1 Samuel 12:18
in 1 Samuel 12So Samuel called to the LORD, and on that day the LORD sent thunder and rain. As a result, all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
So Samuel called unto Jehovah; and Jehovah sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared Jehovah and Samuel.
KJV
So Samuel called unto the Lord; and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.
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This verse in 1 Samuel 12
Commentary
10 notes on this verseAs a matter of fact, the works Moses did, Samuel did too. Moses resisted God and prevented him from destroying his people when God said to him, "Let me alone, that I may strike this people." Just see the power of Moses! What does God say to him? Let me alone; you are compelling me, your prayers, as it were, restrain me; your prayers hold back my hand. I shoot an arrow; I hurl a javelin; and your prayers are the shield of the people. Let me alone that I might strike down this people.
This site's exposition
stand and see this great thing that the LORD will do before your eyes
on 1 Samuel 12:16-19
Wheat harvest falls in the dry season, when rain almost never comes, so Samuel’s call for thunder and rain names a sign the calendar makes unlikely. The storm comes that day, and the people confess "the evil of asking for a king" as a sin added to all their sins. The sign marks the request as sin without withdrawing the king God had granted through it.
This site's exposition
the LORD sent thunder and rain
John Gill notes that the Targum renders Samuel's call as prayer before the LORD. Thunder had routed the Philistines at his prayer in 7:10. Adam Clarke reads the people's fear of Samuel as awe at a man with such power with God.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
That mighty deed Samuel is said to have accomplished through prayer is something that everyone who genuinely relies on God can accomplish spiritually even now, since he has become worthy of being heard.… For every saint and genuine disciple of Jesus is told by the Lord, "Lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest. He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life." In this time of harvest the Lord does "a great thing" before the eyes of those who hear the prophets. For when the one adorned with the Holy Spirit calls to the Lord, God gives from heaven thunder and rain that waters the soul, so that he who once was in evil may stand in great awe of the Lord and his minister of goodness, manifested as venerable and august by the requests that are heard. And Elijah, who shut up heaven for the wicked for three and a half years, later opened it. This, too, is always accomplished for everyone who through prayer receives the rain of the soul, since the heavens were previously deprived of it because of his sin.
The Medieval Church1 voice
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistCommentary on 1 Kings, Book 5, Chapter 2 · Written before 604.
proposed
And it is well added subsequently: "Samuel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain on that day; and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And 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 this evil, that we should ask for ourselves a king."
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
So Samuel called unto the Lord,.... Not in an authoritative way, or by way of command, but by prayer; so the Targum renders the clause in the preceding verse,"I will pray before the Lord:" and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day; immediately, though there was no appearance of it; it was harvest time, and a fine harvest day.
But Samuel made it to appear that this was designed by the almighty power of God on purpose to convince them that they had done very wickedly in asking a king; not only by its coming in an unusual time, in wheat-harvest, and this on a fair clear day, when there appeared not to the eye any signs of a storm, but by his giving notice of it before.
By this thunder and rain, God shewed them their folly in desiring a king to save them, rather than God or Samuel, expecting more from an arm of flesh than from the arm of God, or from the power of prayer. Could their king thunder with a voice like God? Could their prince command such forces as the prophet could by his prayers?
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
The Lord sent thunder and rain that day - This was totally unusual; and, as it came at the call of Samuel, was a most evident miracle. Greatly feared the Lord - They dreaded His terrible majesty; and they feared Samuel, perceiving that he had so much power with God.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
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.
The words behind it
18 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיִּקְרָ֤א | vaiyikra' | and he called out | H7121 → | 733 times |
| שְׁמוּאֵל֙ | shemuel | Samuel | H8050 → | 141 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| יְהוָ֔ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| וַיִּתֵּ֧ן | vaiyiten | and he gave | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| יְהוָ֛ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| קֹלֹ֥ת | kolot | thunder claps | H6963 → | 506 times |
| וּמָטָ֖ר | umatar | and rain | H4306 → | |
| בַּיּ֣וֹם | baiyom | on the day | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| הַה֑וּא | hahu' | <the> that | H1931 → | 1879 times |
| וַיִּירָ֨א | vaiyira' | and it feared | H3372 → | 315 times |
| כָל־ | khol- | all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| הָעָ֥ם | haam | the people | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| מְאֹ֛ד | meod | exceedingly | H3966 → | 300 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| יְהוָ֖ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| וְאֶת־ | veet | and <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| שְׁמוּאֵֽל׃ | shemuel | Samuel | H8050 → | 141 times |
וַיִּקְרָ֤אand he called out
vaiyikra'H7121 →733 times
שְׁמוּאֵל֙Samuel
shemuelH8050 →141 times
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
יְהוָ֔הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
וַיִּתֵּ֧ןand he gave
vaiyitenH5414 →2011 times
יְהוָ֛הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
קֹלֹ֥תthunder claps
kolotH6963 →506 times
וּמָטָ֖רand rain
umatarH4306 →
בַּיּ֣וֹםon the day
baiyomH3117 →2304 times
הַה֑וּא<the> that
hahu'H1931 →1879 times
וַיִּירָ֨אand it feared
vaiyira'H3372 →315 times
כָל־all
khol-H3605 →5413 times
הָעָ֥םthe people
haamH5971 →1873 times
מְאֹ֛דexceedingly
meodH3966 →300 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
יְהוָ֖הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
וְאֶת־and <obj.>
veetH853 →10935 times
שְׁמוּאֵֽל׃Samuel
shemuelH8050 →141 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Exodus 14:31When Israel saw the great power that the LORD had exercised over the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and believed in Him and in His servant Moses.
it leads to
- John 2:11
Jesus performed this, the first of His signs, at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.
- John 11:45
Therefore many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in Him.
- John 2:23–25
While He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the signs He was doing and believed in His name.
- John 8:30–32
As Jesus spoke these things, many believed in Him.
- 2 Chronicles 20:20
Early in the morning they got up and left for the Wilderness of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood up and said, “Hear me, O people of Judah and Jerusalem. Believe in the…
- John 2:11
Through
Ezra 10:9So within the three days, all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled in Jerusalem, and on the twentieth day of the ninth month, all the people sat in the square at the house…
it leads to
- 1 Samuel 12:17–18
Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call on the LORD to send thunder and rain, so that you will know and see what a great evil you have committed in the…
- Ezra 7:8–9
Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king.
- Esther 2:16
She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal palace in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.
- 1 Samuel 12:17–18
About 1 Samuel
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Gregory the Dialogist, Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 5, Chapter 2; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 26 (PS 98); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, ON PRAYER 13.5.