New King James Version
1 Samuel 12:21
21And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing.
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 Living Translation (NLT)Don’t go back to worshiping worthless idols that cannot help or rescue you—they are totally useless!
Context of 1 Samuel 12:21
19And all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die; for we have added to all our sins the evil of asking a king for ourselves.” 20Then Samuel said to the people, “Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing. 22For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people. 23Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you; but I will teach you the good and the right way.
Read all of 1 Samuel 121 Samuel 12:21 word by word
וְלֹ֖א תָּס֑וּרוּ כִּ֣י׀ אַחֲרֵ֣י הַתֹּ֗הוּ אֲשֶׁ֧ר לֹֽא־יוֹעִ֛ילוּ וְלֹ֥א יַצִּ֖ילוּ כִּי־תֹ֥הוּ הֵֽמָּה׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for 1 Samuel 12:21
- Deuteronomy 32:21They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; They have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation; I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.
- Jeremiah 2:5Thus says the Lord: “What injustice have your fathers found in Me, That they have gone far from Me, Have followed idols, And have become idolaters?
- Jeremiah 10:8But they are altogether dull-hearted and foolish; A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine.
- Jeremiah 14:22Are there any among the idols of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are You not He, O Lord our God? Therefore we will wait for You, Since You have made all these.
- Jeremiah 16:19O Lord, my strength and my fortress, My refuge in the day of affliction, The Gentiles shall come to You From the ends of the earth and say, “Surely our fathers have inherited lies, Worthlessness and unprofitable things.”
- Jonah 2:8“Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy.
- Habakkuk 2:18“What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it, The molded image, a teacher of lies, That the maker of its mold should trust in it, To make mute idols?
- 1 Corinthians 8:4Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one.
- Psalms 115:4Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men’s hands.
- Isaiah 41:23Show the things that are to come hereafter, That we may know that you are gods; Yes, do good or do evil, That we may be dismayed and see it together.
- Isaiah 44:9Those who make an image, all of them are useless, And their precious things shall not profit; They are their own witnesses; They neither see nor know, that they may be ashamed.
- Isaiah 45:20“Assemble yourselves and come; Draw near together, You who have escaped from the nations. They have no knowledge, Who carry the wood of their carved image, And pray to a god that cannot save.
- Isaiah 46:7They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it And set it in its place, and it stands; From its place it shall not move. Though one cries out to it, yet it cannot answer Nor save him out of his trouble.
- Jeremiah 10:15They are futile, a work of errors; In the time of their punishment 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
In the dictionaries
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
New King James Version — © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc
Commentaries