1 SAMUEL 8 COMMENTARYEDITED BY GLENN PEASE

Israel Asks for a King

1 When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as Israel’s leaders.[a]

BARNES, "This verse implies a long period, probably not less than 20 years, of which we have no account except what is contained in the brief notice in 1Sa_7:13-17. The general idea conveyed is of a time of peace and prosperity, analogous to that under other Judges.

CLARKE, "When Samuel was old - Supposed to be about sixty.He made his sons judges - He appointed them as his lieutenants to superintend certain affairs in Beer-sheba, which he could not conveniently attend to himself. But they were never judges in the proper sense of the word; Samuel was the last judge in Israel, and he judged it to the day of his death. See 1Sa_7:16.

GILL, "And it came to pass, when Samuel was old,.... The common notion of the Jews is, that he lived but fifty two years (t); when a man is not usually called an old man, unless the infirmities of old age came upon him sooner than they commonly do, through his indefatigable labours from his childhood, and the cares and burdens of government he had long bore; though some think he was about sixty years of age; and Abarbinel is of opinion that he was more than seventy. It is a rule with the Jews (u), that a man is called an old man at sixty, and a grey headed man at seventy: that he made his sons judges over Israel; under himself, not being able through old age to go the circuits he used; he sent them, and appointed them to hear and try causes in his stead, or settled them in some particular places in the land, and, as it seems by what follows, at Beersheba; though whether that was under his direction, or was their own choice, is not certain.

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HENRY 1-2, "Two sad things we find here, but not strange things: - 1. A good and useful man growing old and unfit for service (1Sa_8:1): Samuel was old, and could not judge Israel, as he had done. He is not reckoned to be past sixty years of age now, perhaps not so much; but he was a man betimes, was full of thoughts and cared when he was a child, which perhaps hastened the infirmities of age upon him. The fruits that are the first ripe keep the worst. He had spent his strength and spirits in the fatigue of public business, and now, if he think to shake himself as at other times, he finds he is mistaken: old age has cut his hair. Those that are in the prime of their time ought to be busy in doing the work of life: for, as they go into years, they will find themselves less disposed to it and less able for it. 2. The children of a good man turning aside, and not treading in his steps. Samuel had given his sons so good an education, and they had given him such good hopes of their doing well, and gained such a reputation in Israel, that he made them judges, assistants to him awhile, and afterwards deputies under him at Beersheeba, which lay remote from Ramah, 1Sa_8:2. Probably the southern countries petitioned for their residence there, that they might not be necessitated to travel far with their causes. We have reason to think that Samuel gave them their commissions, not because they were his sons (he had no ambition to entail the government upon his family, any more than Gideon had), but because, for aught that yet appeared, they were men very fit for the trust; and none so proper to ease the aged judge, and take some of the burden off him, as (coeteris paribus - other things being equal) his own sons, who no doubt were respected for their good father's sake, and, having such an advantage at setting out, might soon have been great if they had but been good. But, alas! his sons walked not in his ways (1Sa_8:3), and, when their character was the reverse of his, their relation to so good a man, which otherwise would have been their honour, was really their disgrace. Degeneranti genus opprobrium - A good extraction is a reproach to him that degenerates from it. Note, Those that have the most grace themselves cannot give grace to their children. It has often been the grief of good men to see their posterity, instead of treading in their steps, trampling upon them, and, as Job speaks, marring their path. Nay, many that have begun well, promised fair, and set out in the right path, so that their parents and friends have had great hopes of them, yet afterwards have turned aside to by-paths, and been the grief of those of whom they should have been the joy. When Samuel's sons were made judges, and settled at a distance form him, then they discovered themselves. Thus, (1.) Many that have been well educated, and have conducted themselves well while they were under their parents' eye, when they have gone abroad into the world and set up for themselves have proved bad. Let none therefore be secure either of themselves or theirs, but depend on divine grace.

JAMISON, "1Sa_8:1-18. Occasioned by the ill-government of Samuel’s sons, the Israelites ask a king.

when Samuel was old — He was now about fifty-four years of age, having discharged the office of sole judge for twelve years. Unable, from growing infirmities, to prosecute his circuit journeys through the country, he at length confined his magisterial 2

duties to Ramah and its neighborhood (1Sa_7:15), delegating to his sons as his deputies the administration of justice in the southern districts of Palestine, their provincial court being held at Beer-sheba. The young men, however, did not inherit the high qualities of their father. Having corrupted the fountains of justice for their own private aggrandizement, a deputation of the leading men in the country lodged a complaint against them in headquarters, accompanied with a formal demand for a change in the government. The limited and occasional authority of the judges, the disunion and jealousy of the tribes under the administration of those rulers, had been creating a desire for a united and permanent form of government; while the advanced age of Samuel, together with the risk of his death happening in the then unsettled state of the people, was the occasion of calling forth an expression of this desire now.

BENSON, "1 Samuel 8:1. Samuel was old — And so unfit for his former travels and labours. He is not supposed to have been now above sixty years of age; but he had spent his strength and spirits in the fatigue of public business; and now if he thinks to shake himself as at other times, he finds he is mistaken; age has cut his hair. They that are in the prime of their years, ought to be busy in doing the work of life; for as they go into years, they will find themselves less disposed to it, and less capable of it. He made his sons judges — Not supreme judges, for of such there was to be but one, and that of God’s choosing; and Samuel still kept that office in his own hands, (1 Samuel 7:15;) but his deputies, to go about and determine matters, with reservation, however, of a right of appeal to himself. He had doubtless instructed them in a singular manner, and fitted them for the highest employments; and he hoped that the example he had set them, and the authority he still had over them, would oblige them to diligence and faithfulness in their trust.COFFMAN, "ISRAEL DEMANDS A KING ... LIKE ALL THE NATIONS

This is one of the most important chapters in the Bible. Right here is the very tap root of the evil that mined Israel. In this chapter, they rejected God, demanded a king like other nations, and set in motion a chain of events that culminated in the frenzied cry of the Sanhedrin before Pilate, "We have no king but Caesar."

SAMUEL'S SONS NO BETTER THAN THOSE OF ELIThe big event in this chapter is Israel's demand for a king. There were a number of reasons for this development, but the `trigger situation' that precipitated the

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demand of the elders of Israel is revealed in this first paragraph.

"When Samuel became old he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his first-born son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. Yet his sons did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after gain; they took bribes and perverted justice."

"Sons judges over Israel" (1 Samuel 8:1). This cannot mean that they replaced Samuel in any official sense, but that they were deputies appointed by Samuel and empowered to exercise authority that belonged to their father. It seems that the examples God allowed in the reprobate sons of both Eli and Samuel, and also in the instance of Abimelech the son of Gideon, should have been a sufficient warning to Israel against any system that called for hereditary succession of authority; but Israel did not heed it.

"Joel ... Abijah" (1 Samuel 8:2). The devotion of their godly father is evident in the names bestowed upon his sons. Joel means `The Lord is God,' and Abijah (or Abiah) means `God is father'[1] The statement here that they performed their judgeship in Beersheba emphasizes the extension of Israel's authority under Samuel to that southern landmark. Josephus states that one of Samuel's sons judged at Bethel,[2] but this presents no difficulty. As Samuel's judgeships were performed at a number of different cities, his sons probably, at one time or another judged at all of them. The narrative here and that of Josephus do not necessarily refer to exactly the same time periods. We receive both accounts as true.

ELLICOTT, " (1) When Samuel was old.—We are not able with any precision to fix the dates of Samuel’s life. When the great disaster happened which resulted in the capture of the Ark of God and Eli’s death. the young prophet was barely thirty years old. For the next twenty years we have seen how unweariedly he laboured to awaken in the people a sense of their deep degradation and of the real causes of their fallen state. Thus, when the great revolt and the Israelite victory at Eben-ezer took place, Samuel the judge was probably nearly fifty years of age. Another considerable apse of time must be assumed between the day of the uprising of the people and the throwing off the Philistine yoke and the events related at such length

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in the present chapter—the request of the people for an earthly king; for we must allow a sufficient lapse of time for the Philistines to have recovered the effects of their defeat at Eben-ezer, and again to have established themselves in power, at least in the southern districts of Canaan. A famous Hebrew commentator suggests seventy years of age as the most likely time of life. This supposition is, likely enough, a correct one.The following little table, showing the events in the life of Samuel, will assist the student of the Bible story:—1st period, 12 years 2 period about 15 to 20 years.The child life in the Tabernacle service, under the guardianship of Eli. The boy is called by the holy Voice to be a prophet; Josephus states that this happened in his twelfth year. The boy-prophet remains in Shiloh The people gradually come to the knowledge that a new prophet had risen up among them. He stays with Eli until his death, after the disastrous battle of Aphek and the capture of the Ark. Shiloh was probably destroyed by the Philistines after the battle of Aphek.3rd period, 20 year.He works unweariedly up and down among the people, and rouses them to renounce idolatry, and under the Eternal’s protection to win their freedom.4th period, probably nearly 20 years. 5th period.Samuel judges Israel, now a free nation, again. The Eternal God-Friend acknowledged by the people as King. Samuel the seer and judge and Saul the king govern Israel.

HAWKER, "This Chapter contains rather the dark side of Israel from the former. Samuel growing old, and his sons not closely copying after the example of their father, discontent broke out among the people. They ask for a king in imitation of the nations around them. The thing displeaseth the Lord. Samuel remonstrates with the people. They are obstinate. Samuel promiseth their request shall be complied with. These are the principal things contained in this Chapter.

1 Samuel 8:1

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(1) ¶ And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons Judges over Israel.

It should seem from calculation, that Samuel could not at this time be above sixty years of age. But it is probable he had worn fast, and brought on premature old age in the service and zeal of God's government. It forms a sweet reflection in the close of life, if when strength is consumed, that that strength has not been spent in the service of sin. But here, Reader, as in every other instance so in this, what a lovely view doth our Jesus afford, whose day of life ended at a little more than thirty-three! I must work (said that lovely one) the works of him that sent me while it is day, the night cometh when no man can work. John 9:4.K&D, "Introduction

II. The Monarchy of Saul from His Election Till His Ultimate Rejection - 1 Samuel 8-15

The earthly monarchy in Israel was established in the time of Samuel, andthrough his mediation. At the pressing desire of the people, Samuelinstalled the Benjaminite Saul as king, according to the command of God. The reign of Saul may be divided into two essentially different periods:viz., (1) the establishment and vigorous development of his regalsupremacy (1 Samuel 8-15); (2) the decline and gradual overthrow of hismonarchy (1 Samuel 16-31). The establishment of the monarchy is introducedby the negotiations of the elders of Israel with Samuel concerning theappointment of a king (1 Samuel 8). This is followed by (1) the account of theanointing of Saul as king (1 Samuel 9:1-10:16), of his election by lot, and ofhis victory over the Ammonites and the confirmation of his monarchy atGilgal (1 Samuel 10:17-11:15), together with Samuel's final address to thenation (1 Samuel 12); (2) the history of Saul's reign, of which only his earliestvictories over the Philistines are given at all elaborately (1 Samuel 13:1-14:46), his other wars and family history being disposed of verysummarily (1 Samuel 14:47-52); (3) the account of his disobedience to thecommand of God in the war against the Amalekites, and the rejection onthe part of God with which Samuel threatened him in consequence (1 Samuel 15). The brevity with which the history of his actual reign is treated,

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incontrast with the elaborate account of his election and confirmation asking, may be accounted for from the significance and importance of Saul'smonarchy in relation to the kingdom of God in Israel.The people of Israel traced the cause of the oppression and distress, fromwhich they had suffered more and more in the time of the judges, to thedefects of their own political constitution. They wished to have a king,like all the heathen nations, to conduct their wars and conquer theirenemies. Now, although the desire to be ruled by a king, which had existedin the nation even from the time of Gideon, was not in itself at variancewith the appointment of Israel as a kingdom of God, yet the motive whichled the people to desire it was both wrong and hostile to God, since thesource of all the evils and misfortunes from which Israel suffered was to befound in the apostasy of the nation from its God, and its coquetting withthe gods of the heathen. Consequently their self-willed obstinacy indemanding a king, notwithstanding the warnings of Samuel, was an actualrejection of the sovereignty of Jehovah, since He had always manifestedhimself to His people as their king by delivering them out of the power oftheir foes, as soon as they returned to Him with simple penitence of heart. Samuel pointed this out to the elders of Israel, when they laid theirpetition before him that he would choose them a king. But Jehovahfulfilled their desires. He directed Samuel to appoint them a king, whopossessed all the qualifications that were necessary to secure for thenation what it looked for from a king, and who therefore might haveestablished the monarchy in Israel as foreseen and foretold by Jehovah, ifhe had not presumed upon his own power, but had submitted humbly tothe will of God as made known to him by the prophet. Saul, who waschosen from Benjamin, the smallest but yet the most warlike of all thetribes, a man in the full vigour of youth, and surpassing all the rest of thepeople in beauty of form as well as bodily strength, not only possessed“warlike bravery and talent, unbroken courage that could overcomeopposition of every kind, a stedfast desire for the well-being of the nationin the face of its many and mighty foes, and zeal and pertinacity in theexecution of his plans” (Ewald), but also a pious heart, and an earnest zealfor the maintenance of the provisions of the law, and the promotion of thereligious life of the nation. He would not commence the conflict with the Philistines until sacrifice hadbeen offered (1 Samuel 13:9.); in the midst of the hot pursuit of the foe heopposed the sin committed by the people in eating flesh with the blood (1 Samuel 14:32-33); he banished the wizards and necromancers out of the land(1 Samuel 28:3, 1 Samuel 28:9); and in general he appears to have kept a strict watch overthe observance of the Mosaic law in his kingdom. But the consciousnessof his own power, coupled with the energy of his character, led his astrayinto an incautious disregard of the commands of God; his zeal in theprosecution of his plans hurried him on to reckless and violent measures;and success in his undertakings heightened

