1 Samuel 12:10

10 And after this your fathers cried to the Lord, and said, We have sinned, for we forsook the Lord, and served (the) Baalim and (the) Ashtaroth; now therefore deliver thou us from the hand of our enemies, and we shall serve thee.

1 Samuel 12:10 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 12:10

And they cried unto the Lord
When in the hands of their enemies, and in bondage to them, and cruelly oppressed by them:

and said, we have sinned;
the word for "said" is in the Cetib, or written text, singular, and in the Keri, or marginal reading, plural; and may signify, that everyone of them had a sense of their sin, and made acknowledgment of it; their confession was universal, as their sin was:

because we have forsaken the Lord;
the Word of the Lord, as the Targum:

and have served Baalim and Ashtaroth; (See Gill on Judges 2:11), (See Gill on Judges 2:13).

but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve
thee;
they did not ask for a king to go before them, and fight their battles, as they did now, but applied to the Lord for deliverance, promising to serve him as their King and their God.

1 Samuel 12:10 In-Context

8 How that Jacob entered into Egypt, and your fathers cried to the Lord; and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, and led your fathers out of Egypt, and hath set them in this place.

9 Which forgat their Lord God; and he betook them into the hand of Sisera, master of the chivalry of Hazor, and in the hand of Philistines, and in the hand of the king of Moab; and they fought against them. (Who then forgot the Lord their God; and he delivered them into the hands of Sisera, the master of Hazor's cavalry, or his army, and into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the king of Moab; and they fought against them.)

10 And after this your fathers cried to the Lord, and said, We have sinned, for we forsook the Lord, and served (the) Baalim and (the) Ashtaroth; now therefore deliver thou us from the hand of our enemies, and we shall serve thee.

11 And the Lord sent Jerubbaal, that is Gideon, and Bedan, that is, Samson, and Barak, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you from the hand of your enemies by compass, (or all about); and then ye dwelled securely.

12 And ye saw, that Nahash, the king of the sons of Ammon, came against you; and ye said to me, counselling you to ask none other king than God, Nay, but a king shall command to us; when your Lord God reigned in you. (And then ye saw, that Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, came against you; and ye said to me, when I counselled you to ask for no other king than God, Nay, but a king shall command us; when the Lord your God then reigned over you.)