Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 12:3

"Here I am: witness against me before Jehovah, 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 taken a ransom to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you." — 1 Samuel 12:3 (ASV)

Behold, here I am: witness against me before the Lord, and before his anointed. —I speak in a solemn presence, "before the Eternal," the old man continued, looking up heavenward, "and before His anointed," pointing with a reverent gesture to the kingly form by his side. "His Anointed"—this is the earliest instance of a king bearing this title of honor. The high priest, whose blessed office brought him in such close contact with the invisible and eternal King, is in the early Hebrew story occasionally styled by this honored name.

But from then on it seems to be limited to the man invested with the kingly dignity. The infinite charm which the name "Anointed of the Eternal" carried with it for centuries is, no doubt, due to the fact that one greater than any of the sons of men would, in the far future, assume the same sacred designation—"His Anointed," or "His Christ." (The words are synonymous, both being translations of the Hebrew word Messiah.)

Nor has this peculiar reverence for the "Lord’s Anointed" been limited to His own people. Since the seer in the early morning on the hillside, looking on "Ramah of the Watchers," poured out the holy oil on the young Saul’s head, and then before all Israel gathered at Gilgal styled the new king by the title of the "Anointed of the Eternal," this name has carried an infinite charm wherever the one true God has been worshipped.

A strange and peculiar reverence has surrounded everyone who could fairly claim to bear it. For many a century, among all peoples, an awful curse has at once attached itself to anyone who would dare lift his hand against the "Lord’s Anointed."

Whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? —The ox and the ass are taken as representative possessions in this primitive age, in a country where agriculture formed the principal source of the national resources. Before the wars and conquests of David and Solomon, there was comparatively little of the precious metals among the Hebrew people, who rarely traded in those early days with foreign nations; horses were also unknown among them.

The law of Exodus 20:17 especially mentions the ox and the ass as things the Israelite was forbidden to covet. On these words of Samuel, the Babylonian Talmud has an important note, which well illustrates the doctrine of the "Holy Spirit" as taught in Israel before the Christian era.

"Rabbi Elazer said, 'On three occasions the Holy Spirit manifested Himself in a peculiar manner—in the judicial tribunal instituted by Shem, in that of Samuel the Ramathite, and in that of Solomon. In that of Shem, Judah declared, She is righteous, etc. How could he know it? Might not another man have come to her as well as he did? But an echo of a voice was heard exclaiming: "Of me (the word ממגי is separated from the preceding word and taken as a distinct utterance of the Holy Spirit); these things were overruled by me."

Samuel said (1 Samuel 12:3–5), "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? ... And he said unto them, The Lord is witness against you, etc... . And he said, He is witness" (ו׳אמך). It ought to read, "And they said." But it was the Holy Spirit that gave that answer. So with Solomon the words "She is the mother thereof" (1 Kings 3:27) were spoken by the Holy Spirit.'—Treatise Maccoth, fol. 23,Colossians 2:0.

Whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? —Alluding, of course, to his conduct during his long tenure in office as supreme judge in Israel. The "bribe"—literally, ransom—alludes to that practice unhappily so common in the East of giving the judge a gift (usually of money) to buy his favor, and thus a criminal who had means was too often able to escape punishment.

The sons of Samuel, we know from 1 Samuel 8:3, "took bribes, and perverted judgment." This accusation, we know, had been made by the very elders of the nation before whom the seer was then speaking. The old judge must have been very confident of his own spotless integrity to venture upon such a solemn challenge.

The elders, by their bold accusation against the seer’s sons, had shown they were no respecters of persons. And, from the tone of Samuel’s address, they must have felt his words were but the prelude to some scathing reproaches they would have to listen to. Yet, they were constrained with one voice to bear witness to the perfect truth of his assertion that his long official life had indeed been pure and spotless. The Talmud has a curious tradition respecting the prophets, based apparently upon this saying of Samuel. "All the prophets were rich men.

This we infer from the account of Moses, Samuel, Amos, and Jonah. Of Moses, as it is written (Numbers 16:15), 'I have not taken one ass from them.' Of Samuel, as it is written (1 Samuel 12:3), '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?' Of Amos, as it is written (Amos 7:14), 'I was a herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit,' i.e., I am proprietor of my herds and own sycamores in the valley. Of Jonah, as it is written (Jonah 1:3), 'So he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it.' Rabbi Yochanan says he hired the whole ship. Rabbi Rumanus says the hire of the ship amounted to four thousand golden denarii."—Treatise Nedarim, fol. 38,Colossians 1:0.