1 Samuel 12:21 - New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition 2021

²¹ and do not turn aside after useless things that cannot profit or save, for they are useless.

More versions

King James Version (Oxford) 1769

²¹ and turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

²¹ And turn not aside after vain and worthless things which cannot profit or deliver you, for they are empty and futile.

American Standard Version (1901)

²¹ and turn ye not aside; for then would ye go after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain.

Common English Bible

²¹ Don’t turn aside to follow useless idols that can’t help you or save you. They’re absolutely useless!

Catholic Public Domain Version

²¹ And do not choose to turn aside after vanities, which will never benefit you, nor rescue you, since they are empty.

1 Samuel 12:21 Cross References

Habakkuk 2:18

What use is an idol once its maker has shaped it— a cast image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in what has been made, though the product is only an idol that cannot speak!

Jeremiah 16:19

O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: “Our ancestors have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit.

Jeremiah 10:15

They are worthless, a work of delusion; at the time of their punishment they shall perish.

Jeremiah 14:22

Can any idols of the nations bring rain, or can the heavens give showers? Is it not you, O Lord our God? We set our hope on you, for it is you who do all this.

Deuteronomy 11:16

Take care, or you will be seduced into turning away, serving other gods and worshiping them,

1 Corinthians 8:4

Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “no idol in the world really exists” and that “there is no God but one.”

Jonah 2:8

Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty.

Jeremiah 2:13

for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.

Isaiah 46:7

They lift it to their shoulders; they carry it; they set it in its place, and it stands there; it cannot move from its place. If one cries out to it, it does not answer or save anyone from trouble.

Isaiah 45:20

Assemble yourselves and come together; draw near, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge— those who carry about their wooden idols and keep on praying to a god that cannot save.

Jeremiah 10:8

They are both stupid and foolish; the instruction given by idols is no better than wood!

Jeremiah 2:5

Thus says the Lord: What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me and went after worthless things and became worthless themselves?

Isaiah 41:29

No, they are all a delusion; their works are nothing; their images are empty wind.

Deuteronomy 32:21

They made me jealous with what is no god, provoked me with their idols. So I will make them jealous with what is no people, provoke them with a foolish nation.

Acts 14:15

“People, why are you doing this? We are mortals just like you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.

Deuteronomy 30:17

But if your heart turns away and you do not hear but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them,

2 Kings 17:15

They despised his statutes and his covenant that he had made with their ancestors and the warnings that he had given them. They went after false idols and became false; they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do as they did.

Jonah 2:9

But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the Lord!”