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his ambition into a haughtyrebellion against the Lord, the God-king of Israel. These errors come outvery conspicuously in the three great events of his reign which are themost circumstantially described. When Saul was preparing for war against the Philistines, and Samuel didnot appear at once on the day appointed, he presumptuously disregardedthe prohibition of the prophet, and offered the sacrifice himself withoutwaiting for Samuel to arrive (1 Samuel 13:7.). In the engagement with thePhilistines, he attempted to force on the annihilation of the foe bypronouncing the ban upon any one in his army who should eat breadbefore the evening, or till he had avenged himself upon his foes. Consequently, he not only diminished the strength of the people, so thatthe overthrow of the enemy was not great, but he also preparedhumiliation for himself, inasmuch as he was not able to carry out his vow(1 Samuel 14:24.). But he sinned still more grievously in the war with theAmalekites, when he violated the express command of the Lord by onlyexecuting the ban upon that nation as far as he himself thought well, andthus by such utterly unpardonable conduct altogether renounced theobedience which he owed to the Lord his God (1 Samuel 15). All these acts oftransgression manifest an attempt to secure the unconditional gratificationof his own self-will, and a growing disregard of the government of Jehovahin Israel; and the consequence of the whole was simply this, that Saul notonly failed to accomplish that deliverance of the nation out of the powerof its foes which the Israelites had anticipated from their king, and wasunable to inflict any lasting humiliation upon the Philistines, but that heundermined the stability of his monarchy, and brought about his ownrejection on the part of God.From all this we may see very clearly, that the reason why the occurrencesconnected with the election of Saul as king as fully described on the onehand, and on the other only such incidents connected with his enterprisesafter he began to reign as served to bring out the faults and crimes of hismonarchy, was, that Israel might learn from this, that royalty itself couldnever secure the salvation it expected, unless the occupant of the thronesubmitted altogether to the will of the Lord. Of the other acts of Saul, thewars with the different nations round about are only briefly mentioned,but with this remark, that he displayed his strength and gained the victoryin whatever direction he turned (1 Samuel 14:47), simply because thisstatement was sufficient to bring out the brighter side of his reign,inasmuch as this clearly showed that it might have been a source ofblessing to the people of God, if the king had only studied how to governhis people in the power and according to the will of Jehovah. If weexamine the history of Saul's reign from this point of view, all the differentpoints connected with it exhibit the greatest harmony. Modern critics, however, have discovered irreconcilable contradictions inthe history, simply because, instead of studying it for the purpose offathoming the plan and purpose

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which lie at the foundation, they haveentered upon the inquiry with a twofold assumption: viz., (1) that thegovernment of Jehovah over Israel was only a subjective idea of theIsraelitish nation, without any objective reality; and (2) that the humanmonarchy was irreconcilably opposed to the government of God. Governed by these axioms, which are derived not from the Scriptures, butfrom the philosophical views of modern times, the critics have found itimpossible to explain the different accounts in any other way than by thepurely external hypothesis, that the history contained in this book hasbeen compiled from two different sources, in one of which theestablishment of the earthly monarchy was treated as a violation of thesupremacy of God, whilst the other took a more favourable view. Fromthe first source, 1 Samuel 8, 1 Samuel 10:17-27, 1 Samuel 10:11-12, and 1 Samuel 10:15 are said to have beenderived; and 1 Samuel 9-10:17, 1 Samuel 10:13, and 1 Samuel 10:14 from the second.Verses 1-5

1 Samuel 8:1-2

The reason assigned for the appointment of Samuel's sons asjudges is his own advanced age. The inference which we might draw fromthis alone, namely, that they were simply to support their father in theadministration of justice, and that Samuel had no intention of laying downhis office, and still less of making the supreme office of judge hereditary inhis family, is still more apparent from the fact that they were stationed asjudges of the nation in Beersheba, which was on the southern border ofCanaan (Judges 20:1, etc.; see at Genesis 21:31). The sons are also mentionedagain in 1 Chronicles 6:13, though the name of the elder has either beendropped out of the Masoretic text or has become corrupt.CONSTABLE, "The occasion for requesting a king 8:1-3The people would probably not have pressed for a king at this time had Samuel's sons proved as faithful to the Mosaic Covenant as their father had been. However, Joel ("Yahweh is God") and Abijah ("My [divine] Father is Yahweh") disqualified themselves from leadership in Israel by disobeying the Law (Exodus 23:6; Exodus 23:8; Deuteronomy 16:19). Eli's sons had done the same thing. Parental influence is important, but personal choices are even more determinative in the outcome of one's life. Whereas the writer censured Eli for his poor parenting (1 Samuel 3:13), he did not do so with Samuel. Evidently he did not consider Samuel responsible for his

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son's conduct, or perhaps he did not want to sully the reputation of this great judge. Some commentators have faulted Samuel for his sons' behavior. [Note: E.g., Wood, The Prophets ..., p. 160.]

LANGE, "The Preparations. Chapters8–9

I. The Persistent Desire of the People after a King conveyed through their Elders to Samuel

1 Samuel 8:1-22

1And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over 2 Israel. Now [And] the name of his first-born was Joel, 1and the name of his [the] 3second Abiah[FN2]; they were judges in Beersheba. And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre,[FN3] and took bribes, and perverted judgment.

4Then [And] all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to 5 Samuel to Ramah, And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk 6 not in thy ways; now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But [And] the thing displeased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel 7 prayed unto the Lord [Jehovah]. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee; for they have not rejected thee,[FN4] but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them 8 According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken [forsaking][FN5] me and served [serving] other gods, so do they also [om. also] unto thee [ins. also]. 9Now therefore [And now] hearken unto their voice; howbeit [om. howbeit] yet protest solemnly unto [solemnly warn][FN6] them, and show them the manner[FN7] of the king that shall reign over them.

10And Samuel told all the words of the Lord [Jehovah] to the people that asked 11 of him a king. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over

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you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen [put them in his chariot and on his horses[FN8]], and some [they] 12shall run before his chariots [chariot]. And he will appoint[FN9] him captains over thousands and captains over fifties, and will set them [some he will set] to ear [plough] his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war and [ins. 13the] instruments [equipment] of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries [perfumers],[FN10] and to be [om. to be] cooks, and to be [om. to be] 14bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, 15even [om. even] the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his 16 servants. And he will take your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and your 17 goodliest young men [oxen],[FN11] and your asses, and put them to his work. He will 18 take the tenth of your sheep; and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which [whom] ye shall have chosen you, and the Lord [Jehovah] will not hear you in that day.

19Nevertheless [And] the people refused to obey [hearken to] the voice of Samuel 20 And they said, Nay, but we will have a king over us; That [And] we also may [will] be like all the nations, and that [om. that] our king may [shall] judge us, 21and go out before us, and fight our battles. And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord [Jehovah]. And the 22 Lord [Jehovah] said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1 Samuel 8:1-3. Samuel’s sons, Joel and Abiah, associated with him as judges over Israel.—The reason here given, why Samuel made his two sons Judges, is his age, for which his work, as sketched in 1 Samuel 7:15-17, had become too hard. The two sons, Joel and Abiah, are also mentioned in 1 Chronicles 6:13 [Eng. A. V: 1 Samuel 8:28], where, however, in the masoretic text, the name of the first has fallen out.[FN12] [These names may be taken as indications of the father’s pious feeling. The first, Joel, “Jehovah is God,” was, not improbably, a protest against the idolatry of the Israelites. Hebrew names thus frequently serve as historical finger-signs, pointing out prevailing tendencies or modes of feeling at certain times. Comp. Ichabod ( 1 Samuel 4:21-22), Saul’s ’sons Meribbaal (Mephibosheth) and Ishbaal

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(Ishbosheth), David’s sons ( 2 Samuel 3:2-5), Manasseh the King, Malachi. The name of Samuel’s second Song of Solomon, Abiah, “Jehovah is father,” expresses trust in the fatherhood of God, an idea which hardly appears in O. T. except in proper names. “It records, doubtless, the fervent aspiration of him who first devised it as a name, and, we may hope, of many who subsequently adopted it, after that endearing and intimate relationship between God and the soul of Prayer of Manasseh, which is truly expressed by the words ‘father’ and ‘child.’ It may be accepted as proof that believers in ancient days, though they had not possession of the perfect knowledge of ‘the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ,’ or of the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, nevertheless ‘received the Spirit of adoption,’ that God ‘sent forth the Spirit of His Son into their hearts, whereby they cried, Abba, Father’ ” (Wilkinson, Personal Names in the Bible, page169 sq.).—Tr.].—They acted as judges in Beersheba, “Well of the seven (that Isaiah, lambs), or of the oath” ( Genesis 21:28-33), the spot consecrated by the Patriarchal history ( Genesis 22:19; Genesis 26:23; Genesis 28:10), in the extreme south of the country, on the border of Edom, now Bir- Esther -seba [“Well of the seven, or of the lion”] (Robins. I:337 [Amer. Ed. L, 204sq.]).[FN13] Josephus (Ant. VI, 3, 2) adds, “in Bethel” after “ Judges,” thus intimating that one son acted in the North, the other in the South, both together comprising the whole country in their judicial work, according to which Samuel had wholly retired; but against this is the previous statement that Samuel exercised his office “all the days of his life,” and therefore his sons could only have been appointed by him assistants in the performance of duties which his old age rendered too arduous for him. Ewald’s opinion that this addition of Josephus “suits so well,” that “he must have gotten it from a still better account in the histories of the Kings,” is a mere surmise, over against which we may put with equal right the opinion that Josephus was indebted for this addition (Nägelsb.) to his “very lively fancy” (Then.), and that the Masoretic text fits in so well with the whole historical situation, that the integrity of the passage cannot be assailed. Since, on the one hand, our attention is directed to Samuel’s age,[FN14] which compelled him to make his sons Judges, while yet he did not lay down his office, and, on the other hand, the desire after a firm and energetic royal power was based on the dangerous condition of the country by reason of foreign enemies, it appears that Samuel, in order to lighten the burden, set his sons as judges in a part of the land, and in the part which occasioned the greatest difficulties and exertions, that Isaiah, the southern. 1 Samuel 8:3 affirms that this measure was a failure. In consequence of the division of the judicial power between the father and the sons, the authority of the office was so debased in the eyes of the people by the crimes of the latter, as the sacerdotal dignity was by the sons of Eli, that the desire for a higher authority to guide the people found utterance.—They took bribes and perverted judgment.—They thus transgressed the law of the Lord ( Exodus 23:6; Exodus 23:8; comp.

