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Selected Verse: 1 Samuel 15:24 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| 1Sa 15:24 |
King James |
And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
I have sinned . . . turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord--The erring, but proud and obstinate monarch was now humbled. He was conscience-smitten for the moment, but his confession proceeded not from sincere repentance, but from a sense of danger and desire of averting the sentence denounced against him. For the sake of public appearance, he besought Samuel not to allow their serious differences to transpire, but to join with him in a public act of worship. Under the influence of his painfully agitated feelings, he designed to offer sacrifice, partly to express his gratitude for the recent victory, and partly to implore mercy and a reversal of his doom. It was, from another angle, a politic scheme, that Samuel might be betrayed into a countenancing of his design in reserving the cattle for sacrificing. Samuel declined to accompany him.
I feared the people, and obeyed their voice--This was a different reason from the former he had assigned. It was the language of a man driven to extremities, and even had it been true, the principles expounded by Samuel showed that it could have been no extenuation of the offense. The prophet then pronounced the irreversible sentence of the rejection of Saul and his family. He was judicially cut off for his disobedience. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
| I have sinned - Compare Sa1 15:25, Sa1 15:30. How was it that these repeated confessions were unavailing to obtain forgiveness, when David's was? (See the marginal reference.) Because Saul only shrank from the punishment of his sin. David shrank in abhorrence from the sin itself Psa 51:4. |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
| This sentence made so powerful an impression upon Saul, that he confessed, "I have sinned: for I have transgressed the command of the Lord and thy words, because I feared the people, and hearkened to their voice." But these last words, with which he endeavoured to make his sin appear as small as possible, show that the consciousness of his guilt did not go very deep. Even if the people had really desired that the best of the cattle should be spared, he ought not as king to have given his consent to their wish, since God had commanded that they should all be banned (i.e., destroyed); and even though he has yielded from weakness, this weakness could not lessen his guilt before God. This repentance, therefore, was rather the effect of alarm at the rejection which had been announced to him, than the fruit of any genuine consciousness of sin. "It was not true and serious repentance, or the result of genuine sorrow of heart because he had offended God, but was merely repentance of the lips arising from fear of losing the kingdom, and of incurring public disgrace" (C. v. Lapide). This is apparent even from Sa1 15:25, but still more from Sa1 15:30. In Sa1 15:25 he not only entreats Samuel for the forgiveness of his sin, but says, "Return with me, that I may pray to the Lord." The שׁוּב presupposes that Samuel was about to go away after the executing his commission. Saul entreated him to remain that he might pray, i.e., not only in order to obtain for him the forgiveness of his sin through his intercession, but, according to Sa1 15:30, to show him honour before the elders of the people and before Israel, that his rejection might not be known. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| I have sinned - It does by no means appear, that Saul acts the hypocrite herein, in assigning a false cause of his disobedience. Rather, he nakedly declares the thing as it was. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| I have sinned - because I feared the people - This was the best excuse he could make for himself; but had he feared God more, he need have feared the People less. |
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
30 Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God.
25 Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.
30 Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God.
25 Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.
30 Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God.
25 Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.