Tree of Life Version
1 Samuel 12:21
21Do not turn aside to go after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are futile.
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 to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to Adonai your God, that we would not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king.” 20Samuel said to the people, “Fear not! Indeed you have done all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following Adonai, but worship Adonai with all your heart. Do not turn aside to go after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are futile. 22For Adonai will not forsake His people for His great Name’s sake, because it has pleased Adonai to make you a people to Himself. 23Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against Adonai by ceasing to pray for you! Yet I will keep instructing you in the good and straight 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 made Me jealous with a non-god. They vexed Me with airy idols. So I will make them jealous with a non-people. With a foolish nation I will vex them.
- Jeremiah 2:5Thus says Adonai: “What fault did your fathers find in Me that they strayed so far from Me? They walked after worthless things, becoming worthless themselves?
- Jeremiah 10:8They are totally stupid and foolish. Discipline is useless—it’s wood!
- Jeremiah 14:22Can any of the idols of the nations bring rain? Or can the skies grant showers? Is it not You, Adonai our God? Do we not wait for You? For You have done all these things.
- Jeremiah 16:19Adonai, my strength, my stronghold, my refuge in the day of affliction, to You will the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, futility and useless things.”
- Jonah 2:8As my soul was fading from me, I remembered Adonai and my prayer came to You, toward Your holy Temple.
- Habakkuk 2:18What use is an idol when its craftsman has carved it? Or a metal image—a teacher of lies? For a craftsman has trusted in the image that he created, to make dumb idols.
- 1 Corinthians 8:4Therefore concerning the eating of idol sacrifices, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one.
- Psalms 115:4Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
- Isaiah 41:23Declare the things coming afterward, so we may know that you are gods! Indeed, do good or do evil, so we may all see and be awestruck.
- Isaiah 44:9Those who fashion idols are empty. Their precious things do not profit. Their witnesses do not see or know, so they will be put to shame.
- Isaiah 45:20“Assemble yourselves and come, draw near together, fugitives of the nations! Those who carry their wooden idols have no knowledge, praying to a god who cannot save.
- Isaiah 46:7They lift it upon a shoulder and carry it. They set in its place and there it stands. It does not budge from its place. Even if one cry to it, it cannot answer, nor save anyone from his trouble.”
- Jeremiah 10:15They are futile, a work of mockery. In the time of their punishment they will 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
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