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Deuteronomy 16:19), and destroyed the foundation of the judicial office as the office for the administration of right and justice. Their official unfaithfulness is contrasted with their father’s walk: they walked not in his ways.—This fact or judgment alone is given, and Samuel is not, like Eli, charged with the blame of his sons’ misconduct. The words: they inclined or turned aside (namely, from the ways of their father[FN15]) after lucre, exhibit the roots of their wicked official procedure in a mind directed to gain. Luther gives the correct sense: “they turned aside to covetousness.”LANGE, "HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL

1. The demand for a human kingdom like the kingdom in other nations, and its fulfilment, is one of the most important turning-points in the development of the Kingdom of God under the Old Covenant. Historically occasioned by constant danger from without, against which there was no one sufficient leader, and by the arbitrary and illegal procedure of the Judges, it was more deeply grounded in the need (felt by the people and supported by public opinion) of a sole, continuous, and externally and internally firm and energetic rule. And this rule, even if it took the shape of royalty, needed not to be in conflict with the monarchical rule of God over His people ( Exodus 19:5 sq.; Judges 8:23; 1 Samuel 12:12); for1) the human king, if his relation to God’s kingdom were rightly apprehended, need be nothing more than the instrument and representative of the theocratic kingdom; 2) from the Patriarchal time on, through the Mosaic period and that of the Judges till now, there had been defined hopes of and allusions to the rise of a mighty and glorious kingdom within the nation under the lead of the Divine Spirit Himself ( Genesis 17:6; Genesis 17:16; Genesis 35:11; Numbers 24:17; comp. Deuteronomy 17:14-20; Judges 8:23; Judges 9:22; 1 Samuel 2:10, 3:35); and3) the existing government was no longer able to perform the duties incumbent on it. Ew. Gesch. [History of Israel, 2, 606 sq.]: “As, then, even under Samuel, in his latter years, the judicial office showed itself without and within too weak and unable to give permanent security, the time was at last come when the people must either submit to a more perfect human government, or perish irretrievably. “The unfavorable decision on the demand given nevertheless by Samuel and in the divine declaration, refers to the sinful disposition of mind out of which the demand sprang—a disposition not trusting unconditionally in God’s power, anticipating the plans of His wisdom and His chosen time, controlled by vain and proud desire to imitate the royal magnificences of the heathen peoples. “In this there was a two-fold ungodly element1) They desired a king instead of the God-established and nobly attested Judge Samuel …… The scheme is characterized as an injustice against Samuel, and

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therefore a sin against the Lord, who sent him, 1 Samuel 8:7; 1 Samuel 8:2) At the bottom of the people’s desire for a king lay the delusion, that God was powerless to help them, that the reason of their subjection was not their sin, but a fault in the constitution, that the kingdom would be an aid in addition to God. This point of view appears oftener in the narrative than the first. Isaiah 10:18-19; Isaiah 12. The kingdom desired in such a mind was not a form of God’s kingdom in accordance with Revelation, but opposed to His kingdom.” (Hengst. Beit. 3, p256 sq.) Calvin: “They ought to have waited patiently for the time predetermined by God, and not have given place to their own designs and methods apart from God’s word. They ought not, therefore, to have anticipated God’s purpose, but ought to have waited till the Lord Himself should show by indubitable signs that the foreordained time had come, and should direct their counsels. Moreover, though they recognized Samuel as a prophet, they not only did not inquire of him whether they were to have a king or not, but wanted him to aid in carrying out their design. They do not think of invoking God; they demand that a king be given them; they adduce the customs and institutions of other nations.” Nevertheless, Samuel yields to the desire of the people, “because he knows that now God’s time has come; but, at the same time, he does all that he can to bring the people to a consciousness of their sin.” (Hengst. ib. 258.) The fulfilment of the demand for a human kingdom is distinctly granted by God, because, though as a human factor in the movement it is rooted in sin, yet, foreseen by God, it fits into His plan, and is to be the means of elevating and confirming the Theocracy in His people, and of laying the foundation for the further development of the nation’s history, till the preparation should be complete for salvation in the person of Him, of whom the kingdom of Israel in David was to be the prefiguration and type. Herein the law, which runs through the whole history of the development of Revelation, repeats itself: by the guilt of the covenant-people God’s arrangements for salvation reach a point where they no longer serve; then their guilt is revealed most strongly in open disobedience to God; but, in permitting what the people sinfully wish, God grasps the reins and directs events to a point, of which the people in their sinful blindness had thought nothing, so that He only the more glorifies Himself by the elevation of His revelation to a higher place.” (O. v. Gerlach.)

2. We are not to think of the relation between the theocracy and the kingdom established through Samuel, as if the latter were an addition to the former “to aid it in accomplishing its task, and to supply what was lacking to the times,” as if a “mixed constitution and rule” had arisen, and “out of a divine government” had come a “royal-divine government,” a Basileo-Theocracy. Ew. Gesch. [Hist.] 3, 8.

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This conception of a co-ordinate relation does not agree with the governing principle of the theocracy, that God is and remains king of His people, that God’s law and truth is the authority to which the kingdom must unconditionally submit, in dependence on which it is to govern as visible instrument of the theocracy in the name and place of the invisible king. The rejection of Saul, who would not pay unconditional obedience to God’s rule, and the divine recognition of David’s government as one which was thoroughly in unison with the rule of Israel’s true king, their God and Lord, and which continued to prepare the way for its realization in the people, laying the historical basis for the future manifestation of the Messianic kingdom, confirm the view that the relation of the Israelitish kingdom to the Theocracy (as Samuel, under God’s direction, founded it) was one of unconditional subordination; it was to be the instrument of the latter. The statement that there was an encroachment on the pure Theocracy in the fact “that Jehovah could no longer be the sole Lawgiver, that the earthly king must execute his will with unrestrained authority” (Diestel, Jahrb. für deutsche Theol, 1863, p554) rests on an incorrect presupposition, since, according to the principle of the Theocracy, even the established monarchy was expressly subject to the legislative authority of the covenant-God, and both king and people must unconditionally conform their will to the will and law of God.

3. This history of the people’s desire for a king and its fulfilment by God exhibits the relation of the divine will to the human will, when the latter stands sinfully opposed to the former. God never destroys the freedom of the human will. He leaves it to its free self-determination, but when it has turned away from His will, seeks to bring it back by the revelation in His word. If this does not succeed, human perversity must nevertheless minister to the realization of the plans of His kingdom and salvation, and also, in its evil consequences, bring punishment, according to His righteous law, on the sin which man thus freely commits.

4. Samuel appears, in this crisis of Old Testament history, among the men of God whom the Bible represents as heroes in prayer, as Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah. Speaking to the people, he represented God as his prophet; praying to God, he represented the people as their priestly mediator. Comp. Schröring, Samuel als Beter (“Samuel as a praying man”), in the Zeitschr. für luth. Theol. ü Krit, 1856, p 414 sq.

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5. [The relation between this narrative of the demand for a king and the “law of the king,” Deuteronomy 17:14-20, requires a brief notice. It seems strange that Samuel, if he was acquainted with this law, makes no mention of it. There is no difficulty in his characterization of the demand as a rejection of the divine rule over them (Jehovah Himself ( 1 Samuel 8:7-8) does the same thing), for the sin was in their feeling and purpose, not in the demand per se, as Dr. Erdmann well brings out; and Samuel might have so spoken, if he had known that the Law contemplated the possibility of a regal government. The real difficulty lies in the fact that the narrative in 1 Samuel8-12seems to be unconscious of the law in Deuteronomy. Allowing much, it might be said, for the simple, unscientific, historical method of the times, in which quotations are rare, and things omitted which are commonly known, it would yet seem that there should be in the addresses of the people, of Samuel, and of Jehovah, some recognition of the fact that this was a thing which did not make its first appearance now, and some reference to the obligations imposed on the king in the Mosaic Law. But, is there no recognition in the later transaction of the earlier law? If we compare the two, we shall find the relation between them to be the following: the form of demand in Deuteronomy 17:14 is given almost verbatim in 1 Samuel 8:5, but the former adds “about me,” while the latter adds the ground of the desire, “that he may be judicial and military head;” for choice by Jehovah in Deut. ( 1 Samuel 8:15), we have choice by the people in 1 Sam. ( 1 Samuel 8:18); and by Jehovah ( 1 Samuel 10:24); the reference to horses is nearly the same in form in both, but in tone quite different, Deut. 1 Samuel 8:16; 1 Samuel 8:11; on the other hand, the mention of returning to Egypt, of wives, silver and gold, and the study of the law (Deut. 1 Samuel 8:17-20) is not found in Samuel. It will be seen from this comparison, and still more from a comparison of the whole tone and drift in the two, that the act described here was probably performed without reference to the statute in Deut.; that the desire of the people was a natural, historical growth, and the course of events was determined by the circumstances of the time. So in the history of Gideon we see a similar unconsciousness of the Deuteronomic statute (though there is recognition of the theocracy), and a similar determination of action by existing circumstances. Where, then, was the Mosaic law all this time? and was Samuel ignorant of it? The answer to these questions seems to be suggested by the statement in 1 Samuel 10:25, in which there are three distinct affirmations: 1) “that Sa muel told the people the law or manner of the kingdom, which is plainly different from the law of the king in chap8, and is most naturally to be identified with Deuteronomy 17:14-17; Deuteronomy 2) that he wrote this law in a book; and3) that he put it somewhere in safe keeping. It seems probable, therefore, that we have here the political adoption of the essence of the Mosaic “law of the king” (which, in its prohibition of a return to Egypt, for example, has the stamp of Mosaic times). The law had been announced by Moses, transmitted through the priests, and was known

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to Samuel (though perhaps not generally known among the people). But it was a permission of royalty merely, not an injunction, and its existence did not diminish the people’s sin of superficial, unspiritual longing for outward guidance, nor prove at first to Samuel that the time for its application had come. He therefore says nothing about it. But when the transaction is concluded, the king actually chosen, then he announces the law, and with obvious propriety commits it in its constitutional form to writing, and deposits it before Jehovah as a part of the theocratic constitution. Thus the history seems to become natural and intelligible when regarded as exhibiting Samuel’s doubts as to whether the proper time had come for the historical realization of what Moses puts merely as a possibility. Apparently Samuel was not in sympathy with the movement, and seems to have felt after this that he had outlived his time.—Tr.]

PETT, "While Samuel was fit and well and did not flag in looking after the people they remained fully loyal to him and to YHWH. It was a minor golden age. All fear of the Philistines had gone, and they knew the way in which they should walk, and responded to Samuel’s authority. There was no question of ‘every man doing what was right in his own eyes’ as they often had during the period preceding his arrival (Judges 21:25). All responded to the prophet Samuel.

But as he grew older they became wary. For he had appointed his sons as judges over a section of Israel in the territory of Judah which was almost due west of the southern end of the Dead Sea. Its main town was called Beersheba, the southernmost city in Israel, and beyond it lay the semi-desert of the Negev. They had probably applied to him for help in finding suitable oversight, and who better than his sons? They had had no objection to the appointment of his sons, but his sons then proved unsuitable and took advantage of their positions to further their own wealth by unscrupulous means.

This rang alarm bells in the minds of the people of Israel, for they could foresee trouble once Samuel was gone. They did not want a repetition of what had happened with the sons of Eli. What this should have done, of course, was to turn their thoughts towards seeking YHWH. But that required continual repentance, and genuine trust and obedience and they were not really ready for either.

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So, probably without fully realising it (so dark is man’s heart), they were rejecting their heritage. Perhaps they remembered back to stories about the period of the Judges, when, in between YHWH’s successful appointees, there had always been those dreadful periods of humiliation which were made clear in their history. Those days were something that they did not want to go back to. They conveniently overlooked the fact that each time those humiliations had occurred it was because the people had fallen away from YHWH. What they really wanted was a stable and permanent government under a king who could fight their battles for them and which would not be dependent on the ups and downs of history (in other words would carry on whether they were totally loyal to YHWH or not). So they came to Samuel pleading with him to set a king over them. After all, had not God promised that one day they would have such a king (as the writer has already made us aware -1 Samuel 2:10)? Let Him then appoint one for them now. They were sure that this would then solve all their problems. They would never have to worry about leadership again.

Unknown to them YHWH had already been planning a king for them, but as yet he was too young to take up the position, and had not yet been shaped by YHWH. Thus YHWH would provide them with a king who would both teach them a lesson about kingship and would in the end have to make way for David. They could have no complaint. They had asked for a king like all the nations round about, and that was what God gave them, a kingly figure who fought well for them, but also manoeuvred things to his own advantage, and had not been especially prepared by YHWH. We must presume that YHWH gave them the best that was available.

Verses 1-6

The People Seek For The Appointment of a King Over Them (1 Samuel 8:1-6).

Outwardly the desire of the elders for a king appears reasonable, but what they ignored was the fact that once there was a dynasty there could be good kings followed by bad kings. It was a lesson that they should have learned from Eli’s sons and Samuel’s sons. What they should therefore rather have done was to trust in

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YHWH, and fully follow Him, for while they did so His appointees would always be dependable. Unfortunately, however, their desire arose from an evil heart of unbelief, and it was thus a rejection of YHWH’s kingship.

Analysis.

a And it came about that when Samuel was old, he made his sons judges over Israel (1 Samuel 8:1).

b Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abijah. They were judges in Beer-sheba. And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after ill-gotten gain, and took bribes, and perverted justice (1 Samuel 8:2-3).

c Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel to Rama (1 Samuel 8:4).

b And they said to him, “Behold, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations” (1 Samuel 8:5).

a But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to YHWH (1 Samuel 8:6)

Note that in ‘a’ Samuel makes his sons judges over Israel, and in the parallel they seek rather for a king to be judge over them. In ‘b his sons do not walk in his ways, and in the parallel that is the complaint of the elders about them. In ‘c’ all the elders gather in an assembly of the tribes at Rama in order to settle the future leadership question.

1 Samuel 8:1

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‘And it came about that when Samuel was old, he made his sons judges over Israel.’

Samuel had been mainly responsible for judgeship in the central part of Israel, but as a prophet of YHWH his influence would have reached much further throughout the whole of Israel. Thus when he was growing old he assigned to the judgeship of his sons the southernmost region of Israel to his sons. The fact that he did so when he had not been acting there himself would suggest the probability that the people around Beersheba had come to him asking for suitable ‘judges’ to rule over them. In response to their request he had felt that he could trust his sons. No father likes to feel that his sons cannot be trusted, and he felt that they were now ready to take independent authority. Unfortunately he was to be proved wrong. Perhaps it was because he had been neglectful over the bringing up of his own sons. Many a man who blesses many fails to be the blessing to his own family that he should be

2 The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba.

BARNES, "The mention of Beer-sheba, on the extreme southern frontier of Judah, as the place where Samuel’s sons judged Israel is remarkable. It was probably due to the recovery of territory from the usurpation of the Philistines 1Sa_7:14.

