The interpretation timeline

1Sam 13:12

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

1Sam 13:12 · Douay-Rheims
“I said: Now will the Philistines come down upon me to Galgal, and I have not appeased the face of the Lord. Forced by necessity, I offered the holocaust.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
604
A.D.
Gregory the Great Patristic
c. A.D. 540–604
“17. Behold, he who is accused of the recklessness of a great transgression is not afraid to assert great reasons of justice. "I saw," he says, "that the people were slipping away from me." Here he asserts that he was abandoned by the people. "Furthermore, you had not come within the appointed days." Here he shows himself cheated of the prophet's promise. "Furthermore, the Philistines had gathered at Michmash." Here he likewise brings up the imminent danger of battle. Therefore, drawing a conclusion from his own action, he says: "Compelled by necessity, I offered the burnt offering." As if to say: You accuse me of a great offense, when the offense is so much lighter inasmuch as it was committed not from recklessness but from necessity. But what the prophet recognizes him to be—he who was unwilling to recognize himself—he adds, saying...”
Source
735
A.D.
Bede Patristic
A.D. 673–735
“I said: Now the Philistines will come down upon me to Gilgal, etc. The Pharisees and scribes, fearing that they might be either submerged by demons or in the mire of vices, or rendered useless in the revelation of the given law, began to have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge; and as the Psalmist testifies, "There they were in great fear, where no fear was" (Psalm 52).”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.