1st Samuel Chapter 12 verse 21 Holy Bible
and turn ye not aside; for `then would ye go' after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain.
read chapter 12 in ASV
And do not go from the right way turning to those false gods in which there is no profit and no salvation, for they are false.
read chapter 12 in BBE
and turn ye not aside; for [it would be] after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.
read chapter 12 in DARBY
And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.
read chapter 12 in KJV
And turn ye not aside: for then would ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.
read chapter 12 in WBT
and don't turn aside; for [then would you go] after vain things which can't profit nor deliver, for they are vain.
read chapter 12 in WEB
and ye do not turn aside after the vain things which do not profit nor deliver, for they `are' vain,
read chapter 12 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 21. - For then should ye go after vain things. The word for is omitted in all the ancient versions, and the sense is complete without it: "And turn ye not aside after tohu," the word used in Genesis 1:1, and there translated "without form." It means anything empty, void, and so is often used, as here, for "an idol," because, as St. Paul says, "an idol is nothing in the world" (1 Corinthians 8:4). So Isaiah (Isaiah 44:9) calls the makers of idols vanity, Hebrew, tohu, i.e. empty people, with no sense in them. The word is used again at the end of the verse - which idols cannot profit nor deliver; for they are tohu, emptiness.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(21) For then should ye go after vain things.--The passage is more forcible without the "for" and the words in italics supplied in the English translation. The verse without it would run thus: "Turn ye not aside after vain things which cannot profit," &c. Singularly enough, not one of the ancient versions translate the Hebrew ki, "for": they all omit it. It is therefore clear that this "for" has, through some copyist's error, got into the text since the versions were made.