GILL, "Now the name of his firstborn was Joel,.... In 1Ch_6:28 he is called Vashni; See Gill on 1Ch_6:28. This was not Joel the prophet, as some have thought, neither his parentage, nor his office, nor his times, will agree with this: and the name of his second Abiah: which two sons seem to be all he had:

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they were judges in Beersheba; in the utmost border of the land, to the south, as Ramah, where Samuel dwelt and judged, was more to the north; where they were placed by their father, for the greater convenience of the people of Israel that lived southward, to bring their causes to them, as those lived more northward might bring them to him: according to Josephus (w), they were placed by their father, the one in Bethel, one of the places Samuel used to go to in his circuit and judge, and the other at Beersheba. But some, as Junius and others, think it should be rendered, "unto Beersheba"; and so takes in its opposite, Dan, which lay at the utmost border of the land northward; hence the phrase, "from Dan to Beersheba"; and that the one was settled at Dan for the sake of the northern part of the land, and the other at Beersheba, for the sake of the southern: or rather these sons of Samuel placed themselves at Beersheba; which was an ill judged thing, to be both in one place, and which must give the people of Israel a great deal of trouble, and put them to a large expense to come from all quarters thither, to have their causes tried; but that is not the worst.

BENSON, "1 Samuel 8:2. They were judges in Beer-sheba — In the southern borders of the land of Canaan, which were very remote from his house at Ramah; where, and in the neighbouring places, Samuel himself still executed the office of judge.HAWKER, "(2) Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: they were Judges in Beersheba. (3) And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.Behold, Reader, in these instances, that grace is not hereditary. The most pious of men cannot convey the least portion of the Holy Ghost to their children. Oh! thou dear Redeemer! how hast thou hereby taught us the infinite importance of an union with thee! Holy Father! remember thy promise to our Jesus, and be it according to thy words: pour thy Spirit. upon his seed, and thy blessing upon his offspring. Isaiah 44:3.PETT, "1 Samuel 8:2‘Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abijah. They were judges in Beer-sheba.

The names of his sons are given. His firstborn was Joel, while his second son was called Abijah. It will be noted that both names compound with the name of YHWH, Yo-el (Yah is God) and Abi-yah (My divine father is Yah), and witness to Samuel’s faith. In 1 Chronicles 6:28, however, they are named ‘the firstborn Vashni and Abijah’. This is quite possible because it was not unusual in Israel for a man to have

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two names. They were appointed as joint judges in Beersheba which was the southernmost region in Israel (compare 1 Samuel 3:20).

(Many, however, think that in 1 Chronicles 6:28 the name Joel has somehow slipped out of the text, and that it should read, ‘the firstborn Joel and the second Abijah’, for vashni could be pointed to signify ‘and the second’. There is, however, no textual evidence to support the suggestion. LXX reads ‘the first-born Sani, and Abia’ which supports MT).PULPIT, "1Sa_8:2The name of his firstborn was Joel. The names of Samuel’s sons are pledges of his faith—Joel meaning Jehovah is God, and Abiah Jab is Father. The name given in 1Ch_6:28, Vashni, is a mistake. It means, "and the second," the name of Joel the firstborn having somehow been omitted. The names of Saul’s sons, and even of Jonathan’s, unlike those in Samuel’s family, bear witness to their religion having been of a curiously mixed character. In Beer-sheba. Not, therefore, in any of the places to which Samuel went in person, and which were all near Ramah, his home. Beer-sheba was in the extreme south of the tribe of Judah (see on Gen_21:31), on the Philistine border, and his being able to place his sons there in authority proves, not merely that his rule was acknowledged throughout the whole country, but also that the Philistines did not interfere much with the internal arrangements of the Israelites. Josephus (’Antiq.,’ 6:3, 2) represents only one son as placed at Beer-sheba, and says that the other was judge at Dan, but it may be doubted whether the northern tribes were sufficiently under control to submit to be governed by a southern judge.

3 But his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.

CLARKE, "His sons walked not in his ways - Their iniquity is pointed out in three words:

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1. They turned aside after lucre; the original (בצע batsa) signifies to cut, clip, break off; and therefore Mr. Parkhurst thinks that it means nearly the same with our clipping of coin. It however expresses here the idea of avarice, of getting money by hook or by crook. The Targum says, “They looked after ממון דשקר mamon dishkar, the mammon of unrighteousness;” of which they did not make unto themselves friends but enemies; see the note on Mat_6:24.

2. They took bribes; שחד shochad, gifts or presents, to blind their eyes.3. They perverted judgment - they turned judgment aside; they put it out of its regular path; they sold it to the highest bidder: thus the wicked rich man had his cause, and the poor man was oppressed and deprived of his right.This was the custom in our own country before Magna Charta was obtained; he that would speed in the king’s court must bribe all the officers, and fee both the king and queen! I have found in our ancient records the most barefaced and shameful examples of this kind; but it was totally abolished, invito rege, by that provision in the above charter which states, Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimvs ant differemus rectum aut judicium; “To no man will we sell, to no man will we deny or defer, justice and right.” It was customary in those inauspicious times, for judgment to be delayed in banco regis, in the king’s court, as long as there was any hope that more money would be paid in order to bring it to issue. And there were cases, where the king did not like the party, in which he denied justice and judgment entirely! Magna Charta brought them to book, and brought the subject to his right.Of those times it might well be said, as Homer did, Iliad xvi., ver. 387.

Οἱ βιῃ αγορη σκολιας κρινωσι θεμιστας,Εκ δε δικην ελασωσι, θεων οπιν ουκ αλεγοντες.“When guilty mortals break the eternal laws,Or judges, bribed, betray the righteous cause.”

“When the laws are perverted by force; when justice is expelled from her seat; when judges are swayed from the right, regardless of the vengeance of Heaven.” Or, in other words, these were times in which the streams of justice were poisoned in their source, and judges neither feared God nor regarded man.

GILL, "And his sons walked not in his ways,.... The meaning of which is not that they did not go the circuit he did, which is too low a sense of the words some Jewish writers give; but they did not walk in the fear of God, in the paths of religion and righteousness, truth and holiness; they neither served God, nor did justice to men, as Samuel had done: but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment; indulged to covetousness, sought to get riches at any rate, took bribes, which blind the eyes of judges; and so passed wrong judgment, and gave the cause to those that gave the largest gifts, right or wrong.

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HENRY, "Many that have done well in a state of meanness and subjection have been spoiled by preferment and power. Honours change men's minds, and too often for the worse. It does not appear that Samuel's sons were so profane and vicious as Eli's sons; but, whatever they were in other respects, they were corrupt judges, they turned aside after lucre, after the mammon of unrighteousness, so the Chaldee reads it. Note, The love of money is the root of all evil. It is pernicious in any, but especially in judges. Samuel had taken no bribes (Job_12:3), but his sons had, though, no doubt, he warned them against it when he made them judges; and then they perverted judgment. In determining controversies, they had an eye to the bribe, not to the law, and enquired who bid highest, not who had right on his side. It is sad with a people when the public justice that should do them right, being perverted, does them the greatest wrong.

BENSON, "1 Samuel 8:3. Took bribes — Opportunity and temptation discovered that corruption in them which, till now, was hid from their father, and, it may be, from themselves. It has often been the grief of holy men, that their children did not tread in their steps. So far from it, that the sons of eminently good men have been often eminently wicked.ELLICOTT, "(3) Took bribes, and perverted judgment.—This sin, at all times a fatally common one in the East, was especially denounced in the Law. (See Exodus 23:6-8; Deuteronomy 16:19.) It is strange that the same ills that ruined Eli’s house, owing to the evil conduct of his children, now threatened Samuel. The prophet-judge, however, acted differently to the high priestly judge. The sons of Samuel were evidently, through their father’s action in procuring the election of Saul, quickly deposed from their authority. The punishment seems to have been successful in correcting the corrupt tendencies of these men, for we hear in after days of the high position occupied at the court of David by the distinguished descendants of the noble and disinterested prophet. (See the notices in 1 Chronicles 6:33; 1 Chronicles 25:4-5, respecting Heman, the grandson of Samuel, the king’s seer, who was chief of the choir of the Psalmist-king in the house of God.)COKE, "1 Samuel 8:3. And his sons walked not in his ways— Eli was punished for the wickedness of his sons, but Samuel was not; because it does not appear that the crimes of Samuel's sons were in any respect so flagrant as those of the sons of Eli, nor does it appear that Samuel knew of their crimes. They lived at a great distance from him, and might receive the bribes secretly: nor, further, does it appear, that he was wanting in a proper chastisement of them when he did know of their enormities; at least nothing of this kind is recorded in history.PETT, "1 Samuel 8:3

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‘And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after ill-gotten gain, and took bribes, and perverted justice.’Sadly, as so often happens, their authority went to their heads and instead of walking in their father’s ways they used their positions for their own ends. Thus they used their new positions in order to build up personal wealth. They sought to obtain ill-gotten gains, accepted bribes and perverted justice. And it was not a momentary lapse. For this to come to the notice of all Israel it must have gone on for a few years. K&D, "1Sa_8:3

The sons, however, did not walk in the ways of their father, but set their hearts upon gain, took bribes, and perverted justice, in opposition to the command of God (see Exo_23:6, Exo_23:8; Deu_16:19).PULPIT, "1Sa_8:3His sons …took bribes. This sin was expressly forbidden in Exo_23:6, Exo_23:8; Deu_16:19, and it marks the high spirit of the nation that it was so indignant at justice being thus perverted. They walked not in his way (singular—so the written text); for Samuel’s own administration of justice had been most upright (1Sa_12:4), nor is it laid to his charge that he connived at the misconduct of his sons. On the contrary, after remonstrance indeed, not for his sons’ sake, but for the honour of the theocracy, and that the people might be on their guard against a despotic exercise of the power with which they were about to intrust a single man, he superseded not them only, but also himself. His conduct in this trying conjuncture was most admirable, and few commentators have done justice to the man, who, possessed of what was virtually kingly power, yet gave it over for the nation’s good into the hands of another.

4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.

BARNES, "Some attach the opening words to the close of 1 Sam. 3, as the complement of what is there said, “The Lord revealed himself to Samuel ... in Shiloh,

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and the word of Samuel went forth to all Israel.” If placed at the commencement of 1 Sam. 4, and in connection with what follows, they are to be understood in the sense that Samuel called all Israel to battle against the Philistines. (Compare 1Sa_7:5.) But this is not the natural interpretation of the words, which seem clearly to belong to what went before.The mention of the Philistines connects the narrative with Judg. 13–16. Since the Philistine servitude lasted forty years Jdg_13:1, and seems to have terminated in the days of Samuel 1Sa_7:13-14 in about the 20th year of his judgeship 1Sa_7:2; and since it had already begun before the birth of Samson Jdg_13:5, and Samson judged Israel for 20 years “in the days of the Philistines” Jdg_15:20, it seems to follow that the latter part of the judgeship of Eli and the early part of that of Samuel must have been coincident with the lifetime of Samson.Eben-ezer - (or, the stone of help) The place was afterward so named by Samuel. See the marginal references. “Aphek,” or the “fortress,” was probably the same as the “Aphek” of Jos_12:18. It would be toward the western frontier of Judah, not very far from Mizpeh of Benjamin, and near Shiloh 1Sa_4:4.

CLARKE, "The word of Samuel came to all Israel - This clause certainly belongs to the preceding chapter, and is so placed by the Vulgate, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic.

Pitched beside Eben-ezer - This name was not given to this place till more than twenty years after this battle, see 1Sa_7:12; for the monument called האבן העזר haeben haezer, the “Stone of Help,” was erected by Samuel in the place which was afterwards from this circumstance, called Eben-ezer, when the Lord had given the Israelites a signal victory over the Philistines. It was situated in the tribe of Judah, between Mizpeh and Shen, and not far from the Aphek here mentioned. This is another proof that this book was compiled after the times and transactions which it records, and probably from memoranda which had been made by a contemporary writer.

GILL, "And the word of Samuel came to all Israel,.... Or was "known", as the Targum, the word of prophecy by him, which related to what befell Eli and his family; this was spread throughout the land, and everyone almost had knowledge of it, and which began to be fulfilled in the war between Israel and the Philistines, later related; or the doctrine, instructions, and exhortations of Samuel to the people of Israel, were by the means of others conveyed throughout the land; and yet they went into measures which proved fatal and ruinous to them; or the word of Samuel, which was from the Lord, came to Israel, to stir them up to go to war with the Philistines, whereby the punishment threatened to Eli's family would begin to have its accomplishment: now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle; according to the word of Samuel, or of the Lord by him; though Ben Gersom thinks they did this of themselves, which was their sin, and did not ask counsel of the Lord, nor of Samuel his prophet; but it seems as if the Philistines were the aggressors, and first came forth to war against

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them, and they went out to meet them (a), as the word is, and defend themselves as it became them: this was forty years after the death of Samson, and at the end of Eli's government, who judged Israel so many years, when they had recruited themselves, and recovered their losses they sustained by Samson; and when they perceived a new judge was raised up among the Israelites, who was likely to be of great service to them, and to prevent their authority over them, and therefore thought to begin with them as soon as possible: and pitched beside Ebenezer; a place so called by anticipation, and had its name from an later victory obtained, when Samuel set up a stone between Mizpeh and Shen, and called it by this name, 1Sa_7:12, it signifies a stone of help: and the Philistines pitched in Aphek; a city in the tribe of Judah, bordering on the Philistines; see Gill on Jos_12:18.

