Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 12:7
Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the LORD of all the righteous acts of the LORD, which he did to you and to your fathers.
7. stand still, that I may reason with you ] Present yourselves that I may plead with you. The figure of a trial ( 1Sa 12:3 note) is still kept up; but the relation of the parties is changed. Samuel is now the accuser, Israel the defendant. Cp. Eze 20:35-36; Mic 6:1-5.
the righteous acts of the Lord ] Punishments for sin and deliverances from distress alike proved the righteousness of Jehovah in His covenant with Israel. Cp. Jdg 5:11.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 7. Now therefore stand still] I have arraigned myself before God and you; I now arraign you before God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That I may reason with you: since God hath laid so great obligations upon you, let us a little consider whether you have answered them.
The righteous acts, Heb. the righteousnesses, i.e. mercies or benefits; for so that word is oft used, as Psa 24:5; 36:10; Pro 10:2; 11:4; and that is the chief subject of the following discourse; some of their calamities being but briefly named, and that for the illustration of Gods mercy in their deliverances.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7-16. Now therefore stand still,that I may reason with youThe burden of this faithful anduncompromising address was to show them, that though they hadobtained the change of government they had so importunely desired,their conduct was highly displeasing to their heavenly King;nevertheless, if they remained faithful to Him and to the principlesof the theocracy, they might be delivered from many of the evils towhich the new state of things would expose them. And in confirmationof those statements, no less than in evidence of the divinedispleasure, a remarkable phenomenon, on the invocation of theprophet, and of which he gave due premonition, took place.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Now therefore stand still,…. Keep your place, and do not as yet break up the assembly, but wait a little longer patiently, and with reverence and attention hearken to what I have further to say:
that I may reason with you before the Lord; as in his presence; and which he observes to command the greater awe upon their mind, and the greater regard to the subject of his discourse and resolutions; which would be,
of all the righteous acts of the Lord, which he did to you and to your fathers; not only in a way of judgment delivering them into the hands of their enemies, when they sinned against him, but rather in a way of mercy and kindness in delivering them out of their hands.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“ And now come hither, and I will reason with you before the Lord with regard to all the righteous acts which He has shown to you and your fathers.” , righteous acts, is the expression used to denote the benefits which Jehovah had conferred upon His people, as being the results of His covenant fidelity, or as acts which attested the righteousness of the Lord in the fulfilment of the covenant grace which He had promised to His people.
1Sa 12:8-12 The first proof of this was furnished by the deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt, and their safe guidance into Canaan (“ this place ” is the land of Canaan). The second was to be found in the deliverance of the people out of the power of their foes, to whom the Lord had been obliged to give them up on account of their apostasy from Him, through the judges whom He had raised up for them, as often as they turned to Him with penitence and cried to Him for help. Of the hostile oppressions which overtook the Israelites during this period of the judges, the following are singled out in 1Sa 12:9: (1) that by Sisera, the commander-in-chief of Hazor, i.e., that of the Canaanitish king Jabin of Hazor (Jdg 4:2.); (2) that of the Philistines, by which we are to understand not so much the hostilities of that nation described in Jdg 3:31, as the forty years’ oppression mentioned in Jdg 10:2 and Jdg 13:1; and (3) the Moabitish oppression under Eglon ( Jdg 3:12.). The first half of Jdg 13:10 agrees almost word for word with Jdg 10:10, except that, according to Jdg 10:6, the Ashtaroth are added to the Baalim (see at 1Sa 7:4 and Jdg 2:13). Of the judges whom God sent to the people as deliverers, the following are named, viz., Jerubbaal (see at Jdg 6:32), i.e., Gideon (Judg 6), and Bedan, and Jephthah (see Judg 11), and Samuel. There is no judge named Bedan mentioned either in the book of Judges or anywhere else. The name Bedan only occurs again in 1Ch 7:17, among the descendants of Machir the Manassite: consequently some of the commentators suppose Jair of Gilead to be the judge intended. But such a supposition is perfectly arbitrary, as it is not rendered probable by any identity in the two names, and Jair is not described as having delivered Israel from any hostile oppression. Moreover, it is extremely improbable that Samuel should have mentioned a judge here, who had been passed over in the book of Judges on account of his comparative insignificance. There is also just as little ground for rendering Bedan as an appellative, e.g., the Danite ( ben-Dan), as Kimchi suggests, or corpulentus as Bttcher maintains, and so connecting the name with Samson. There is no other course left, therefore, than to regard Bedan as an old copyist’s error for Barak (Judg 4), as the lxx, Syriac, and Arabic have done, – a conclusion which is favoured by the circumstance that Barak was one of the most celebrated of the judges, and is placed by the side of Gideon and Jephthah in Heb 11:32. The Syriac, Arabic, and one Greek MS (see Kennicott in the Addenda to his Dissert. Gener.), have the name of Samson instead of Samuel. But as the lxx, Chald., and Vulg. all agree with the Hebrew text, there is no critical ground for rejecting Samuel, the more especially as the objection raised to it, viz., that Samuel would not have mentioned himself, is far too trivial to overthrow the reading supported by the most ancient versions; and the assertion made by Thenius, that Samuel does not come down to his own times until the following verse, is altogether unfounded. Samuel could very well class himself with the deliverers of Israel, for the simple reason that it was by him that the people were delivered from the forty years’ tyranny of the Philistines, whilst Samson merely commenced their deliverance and did not bring it to completion. Samuel appears to have deliberately mentioned his own name along with those of the other judges who were sent by God, that he might show the people in the most striking manner (1Sa 12:12) that they had no reason whatever for saying to him, “ Nay, but a king shall reign over us,” as soon as the Ammonites invaded Gilead. “ As Jehovah your God is your king,” i.e., has ever proved himself to be your King by sending judges to deliver you.