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1 And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you. 2 And now, behold, the king walketh before you: and I am old and grayheaded; and, behold, my sons are with you: and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day. 3 Behold, here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you. 4 And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought of any man's hand. 5 And he said unto them, The LORD is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found ought in my hand. And they answered, He is witness. 6 And Samuel said unto the people, It is the LORD that advanced Moses and Aaron, and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. 7 Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the LORD of all the righteous acts of the LORD, which he did to you and to your fathers. 8 When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried unto the LORD, then the LORD sent Moses and Aaron, which brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and made them dwell in this place. 9 And when they forgat the LORD their God, he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them. 10 And they cried unto the LORD, and said, We have sinned, because we have forsaken the LORD, and have served Baalim and Ashtaroth: but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee. 11 And the LORD sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and ye dwelled safe. 12 And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us: when the LORD your God was your king. 13 Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired! and, behold, the LORD hath set a king over you. 14 If ye will fear the LORD, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the LORD your God: 15 But if ye will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall the hand of the LORD be against you, as it was against your fathers. 16 Now therefore stand and see this great thing, which the LORD will do before your eyes. 17 Is it not wheat harvest to day? I will call unto the LORD, and he shall send thunder and rain; that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the LORD, in asking you a king. 18 So Samuel called unto the LORD; and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel. 19 And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the LORD thy God, that we die not: for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king. 20 And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart; 21 And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain. 22 For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name's sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people. 23 Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way: 24 Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you. 25 But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.
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[AD 202] Irenaeus on 1 Samuel 12:3-5
In this way, too, Samuel, who judged the people so many years and bore rule over Israel without any pride, in the end cleared himself.… In this strain also the apostle Paul, inasmuch as he had a good conscience, said to the Corinthians, “For we are not as many [are], who corrupt the Word of God: but in sincerity, but as from God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.” “We have injured no one, corrupted no one, circumvented no one.”

Source: AGAINST HERESIES 4.26.4
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on 1 Samuel 12:3-5
For Samuel also put together a high panegyric upon himself, when he anointed Saul, saying, “Whose ass have I taken, or calf, or shoes? Or have I oppressed any of you?” And yet no one finds fault with him. And the reason is because he did not say it by way of setting off himself, but because he was going to appoint a king, he wishes under the form of a defense [of himself] to instruct him to be meek and gentle.… But when he saw that they [the people] would not be hindered by any of these things [the ways of the king] but were incurably distempered, he thus both spared them and composed their king to gentleness. Therefore he also takes him to witness. For indeed no one was then bringing suit or charge against Saul that he needed to defend himself, but Samuel said those things in order to make him better. And therefore also he added, to take down his pride, “If you will listen, you and your king,” such and such good things shall be yours, “but if you will not listen, then the reverse of all.”

Source: HOMILIES ON 2 CORINTHIANS 24.3
[AD 420] Jerome on 1 Samuel 12:3-5
That a priest must avoid covetousness even Samuel teaches when he proves before all the people that he has taken nothing from any one.

