Back to 1 Samuel 12

1 Samuel 12:20-25

Samuel said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. You have indeed done all this evil; yet don’t turn away from following Yahweh, but serve Yahweh with all your heart. Don’t turn away to go after vain things which can’t profit or deliver, for they are vain. For Yahweh will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased Yahweh to make you a people for himself. Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against Yahweh in ceasing to pray for you: but I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only fear Yahweh, and serve him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you. But if you keep doing evil, you will be consumed, both you and your king.”

World English Bible · Public Domain

Read all of 1 Samuel 12 →

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    Samuel said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. You have indeed done all this evil; yet don’t turn away from following Yahweh, but serve Yahweh with all your heart.

    Don’t turn away to go after vain things which can’t profit or deliver, for they are vain.

    For Yahweh will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased Yahweh to make you a people for himself.

    Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against Yahweh in ceasing to pray for you: but I will instruct you in the good and the right way.

    Only fear Yahweh, and serve him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you.

    But if you keep doing evil, you will be consumed, both you and your king.”

  • KJV King James Version

    And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart;

    And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.

    For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.

    Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way:

    Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you.

    But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.

Show all 3 translations
  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    And Samuel said unto the people: 'Fear not; ye have indeed done all this evil; yet turn not aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart;

    and turn ye not aside; for then should ye go after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain.

    For the LORD will not forsake His people for His great name's sake; because it hath pleased the LORD to make you a people unto Himself.

    Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and the right way.

    Only fear the LORD, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider how great things He hath done for you.

    But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be swept away, both ye and your king.'

View more translations →

Examined in Scripture Analysis

Contradictions (1)

Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.

  • Should we fear God?

Explore Contradictions →

Cross-references (96)