HENRY 4-5, "We have here the starting of a matter perfectly new and surprising, which was the setting up of kingly government in Israel. Perhaps the thing had been often talked of among them by those that were given to change and affected that which looked great. But we do not find that it was ever till now publicly proposed and debated. Abimelech was little better than a titular king, though he is said to reign over Israel (Jdg_9:22), and perhaps his fall had for a great while rendered the title of king odious in Israel, as that of Tarquinius did among the Romans; but, if it had, by this time the odium was worn off, and some bold steps are here taken towards so great a revolution as that amounted to. Here is,

I. The address of the elders to Samuel in this matter (1Sa_8:4, 1Sa_8:5): They gathered themselves together, by common consent; and not in a riotous tumultuous manner, but with the respect due to his character, they came to him to his house as Ramah with their address, which contained,1. A remonstrance of their grievances: in short, Thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Many a fairer occasion that people had had to ask a king, when they were oppressed by their neighbours or embroiled at home for want of a king in Israel, but a small thing will serve factious spirits for a colour to desire a change. (1.) It was true that Samuel was old; but if that made him less able to ride the circuit, and sit long on the bench, yet it made him the more wise and experienced, and, upon that account, the fitter to rule. If he was old, had he not grown old in their service? And it was very unkind, ungrateful, nay, and unjust, to cast him off when he was old, who had spent his days in doing them good. God had saved his youth from being despicable (1Sa_3:20), yet they make his old age so, which should have been counted worthy of double honour. If old people be upbraided with their infirmities, and laid aside for them, let them not think it strange; Samuel himself was so. (2.) It was true that his sons did not walk in his ways; the more was his grief, but they could not say it was his fault: he had not, like Eli, indulged them in their badness, but was ready to receive complaints against them. And, if that had been the thing desired, we may well suppose, upon the making out of the charge of bribery against them he would have superseded their commissions and punished them. But this would not content the elders of Israel; they had another project in their head.2. A petition for the redress of these grievances, by setting a king over them: Make us a king to judge us like all the nations. Thus far it was well, that they did not rise up in

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rebellion against Samuel and set up a king for themselves, vi et armis - by force; but they applied to Samuel, God's prophet, and humbly begged of him to do it. But it appears by what follows that it was an evil proposal and ill made, and was displeasing to God. God designed them a king, a man after his own heart, when Samuel was dead; but they would anticipate God's counsel, and would have one now that Samuel was old. They had a prophet to judge them, that had immediate correspondence with heaven, and therein they were great and happy above any nation, none having God so nigh unto themas they had, Deu_4:7. But this would not serve; they must have a king to judge them with external pomp and power, like all the nations. A poor prophet in a mantle, though conversant in the visions of the Almighty, looked mean in the eyes of those who judged by outward appearance; but a king in a purple robe, with his guards and officers of state, would look great: and such a one they must have. They knew it was in vain to court Samuel to take upon him the title and dignity of a king, but he must appoint them one. They do not say, “Give us a king that is wise and good, and will judge better than thy sons do,” but, “Give us a king,” any body that will but make a figure. Thus foolishly did they forsake their own mercies, and, under pretence of advancing the dignity of their nation to that of their neighbours, did really thrust themselves down from their own excellency, and profane their crown by casting it to the ground.

K&D, "1Sa_8:4-5These circumstances (viz., Samuel's age and the degeneracy of his sons) furnished the elders of Israel with the opportunity to apply to Samuel with this request: “Appoint us a king to judge us, as all the nations” (the heathen), sc., have kings. This request resembles so completely the law of the king in Deu_17:14 (observe, for example, the

expression ִים that the distinct allusion to it is unmistakeable. The custom of ,(ְּכָכל־ַהּגexpressly quoting the book of the law is met with for the first time in the writings of the period of the captivity. The elders simply desired what Jehovah had foretold through His servant Moses, as a thing that would take place in the future and for which He had even made provision.

COFFMAN, "THE ELDERS OF ISRAEL REQUEST A KING"Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, "Behold, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint for us a king to govern us like all the nations." But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to govern us." And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel. "Hearken to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds which they have done to me, from the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, hearken to their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall

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reign over them."The critical complaint that the reason for Israel's request for a king, "Here (in this passage), is motivated by maladministration of justice, whereas in 1 Samuel 8:20 it is due to a desire for a leader in war,"[3] is a strange complaint indeed. Apparently, the critic had never heard of multiple motivations! A more discerning scholar listed a number of motivations for the request of Israel's elders: "The elders gave several reasons why Israel should have an earthly king: (1) Samuel is near the end of his career; (2) Samuel's sons do not have godly qualities; (3) a king would be a permanent judge; (4) the surrounding nations all have kings; and (5) a king would effectively lead them in battle."[4]There is even a sixth motivation suggested by the elders in their use of the words of Deuteronomy 17:14, a quotation that was perhaps intended to, "Remind Samuel that they were only asking what had virtually been promised by Moses."[5] However, that passage from the Book of Moses may be understood not as a promise of what God would require, but a prophecy of what Israel would demand. When Israel indeed finally demanded a king, it is clear enough that God was displeased by their request."They have rejected me from being king over them" (1 Samuel 8:7). The sin of Israel here was not merely in the kind of king they requested, but in their rejection of the king they already had, the Lord himself."According to all the deeds they have done to me" (1 Samuel 8:8). What were those deeds? They are described in the last clause, "forsaking me and serving other gods." The entire record of the nation of Israel was one long succession of doing the very things mentioned here.ELLICOTT, "(4) All the elders of Israel.—We have here a clear trace of a popular assembly which seems in all times to have existed in Israel. Such a body appears to have met for deliberation even during the Egyptian captivity (see Exodus 3:16). Of this popular council we know little beyond the fact of its existence. It seems to have been composed of representatives of the people, qualified by birth or office; these were known as “elders.” Ewald sees special allusions to the “Parliament” or Assembly of Elders in Psalms 1. and 82. There are, however, various mentions of these councils in the Books of Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, and Isaiah.HAWKER, "(4) ¶ Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, (5) And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy

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sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.If my views of this scripture be right and just the request of the elders of Israel for a king did not arise from the age of Samuel, or the unworthiness of his sons; for in this case, they would humbly have prayed that Samuel would dismiss his sons and appoint other Judges. But desiring a king was a wicked encroachment upon the sovereignty of the Lord. God was their king: Samuel and his sons were only deputies.K&D, "1 Samuel 8:4-5These circumstances (viz., Samuel's age and the degeneracy ofhis sons) furnished the elders of Israel with the opportunity to apply toSamuel with this request: “Appoint us a king to judge us, as all thenations” (the heathen), sc., have kings. This request resembles socompletely the law of the king in Deuteronomy 17:14 (observe, for example, theexpression ויםּגכל־הּכ ), that the distinct allusion to it isunmistakeable. The custom of expressly quoting the book of the law ismet with for the first time in the writings of the period of the captivity. The elders simply desired what Jehovah had foretold through His servantMoses, as a thing that would take place in the future and for which He hadeven made provision.CONSTABLE, "The reason for requesting a king 8:4-9God had made provision for kings to rule His people in the Mosaic Law (Deuteronomy 17:14-20; cf. Genesis 1:26-28; Genesis 17:6; Genesis 17:16; Genesis 35:11; Genesis 49:10). The request in itself was not what displeased Samuel and God. It was the reason they wanted a king that was bad. On the one hand, it expressed dissatisfaction with God's present method of providing leadership through judges (1 Samuel 8:7). On the other, it verbalized a desire to be "like all the nations" (1 Samuel 8:5). [Note: Idem, Israel's United ..., pp. 21-76, provided helpful background material on Israel's fear of enemies, her developing desire for monarchy and rejection of pure theocracy, the political and ideological world of Samuel's day, and the Israelite elders' request for a king. He reviewed the types of kingship that existed in the ancient Near East at this time, what the Israelites wanted and did not want, and what they got.] God's purpose for Israel was that it be different from the nations, superior to them, and a lesson for them (Exodus 19:5-6). God saw this demand as one more instance of apostasy that had marked the Israelites since the Exodus (cf. Numbers 14:11). He acceded to their request as He had done many times before-by providing manna, quail, and water in the wilderness, for example. However, He mixed judgment with His grace. [Note: See J. Barton Payne, "Saul and the Changing Will of God," Bibliotheca Sacra 129:516

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(October-December 1972):321-25; J. Carl Laney, First and Second Samuel, pp. 36-37; and Gordon, p. 109.]

God purposed to bless all other nations through His theocratic reign over Israel. This was a rule that God chose to administer mediatorially, through divinely chosen individuals who spoke and acted for God in governing functions and who were personally responsible to Him for what they did. These vice-regents were people like Moses, Joshua, the judges (including Samuel), and the kings, but God remained the real sovereign down to the end of this kingdom in history (1 Chronicles 29:25). The Shekinah cloud visibly represented God's presence as the divine ruler. This glorious cloud entered and filled the tabernacle at the inception of the kingdom (Exodus 40:34-38). It led the nation into the Promised Land and stood over Solomon's temple (2 Chronicles 7:1-2). Finally it departed from Jerusalem spectacularly as the kingdom ended at the Babylonian captivity, when governmental sovereignty passed from Israel to the Gentiles (Ezekiel 11:23; Daniel 2:31-38). God will restore this mediatorial kingdom to Israel when Jesus Christ returns to earth in power and great glory. Christ will then (at His second coming) serve as God's vice-regent and reign over all the nations as the perfect mediatorial king (Micah 4:1-8). This earthly kingdom is different from God's heavenly kingdom, over which He reigns directly from heaven. This heavenly kingdom includes all objects, persons, events, activities, natural phenomena, and history (Psalms 103:19; Daniel 4:17). The earthly kingdom is a part of this larger universal kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 15:24).

"The rejection of Samuel was the rejection of godly leadership; the choice of Saul was the choice of ungodly leadership. In many ways Saul was the foil for the godly David, just as the sons of Eli were a foil for Samuel." [Note: Heater, p. 139.]

Samuel experienced rejection by the people he led just as Moses, Jesus Christ, and so many of God's faithful servants have throughout history (cf. Luke 19:14). One writer suggested that the end of 1 Samuel 8:8 should read, "... so they are also making a king." [Note: Scott L. Harris, "1 Samuel VIII 7-8," Vetus Testamentum 31:1 (January 1981):79-80.] Even though this translation minimizes what seems to some to be a contradiction between 1 Samuel 8:7-8, it is inferior, I believe.PETT, "1 Samuel 8:4

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‘Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel to Ramah’

The behaviour of Samuel’s sons clearly had a profound effect on many of the elders of Israel who were no doubt watching to see how the sons got on. And it was seemingly that that brought them to a decision, for it was soon clear to them that the sons were not walking in the prophetic tradition of their father, and would not be able to follow in his footsteps. So summoning all the elders of the tribes together, and no doubt discussing the matter thoroughly, they came to Samuel at Ramah.

“The elders of Israel.” Israel had been run by a group of ‘elders’ while in Egypt (Exodus 3:16), and ‘elders’ were appointed from among the tribal elders to support Moses in judging Israel in the wilderness (Numbers 11:16; Numbers 11:24-25). Elders of the different cities were responsible for jurisdiction in that city (Deuteronomy 21:3; Joshua 20:4; Judges 8:16; 1 Samuel 4:2). So ‘elder’ was the name given to those in authority both at a local and a tribal level. The elders mentioned here would be the ‘senior’ elders who ruled over the different tribes and sub-tribes. While not all old, the tendency would be for them to be older men, simply because it was such who would be ‘fathers’ of wider families, and because age was thought to bring wisdom.

LANGE, " 1 Samuel 8:4-5, how it was made, 1 Samuel 8:6, how it was received by Samuel and carried before the Lord, 1 Samuel 8:7-9, how Hebrews, and through him the people, was instructed concerning it by the Lord.

