to fear · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD
יְהוָ֖הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
Samuel
שְׁמוּאֵֽלshe.mu.'El
H8050
Shemuel · proper noun, a man's name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 14:31 And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant…
Exodus 9:23-25 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD ra…
Ezra 10:9 Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentie…
Psalms 106:12-13 Then believed they his words; they sang his praise.
Revelation 11:5-6 And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in th…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 12:16–end
Two things Samuel here aims at: -
I. To convince the people of their sin in desiring a king. They were now rejoicing before God in and with their king (Sa1 11:15), and offering to God the sacrifices of praise, which they hoped God would accept; and this perhaps made them think that there was no harm in their asking a king, but really they had done well in it. Therefore Samuel here charges it upon them as their sin, as wickedness, great wickedness in the sight of the Lord. Note, Though we meet with prosperity and success in a way of sin, yet we must not therefore think the more favourably of it. They have a king, and if they conduct themselves well their king may be a very great blessing to…
HE TERRIFIES THEM WITH THUNDER IN HARVEST-TIME. (Sa1 12:17-25)
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 it as an attestation of his words being true. The people regarded it as a miraculous display of divine power, and, panic-struck, implored the prophet to pray for them. Promising to do…
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.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 12:18
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. Josephus says (p) he sent thunder, lightning, and hail, a terrible storm and tempest it was:
and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel; the Lord that sent this tempest, and Samuel who had such power with God in prayer. Clement of Alexandria (q) thinks that from hence the Greeks borrowed their fable concerning Aeacus invoking God, when there was a drought…
The Church Fathers
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." 10. If we bring this down to our own times, in order that the people may come to the knowledge of their sins, preachers cry out to God on their behalf, because they seek the salvation of the faithful with great desires. For preachers to cry out is to petition for the salvation of the elect with great devotion. At their cry the Lord gives His voice, because He stirs the hearts of sinners so that they may recognize the wickedness of their depravity. He gives rains, because He aids their stirred hearts through the infusion of heavenly grace, so that each one may not only abandon the evil deeds he has committed, but also courageously perform the good works he desires. But this is said to happen on the day of the wheat harvest, so that the power of the miracle may be indicated. The transformation of the heart is indeed no less a miracle than the disturbance of the air. It is no less a miracle for parched hearts to come back to life than for rains to flood down in an unusual manner during the heat of summer. It is surely a greater miracle to shake an insensible mind with an inward thunder than for thunder to resound when clouds collide in the wind. But the right order of conversion is shown in the ordered arrangement of the words. For he says: "The Lord gave thunder and rain, and all the people feared the Lord and Samuel exceedingly." In the most orderly conversion, when evil is abandoned, good is propagated in the mind; when the converted mind nourishes good seed as if through rain, it submits itself to God and to men through the virtue of obedience. Rightly, therefore, it is said: "All the people feared the Lord and Samuel," because whoever receives the coming of the Supreme Spirit both abandons evil and lays hold of good, and is so subjected to God that for God's sake he also submits himself to men. And because they have no presumption in this very virtue of obedience, they say: "Pray for your servants to the Lord, that we may not die." When the spirit of life pours itself into the mind, it immediately raises…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Thunder — Often referred to in Scripture (Job 40:9; Ps. 77:18; 104:7). James and John were called by our Lord “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17). In Job 39:19, instead of “thunder,” as in the Authorized Version,…
Harvest, The · Miraculous thunder, & c in — Miraculous thunder, & c in
Kings · Sin of Israel in seeking — Sin of Israel in seeking
Miracles Wrought Through Servants Of God · Samuel: Thunder and rain in harvest — Samuel: Thunder and rain in harvest
Rain · .By Samuel — .By Samuel
Thunder · A sign of divine anger — A sign of divine anger
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
This miracle therefore inspired the people with a salutary terror. "All the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel," and entreated the prophet, "Pray for thy servants to the Lord thy God, that we die not, because we have added to all our sins the evil thing, to ask us a king."
Tyndale Open Study Notes on 1 Samuel 12:18
terrified: Cp. Exod 19:16.
Rashi on 1 Samuel 12:17
Is today not the [season of the] wheat harvest? And rain is a sign of a curse,11 Maseches Ta’anis 12b. and the Holy One, Blessed is He, is reluctant to visit punishment unnecessarily. Nonetheless, I have power, and I shall call to 'ה, and He will make it thunder and rain.
Then you will know and see. That it was unnecessary for you to ask for a king and to show disrespect towards me.
