Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
1 Samuel 12:6-12
Samuel First Briefly Recounts The History of YHWH's Goodness In Appointing Deliverers In Order To Deliver Them (The Way In Which He Has Chosen To Rule Them), And Yet Even Then They Have Continually Failed To Respond To Him, Something Which Has Finally Come To A Head In Their Replacing YHWH With An Earthly King (1 Samuel 12:6).
The people having borne witness to his faithfulness and integrity before YHWH as their witness, he now turns the tables on them and bears witness to their faithlessness and lack of integrity in the eyes of God when God acted as their Judge, first of their fathers, and then of themselves. For after He had delivered them from Egypt they had failed Him constantly. And yet even so they had also constantly depended on Him when they were in trouble, and at such times He had appointed Saviours for them. And He had done this even to the last, in appointing Saul as their present war-leader and deliverer, and in doing so He had tried to point them in the way of making him only their war-leader (nagid), and continuing in the old way. But they had refused and had rather chosen to make him their full-blown king.
‘ And Samuel said to the people, “It is YHWH who appointed Moses and Aaron, and who brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still, that I may plead with you before YHWH concerning all the righteous acts of YHWH, which he did to you and to your fathers.” '
The one ‘on trial' has suddenly become the accuser. He reminds them of God's method of saving and ruling His people, that when they were in bondage in Egypt it was YHWH Who had appointed Moses and Aaron to be His people's deliverers and bring them out of the land of Egypt. YHWH had not failed them then. And he asks them to stand and listen while he goes on to demonstrate before YHWH concerning all the righteous things that YHWH has done for them and their fathers, after which he lists some of YHWH's appointments in terms of the names of the ones whom He sent.
“ When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried to YHWH, then YHWH sent Moses and Aaron, who brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and made them to dwell in this place.”
First, when Jacob had brought the people into Egypt they had cried to YHWH in the time of bondage that had resulted from this, and He had then sent Moses and Aaron who had brought their fathers out of Egypt into this very place that they now were. That they were there at all was due to YHWH.
“ But they forgot YHWH their God; and he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them.”
But they had then forgotten YHWH their God, and so He had, as it were, sold them as slaves into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor (Judges 4-5), and into the hand of the Philistines (Judges 3:31), and into the hand of Moab (Judges 3:12), and they had come and fought against them. Note that Samuel here lists them in reverse order as compared with the Book of Judges, while after 1 Samuel 12:10 the next three will be listed forwards. This deliberately centres all the emphasis on their failure described in verse 10, pointing to it like an arrow from both sides.
“ And they cried to YHWH, and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken YHWH, and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve you'.”
Here was the crunch of the matter. Each time they had forsaken YHWH and had served other gods. But when they were in distress and those gods could not help them they had called on YHWH, and had admitted their sin and idolatry, and had then prayed for deliverance and had promised to serve Him. And each time YHWH had heard them.
“ And YHWH sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you dwelt in safety.”
And the result of their pleas was that YHWH had sent Jerub-baal (Gideon - Judges 6-8), Bedan (‘Abdon - Judges 13:13? or Barak - Judges 4-5?), Jephthah (Judges 11-12) and Samuel, and each time He had delivered them from the hands of their enemies so that they dwelt in safety. The mention of Samuel's own name may suggest that he was figuratively ticking off the names of the Judges on a mental list with which the people were familiar, possibly one cited at the annual feasts. It was, of course, important that his name be mentioned because it brought the deliverances right up to date. And yet the citing of his name suggested that he wanted to avoid making it personal.
Jerub-baal was an alternative name given to Gideon (Judges 6:31; Judges 7:1). Bedan (bdn meaning ‘corpulent') may have been a well known judge and deliverer, known to all Israel and not to us (otherwise he is out of order). It may have been a variant of ‘Abdon (‘bdn) who had seventy offspring who rode on seventy asses (Judges 12:13). Or it may be a humerous twisting of the name of Barak (in the Hebrew Bedan and Barak look fairly similar) possibly because Barak was remembered in the tradition as corpulent (this thus being given as a nick name, ‘fatty'). However, against the idea that it refers to Barak is the fact that the earlier judges, of which he was one, have already been dealt with previously without being named. Or it has even been suggested that it could be an abbreviation of ben-Dan (son of Dan) referring to Samson, but it seems unlikely. Jephthah we know of from Judges 11-12.
“ And when you saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,' when YHWH your God was your king.”
And when they had seen Nahash, the king of the children of Ammon, coming against them they had been provided with Saul as a war-leader (nagid - 1 Samuel 9:16), but had demanded rather that they might have him as a king, even though YHWH their God was their King. (This verse presents what has been said previously, in abbreviated form). So the line of deliverers right up to the present day had ended in the rejection of YHWH as their King.