1 Samuel 8:4-5. “All the elders of Israel” assemble in Ramah, Samuel’s judicial seat. Thus the whole nation is in motion against the existing condition of things; it appears before Samuel officially and formally in the body of its representatives. Two things they adduce as ground of the demand which they wish to make: 1) Samuel’s age, that Isaiah, the lack of vigor and energy in the government, which, with his advancing age, made itself perceptible to the whole nation, and was not supplied by the assistance of his sons, which he had for that reason ( 1 Samuel 8:1) called in; 2) the evil walk, the misgovernment of his sons, the moral and legal depravation which they produced. The demand is: Make us a king ( Acts 13:21);

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and two things are added: 1) in reference to his judicial work: he was to judge; the royal office was to take the place of the judicial, and so the meaning of the demand is a complete abrogation of the hitherto existing form of government under Judges 2) in reference to the royal-monarchical constitution of the surrounding nations: the Israelitish constitution is to be like that ( ְּכ). After the words “as all the nations,” we must supply “have such a one.” Israel will not be behind other nations in respect to the splendor and power of royal rule. The accordance of the last words: “like all the nations” with Deuteronomy 17:14 is to be noted.—In 1 Samuel 8:6 two things are said of Samuel’s conduct in reference to this demand. First, that he received it with displeasure (ַוֵיַרע, properly: “the thing was evil in the eyes of Samuel”). But the cause of his displeasure is expressly said to be, that they made the demand: “Give us a king to judge us.” He did not, therefore, take it amiss that they blamed the wrong-doing of his sons, nor that they referred to his age, and thus intimated that he was no longer able to bear the whole burden of the office, while his sons did evilly. What displeased him was the expression of desire for a king as ruler. How far and why this demand was the occasion of his displeasure appears from the connection. From the words of Samuel ( 1 Samuel 12:12) we see1) that the people, pressed anew by the Ammonites, demanded a king who should give them the protection against enemies, which was not expected from the aging Samuel; 2) that, in this demand, they left out of view the kingdom of God in their midst, turned away their heart from the God who had hitherto as their almighty king so often saved them from the power of the enemy, and put their trust in an external, visible kingdom as means of safety and protection against their enemies, over against the invisible royal rule of their God, whose instrument, Samuel, they rejected. The same thing is expressed in the words of Samuel, 1 Samuel 19-10:18 . In both passages, however, Samuel’s discourse is an echo of the word of God Himself, imparted to him in answer to the question which he had asked God in prayer. This, namely, is the second important factor in Samuel’s procedure: He prayed to the Lord. Deeply moved by the sin which, in this demand, the people committed against the Lord as their king (and this was the real occasion of his displeasure and unwillingness in reference to the desired revolution in the political constitution, which was connected with the rejection of himself as representative and instrument of the divine government), he carried the whole matter before the Lord in prayer, and, in this important crisis also of the history of his people, who would no longer be guided by him, showed himself the humble, consecrated man and hero of prayer.—In 1 Samuel 8:7-9 we have the declaration, in which the Lord instructs Samuel as to the question of his prayer, and at the same time decides on the demand of the people. Prayer was the best means by which Samuel could learn the purpose and will of God in reference to this demand of the nation. The words: Hearken to the voice of the people, express the divine fulfillment of the people’s request. Here a discrepancy might be supposed to exist between this

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statement and Samuel’s reception of the request in 1 Samuel 8:6. But the appearance of such a discrepancy vanishes before the following considerations. An earthly-human kingdom could not at all, merely as such, stand in opposition with the revealed theocratic relation of the covenant-God with His people, in which the latter ( Exodus 19:5 sq.) were to be His property and a “kingdom” of priests, and He was to be their king (comp. Exodus 15:18 : “Jehovah is king forever,” with Psalm 44:5; Psalm 68:25; Psalm 74:12; Psalm 10:16). For, if hitherto under the Theocracy chosen instruments of the Lord, like Moses, Joshua and the Judges, were the leaders of the people, governing them by His law, in His name and according to His will, then also a leader and governor of the people, depending solely on God’s will, governing solely in His name, and devoted to His law, intended and desiring to be nothing but the instrument of the invisible king in respect to His people, might rule over them with the power and dignity of a king. A king, as God’s instrument, chosen by God the royal ruler of His people out of their midst, could no more stand opposed to the fundamental idea of the theocracy, than all the former great leaders and guides of the people, who were chosen by Him for the realization of His will. This conception of the absolute dependence of an earthly-human kingdom in Israel on the invisible King of the nation is expressed in the Song of Solomon -called law of the king in Deuteronomy 17:14-20. As to the theocratical idea of a king, comp. Genesis 17:6; Genesis 17:16; Genesis 35:11; Numbers 24:17. There is little occasion to suppose a contradiction between this idea of a theocratically-conditioned Israelitish kingdom and the Theocracy in Israel, when we consider the need of a unifying power for the whole national life within and without, as in Gideon’s time against the Midianites ( Judges 8:22-23), and now, in the time of the aged Samuel, both against the arbitrary rule and legal disorder of his sons, and against the Ammonites ( 1 Samuel 12:12) and the Philistines ( 1 Samuel 9:16). If Israel’s desire for a king had been in itself opposed to the theocratic principle, Samuel would not have carried the matter to the Lord in prayer, but would have given a decided refusal to the Elders, and the divine decision would not have been: “ Hearken to the voice of the people, make them a king” ( 1 Samuel 8:22). But the reason of Samuel’s necessary displeasure at this desire clearly appears from the judgment passed on it in the divine response: they have not rejected thee; but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.—In their request for a king, they did not assume the attitude of heart and of mind to the Lord, which was proper for them as His people, towards Him as their sole and exclusive ruler. They put out of sight the divine rule, to which, in view of its mighty deeds in their history, they ought to have trusted implicitly, that it would extend to them the oft-verified protection against external enemies and maladministration of the office of Judge; this protection they expect from the earthly-human kingly rule, instead of from God; instead of crying to God to give them a ruler according to His will, they demand from Samuel that a king be

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made according to their will and pleasure; instead of their holy civil constitution under the royal rule of their covenant-God, they desire a constitution under a visible kingdom, as they see it in the heathen nations. This was a denial of that highest truth which Gideon once ( Judges 8:23), in declining the royal authority offered him, held up before the people: “The Lord is your king.” In rejecting Samuel’s government, they rejected the rule of God, and, straying from the foundation of covenant-revelation to the stand-point of the heathen nations,, they put themselves in opposition to the royal majesty of God revealed among them, and to the high calling which they had to maintain and fulfil in fidelity and obedience towards the holy and almighty God as their king and ruler. In 1 Samuel 8:8 is shown how this disposition and conduct had been exhibited in the history of the people from God’s first great royal deed, the deliverance out of Egypt, till now, and how this new demand addressed to Samuel was only the old sin showing itself, the faithless and apostate disposition which had exhibited itself again and again up to this time. “With such a disposition the desire for a kingdom was a despising and rejecting of Jehovah’s kingdom, and no better than forsaking Jehovah to serve other gods” (Keil, in loco). (It is not necessary to insert a Pron. “to me” after “they have done” (Thenius), since this is involved in the following words: “they have forsaken me”). In 1 Samuel 8:9 Samuel is again expressly instructed to yield to the desire of the people; but there is added the twofold injunction: 1) bear witness against them, that Isaiah, attest and set before them their sin and guilt against me, and2) announce to them what kind of right the king, who according to their desire shall rule over them like the kings of the heathen nations, will claim, in the exercise of unlimited and arbitrary power, after the manner of those rulers. By the first the people are to be made to see how, in the disposition of heart in which they demand a king, they stand in opposition to the absolute, holy royal rule of their God, and to their own theocratic calling. The fulfilment of the people’s desire after a king which had its root in an apostate and carnally proud temper, is in accordance with the same fundamental law of the Old Covenant, by which the holy God, on the one hand, judges Israel’s sin as a contradiction of His holy will, but at the same time, on the other hand, uses it as a means for the realization of the ends of His kingdom, as an occasion for a new development of His revealed glory. The other injunction, to set before the people the right [or, manner] of the king they demanded, is intended to exhibit to them the human kingdom apart from the divine rule, as it exists among the other nations, with all its usual and established despotism, as the source of great misfortune and shameful servitude, in contrast with the freedom and happiness offered to the people under the despised Theocracy. Comp. 1 Samuel 8:18.

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NISBET, "WANTED—A KING!

‘Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel unto Ramah, and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy way; now make us a king to judge us like all the nations,’ etc.

1 Samuel 8:4-8

The Book of Kings is also the Book of Samuel, not merely because the individual man was the last of the judges and poured the anointing oil upon the first two of the kings, but because he represented in his own person a power and a position which were quite different from theirs, and yet which could not be rightly understood apart from theirs.

I. Samuel was a witness that a hereditary priesthood derives all its worth from a Divine presence, which is not shut up in it or limited by it, and that without that presence it means nothing and is nothing, nay, becomes worse than nothing, a plague and cancer in the society, poisoning its very heart, spreading disease and death through it.

II. The signal downfall of the nation which took place in Samuel’s day, when the ark, the symbol of the people’s unity, was captured by the Philistines, prepared the way for great national changes.—Samuel’s reformation awakened in the people a sense of order to which they had been strangers before. But Samuel’s sons did not walk in his ways. They were self-seekers; they were suspected of taking bribes. The effect of this distrust was just that which proceeds in all ages from the same cause—dissatisfaction, a cry for change, a feeling that the fault of the person who administers implies some evil or defect in that which he has to administer. The degeneracy of Samuel’s sons made the people long for a different sort of rule, for one which should be less irregular and fluctuating.

III. The request for a king displeased Samuel, because he had a sense that there was 36

something wrong in the wish of his countrymen.—He may have felt their ingratitude to himself; he may have thought that his government was better than any they were likely to substitute for it.

IV. God’s answer to Samuel’s prayer was a very strange one.—‘Hearken unto them, for they have rejected Me. Let them have their way, seeing that they are not changing a mere form of government, but breaking loose from the principle upon which their nation has stood from its foundation.’ The Jews were asking for heavy punishments, which they needed, without which the evil that was in them could not have been brought to light or cured. But beneath their dark counterfeit image of a king was hidden the image of a true King reigning in righteousness, who would not judge after the sight of His eye nor reprove after the hearing of His ear, but would smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips would slay the wicked.

Rev. F. D. Maurice.

Illustrations

(1) ‘Although Samuel’s age, and the unworthiness of his sons, were the means of forcing the question immediately to the front, it had been discussed among the people often. They believed that they would secure national unity, and would make greater headway against their enemies, if only they were ruled by some one of physical strength and beauty and daring, who would lead them in their battles. God gave them exactly what they asked for. Saul, the son of Kish, surpassed all the people in beauty of form, and in physical stature and strength; he was possessed of talent for war, and of a courage which was never broken; he exhibited zeal and persistency in the execution of his plans, and at the beginning of his reign, at least, he jealously maintained the Mosaic law, banishing the wizards, and refusing to begin war without a preliminary sacrifice. But his reign taught the nation that royalty was not of itself sufficient to secure the salvation they expected; unless the king submitted himself absolutely to the will of God, and was content to reign as the executor of Divine commands, carried out in their integrity. Human agency never will rectify evils which are caused by moral faults, whether in an individual, or in a

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nation.’

(2) ‘Though the king, whom they sought, was to be a misfortune and a curse, the people persisted in their request, and it was granted according to a principle in the Divine government, that man gets what he importunately seeks, though it breeds leanness in his soul. To what fatal loss, however, the people exposed themselves, when they exchanged the royalty of Jehovah for that of an earthly sovereign—the theocracy for a monarchy! O my soul, see to it that thou dost not forsake the fountain of living waters for a cistern of thine own hewing.’

(3) ‘They that are not content with their present condition are like little children upon a hill; they look a great way off, and they see another hill, and think, if they were on the top of that, then they were able to touch the clouds with their fingers; but when they are on the top of that hill, alas! they are as far off from the clouds as ever. So it is with many who think another condition would give them happiness; but, when the desired position is attained, find themselves as far off from contentment as before.’BI, "So the people sent to Shiloh.Shiloh and its lessonsThis subject forms an impressive chapter in the history of Israel. Eli was now the theocratic judge of the Hebrew commonwealth, and its administration centered round Shiloh, where he dwelt and the ark was kept, and its statutes observed. Let us glance at the steps which led to disaster.

1. Family discipline neglected. It is often the case, as true today as then, that men are so busy with money making or important trusts, as to be almost strangers to their own households and ignorant of the habits of their children.2. Disobedient children. They were careless of religion, but careful of tithes. They helped themselves to as much of the sacrifices as they wanted, whether the offerer would or no; and as a result men abhorred the offerings of the Lord. Family discipline is too great when children are full grown and their habits strong.3. Religion slighted. A nation suffers more from the sins of its rulers and priests than from the sins of an equal number of private men who are simply hewers of wood and carriers of water. The sins of the former are fashionable; those of the latter are vulgar and contemptible.4. Vain confidence. And “all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again.” But courage is not of the sword and spear and shibboleth, of bow and banner and boasting, neither of the giant frame and muscle; it is of the heart and spirit. It is the unconquerable will, and the heart conscious of right, prodigal of life for its

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defence, that makes one man able to chase a thousand, and two to put ten thousand to flight.5. National calamity. It is not religiosity that saves, but spirituality.6. Providence. Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. God will take care of His ark as well as of His people. (Homiletic Review.)

