Do not turn aside after worthless things that cannot profit you or deliver you, for they are empty.
Parallel translations
- WEB Don’t turn aside to go after vain things which can’t profit or deliver, for they are vain.
- KJV And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.
- NKJV And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing.
- NASB Indeed, you must not turn aside, for then you would go after useless things which cannot benefit or save, because they are useless.
- NLT Don’t go back to worshiping worthless idols that cannot help or rescue you—they are totally useless!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
He warns them not to turn aside to worthless idols that cannot profit or deliver. Only the living God can save.
Overview
The 'vain things' are the false gods that repeatedly led Israel astray and are utterly powerless to help. Samuel exposes the emptiness of all idolatry over against the saving Lord. The contrast presses the people to cling to God alone rather than substitutes that can neither profit nor deliver.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Hab 2:18What 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.
- Jer 10:15They are worthless, a work to be mocked. In the time of their punishment they will perish.
- Jer 16:19O 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.
- Deut 11:16But be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside to worship and bow down to other gods,
- Jer 14:22Can 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.
- Isa 46:7They 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.
- Isa 45:20Come, 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.
- 1 Cor 8:4So 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.
- Jonah 2:8Those who cling to worthless idols forsake His loving devotion.
- Isa 44:9–10All 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.
- Jer 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.
- Jer 2:5This 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?
- Isa 41:29See, they are all a delusion; their works amount to nothing; their images are as empty as the wind.
- Ps 115:4–8Their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.
- Isa 41:23–24Tell 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.
- Deut 32:21They 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.
- Jer 10:8But they are altogether senseless and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood!
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The rise of the anointed king after Israel's failed first choice points to the true Anointed One (Messiah means 'anointed'), the shepherd-king after God's own heart from Bethlehem.
How 1 Samuel 12:21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.