as prospective king, (it is apparent that a number of negotiation must have been going on meanwhile), that he sent out messengers to selected groups with the news that when they heard the blowing of the ram's horns then they were to declare that ‘Absalom is king in Hebron'. His coronation, when he would be anointed as king (2 Samuel 19:10), was evidently imminent. This stress on ‘in Hebron' might suggest that there was general disaffection among many throughout the whole of Israel over David's selection of a Canaanite stronghold as his capital city, something which Absalom was taking advantage of. Hebron at least was an ancient sanctuary of YHWH, and the home of the Tabernacle, and ancient traditions die hard. Many would not have been pleased with the change of emphasis to Jerusalem. Absalom was again playing the people for all he was worth.

    2 Samuel 15:11

    And with Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem, who were invited, and went in their simple innocence, and they knew nothing.'

    Absalom took with him ‘two hundred men' out of Jerusalem, men who were in simple innocence of what his motives were. Whether we take the two ‘hundreds' as strictly numerical, or see it as indicating two family/clan or other groupings (Israelites and Geshurites?), such an invitation indicated that this was being seen as a very special occasion. And if it was so they were being taken in order to allay suspicions. They would, however, no doubt have been selected because they were known to be his ‘friends'.