SBC 4-8, "The Book of Kings is also the Book of Samuel, not merely because the individual man was the last of the judges and poured the anointing oil upon the first two of the kings, but because he represented in his own person a power and a position which were quite different from theirs, and yet which could not be rightly understood apart from theirs.I. Samuel was a witness that a hereditary priesthood derives all its worth from a Divine presence, which is not shut up in it or limited by it, and that without that presence it means nothing and is nothing, nay, becomes worse than nothing, a plague and cancer in the society, poisoning its very heart, spreading disease and death through it.II. The signal downfall of the nation which took place in Samuel’s day, when the ark, the symbol of the people’s unity, was captured by the Philistines, prepared the way for great national changes. Samuel’s reformation awakened in the people a sense of order to which they had been strangers before. But Samuel’s sons did not walk in his ways. They were self-seekers; they were suspected of taking bribes. The effect of this distrust was just that which proceeds in all ages from the same cause—dissatisfaction, a cry for change, a feeling that the fault of the person who administers implies some evil or defect in that which he has to administer. The degeneracy of Samuel’s sons made the people long for a different sort of rule, for one which should be less irregular and fluctuating.III. The request for a king displeased Samuel because he had a sense that there was something wrong in the wish of his countrymen. He may have felt their ingratitude to himself; he may have thought that his government was better than any they were likely to substitute for it.IV. God’s answer to Samuel’s prayer was a very strange one. "Hearken unto them, for they have rejected Me. Let them have their way, seeing that they are not changing a mere form of government, but breaking loose from the principle upon which their nation has stood from its foundation." The Jews were asking for heavy punishments, which they needed, without which the evil that was in them could not have been brought to light or cured. But beneath their dark counterfeit image of a king was hidden the image of a true King reigning in righteousness, who would not judge after the sight of His eye nor reprove after the hearing of His ear, but would smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips would slay the wicked.F. D. Maurice, The Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament, p. 1.

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5 They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead[b] us, such as all the other nations have.”

CLARKE, "Make us a king - Hitherto, from the time in which they were a people, the Israelites were under a theocracy, they had no other king but God. Now they desire to have a king like the other nations around them, who may be their general in battle; for this is the point at which they principally aim.

GILL, "And said unto him, behold, thou art old,.... See 1Sa_8:1, his age was no reproach to him, nor was it becoming them to upbraid him with it; nor was it a reason why he should be removed from his office, for it did not disqualify him for it; but rather, having gained by age experience, was more fit for it, though he might not be able to ride his circuits as formerly: and thy sons walk not in thy ways; whom he had made judges; this is a better reason than the former for what is after requested; and had they only besought them to remove him from their places, and rested content with that, it would have been well enough; but what they were solicitous for, and always had an inclination to, and now thought a proper opportunity offered of obtaining it, was what follows: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations; to rule over them as sole monarch; to go before them in battle as their general, as well as to administer justice to them, by hearing and trying causes as their judge; which only they mention to cover their views, and make their motion more acceptable to Samuel; what they were desirous of was to have a king appearing in pomp and splendour, wearing a crown of gold, clothed in royal apparel, with a sceptre in his hand, dwelling in a stately palace, keeping a splendid court, and attended with a grand retinue, as the rest of the nations about them had had for a long time. The first kings we read of were in the times of Abraham, but after it became common for nations to have kings over them, and particularly the neighbours of Israel, as Edom, Moab, Ammon, &c. and Cicero says (x), all the ancient nations had their kings, to whom they were obedient: Israel had God for their King in a peculiar manner other nations had not, and stood in no need of any other; and happy it would have been for them if they had been content therewith, and not sought after another: however, they were so modest, and paid such deference to Samuel, as to desire him to make or appoint one for them.

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HENRY, "I. The address of the elders to Samuel in this matter (1Sa_8:4, 1Sa_8:5): They gathered themselves together, by common consent; and not in a riotous tumultuous manner, but with the respect due to his character, they came to him to his house as Ramah with their address, which contained,

1. A remonstrance of their grievances: in short, Thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Many a fairer occasion that people had had to ask a king, when they were oppressed by their neighbours or embroiled at home for want of a king in Israel, but a small thing will serve factious spirits for a colour to desire a change. (1.) It was true that Samuel was old; but if that made him less able to ride the circuit, and sit long on the bench, yet it made him the more wise and experienced, and, upon that account, the fitter to rule. If he was old, had he not grown old in their service? And it was very unkind, ungrateful, nay, and unjust, to cast him off when he was old, who had spent his days in doing them good. God had saved his youth from being despicable (1Sa_3:20), yet they make his old age so, which should have been counted worthy of double honour. If old people be upbraided with their infirmities, and laid aside for them, let them not think it strange; Samuel himself was so. (2.) It was true that his sons did not walk in his ways; the more was his grief, but they could not say it was his fault: he had not, like Eli, indulged them in their badness, but was ready to receive complaints against them. And, if that had been the thing desired, we may well suppose, upon the making out of the charge of bribery against them he would have superseded their commissions and punished them. But this would not content the elders of Israel; they had another project in their head.2. A petition for the redress of these grievances, by setting a king over them: Make us a king to judge us like all the nations. Thus far it was well, that they did not rise up in rebellion against Samuel and set up a king for themselves, vi et armis - by force; but they applied to Samuel, God's prophet, and humbly begged of him to do it. But it appears by what follows that it was an evil proposal and ill made, and was displeasing to God. God designed them a king, a man after his own heart, when Samuel was dead; but they would anticipate God's counsel, and would have one now that Samuel was old. They had a prophet to judge them, that had immediate correspondence with heaven, and therein they were great and happy above any nation, none having God so nigh unto themas they had, Deu_4:7. But this would not serve; they must have a king to judge them with external pomp and power, like all the nations. A poor prophet in a mantle, though conversant in the visions of the Almighty, looked mean in the eyes of those who judged by outward appearance; but a king in a purple robe, with his guards and officers of state, would look great: and such a one they must have. They knew it was in vain to court Samuel to take upon him the title and dignity of a king, but he must appoint them one. They do not say, “Give us a king that is wise and good, and will judge better than thy sons do,” but, “Give us a king,” any body that will but make a figure. Thus foolishly did they forsake their own mercies, and, under pretence of advancing the dignity of their nation to that of their neighbours, did really thrust themselves down from their own excellency, and profane their crown by casting it to the ground.

BENSON, "1 Samuel 8:5. Make us a king — Their desires exceed their reasons, 41

which extended no farther than the removal of Samuel’s sons from their places, and the procuring some other just and prudent assistance to Samuel’s age. Nor was the grant of their desire a remedy for their disease, but rather an aggravation of it. For the sons of their king were likely to be as corrupt as Samuel’s sons; and, if they were, would not be so easily removed. Like other nations — That is, as most of the nations about us have. But there was not the like reason; because God had separated them from all other nations, and cautioned them against the imitation of their examples, and had taken them under his own immediate care and government; which privilege other nations had not.ELLICOTT, " (5) And said unto him.—They ground their request—which, however, they framed almost in the very terms used in the prophecy of the Law (Deuteronomy 17:14)—upon two circumstances: first, the age of Samuel, and his consequent inability to act as their leader in those perpetual wars and forays with the surrounding hostile nations; secondly, the degeneracy of his sons, who, placed by their father in positions of great trust, naturally looked to succeed him in his high dignity. They felt that the cares and duties of government were too weighty for Samuel, now growing old; and the men who through their kinship to him would naturally succeed him were utterly unfit for his office. The prospect before them was, they felt, a gloomy one. The Philistine power, too, was becoming daily greater in the south.But what confidence must this assembly of elders have reposed in their aged judge to have used such a plea—his own growing infirmity and the unworthiness of his own sons, whom he had himself appointed to high offices! The elders of the people knew Samuel, the man of God, would do what was right and just—would give them the wisest counsel, utterly regardless of any private interest or feeling. The result justified their perfect confidence.PETT, "1 Samuel 8:5

‘And they said to him, “Behold, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” ’

And there they announced the decision that they had made. In view of the fact that Samuel was ageing, and that his sons had proved unsuitable, they wanted a king to act from now on as their judge and war-leader, a king ‘like all the nations round

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about’. Outwardly they were simply asking for what Moses had said that they would one day want to ask in Deuteronomy 17:14. But they were doing it in the wrong way, and in the wrong circumstances. Their request was not that YHWH provide them with another prophetic man or a man of God, nor that He appoint a suitable replacement for Samuel. It was not even a request for a king in line with YHWH’s intentions as expressed in Genesis 49:10; Deuteronomy 17:14-20, someone appointed alongside a suitable prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15). There was no spiritual basis for their request at all. Basically they were indicating that they no longer wanted to go along in the same old way of having to look to YHWH every time they wanted a ‘judge’. They wanted something more permanent, just as the other nations had.

They had had plenty of opportunity to study other kings, for each city state in Canaan had its own king, as had the Philistine cities (even if the Philistines did call them ‘seren’), and they were envious at the way that this appeared to ensure a relatively smooth transition of leadership, and provide a war-leader when trouble lay ahead. They had seen how they could also set up efficient standing armies. (They only noted the successful ones). And with the danger of the Philistines ever looming once Samuel had gone they wanted to be prepared. They felt that having a king appointed while Samuel was still alive would take away the uncertainty. And that was what they wanted, at whatever cost. YHWH did not come into it except to help them in choosing a king.

6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord.

BARNES, "See the margin which implies that the thing spoken of caused anger, indignation, or some revulsion of feeling (see Gen_21:11-12). The answer of the Lord 1Sa_8:7 shows that Samuel’s personal feelings had been hurt. They were soothed by

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being reminded of the continued ingratitude of the people to God Himself, upon whom, in fact, a greater slight was put by this very request for a king “like all the nations,” than upon Samuel (compare Mat_10:24; Joh_15:18, Joh_15:20). For a comment on this transaction, see Hos_13:9-11; Act_13:21-22.

CLARKE, "The thing displeased Samuel - Because he saw that this amounted to a formal renunciation of the Divine government.

Samuel prayed unto the Lord - He begged to know his mind in this important business.

GILL, "But the thing displeased Samuel,.... Not that they called him an old man, and suggested that he was incapacitated for his office, nor for observing the unbecoming walk of his sons, but for what follows: when they said, give us a king to judge us; what displeased him was, that they were for changing their form of government, not only to remove it from him, and his sons, but from the Lord himself, who was king over them; the ill consequences of which, many of them at least, he easily foresaw, and which gave him great uneasiness, both on account of the glory of God, and their own good; insomuch, as Josephus (y) says, he could neither eat nor sleep, but watched all night, and spent it in prayer, as follows: and Samuel prayed unto the Lord; to know his mind and will, and what answer he should return unto them.

HENRY, "II. Samuel's resentment of this address, 1Sa_8:6. Let us see how he took it. 1. It cut him to the heart. Probably it was a surprise to him, and he had not any intimation before of their design, which made it the more grievous. The thing displeased Samuel; not when they upbraided him with his own infirmities and his children's irregularities (he could patiently bear what reflected on himself and his own family), but it displeased him when they said, Give us a king to judge us, because that reflected upon God and his honour. 2. It drove him to his knees; he gave them no answer for the present, but took time to consider of what they proposed, and prayed unto the Lord for direction what to do, spreading the case before him and leaving it with him, and so making himself easy. Samuel was a man much in prayer, and we are encouraged in every thing to make our requests known to God, Phi_4:6. When any thing disturbs us, it is our interest, as well as our duty, to show before God our trouble, and he gives us leave to be humbly free with him.

JAMISON 6-10, "the thing displeased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us — Personal and family feelings might affect his views of this public movement. But his dissatisfaction arose principally from the proposed change being revolutionary in its character. Though it would not entirely subvert their theocratic government, the appointment of a visible monarch would necessarily tend to throw out of view their unseen King and Head. God intimated, through Samuel, that their request

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would, in anger, be granted, while at the same time he apprised them of some of the evils that would result from their choice.

