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19 They said to Samuel, “Pray to the Lord your God for us, your servants, that we may not die for having added to all our other sins the evil of asking for a king.” 20 “Do not fear,” Samuel answered them. “You have indeed committed all this evil! Yet do not turn from the Lord, but serve him with your whole heart. 21 Do not turn aside to gods who are nothing,[a] who cannot act and deliver. They are nothing.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 12:21 Gods who are nothing: Hebrew tohu, lit., “emptiness,” cf. Gn 1:2 (…webohu); here, idols without power or substance, as in Is 41:29.

19 The people all said to Samuel, “Pray(A) to the Lord your God for your servants so that we will not die,(B) for we have added to all our other sins the evil of asking for a king.”

20 “Do not be afraid,” Samuel replied. “You have done all this evil;(C) yet do not turn away from the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. 21 Do not turn away after useless(D) idols.(E) They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless.

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