1-Samuel - 12:22



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

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of 1-Samuel 12:22.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
And the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake: because the Lord hath sworn to make you his people.
For Jehovah will not cast away his people for his great name's sake; because it has pleased Jehovah to make you his people.
for Jehovah doth not leave His people, on account of His great name; for Jehovah hath been pleased to make you to Him for a people.
For the Lord will not give his people up, because of the honour of his name; for it was the Lord's pleasure to make of you a people for himself.
And the Lord will not abandon his people, because of his great name. For the Lord has sworn to make you his people.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

The Lord will not forsake his people - He will not as yet cast you off, though you have deserved it. His purpose in preserving them in their land and religion was not yet accomplished. It was not however for their sake that he would not cast them off, but for his own great name's sake. He drew his reasons from himself.

For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name's sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you (n) his people.
(n) Of his free mercy, and not of your merits, and therefore he will not forsake you.

For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake. For the sake of himself, his honour and glory; should he forsake his people, and suffer them to come to ruin, his name would be blasphemed among the Heathens; he would be charged either with want of power to help them, or with want of faithfulness to his promise to them, and with inconstancy to himself, or want of kindness and affection for them; all which would reflect upon his honour and glory:
because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people; it was not owing to any worth or worthiness in them that they became his people, but to his own sovereign good will and pleasure; and therefore, as it was nothing in them that was the cause of their being taken by him for his people, so nothing in them could be the cause of their being rejected by him as such; it was of free grace and favour that they were taken into covenant with him, and by the same would be retained: the Vulgate Latin version is,"the Lord hath sworn to make you a people for himself;''so Jarchi interprets it, he swore, and takes it to have the same sense as in 1-Samuel 14:24.

"For (כּי gives the reason for the main thought of the previous verse, 'Fear not, but serve the Lord,' etc.) the Lord will not forsake His people for His great name's sake; for it hath pleased the Lord (for הואיל, see at Deuteronomy 1:5) to make you His people." The emphasis lies upon His. This the Israelites could only be, when they proved themselves to be the people of God, by serving Jehovah with all their heart. "For His great name's sake," i.e., for the great name which He had acquired in the sight of all the nations, by the marvellous guidance of Israel thus far, to preserve it against misapprehension and blasphemy (see at Joshua 7:9).

His name's sake - That is, for his own honour, which would suffer much among men, if he should not preserve and deliver his people in eminent dangers. And this reason God alledgeth to take them off from all conceit of their own merit; and to assure them, that if they did truly repent of all their sins, and serve God with all their heart; yet even in that case their salvation would not be due to their merits; but the effect of God's free mercy. To make - Out of his own free grace, without any desert of yours, and therefore he will not forsake you, except you thrust him away.

*More commentary available at chapter level.


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