Bible Strands
1 Samuel 12:21
Do not turn aside after worthless things that cannot profit you or deliver you, for they are empty.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Samuel addresses the Israelites at Mizpah during a covenant renewal ceremony, warning them immediately after their confession of demanding a human king. He delivers this charge as the people stand between their past idolatry and their future obligation to serve the LORD with all their heart.
The words — The verb תָּס֑וּרוּ (ta.Su.ru) commands "you must turn aside," while הַ/תֹּ֗הוּ (ha./To.hu) denotes "emptiness" or "worthlessness." Together they literally identify the objects of false worship as pursuits that yield no benefit or rescue.
The thread — This theme of idolatrous futility appears in Habakkuk 2:18, which questions what profit a carved image provides, and Jeremiah 10:15, which calls them worthless works that will perish. Jeremiah 16:19 contrasts the emptiness by affirming the LORD as the genuine fortress and refuge.
Why it lands — The verse requires a deliberate rejection of any devotion that cannot deliver tangible or spiritual rescue, classifying such distractions as structurally empty. It demands the reader maintain exclusive loyalty to the God who has already chosen and will not abandon His people.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.
Cross-references
- 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.
- Jeremiah 10:15 They are worthless, a work to be mocked. In the time of their punishment they will perish.
- 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.
- Deuteronomy 11:16 But be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside to worship and bow down to other gods,
- 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.
- 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 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.
- 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.
- Jonah 2:8 Those who cling to worthless idols forsake His loving devotion.