Source: LETTER 69.9
[AD 1781] Richard Challoner on 1 Samuel 12:11
Jerobaal and Badan: That is, Gedeon and Samson called here Badan or Bedan, because he was of Dan.
[AD 735] Bede on 1 Samuel 12:14
If you fear the Lord and serve Him, etc. It is understood of all that he noted; because evidently by their merits, as the rule of their first king, so the entire kingdom which they demanded against the will of God, would have worse times in its latter days than in its earlier ones: and meanwhile, as long as they feared God, they would be blessed with good kings; and as often as they neglected Him, they would be punished with evil kings: and finally, when wickedness increased, they would exchange the kingdom itself, along with freedom and homeland, for captivity or death. Likewise, the sign of transgression and the hard-heartedness of the people was no small matter, and the more terrible because it manifested itself in a way unfamiliar to those regions: voices and rain during the wheat harvest, which in the promised land throughout the entire summer only come by great miracles, to thus signify that all who desire to rule themselves against God’s long-recognized will, and to serve their own desires, are acting in an improper order: in a time when after receiving the Word they ought to bear ripe fruits of good works, they demonstrate by their disordered morals that they still need the correction or exhortation of the divine voice to teach them the elements of the beginnings of God’s words. What if someone seeks to explain this reading allegorically? It easily occurs, considering that Samuel, as the king walked before Israel, declared that he was now old, but from his youth he had lived innocently before them with witnesses from the Lord and His Christ. Because now, with the prophetic foretellings reigning in the Church Lord Jesus Christ, the books of the law and the prophets indeed bear witness to Him; and everywhere affirm, that, with the witness of the Father and the Son, and indeed the Holy Spirit, the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good. Let no place be given to a Manichaean or his associates, in which they might blame the other writings of Scripture, not even one jot can pass from it, nor the giver of the same: nor does anyone who knows himself to be redeemed by the grace of new light doubt that the figures of the prophets have not aged. What is it then when he says he did not take anyone's ox or donkey? Because evidently the prophetic and legal Scripture did not deprive anyone of the triple duty of rightly dealing with a neighbor, or of the duty of correcting and instructing a neighbor, by suggesting anything evil. For the donkey, which by its innate gentleness is accustomed to carrying necessary loads and even people, signifies the love suitable to brotherly utility. The ox, which not only carries the imposed burdens of flesh but also prepares the fields by plowing furrows for the seeds, signifies those who, indeed, not only bear the weaknesses of their brethren but also by chastising uproot their sluggish hearts and cultivate them to receive the seed of the word. These two types of people, if I am not mistaken, encompass the entire company of workers of the Church. Thus Samuel took neither an ox nor a donkey from anyone; because old holy Scripture deprived neither the learned of the skill of teaching nor the simpler ones of the modesty of living piously with brethren. Furthermore, what it means to say: If you fear the Lord, and you and your king who rules over you follow the Lord: but if not, the hand of the Lord will be against you. And what he concluded with: If you persist in wickedness, both you and your king will perish together. For he who properly keeps the sacraments of faith, will follow the warnings of that God and Lord, of whom the only true king of Israel said: As I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in His love (John XV). But he who hears and does not heed the voice of the Lord, the divine hand remains on him until he repents. But he who persists obstinately till death, such a person, since he belongs to the most evil king Antichrist, will be damned to eternal perdition with him. For not only those who attach themselves to Antichrist in the end times, visibly rising against God, are considered to serve his kingdom: but even today, many who have been initiated into the mysteries of faith, when they immerse themselves in various crimes, are found to be serving his kingdom impiously: and it is said to them from prophetic reading: If you fear the Lord and serve Him, both you and your king who rules over you, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, follow the Lord God, the Father of the same our God and Lord Jesus Christ; but if you persist in wickedness, both you and your king Antichrist (then you will have him as king) will perish together. However, what is mentioned among other things, and you will know and see that you have done a great evil in the eyes of the Lord, asking for a king over you; it does not seem easy to refer this to Christ the king, whom anyone who humbly seeks to reign over himself, does not do any evil, but a great good, so much so that anyone who neglects to do this one thing, cannot do any other good; unless it is said that, with the increasing sin of men, it happened that the Son of God came in human flesh to suffer; who if man had never sinned, would never have fought against the enemy in man: and therefore, after sending angels, patriarchs, and prophets many times to educate the human race, in the fullness of time, since He foresaw that men would sin more grievously, reserved His own coming to reveal, that where sin abounded, grace more abounded: and rightly it is understood, because those who did not want to listen to Moses and the prophets, but compelled the Son of God to come in the flesh by the enormity of their sins, did a great evil. Neither does the parable of the vineyard in the gospel contradict this sense, whose wicked tenants, refusing to give fruits in due season and after wickedly beating, stoning, and mistreating the servants of their Lord, caused Him to send His only Son to them. But what is said about voices and rains from heaven in the time of the wheat harvest can also be interpreted in a good sense; so that we understand the voice of evangelical preaching as spiritually thundered from the heavens, in a time when hearts yielding fruits to the law should be gathered into the granaries of the early Church. And it can be said thus that the apostles themselves were reapers in those who already knew the law and made it, in calling them to the grace of the Gospel: irrigators in those who had not yet known the words of the law, and of whom it is said: Lift up your eyes and see the fields, that they are white already to harvest (John IV). But concerning those, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase (1 Cor. III): it should be understood more diligently, and drawn to the imitation of virtue, that blessed Samuel, being rejected by the people and expelled from leadership, nonetheless did not cease to bring the word of zealous exhortation and the help of pious intercession. Far be it from me, he said, to sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will teach you the good and right way. O remarkable example of fraternal love, he, innocent of leadership, even a most holy prophet and priest, is expelled, and he considers it a sin against the Lord if he does not strive to elevate those who rejected him to eternal joys, equally by praying and admonishing.

