1 Samuel 12:6

12:6-15 The work of ministers is to reason with people; not only to exhort and direct, but to persuade, to convince men's judgments, and so to gain their wills and affections. Samuel reasons of the righteous acts of the Lord. Those who follow God faithfully, he will enable to continue following him. Disobedience would certainly be the ruin of Israel. We mistake if we think that we can escape God's justice, by trying to shake off his dominion. If we resolve that God shall not rule us, yet he will judge us.

And Samuel said unto the people,.... Having cleared and established his own character, he proceeds to lay before the people some of the great things God had done for them formerly, and quite down to the present time, the more to aggravate their ingratitude in rejecting God as their King: it is the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron; raised them from a low estate, the one in a foreign country in Midian, the other in bondage in Egypt, to be deliverers, guides, and governors of his people Israel. Kimchi thinks this refers to what goes before, and that the sense is, that God, that raised Moses and Aaron to great honour and dignity, was a witness between him and the people; in which he is followed by some Christian interpreters. Ben Gersom makes mention of the same, but rather approves of the connection of the words with what follows, as does Abarbinel, and is doubtless most correct; the Targum is,"who hath done mighty things by the hands of Moses and Aaron:" and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt; when they were in bondage there, and that by the means of Moses and Aaron, by whose hands he wrought signs and wonders and inflicted plagues on the Egyptians, which made them willing at last to let Israel go.

Verse 6. - It is Jehovah that, etc. In the Hebrew Jehovah is put absolutely, without any government, and the Septuagint rightly supplies is witness. Samuel had said, "Jehovah is witness against you;" the people in answer shouted the last word, "Witness" (see end of ver. 5, where He is is supplied). Then Samuel solemnly repeats Jehovah s name, saying, "Even Jehovah that advanced Moses and Aaron." This rapid interchange of words brings the whole scene vividly before us, whereas nothing could be tamer than the A.V. Out of the land of Egypt. Samuel begins with this as the first act of Jehovah as Israel's King; for the theocracy began with the deliverance from Egypt. 1 Samuel 12:6

6 . It is the Lord ] Or, Yea Jehovah [is witness]. This verse forms the transition to what follows. Samuel proceeds to identify Jehovah, to whom they were now appealing as witness, with the God who brought their fathers out of the bondage of Egypt. advanced ] Appointed. Lit. made , cp. Hebrews 3:2 .

Advanced - In the sense of appointing them to their office. It is, literally, "made" (see the margin; 1 Kings 12:31 ; Hebrews 3:2 ). Samuel's purpose is to impress the people with the conviction that Yahweh was their God, and the God of their fathers; that to Him they owed their national existence and all their national blessings, and that faithfulness to Him, to the exclusion of all other worship 1 Samuel 12:21 was the only safety of the newly-established monarchy. Observe the constant reference to the Exodus as the well-known turning-point of their national life (see 1 Samuel 4:8 ; 1 Samuel 6:6 ).

(6) It is the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron. —The Hebrew should be rendered, “even the Eternal that advanced Moses and Aaron.” The elders of Israel ( 1Samuel 12:5 ) had with one consent cried out, in reply to Samuel’s solemn calling God and the king to witness, He is witness. Then Samuel takes up their words with great emphasis, even the Eternal that advanced Moses, &c. The English rendering greatly weakens the dramatic force of the original Hebrew. The LXX. has caught accurately the thought by supplying the word “witness “: thus, The Lord is witness, &c. The Exodus is mentioned in this and in many places in these ancient records of the people as the great call of love by which the Eternal assumed the sovereignty over Israel. The Talmud here comments: “It is the Lord that made Moses and Aaron” (1Samuel 12:6); and it is said (1Samuel 12:11), “And the Lord sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel.” Scripture balances in the same scale the three least important with the three most important personages, in order to teach thee that Jerrubbaal in his generation was like Moses in his, Bedan (said to be Samson) like Aaron, and Jephthah like Samuel. Hence the most insignificant man, if appointed a ruler of the congregation, has the same authority as the most important personage.—Treatise Rosh-Hashanah, fol. 25, Colossians 2.

But in order to bring the people to a still more thorough acknowledgment of their sin, Samuel strengthened still more their assent to his solemn appeal to God, as expressed in the words "He is witness," by saying, "Jehovah (i.e., yea, the witness is Jehovah), who made Moses and Aaron, and brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt." The context itself is sufficient to show that the expression "is witness" is understood; and there is no reason, therefore, to assume that the word has dropped out of the text through a copyist's error. עשׂה, to make, in a moral and historical sense, i.e., to make a person what he is to be; it has no connection, therefore, with his physical birth, but simply relates to his introduction upon the stage of history, like ποιεῖν, Hebrews 3:2 . But if Jehovah, who redeemed Israel out of Egypt by the hands of Moses and Aaron, and exalted it into His own nation, was witness of the unselfishness and impartiality of Samuel's conduct in his office of judge, then Israel had grievously sinned by demanding a king. In the person of Samuel they had rejected Jehovah their God, who had given them their rulers (see 1 Samuel 8:7 ). Samuel proves this still further to the people from the following history.

[Bible] 12:1. And Samuel said to all Israel: Behold I have hearkened to your voice in all that you said to me, and have made a king over you. 12:2. And now the king goeth before you: but I am old and greyheaded: and my sons are with you: having then conversed with you from my youth until this day, behold here I am. 12:3. Speak of me before the Lord, and before his anointed, whether I have taken any man's ox, or ass: if I have wronged any man, if I have oppressed any man, if I have taken a bribe at any man's hand: and I will despise it this day, and will restore it to you. 12:4. And they said: Thou hast not wronged us, nor oppressed us, nor taken ought at any man's hand. 12:5. And he said to them: The Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found any thing in my hand. And they said: He is witness. 12:6. And Samuel said to the people: It is the Lord who made Moses and Aaron, and brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt. 12:7. Now, therefore, stand up, that I may plead in judgment against you before the Lord, concerning all the kindness of the Lord, which he hath shewn to you, and to your fathers: 12:8. How Jacob went into Egypt, and your fathers cried to the Lord: and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, and brought your fathers out of Egypt, and made them dwell in this place. 12:9. And they forgot the Lord their God, and he delivered them into the hands of Sisara, captain of the army of Hasor, and into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them. 12:10 But afterwards they cried to the Lord, and said: We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord, and have served Baalim and Astaroth: but now deliver us from the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee. 12:11. And the Lord sent Jerobaal, and Badan, and Jephte, and Samuel, and delivered you from the hand of your enemies round about, and you dwelt securely.

I will take shame to myself, and cover my face as one ashamed to look upon him. 1 Samuel 12:4 No text from Poole on this verse. ## 1 Samuel 12:5 The Lord is witness against you, to wit, if you shall at any time hereafter reproach my government or memory. Or rather, against you, that I gave you no cause to be weary of God’s government of you by judges, or to desire a change of the government; and thereby the blame of it wholly rests upon yourselves. But this was only insinuated, and therefore the people did not fully understand his drift in it. ## Ye have not found ought, i.e. any thing which I have gotten by bribery or oppression. ## They answered, Heb. he answered , i.e. the whole people, who are here spoken of as one person, because they answered thus with one consent. 1 Samuel 12:6 That for your sakes raised, constituted, and exalted Moses and Aaron to that great power and reputation which they had, and used, to deliver you. ## 1 Samuel 12:7 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 God’s mercy in their deliverances.