1 Samuel 12:8

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.

When Jacob was come into Egypt,.... With his family to see his son Joseph, and dwelt there; or rather the posterity of Jacob are meant, who settled in Egypt, and continued there many years, and at length were oppressed by the Egyptians, and brought into hard bondage: and your fathers cried unto the Lord; by reason of their bondage, for help and deliverance: then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, which brought forth your fathers out of Egypt; after various messages carried by them from the Lord to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and after many signs and wonders wrought by them, by which the heart of that king was at last brought to consent to their dismission: and made them dwell in this place; the land of Canaan; they conducted them through the Red sea, guided them through the wilderness, and accompanied them, especially Moses, to the borders of the land of Canaan; for neither of them went into it, but died before the people's entrance there.

Joshua, the successor of Moses, of whom Samuel makes no mention, introduced Israel into it, conquered the land for them, and settled them in it; though Moses and Aaron, as they were the instruments of bringing them out of Egypt, were the cause, by conducting them through the wilderness, and by their prayers, counsels, and instructions, of their entrance into and settlement in it: besides, Moses appointed Joshua in his stead, and ordered him to lead the people there, and directed to the division of the land among them, yea, two tribes and an half were settled by him on the other side Jordan; the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, read in the singular number, "he made them dwell, that is, the Lord".

1 Samuel 12:8 . Made them dwell in this place — In this land: in which Moses and Aaron are said to settle them; because they brought them into, and seated them in part of it, that without Jordan; because they were, under God, the principal authors of their entering into the land of Canaan; inasmuch as they brought them out of Egypt, conducted them through the wilderness, and there, by their prayers to God, and counsels to them, preserved them from ruin, and gave command from God for the distribution of the land among them, and encouraged them to enter into it. And, lastly, Moses substituted Joshua in his stead, and commanded him to seat them there, which he did.

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 ).

(8) When Jacob was come into Egypt. —Now, in order, Samuel rehearses the deeds of loving-kindness done for Israel by this Eternal King. And first he mentions the wonders of the Exodus, and how, under that Divine guidance, they were guided through so many dangers safe into the land of Canaan, this place.

In this land; in which Moses and Aaron are said to settle them; partly, because they brought them into and seated them in part of it, to wit, that without Jordan; partly, because they were, under God, the principal authors of their entering into the land of Canaan; inasmuch as they brought them out of Egypt, conducted them through the wilderness, and there by their prayers to God, and counsel to them, preserved them from utter ruin, and gave command and direction from God for the distribution of the land among them, and encouraged them to enter into it by promises and assurances of success; and lastly, Moses substituted Joshua in his stead, and commanded him to carry them thither, and seat them there, which also he did.

7-16. Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you—The burden of this faithful and uncompromising address was to show them, that though they had obtained 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 principles of the theocracy, they might be delivered from many of the evils to which the new state of things would expose them. And in confirmation of those statements, no less than in evidence of the divine displeasure, a remarkable phenomenon, on the invocation of the prophet, and of which he gave due premonition, took place.

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 1 Samuel 12:9 : (1) that by Sisera, the commander-in-chief of Hazor, i.e., that of the Canaanitish king Jabin of Hazor ( Judges 4:2 .); (2) that of the Philistines, by which we are to understand not so much the hostilities of that nation described in Judges 3:31 , as the forty years' oppression mentioned in Judges 10:2 and Judges 13:1 ; and (3) the Moabitish oppression under Eglon ( Judges 3:12 .). The first half of Judges 13:10 agrees almost word for word with Judges 10:10 , except that, according to Judges 10:6 , the Ashtaroth are added to the Baalim (see at 1 Samuel 7:4 and Judges 2:13 ). Of the judges whom God sent to the people as deliverers, the following are named, viz., Jerubbaal (see at Judges 6:32 ), i.e., Gideon ( Judges 6 ), and Bedan, and Jephthah (see Judges 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 1 Chronicles 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 ( Judges 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 Hebrews 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.