1 Samuel 12:21

1 Samuel 12:21 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.
• New International Version (NIV)Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless.
• English Standard Version (ESV)And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty.
• New King James Version (NKJV)And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing.

Context of 1 Samuel 12:21

19And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto Jehovah thy God, that we die not; for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king. 20And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not: ye have indeed done all this evil; yet turn not aside from following Jehovah, but serve Jehovah with all your heart: and turn ye not aside; for then would ye go after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain. 22For Jehovah will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake, because it hath pleased Jehovah to make you a people unto himself. 23Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against Jehovah in ceasing to pray for you: but I will instruct you in the good and the right way.

1 Samuel 12:21 word by word

וְלֹ֖א תָּס֑וּרוּ כִּ֣י׀ אַחֲרֵ֣י הַתֹּ֗הוּ אֲשֶׁ֧ר לֹֽא־יוֹעִ֛ילוּ וְלֹ֥א יַצִּ֖ילוּ כִּי־תֹ֥הוּ הֵֽמָּה׃Read the interlinear

• turnסוּרsûr ώûr · to turn aside: turn asideH5493
• asideסוּרsûr ώûr · to turn aside: turn asideH5493
• profitיָעַלya‛al · to gainH3276
• deliverנָצַלnâtsal · to rescueH5337

Cross-references for 1 Samuel 12:21

• Deuteronomy 32:21They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; They have provoked me to anger with their vanities: And I will move them to jealousy with those that are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
• Jeremiah 2:5Thus saith Jehovah, What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?
• Jeremiah 10:8But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! it is but a stock.
• Jeremiah 14:22Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O Jehovah our God? therefore we will wait for thee; for thou hast made all these things.
• Jeremiah 16:19O Jehovah, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, unto thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nought but lies, even vanity and things wherein there is no profit.
• Jonah 2:8They that regard lying vanities Forsake their own mercy.
• Habakkuk 2:18What profiteth the graven image, that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he that fashioneth its form trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?
• 1 Corinthians 8:4Concerning therefore the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no God but one.
• Psalms 115:4Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men’s hands.
• Isaiah 41:23Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.
• Isaiah 44:9They that fashion a graven image are all of them vanity; and the things that they delight in shall not profit; and their own witnesses see not, nor know: that they may be put to shame.
• Isaiah 45:20Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that carry the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.
• Isaiah 46:7They bear it upon the shoulder, they carry it, and set it in its place, and it standeth, from its place shall it not remove: yea, one may cry unto it, yet can it not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.
• Jeremiah 10:15They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

Commentaries on 1 Samuel 12:21

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 21After vain things - That is, idols; which he calls here התהו hattohu, the same expression found Genesis 1:2. The earth was תהו tohu ; it was waste, empty, and formless: so idols; they are confusion, and things of naught, for an idol is nothing in the world, it is not the representative of any intelligent being.Read the comment
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 16-25Verses 16-25 At Samuel's word, God sent thunder and rain, at a season of the year when, in that country, the like was not seen. This was to convince them they had done wickedly in asking a king; not only by its coming at an unusual time, in wheat harvest, and on a clear day, but by the prophet's giving notice of it before. He showed their folly in desiring a king to save them, rather than God, or Samuel; promising themselves more from an arm of flesh…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 21worthless … they are empty: Israel was slow to understand this lesson (for example, Isaiah 40:18–26; 44:9–20).Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 17-2517-25. Is it not wheat harvest to-day?--That season in Palestine occurs at the end of June or beginning of July, when it seldom or never rains, and the sky is serene and cloudless. There could not, therefore, have been a stronger or more appropriate proof of a divine mission than the phenomenon of rain and thunder happening, without any prognostics of its approach, upon the prediction of a person professing himself to be a prophet of the Lord, and giving…Read the comment

Topics related to 1 Samuel 12:21

• Idolatry

In the dictionaries

• Reason
• Samuel, Books of
• Judges, Period of
• Samuel, Books of

Commentaries on 1 Samuel 12

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Rashi on Tanakh
• Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings