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1 Samuel 12:17
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1 Samuel 12:17 Meaning and Commentary
Is it not wheat harvest today?
&c.] Of the time of wheat harvest, (See Gill on 1 Samuel 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 ( Proverbs 26:1 ) ( Amos 4:7 ) . 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 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, ( 1 Samuel 7:10 ) .
F15 Comment. in Amos iv. 7.