  • Deuteronomy 10:21 (v24) He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen.
  • Colossians 1:9 (v23) For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the…
  • Romans 1:9 (v23) For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the Good News of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers,
  • 2 Timothy 1:3 (v23) I thank God, whom I serve as my forefathers did, with a pure conscience. How unceasing is my memory of you in my petitions, night and day
  • Proverbs 1:7 (v24) The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.
Show all 95 cross-references
  • 1 Thessalonians 3:10 (v23) night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face, and may perfect that which is lacking in your faith?
  • Psalms 126:2-3 (v24) Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, “Yahweh has done great things for…
  • Isaiah 5:12 (v24) The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts; but they don’t respect the work of Yahweh, neither have they…
  • Hebrews 12:29 (v24) for our God is a consuming fire.
  • 1 Kings 8:36 (v23) then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should…
  • Psalms 111:10 (v24) The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. All those who do his work have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!
  • Ecclesiastes 12:13 (v24) This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.
  • Deuteronomy 14:2 (v22) For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God, and Yahweh has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on…
  • Acts 12:5 (v23) Peter therefore was kept in the prison, but constant prayer was made by the assembly to God for him.
  • Deuteronomy 7:7-8 (v22) Yahweh didn’t set his love on you nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples;…
  • Psalms 34:11 (v23) Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of Yahweh.
  • Psalms 106:8 (v22) Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power known.
  • Philippians 1:6 (v22) being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
  • Exodus 12:13 (v24) The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will be on you…
  • 1 Kings 6:13 (v22) I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.”
  • Psalms 119:80 (v24) Let my heart be blameless toward your decrees, that I may not be disappointed.
  • Jeremiah 6:16 (v23) Yahweh says, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest for…
  • Jeremiah 14:21 (v22) Do not abhor us, for your name’s sake. Do not disgrace the throne of your glory. Remember, and don’t break your covenant with us.
  • Romans 11:29 (v22) For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
  • Joshua 7:9 (v22) For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. What…
  • Joshua 24:20 (v25) If you forsake Yahweh, and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and consume you, after he has done you good.”
  • 2 Chronicles 6:27 (v23) then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants of your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should…
  • Job 28:28 (v24) To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’ ”
  • Psalms 94:14 (v22) For Yahweh won’t reject his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.
  • Habakkuk 2:18 (v21) “What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions…
  • Colossians 1:28 (v23) We proclaim him, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus;
  • Deuteronomy 11:16 (vv20–21) Be careful, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn away to serve other gods and worship them;
  • Proverbs 4:11 (v23) I have taught you in the way of wisdom. I have led you in straight paths.
  • Ecclesiastes 12:10 (v23) The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words, and that which was written blamelessly, words of truth.
  • Isaiah 43:25 (v22) I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.
  • Jeremiah 10:15 (v21) They are vanity, a work of delusion. In the time of their visitation they will perish.
  • Jeremiah 16:19 (v21) Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth,…
  • Lamentations 3:31-32 (v22) For the Lord will not cast off forever. For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving…
  • Ezekiel 20:9 (v22) But I worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, among which they were, in whose sight I made…
  • Ezekiel 20:14 (v22) But I worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out.
  • Acts 20:20 (v23) how I didn’t shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, teaching you publicly and from house to house,
  • Romans 12:1 (v24) Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your…
  • Ephesians 1:12 (v22) to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ.
  • 1 Samuel 31:1-5 (v25) Now the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa. The…
  • Jeremiah 14:22 (v21) Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the sky give showers? Aren’t you he, Yahweh our God? Therefore…
  • Hosea 10:3 (v25) Surely now they will say, “We have no king; for we don’t fear Yahweh; and the king, what can he do for us?”
  • Matthew 11:26 (v22) Yes, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in your sight.
  • John 1:47 (v24) Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and said about him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”
  • 1 Peter 2:9 (v22) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of…
  • Exodus 32:12 (v22) Why should the Egyptians talk, saying, ‘He brought them out for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface…
  • Deuteronomy 28:36 (v25) Yahweh will bring you, and your king whom you will set over yourselves, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers. There…
  • Joshua 23:6 (v20) “Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that you not turn away from it to the…
  • 2 Chronicles 15:2 (v22) and he went out to meet Asa, and said to him, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin! Yahweh is with you, while you are with him; and if…
  • Psalms 101:3 (v20) I will set no vile thing before my eyes. I hate the deeds of faithless men. They will not cling to me.
  • Psalms 125:5 (v20) But as for those who turn away to their crooked ways, Yahweh will lead them away with the workers of iniquity. Peace be on Israel.
  • Isaiah 3:11 (v25) Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them; for the deeds of his hands will be paid back to him.
  • Isaiah 44:9-10 (v21) Everyone who makes a carved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that…
  • Isaiah 45:20 (v21) “Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of…
  • Isaiah 46:7 (v21) They bear it on their shoulder. They carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands there. It cannot move from its place. Yes, one may…
  • Jeremiah 2:13 (v21) “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken…
  • Jeremiah 33:24-26 (v22) “Don’t consider what this people has spoken, saying, ‘Has Yahweh cast off the two families which he chose?’ Thus they despise my people,…
  • Jonah 2:8 (v21) Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
  • 1 Corinthians 4:7 (v22) For who makes you different? And what do you have that you didn’t receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not…
  • 1 Corinthians 8:4 (v21) Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other…
  • Exodus 19:5-6 (v22) Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all…
  • Exodus 20:19-20 (v20) They said to Moses, “Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don’t let God speak with us, lest we die.” Moses said to the people,…
  • Numbers 14:13-19 (v22) Moses said to Yahweh, “Then the Egyptians will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from among them. They will tell it to…
  • Deuteronomy 9:5 (v22) Not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations…
  • Deuteronomy 31:17 (v22) Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be…
  • Deuteronomy 31:29 (v20) For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn away from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will…
  • Deuteronomy 32:15-44 (v25) But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and…
  • Deuteronomy 32:21 (v21) They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy…
  • Deuteronomy 32:26-27 (v22) I said that I would scatter them afar. I would make their memory to cease from among men; were it not that I feared the provocation of the…
  • 2 Kings 21:14 (v22) I will cast off the remnant of my inheritance, and deliver them into the hands of their enemies. They will become a prey and a plunder to…
  • 1 Chronicles 28:9 (v22) You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Yahweh searches all…
  • Psalms 115:4-8 (v21) Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they don’t speak. They have eyes, but they don’t see. They…
  • Isaiah 37:35 (v22) ‘For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.’ ”
  • Isaiah 41:17 (v22) The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. Their tongue fails for thirst. I, Yahweh, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will…
  • Isaiah 41:23-24 (v21) Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and…
  • Isaiah 41:29 (v21) Behold, all of their deeds are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.
  • Isaiah 42:16 (v22) I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know. I will lead them in paths that they don’t know. I will make darkness light before…
  • Isaiah 48:11 (v22) For my own sake, for my own sake, I will do it; for how would my name be profaned? I will not give my glory to another.
  • Jeremiah 2:5 (v21) Yahweh says, “What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after worthless vanity,…
  • Jeremiah 3:1 (v20) “They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, should he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that…
  • Jeremiah 10:8 (v21) But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood.
  • Jeremiah 14:7 (v22) Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name’s sake, Yahweh; for our rebellions are many. We have sinned against you.
  • Lamentations 5:20 (v22) Why do you forget us forever, and forsake us for so long a time?
  • Malachi 1:2 (v22) “I have loved you,” says Yahweh. Yet you say, “How have you loved us?” “Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” says Yahweh, “Yet I loved Jacob;
  • John 15:16 (v22) You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that…
  • Romans 9:13-18 (v22) Even as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be! For…
  • Ephesians 1:6 (v22) to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved,
  • 1 Peter 3:16 (v20) having a good conscience. Thus, while you are spoken against as evildoers, they may be disappointed who curse your good way of life in…
  • Ezra 9:13-14 (v24) “After all that has come on us for our evil deeds, and for our great guilt, since you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities…
  • Psalms 40:4 (v20) Blessed is the man who makes Yahweh his trust, and doesn’t respect the proud, nor such as turn away to lies.
  • Hebrews 13:5 (v22) Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any…

95 distinct cross-references across this passage (96 total citations).

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

Explain this passage (16 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv20, 22, 24 He showeth that there is no sin so great,…

He showeth that there is no sin so great, but it shall be forgiven, if the sinner turn again to God.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.

John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv20–25 1Sa 12:20 And Samuel said unto the people, Fear…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv20–24 Fear not, to wit, with a servile and desponding…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv20–25 And Samuel said unto the people, fear not,.... Being…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv20, 21, 22, 24 Fear not - With a desponding fear, as if…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv20–25 Verse 20. Ye have done all this wickedness] That…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv22, 24 1Sa 12:22. His name’s sake — That is, for…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv20, 21, 22, 23, 25 Following, as that would imply despair. To come boldly…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv20, 22, 23, 25 20. Fear not — Do not yield yourselves to…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv21, 22, 24 21. for then should ye go after vain things]…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv20–23 (20) Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness.—A…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv20–24 Ye have done all this wickedness. The ye is…
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv20–25 And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v24 (See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv22, 24 For the sake of his great name
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv21, 22, 23, 25 12:21 worthless . . . totally useless: Israel was…
Share