Source: Commentary on Samuel
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on 1 Samuel 12:16-18
That mighty deed Samuel is said to have accomplished through prayer is something that everyone who genuinely relies on God can accomplish spiritually even now, since he has become worthy of being heard.… For every saint and genuine disciple of Jesus is told by the Lord, “Lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest. He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life.” In this time of harvest the Lord does “a great thing” before the eyes of those who hear the prophets. For when the one adorned with the Holy Spirit calls to the Lord, God gives from heaven thunder and rain that waters the soul, so that he who once was in evil may stand in great awe of the Lord and his minister of goodness, manifested as venerable and august by the requests that are heard. And Elijah, who shut up heaven for the wicked for three and a half years, later opened it. This, too, is always accomplished for everyone who through prayer receives the rain of the soul, since the heavens were previously deprived of it because of his sin.

Source: ON PRAYER 13.5
[AD 420] Jerome on 1 Samuel 12:16-18
As a matter of fact, the works Moses did, Samuel did too. Moses resisted God and prevented him from destroying his people when God said to him, “Let me alone, that I may strike this people.” Just see the power of Moses! What does God say to him? Let me alone; you are compelling me, your prayers, as it were, restrain me; your prayers hold back my hand. I shoot an arrow; I hurl a javelin; and your prayers are the shield of the people. Let me alone that I might strike down this people. Along with this, consider the compassionate kindness of God. When he says, “Let me alone,” he shows that if Moses will continue to importune him, he will not strike. If you, too, will not let me alone, I shall not strike; let me alone, and I shall strike. In other words, what does he say? Do not cease your persistent entreaty, and I shall not strike.Let us see if Samuel persistently importuned God in this way. We read in the book of Kings [Samuel] that he prevented God from venting his wrath against the people, and although it was harvest time, the Lord sent rain, thunder and lightning. What does Scripture say in Samuel? “And there came hailstones and struck down the Philistines.” See how wise the fire, how wise the hail! Where Samuel is, the thunderbolts do not dare to strike, for they see the prophet of God, they see the Levite. Samuel’s hands were threatening the thunderbolts. He was praying, and the lightning strokes were held back. Why have I said all this? Because Moses and Aaron and Samuel with different titles performed the same mighty deeds. Let us bless the Lord to whom be glory forever and ever.

Source: HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 26 (PS 98)
[AD 1781] Richard Challoner on 1 Samuel 12:17
Wheat harvest: At which time of the year, it never thunders or rains in those countries.
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on 1 Samuel 12:23
For he who loves Christ also loves his flock.… David in this way came to be king, having been seen first to be affectionately-minded toward them. So much indeed, though yet young, did he grieve for the people, as to risk his life for them, when he killed that barbarian. … And Samuel too was very affectionate; when it was that he said, “But God forbid that I should sin in ceasing to pray to the Lord for you.” In like way Paul also, or rather not in like way but even in a far greater degree, burned toward all his subjects.

Source: HOMILIES ON ROMANS 29
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on 1 Samuel 12:23
What did Samuel profit Saul? Did he not mourn for him even to his last day, and not merely pray for him only? What did he profit the Israelites? Did he not say, “God forbid that I should sin in ceasing to pray for you”? Did they not all perish? Do prayers then, you say, profit nothing? They profit even greatly: but it is when we also do something. For prayers indeed cooperate and assist, but a man cooperates with one that is operating and assists one that is himself also working. But if you remain idle, you will receive no great benefit.

Source: HOMILIES ON 1 THESSALONIANS 1
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on 1 Samuel 12:23
Why is it that Moses and Samuel are preferred to all the other fathers in this matter of making requests if it is not that these two alone in the whole history of the Old Testament are said to have prayed earnestly even for their enemies? One of them the people attacked with stones, and yet he prayed to his Lord for those who were stoning him. The other was deposed from his position of leadership, and yet when he was asked to make supplication he yielded, saying, “Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you.”

Source: FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 27