1 Samuel 15:29

And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(29) The Strength of Israel will not lie.—This title of the Eternal, here rendered “the Strength of Israel,” would be better rendered the Changeless One of Israel. The Hebrew word is first found in this passage. In later Hebrew, as in 1Chronicles 29:2, it is rendered “glory,” from the Aramaean usage of speech (Keil). Some, less accurately, would translate it here “The Victory,” or “the Triumph of Israel,” will not lie, &c. In the eleventh verse of this chapter we read of the Eternal saying, “It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king,” while here we find how “the Changeless One (or Strength) of Israel will . . . not repent.” The truth is that with God there is no change. Now He approves of men and their works and days, and promises them rich blessings; now He condemns and punishes the ways and actions of the same men; hence He is said “to repent:” but the change springs alone from a change in the men themselves, not in God. Speaking in human language the Lord is said “to repent” because there was what appeared to be a change in the Eternal counsels.

“One instrument,” well says Dean Payne Smith, “may be laid aside, and another chosen (as was the case of Saul), because God ordains that the instruments by which He works shall be beings endowed with free will.” So God in the case of King Saul—in human language—was said to repent of His choice because, owing to Saul’s deliberate choice of evil, the Divine purposes could not in his case be carried out. Predictions and promises in the Scriptures are never absolute, but are always conditional. Still, God is ever the “Changeless One of Israel.” “The counsel of the Lord stands for ever” (Psalm 33:11). “I am Jehovah; I change not” (Malachi 3:6).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

15:24-31 There were several signs of hypocrisy in Saul's repentance. 1. He besought Samuel only, and seemed most anxious to stand right in his opinion, and to gain his favour. 2. He excuses his fault, even when confessing it; that is never the way of a true penitent. 3. All his care was to save his credit, and preserve his interest in the people. Men are fickle and alter their minds, feeble and cannot effect their purposes; something happens they could not foresee, by which their measures are broken; but with God it is not so. The Strength of Israel will not lie.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The strength of Israel - A phrase which occurs only here. The word means, perpetuity, truth, glory, victory, and trust, or confidence.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

29. the Strength of Israel will not lie—Hebrew, "He that gives a victory to Israel," a further rebuke of his pride in rearing the Carmel trophy, and an intimation that no loss would be sustained in Israel by his rejection.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

He calls God

the Strength of Israel; partly, to show the reason why God neither will nor can lie; because lying is a weakness, and proceeds from the sense of a man’s weakness, because he cannot many times accomplish his design without lying and dissimulation; which therefore many princes have used for this very reason. But, saith he, God needs no such artifices; he can do whatsoever he pleaseth by his absolute power, and hath no need to use lies to accomplish his will. Partly, to show that Israel should be no loser by Saul’s loss, as he might vainly imagine, because he had saved them from their enemies on every side, 1 Samuel 14:47. For not Saul, but God, was the Strength and Protector of Israel, and he would continue to save them when Saul was lost and gone. And partly, to assure Saul that God would execute this threatening, because he wanted not strength to do it, and none could hinder him in it.

Nor repent, i.e. nor change his counsel; which also is an effect of weakness and imperfection, either of wisdom or power.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent,.... Neither of the evil which he had threatened to Saul in taking away the kingdom from him; nor of the good which he had promised to David in giving it to him; nor of his purpose and promise to Israel to protect and defend them, save and deliver them from the Philistines, and continue them a nation and kingdom: and for the confirmation of all this, this title or character of the Lord is given, "the Strength of Israel"; hence he cannot lie, which is the effect of weakness; nor repent or change his mind, as men do, when something unforeseen arises, which hinders the execution of their first design, and which through weakness they cannot surmount: and hence God would support Israel as a nation, and strengthen them against their enemies, and work deliverance and salvation for them: or "the victory of Israel" (q); the author of Israel's victories, and to whom they are to be ascribed, and who is able to give them more, and would; and as he did especially by David, to whom the kingdom is promised: or "the eternity of Israel" (r); that gives firmness, permanency, and duration to them; all which is true of Israel in a spiritual sense; he gives them spiritual strength, victory over their enemies, sin, Satan, and the world, permanent duration, everlasting salvation, immortality, and eternal life:

for he is not a man, that he should repent; men are weak and feeble, and cannot perform what they purpose or promise, and therefore repent; but God, the Strength of Israel, is able to perform whatever he has purposed or promised, and therefore repents not; men are changeable in their minds, and repent of their first thoughts and designs; but God is unchangeable, and never alters his counsels, breaks his covenant, reverses his blessings, repents of his gifts, nor changes his affections to his Israel. Abarbinel says this may be understood of Saul, and so be given as a reason why God would not repent of the evil he had threatened him with, because he was a man that repented not of his sin; but the first sense is best, and agrees with and is confirmed by Numbers 23:19.

