Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
Chapter 12. Synopsis of the Chapter
Samuel asks of the people a testimony to his justly and holily conducted rule, verse 3; recalling the benefits of God toward the people and the ingratitude of the people, he gravely adjures them to serve God alone, otherwise they shall experience the vengeance of God; in sign of which he draws forth by thunder the voice of God as it were from heaven confirming his words, verse 18. In this chapter, therefore, the people approve the innocence of Samuel, hear his wisdom, see his patience, and admire his power.
1. And Samuel said to all Israel: Behold I have hearkened to your voice in all things which you have said to me, and have made a king over you. 2. And now the king walketh before you: but I am old and grey headed: and my sons are with you: and having conversed with you from my youth until this day, behold here I am. 3. Speak of me before the Lord, and before his anointed, whether I have taken any man’s ox, or ass: if I have wronged any man, if I have oppressed any man, if I have taken a bribe at any man’s hand: and I will despise it this day, and will restore it to you. 4. And they said: Thou hast not wronged us, nor oppressed us, nor taken ought at any man’s hand. 5. And he said to them: The Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found any thing in my hand. And they said: He is witness. 6. And Samuel said to the people: It is the Lord who made Moses and Aaron, and brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt. 7. Now therefore stand up, that I may plead in judgment against you before the Lord concerning all the kindnesses of the Lord, which he hath shewn to you and to your fathers: 8. How Jacob went into Egypt, and your fathers cried to the Lord: and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, and brought your fathers out of Egypt, and made them dwell in this place. 9. And they forgot the Lord their God, and he delivered them into the hand of Sisara, the captain of the army of Hasor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them. 10. And afterwards they cried to the Lord, and said: We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord, and have served Baalim and Astaroth: deliver us now out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee. 11. And the Lord sent Jerobaal, and Badan, and Jephte, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies round about, and you dwelt secure. 12. But seeing that Naas the king of the children of Ammon was come against you, you said to me: Nay, but a king shall reign over us: whereas the Lord your God was your king. 13. Now therefore your king is here, whom you have chosen and desired: behold the Lord hath given you a king. 14. If you will fear the Lord, and serve him, and hearken to his voice, and not provoke the mouth of the Lord: both you, and the king that reigneth over you, will follow the Lord your God: 15. But if you will not hearken to the voice of the Lord, but will rebel against his words, the hand of the Lord shall be upon you, and upon your fathers. 16. Now therefore stand and see this great thing, which the Lord will do in your sight. 17. Is it not now wheat harvest? I will call upon the Lord, and he will send thunder and rain: and you shall know and see that you have done great evil to yourselves in the sight of the Lord, in asking for yourselves a king. 18. And Samuel cried to the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain in that day. 19. And all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel, and all the people said to Samuel: Pray for thy servants to the Lord thy God, that we may not die; for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for us a king. 20. And Samuel said to the people: Fear not; you have done all this evil: but yet depart not from the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. 21. And turn not aside after vain things which shall not profit you, nor deliver you, for they are vain. 22. And the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people. 23. And far be it from me, that I should sin against the Lord, and cease to pray for you: and I will teach you the good and right way. 24. Therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in truth, and with your whole heart: for you have seen the great works which he hath done among you. 25. But if you will still do wickedly, both you and your king shall perish together.
2. THE KING WALKETH BEFORE YOU.—The Chaldee: Behold the king leader at your head. For this the people had asked, chap. 8, verse 20. Again Samuel here as it were resigns the headship, as if to say: I have discharged my office, I have given you the king you asked, Saul; he therefore henceforth shall be your king, leader and prince. Whence presently, verse 3, Samuel before Saul renders to all the people an account of his administration, as those are wont to do who leave office or resign it; in which he both showed reverence and obedience to Saul, and displayed his own integrity; while he submitted himself to the judgment of Saul and of all the people, if anyone had anything against him, says Cajetan.
I AM OLD AND GREY HEADED; AND MY SONS ARE WITH YOU,—that when I am dead, they may make good and repair from my goods the injury or damage, if I have inflicted any on any of you; provided the injured man now openly declares it and convicts me of it. So Lyranus. Second, Dionysius, as if to say: I depart, but my sons in my place, if there shall be need in any matter, will serve you and the new king. Third, Mendoza, as if to say: “My sons are with you. You know them excellently; and from them you will easily inquire into my life whether I have fostered their wickedness, or helped it, or incited them by any patronage to the exercise of injustice. Wherefore since this inquiry is easy, let us all, I pray, come together to this judgment.”
From “I am old and grey headed,” it is clear that Samuel at this time was very old: namely about sixty years, so that, born in the second year of Heli, who presided 40 years, when he succeeded him dying he was 38 years old, and then presided 22 years over Israel.
For thus these years being added will make up the sixty years of his old age, which in him came earlier and heavier, on account of the assiduous labors which he had undergone in judging. You will say: How then does Samuel add: “Having conversed with you from my youth”? for he who is 38 years old is not a youth but a man. I answer: Samuel, while Heli was still living, when he was younger, administered many things in place of Heli, who was now aged; for God exercised him through Heli, that he might become fit to be his successor: for to this he himself destined him.
3. BEFORE HIS ANOINTED,—that is, before Saul, who is the Christ, that is, the anointed of God, because God created him king through me, and anointed him. Samuel therefore declares his integrity before Saul and before God, for the example of Saul and the people, that they may imitate it; at the same time tacitly intimating that he refers it to God as received. For, as St. Augustine says, book 9 of the Confessions chap. 13: “Whoever, O Lord, enumerates to thee his true merits, what does he enumerate to thee but thy gifts?” And epist. 105 to Sixtus: “When God crowns our merits, he crowns nothing else than his own gifts.”