1 Samuel 12:21

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1 Samuel 12:19–23 · Berean Standard Bible

19 They pleaded with Samuel, “Pray to the LORD your God for your servants so that we will not die! For we have added to all our sins the evil of asking for a king.”

20 “Do not be afraid,” Samuel replied. “Even though you have committed all this evil, do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart.

21 Do not turn aside after worthless things that cannot profit you or deliver you, for they are empty.

22 Indeed, for the sake of His great name, the LORD will not abandon His people, because He was pleased to make you His own.

23 As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you. And I will continue to teach you the good and right way.

Hebrew words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

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Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

Deuteronomy 32:21

They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation without understanding.

Jeremiah 2:5

This is what the LORD says: “What fault did your fathers find in Me that they strayed so far from Me, and followed worthless idols, and became worthless themselves?

Jeremiah 2:13

“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns— broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

Jeremiah 10:8

But they are altogether senseless and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood!

Jeremiah 10:15

They are worthless, a work to be mocked. In the time of their punishment they will perish.

Jeremiah 14:22

Can the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies alone send showers? Is this not by You, O LORD our God? So we put our hope in You, for You have done all these things.

Jeremiah 16:19

O LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of distress, the nations will come to You from the ends of the earth, and they will say, “Our fathers inherited nothing but lies, worthless idols of no benefit at all.

Jonah 2:8

Those who cling to worthless idols forsake His loving devotion.

Habakkuk 2:18

What use is an idol, that a craftsman should carve it— or an image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.

1 Corinthians 8:4

So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.

Psalms 115:4

Their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.

Psalms 115:5

They have mouths, but cannot speak; they have eyes, but cannot see;

Psalms 115:6

they have ears, but cannot hear; they have noses, but cannot smell;

Psalms 115:7

they have hands, but cannot feel; they have feet, but cannot walk; they cannot even clear their throats.

Psalms 115:8

Those who make them become like them, as do all who trust in them.

Isaiah 41:23

Tell us the things that are to come, so that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do something good or evil, that we may look on together in dismay.

Isaiah 41:24

Behold, you are nothing and your work is of no value. Anyone who chooses you is detestable.

Isaiah 44:9

All makers of idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Their witnesses fail to see or comprehend, so they are put to shame.

Isaiah 44:10

Who fashions a god or casts an idol which profits him nothing?

Isaiah 45:20

Come, gather together, and draw near, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry idols of wood and pray to a god that cannot save.

Isaiah 46:7

They lift it to their shoulder and carry it along; they set it in its place, and there it stands, not budging from that spot. They cry out to it, but it does not answer; it saves no one from his troubles.