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(7) Now therefore . . .Samuel proceeds in his painful work. See now, he says, we have advanced thus far in my solemn pleading. Stand up now, ye elders, while I proceed. My innocence, as your judge, you have thus borne witness to, before God and the king, yet in spite of this you have wished to be quit of me, and of One who stood high above meof One who has worked for you such mighty deeds, even the Eternal. See now, ye elders, what He has done for your fathers and for you, this invisible King, whom ye have just deliberately replaced by an earthly king.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. All the righteous acts of the Lord A remembrance of these would show them how ill-advised and impious it was to revolutionize their form of government, and establish a kingdom like that of the heathen nations. Jehovah had never failed them when they obeyed his word and cried unto him; why, then, should they desire a human king? For a fuller historical record of the several acts referred to, see the marginal references.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the Lord of all the righteous acts of the Lord, which he did to you and to your fathers.” 1Sa 12:7 .
Samuel now enters upon a difficult part of his vocation. The minister of Christ has to exercise a variety of functions: sometimes teaching, sometimes rebuking, sometimes comforting, sometimes reasoning and expostulating in a tone that may have in it, however subtly, somewhat of rebuke and judgment. The appeal which Samuel makes is a noble one. He is not going to smite the people with thunder and lightning, but to “reason” with them, to state the case in all its historical bearings, to sum up all the providence of God and ask them to make inferences from the great historical review. The appeal which religion makes to a man is the largest appeal that can be addressed to his understanding, to his memory, and to his imagination. The Lord does not rest his case on what was done today, or yesterday; he goes back to the beginning of time, to the dawn of memory, and he asks that all the way along which he has led the people may be viewed in its entirety and seen in its suggestive shape; then the people may answer whether the purpose of the Lord has been good or evil. Nothing is to be feared from a large and complete survey of providence. All the mischief arises from taking in too little field. We think of the affliction, and forget the comfort; we think of the bereavement, and forget how our very loss became a gain; we look at the grave where the body lies, and forget the heaven where the spirit sings. Every man should take in his whole life when he would estimate the nature of the government under which he lives. How did the man’s life begin, what were his early disadvantages, how were they overcome, how were they so transformed as to become actual advantages, how were gates opened for which there was no key? Let a man answer all these questions, and the whole crowd of inquiries to which they belong, and he will soon begin to see that there is a hand stronger than his own guiding the destiny of his life. A review of providence should become a great theological argument. Omit nothing from your purview; the very finest traces are needful to complete the picture; the palest tints are as necessary as the most vivid colours to effect thorough representation of the divine purpose. How many men have come to see that their losses have been the beginning of their profit! How many are able to realise that but for the tears they shed their sensibilities would have been less refined and less responsive to all the appeals of heaven! We are educated by the providence of God; not by this particular phase of it, or that transient act, which has scarcely remained long enough to be noticed, but by the totalising of the way; at the end we begin to see that God’s meaning was good from the first, that no weight has been too heavy, no cloud too dense, no bereavement too painful, but that everything has been meted out to us with that measure which wisdom alone could calculate and mercy alone dispense.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
1Sa 12:7 Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the LORD of all the righteous acts of the LORD, which he did to you and to your fathers.
Ver. 7. Now therefore stand still. ] Bustle not, bristle not, but suffer the words of reproof and admonition. A proud person would have replied, Who can stand still to have his eyes picked out? A headstrong horse casteth his rider, and riseth up against him.
That I may reason with you.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
reason: Isa 1:18, Isa 5:3, Isa 5:4, Eze 18:25-30, Mic 6:2, Mic 6:3, Act 17:3
righteous acts: Heb. righteousnesses or benefits, Jdg 5:11
to: Heb. with
Reciprocal: Num 16:16 – before Num 16:17 – General 1Sa 12:16 – stand 1Sa 15:16 – Stay 2Ki 17:13 – all Act 17:2 – reasoned Act 24:25 – he 1Pe 3:15 – a reason
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 12:7. Now, therefore, stand still Having obtained an honourable testimony from them as to his own conduct, he would not dismiss them till he had represented to them the great benefits which they had received from God, and their ingratitude to him. Of all the righteous acts of the Lord Hebrews the righteousnesses; that is, mercies or benefits, the chief subject of the following discourse; some of their calamities being but briefly named, and that for the illustration of Gods mercy in their deliverances.