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1 Samuel 12:18

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.

So Samuel called unto the Lord,.... Not in an authoritative way, or by way of command, but by prayer; so the Targum renders the clause in the preceding verse,

"I will pray before the Lord:''

and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day; immediately, though there was no appearance of it; it was harvest time, and a fine harvest day. Josephus says {p} he sent thunder, lightning, and hail, a terrible storm and tempest it was:

and all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel; the Lord that sent this tempest, and Samuel who had such power with God in prayer. Clement of Alexandria {q} thinks that from hence the Greeks borrowed their fable concerning Aeacus invoking God, when there was a drought in Greece; and as soon as he prayed, immediately there was thunder, and the whole air was covered with clouds; but perhaps they rather framed it from the instance of Elijah praying for rain {r}, at whose request it came, 1 Kings 18:42.


{p} Antiqu. l. 6. c. 5. sect. 6.
{q} Stromat. l. 6. p. 630.
{r} Vid. Schmid. in Pindar. Nemea, Ode 5. p. 110.

 

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