1 Samuel 12:10

10 "¹They cried out to the LORD and said, 'We have sinned because we have forsaken the LORD and have served ²the Baals and the Ashtaroth; but ³now deliver us from the hands of our enemies, and we will serve You.'

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 "When Jacob went into Egypt and your fathers cried out to the LORD , then the LORD sent Moses and Aaron who brought your fathers out of Egypt and settled them in this place.

9 "But they forgot the LORD their God, so He sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the army of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them.

10 "They cried out to the LORD and said, 'We have sinned because we have forsaken the LORD and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth; but now deliver us from the hands of our enemies, and we will serve You.'

11 "Then the LORD sent Jerubbaal and Bedan and Jephthah and Samuel, and delivered you from the hands of your enemies all around, so that you lived in security.

12 "When you saw that Nahash the king of the sons of Ammon came against you, you said to me, 'No, but a king shall reign over us,' although the LORD your God was your king.

Cross References

• 1. Judges 10:10
• 2. Judges 2:13; Judges 3:7
• 3. Judges 10:15, 16