Teks -- 1 Samuel 12:17 (NET)

12:17 Is this not the time of the wheat harvest? I will call on the Lord so that he makes it thunder and rain. Realize and see what a great sin you have committed before the Lord by asking for a king for yourselves.”

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: 1Sa 12:17 - Wheat

harvest - At which time it was a rare thing in those parts to have thunder or rain; the weather being more constant in its seasons there, than it is with us.

Wesley: 1Sa 12:17 - Rain

That you may understand that God is displeased with you; and also how foolishly and wickedly you have done in rejecting the government of that God, at whose command are all things both in heaven and in earth.

JFB: 1Sa 12:17-25 - Is it not wheat harvest to-day?

That season in Palestine occurs at the end of June or beginning of July, when it seldom or never rains, and the sky is serene and cloudless. There could not, therefore, have been a stronger or more appropriate proof of a divine mission than the phenomenon of rain and thunder happening, without any prognostics of its approach, upon the prediction of a person professing himself to be a prophet of the Lord, and giving it as an attestation of his words being true. The people regarded it as a miraculous display of divine power, and, panic-struck, implored the prophet to pray for them. Promising to do so, he dispelled their fears. The conduct of Samuel, in this whole affair of the king's appointment, shows him to have been a great and good man who sank all private and personal considerations in disinterested zeal for his country's good and whose last words in public were to warn the people, and their king, of the danger of apostasy and disobedience to God.

Clarke: 1Sa 12:17 - Is it not wheat harvest to-day?

Is it not wheat harvest to-day? - That is, This is the time of wheat harvest. According to St. Jerome, who spent several years in the promised land, this harvest commenced about the end of June or beginning of July, in which he says he never saw rain in Judea: Nunquam enim in fine mensis Junii, sive in mense Julio, in his provinciis, maximeque in Judea, pluvias vidimus . - Hier. in Amo 4:7; where he refers to this very history. What occurred now hardly ever occurs there but in the winter months.

TSK: 1Sa 12:17 - Is it // I will call // your wickedness

Is it : In northern latitudes, thunder and rain are far from being un-common during harvest. But rain is hardly ever known in Palestine during that season, which commences about the end of June, or beginning of July. This fact is abundantly confirmed by modern travellers, and is demonstrative to every unprejudiced reader of the Holy Scriptures, that the thunder and rain, which at Samuel’ s invocation, was sent at this season of the year, was a miraculous interposition of the power of God; for we read in 1Sa 12:16, it was a ""great thing which the Lord will do.""Thus were the Israelites warned of their sin in having asked a king, and of the omnipotence of that God, whose gracious promises they virtually neglected by this act. Pro 26:1

I will call : 1Sa 7:9, 1Sa 7:10; Jos 10:12; Psa 99:6; Jer 15:1; Jam 5:16-18

your wickedness : 1Sa 8:7

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: 1Sa 12:17 - At wheat harvest // He shall send thunder and rain

At wheat harvest it was a rare thing in those parts to have thunder or rain, as the Scripture oft implies; and St. Jerome affirms, who was an eye-witness of it; the weather being more constant and certain in its seasons there, and in divers other parts, than it is with us who live in islands, as all travellers inform us.

He shall send thunder and rain that by this unseasonable and pernicious storm you may understand that God is displeased with you; and also how foolishly and wickedly you have done in rejecting the government of that God, at whose command are all things, both in heaven and in earth.

Haydock: 1Sa 12:17 - Wheat-harvest // Thunder // See

Wheat-harvest. At which time of the year it never thunders or rains in those countries. (Challoner) ---

The wheat-harvest is towards the end of June. The usual seasons for rain are only spring and autumn. (St. Jerome in Amos iv. 7, &c.) ---

Thunder. Literally, "voices," Psalm xvii. 14. (Calmet) ---

See. Being fully convinced by the miracle, which declares the will of God in the clearest manner. Though God was pleased thus to manifest his displeasure, at the people's assuming to themselves the right of changing the established form of government, by insisting so much upon having a king at this time, we cannot hence infer, as Paine and some late seditious writers have done, that the regal power is in itself an evil. It might be contrary to a theocracy, and still might suit the manners of some nations better than any other form. To determine precisely what sort of government is best, would be an arduous task. We admire our own constitution; yet our ally, the prince of the Brazils, has lately forbidden any panegyric of it to be printed in his dominions. All innovations are, generally, attended with the most serious inconveniences. (Haydock)

Gill: 1Sa 12:17 - Is it not wheat harvest today // I will call unto the Lord, and he shall send thunder and rain // that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a king

Is it not wheat harvest today?.... Of the time of wheat harvest; see Gill on 1Sa 6:13. Rain usually fell in Judea only twice a year, called the former and the latter rain; and from the seventeenth of Nisan or March, to the sixteenth of Marchesvan or October, it was not usual for rain to fall, and so not in harvest, at that time especially, see Pro 26:1. R. Joseph Kimchi says, in the land of Israel rain never fell all the days of harvest; and this is confirmed by Jerom, who lived long in those parts; who says ^o, at the end of the month of June, and in the month of July, we never saw rain in those provinces, especially in Judea. And Samuel not only by putting this question would have them observe that it was the time of wheat harvest in general, but on that day in particular the men, were at work in the fields reaping the wheat, &c. and so was not cloudy, and inclining to rain, but all serene and clear, or otherwise they would not have been employed in cutting down the corn; all which made the following case the more remarkable:

I will call unto the Lord, and he shall send thunder and rain; in a miraculous and preternatural way, there being nothing in nature preparatory thereunto, and this purely at the prayer of Samuel:

that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a king; was attended with aggravated circumstances, and highly offensive to God, though he had gratified them in it, of which this violent storm would be an indication, and might serve to convince them of their folly, as well as of their wickedness, and that they had no need of a king, since Samuel their judge could do as much or more by his prayers than a king could do by his sword; and of which they had had sufficient proof before this, and that in the same way, 1Sa 7:10.