(q) "victoria Israel", Montanus, Vatablus, Piscator; "victor Israelis", Tigurine version. (r) "Aeternitas Israelis", Junius & Tremellius.

Geneva Study Bible

And also the {m} Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.

(m) Meaning God, who maintains and prefers his own.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

29. the Strength of Israel] This word, which occurs here only as a title of God, combines the ideas of stability, permanence, constancy: the Strength or Confidence of Israel does not change as men do.

will not lie nor repent] The words closely resemble Numbers 23:19. There is a verbal contradiction between this utterance and 1 Samuel 15:11, which is usually explained by saying that in 1 Samuel 15:11 the historian uses language according to the manner of men (ἀνθρωποπαθῶς), while here the prophet speaks as befits the nature of God (θεοπρεπῶς). This is only a partial solution. It is precisely because God is unchangeable, that in His dealing with men He must seem to change His action as they change their conduct. This is one aspect of the great problem which runs through all religion, how human free-will can coexist with the Divine Sovereignty. Scripture is content to state both sides of the question, and leave conscience rather than reason to reconcile them.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 29. - The Strength - better, as in the margin, the Victory or Triumph - of Israel. He who is Israel's Victory, or He in whom Israel has victory, will not repent. In ver. 11 God was said to repent, because there was what appeared to be a change in the Divine counsels. "God gave Israel a king in his anger, and took him away in his wrath" (Hosea 13:11). But such modes of speaking are in condescension to human weakness. Absolutely with God there is no change. He is the Eternal Present, with whom all things that were, and are, and shall be are one. But even looked at from below, as this finite creature man looks at his Maker's acts, there is no change in the Divine counsels, because, amidst all the vicissitudes of human events, God's will moves calmly forward without let or hindrance. No lower or secondary motives influence him, no rival power thwarts him. One instrument may be laid aside, and another chosen, because God ordains that the instruments by which he works shall be beings endowed with free will. Saul was the very counterpart of the Jewish people - highly endowed with noble qualities, but headstrong, self-willed, disobedient. Nevertheless, he laid the foundation for the throne of David, who in so many points was the ideal of the theocratic king; and Israel in like manner prepared the way for the coming of the true Messianic King, and gave mankind the one Catholic, i.e. universal, religion. "He who is Israel's Victory does not repent." 1 Samuel 15:29

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

This request Samuel refused, repeating at the same time the sentence of rejection, and turned to depart. "Then Saul laid hold of the lappet of his mantle (i.e., his upper garment), and it tore" (lit. was torn off). That the Niphal ויּקּרע is correct, and is not to be altered into אתהּ ויּקרע, "Saul tore off the lappet," according to the rendering of the lxx, as Thenius supposes, is evident from the explanation which Samuel gave of the occurrence (1 Samuel 15:28): "Jehovah hath torn the sovereignty of Israel from thee to-day, and given it to thy neighbour, who is better than thou." As Saul was about to hold back the prophet by force, that he might obtain from him a revocation of the divine sentence, the tearing of the mantle, which took place accidentally, and evidently without any such intention on the part of Saul, was to serve as a sign of the rending away of the sovereignty from him. Samuel did not yet know to whom Jehovah would give it; he therefore used the expression לרעך, as רע is applied to any one with whom a person associates. To confirm his own words, he adds in 1 Samuel 15:29 : "And also the Trust of Israel doth not lie and doth not repent, for He is not a man to repent." נצח signifies constancy, endurance, then confidence, trust, because a man can trust in what is constant. This meaning is to be retained here, where the word is used as a name for God, and not the meaning gloria, which is taken in 1 Chronicles 29:11 from the Aramaean usage of speech, and would be altogether unsuitable here, where the context suggests the idea of unchangeableness. For a man's repentance or regret arises from his changeableness, from the fluctuations in his desires and actions. This is never the case with God; consequently He is ישׂראל נצח, the unchangeable One, in whom Israel can trust, since He does not lie or deceive, or repent of His purposes. These words are spoken θεοπρεπῶς (theomorphically), whereas in 1 Samuel 15:11 and other passages, which speak of God as repenting, the words are to be understood ἀνθρωποπαθῶς (anthropomorphically; cf. Numbers 23:19).