BENSON, "1 Samuel 8:6. The thing displeased Samuel — Because God was hereby dishonoured, through that distrust of him, and that ambition, and itch after changes, which were the manifest causes of this desire; and because of that great misery which he foresaw the people would hereby bring upon themselves. Prayed — For the pardon of their sin, and direction and help from God in this great affair/ELLICOTT, " (6) The thing displeased Samuel.—It is clear that it was perfectly justifiable in the elders of the people to come to the resolution contained in their petition to Samuel. The Deuteronomy directions contained in 1 Samuel 17:14-20 are clear and explicit in this matter of an earthly king for the people, and Moses evidently had looked forward to this alteration in the constitution when he framed the Law. No date for the change is specified, but from the terms of the Deuteronomy words no distant period evidently was looked on to. Then, again, though Samuel was naturally displeased, he at once, as prophet and seer, carried the matter to the God-Friend of Israel in prayer, and the Eternal King at once bids His old true servant to comply with the people’s desire.The displeasure of the prophet-judge was very natural. He felt—this we see from the comforting words his Master addressed to him (see 1 Samuel 8:7)—that the people, notwithstanding the vast claims he possessed to their gratitude, craved another and a different ruler, and were dissatisfied with his government. Samuel too was conscious that Israel by its request declined the direct sovereignty of the Eternal. The change to an earthly sovereign had been foreseen, foretold, even arranged for, by Moses, but, in spite of all this, to one like Samuel it was very bitter. It seemed to remove the people from that solitary platform which they alone among nations had been allowed to occupy. They had found by sad experience, as Moses,—“their Rabbi,” as the old teachers loved to style him—had predicted, that such a form of government was, alas! unsuited to them, and that they must descend here to the level of ordinary peoples. But though all this was undisputably true, it was very bitter for the hero patriot to give up for ever the splendid Hebrew ideal that his people were the subjects of the Eternal King, ruled directly by Him.HAWKER, "(6) But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD.I beg the Reader to remark with me, the resource of Samuel in prayer. Here, Reader, let you and I lodge all our concerns, A throne of grace is always open to us, and Jesus ever liveth to make intercession. Where should distressed souls go with

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their complaints but there? Hebrews 4:14-16.K&D, "Verses 6-8

Nevertheless “the thing displeased Samuel when they said,” etc. Thisserves to explain ברּדה , and precludes the supposition thatSamuel's displeasure had reference to what they had said concerning hisown age and the conduct of his sons. At the same time, the reason why thepetition for a king displeased the prophet, was not that he regarded theearthly monarchy as irreconcilable with the sovereignty of God, or even asuntimely; for in both these cases he would not have entered into thequestion at all, but would simply have refused the request as ungodly orunseasonable. But “Samuel prayed to the Lord,” i.e., he laid the matterbefore the Lord in prayer, and the Lord said (1 Samuel 8:7): “Hearken unto thevoice of the people in all that they say unto thee.” This clearly implies,that not only in Samuel's opinion, but also according to the counsel ofGod, the time had really come for the establishment of the earthlysovereignty in Israel. In this respect the request of the elders for a king toreign over them was perfectly justifiable; and there is no reason to say,with Calvin, “they ought to have had regard to the times and conditionsprescribed by God, and it would no doubt have come to pass that the regalpower would have grown up in the nation. Although, therefore, it had notyet been established, they ought to have waited patiently for the timeappointed by God, and not to have given way to their own reasons andcounsels apart from the will of God.” For God had not only appointed noparticular time for the establishment of the monarchy; but in theintroduction to the law for the king, “When thou shalt say, I will set a kingover me,” He had ceded the right to the representatives of the nation todeliberate upon the matter. Nor did they err in this respect, that while Samuel was still living, it wasnot the proper time to make use of the permission that they had received;for they assigned as the reason for their application, that Samuel hadgrown old: consequently they did not petition for a king instead of theprophet who had been appointed and so gloriously accredited by God, butsimply that Samuel himself would give them a king in consideration of hisown age, in order that when he should become feeble or die, they mighthave a judge and leader of the nation. Nevertheless the Lord declared,“They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should notreign over them. As they have always done from the day that I broughtthem up out of Egypt unto this day, that they have forsaken me andserved other gods, so do they also unto thee.” This verdict on the part ofGod refers not so much to the desire expressed, as to the feelings fromwhich it had sprung. Externally regarded, the elders of Israel had a perfectright to present the request; the wrong

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was in their hearts.

(Note: Calvin has correctly pointed out how much would have beenwarrantable under the circumstances: “They might, indeed, havereminded Samuel of his old age, which rendered him less able to attendto the duties of his office, and also of the avarice of his sons and thecorruptness of the judges; or they might have complained that hissons did not walk in his footsteps, and have asked that God wouldchoose suitable men to govern them, and thus have left the wholething to His will. And if they had done this, there can be no doubtthat they would have received a gracious and suitable answer. But theydid not think of calling upon God; they demanded that a king shouldbe given them, and brought forward the customs and institutions ofother nations.”)

They not only declared to the prophet their confidence in hisadministration of his office, but they implicitly declared him incapable ofany further superintendence of their civil and political affairs. Thismistrust was founded upon mistrust in the Lord and His guidance. In theperson of Samuel they rejected the Lord and His rule. They wanted a king,because they imagined that Jehovah their God-king was not able to securetheir constant prosperity. Instead of seeking for the cause of themisfortunes which had hitherto befallen them in their own sin and want offidelity towards Jehovah, they searched for it in the faulty constitution ofthe nation itself. In such a state of mind as this, their desire for a king wasa contempt and rejection of the kingly government of Jehovah, and wasnothing more than forsaking Jehovah to serve other gods. (See 1 Samuel 19-10:18 , and 1 Samuel 12:7., where Samuel points out to the people still morefully the wrong that they have committed.)PETT, "1 Samuel 8:6‘But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to YHWH.’But their words displeased Samuel when they said ‘give us a king to judge us’. He recognised it for what it was, an unwillingness to continue trusting in YHWH to provide them with leadership. They wanted a more independent regime, not totally dependent on YHWH, and to depend on a man and his descendants. And so Samuel did the only thing that he could think of. He took the whole matter before YHWH. Godly man that he was, he knew that it was not for him to make the decision.

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7 And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.

CLARKE, "They have rejected me - They wish to put that government in the hands of a mortal, which was always in the hands of their God. But hearken unto their voice - grant them what they request. So we find God grants that in his displeasure which he withholds in his mercy.

GILL, "And the Lord said unto Samuel,.... He appeared to him in a vision or dream, and by an articulate voice delivered to him what follows: hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee; not as approving of what they said, but permitting and allowing what they asked, as a punishment of them for their disloyalty and ingratitude, and as resenting their ill behaviour to him; for it was in anger he assented to their request, Hos_13:11. for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them; most interpreters supply the word "only", as if the sense was, that they had not only rejected Samuel from judging them, but the Lord also from reigning over them; and which is spoken to comfort Samuel, and to alleviate the pressure on his mind for the ill treatment he had met with; for since they had served the Lord after this manner, it was no wonder he should be ill used, and might bear it with great patience: but I see no reason why the word may not be taken absolutely, that they had not rejected Samuel from all share in the government, at least from judging the people; for so he continued all the days of his life, even after they had a king over them; but they entirely rejected the sole and peculiar government of God over them.

HENRY, "III. The instruction God gave him concerning this matter. Those that in straits seek to God shall find him nigh unto them, and ready to direct them. He tells him,1. That which would be an allay to his displeasure. Samuel was much disturbed at the proposal: it troubled him greatly to see his prophetic office thus slighted, and all the

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good turns he had done to Israel thus ungratefully returned; but God tells him he must not think it either hard or strange. (1.) He must not think it hard that they had put this slight upon him, for they had herein put a slight upon God himself: “They have not rejected thee only, but they have rejected me. I share with thee in the affront,” 1Sa_8:7. Note, If God interest himself in the indignities that are done us, and the contempts that are put upon us, we may well afford to bear them patiently; nor need we think the worse of ourselves if for his sake we bear reproach (Psa_69:7), but rather rejoice and count it an honour, Col_1:24. Samuel must not complain that they were weary of his government, though just and gentle, for really they were weary of God's government; this was what they disliked: They have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.God reigns over the heathen (Psa_47:8), over all the world, but the government of Israel had hitherto been, in a more peculiar manner than ever any government was, a Theocracy, a divine government; their judges had their call and commission immediately from God; the affairs of their nation were under his peculiar direction. As the constitution, so the administration of their government, was by Thus saith the Lord; this method they were weary of, though it was their honour and safety, above any thing, so long as they kept in with God. They were indeed so much the more exposed to calamities if they provoked God to anger by sin, and found they could not transgress at so cheap a rate as other nations could, which perhaps was the true reason why they desired to stand upon the same terms with God that other nations did. BENSON, "1 Samuel 8:7. The Lord said, Hearken unto the people, &c. — He grants their desire in anger, for their punishment. For these, it is plain, are the words of displeasure, being as much as to say, Let them have their will. Samuel took it very ill that they should be dissatisfied with his government: but God tells him that he himself had more reason to be angry. For, in truth, they had thrown off his authority who was their king, as Samuel tells them afterward, 1 Samuel 12:12; and who had governed them by judges, whom he raised up and extraordinarily inspired when he saw occasion; as he had before conducted them by Moses and Joshua, who never ordained any thing of moment without a special command from God. They have not rejected thee — Merely or chiefly. They have rejected me — This injury and contumely reflects chiefly upon me and my government. Should not reign — By my immediate government, which was the great honour, safety, and happiness of this people, if they had had hearts to prize it.ELLICOTT, "(7) Hearken unto the voice of the people.—The words spoken to Samuel, probably in a vision, by the Most High are very touching and very sad. Very touching, in their extreme tenderness to the noble old man. Take courage, they seem to say, “my old true servant, and be not dismayed at this apparently bitter proof of the ingratitude of the people you loved so well. This deliberate complaint on the part of Israel is directed not against you, the judge, but against Me, the invisible King. They have ever been the same—incapable of becoming my true subjects, and

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of winning on earth the lofty position I would have given them; you must give them now their hearts’ desire. It has all been foreseen and provided for; only make them understand what they are asking. Then give them their earthly king.” Very sad, for it was the deliberate abandonment by the Eternal God of His first intention as regarded Israel—the deliberate lowering of the grand ideal once formed for His chosen people. Here, as is not unfrequent in the Divine records, we have a corner of the veil which hangs between the creature and the Creator lifted for a moment. We see how sadly possible it is for man in the exercise of his perfect freewill to mar the glorious work arranged for him by his God. We see too in the records of such a transaction as this (see Deuteronomy 17:14) how all was foreseen by the King of heaven, and we catch sight of the sorrowful regret—if we may use the term—of the Creator for the perverse folly of His creatures.HAWKER, "Verses 7-9(7) And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. (8) According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. (9) Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.Those verses throw a great light on the scripture-history concerning Saul. The reign of Saul between the government of Samuel and David: plainly shows that what the Lord said by the prophet Hosea concerning this man, was in judgment: I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath. And this was added to the Lord's declaration, in which be had said, I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? Hosea 13:10-11.COKE, "1 Samuel 8:7. They have rejected me, &c.— Samuel had now, by a wise and painful direction of affairs, restored the purity of religion, and rescued the nation from the power of the Philistines, and their other hostile neighbours, against whom they were utterly unable to make head when he entered upon the administration. At this very time, the people, debauched as usual by power and prosperity, took the pretence of the corrupt conduct of the prophet's two sons, to go in a tumultuous manner and demand a king: but the secret spring of their rebellion was the ambition of their leaders, who could live no longer without the splendor of a regal court and household. Give me, say they, in Hosea 13:10 a king and princes, where every one of them might shine a distinguished officer of state. They could get nothing when their affairs led them to their judges' poor residence, in the schools of

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the prophets, but the GIFT of the Holy Spirit; which a courtier, I suppose, would not prize even at the rate at which Simon Magus held it, of a paltry piece of money. This it was, and this only, that made their demand criminal; for the choosing regal rather than aristocratic viceroys, was a thing plainly indulged to them by the law of Moses. Deuteronomy 17:14-15. Div. Leg. vol. 4: p. 80.PETT, "Verses 7-22

YHWH’s Response To Their Call For A King Was To Warn Them What Having A King Might Mean For Them (1 Samuel 8:7-22).

It is typical of sinful human beings that they did not recognise that having a king would involve a similar experience to the one that they had already experienced. Their very problems in the past had resulted from failing successors who had followed on after successful leaders. And they should have recognised that with kings that would happen constantly. But they were near sighted, and they were revealing that Canaanite traditions had taken possession of their hearts. They no longer thought theocratically. This Canaanite influence was seen elsewhere in the way in which they so easily turned to the worship of foreign gods. And it was also seen here in the way that they wanted a king. They did not like being shepherds. They wanted to be sheep.

Analysis.

a And YHWH said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them”. In accordance with all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, in that they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also to you” (1 Samuel 8:7-8).

b “Now therefore listen to their voice. However, you shall protest solemnly to them, and shall show them the manner of the king who will reign over them” (1 Samuel 8:9).

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c And Samuel told all the words of YHWH to the people who asked of him a king, and He said, “This will be the manner of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons, and appoint them to him for his chariots, and to be his horsemen, and they will run before his chariots” (1 Samuel 8:11).

d “And he will appoint them to him for captains of thousands, and captains of fifties, and to plough his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots” (1 Samuel 8:12).

e “And he will take your daughters to be perfumers, and to be cooks, and to be bakers” (1 Samuel 8:13).

f “And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants” (1 Samuel 8:14).

f “And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants” (1 Samuel 8:15).

e “And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your finest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work” (1 Samuel 8:16).

d “He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you will be his servants” (1 Samuel 8:17).

c “And you shall cry out in that day because of your king whom you will have chosen for yourselves, and YHWH will not answer you in that day” (1 Samuel 8:18)

b But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No, but we 52

will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles” (1 Samuel 8:19-20).

a And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the ears of YHWH. And YHWH said to Samuel, “Listen to their voice, and make them a king.” And Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Go you every man to his city” (1 Samuel 8:21-22).

Note that in ‘a’ Samuel was to listen to the voice of the people in all that they said to him (their request for a king) and in the parallel he was to listen to their voice and make them a king. In ‘b’ they are to be shown what manner of king they will discover that they have, and in the parallel they declare that they do know, for he will be like the kings of all the nations round about. In ‘c’ He begins to describe the glories that the king will take for himself, and in the parallel warns that they will groan under his requirements. In ‘d’ He describes the service that will be required of them, and that he will take of their time to plough his fields, and in the parallel tells that they will be his servants, and that he will take a tenth of their flocks. In ‘e’ he will set their daughters to work and in the parallel he will take their servants and their young men. In ‘f’ He will take their best fields and vineyards and oliveyards and will give them to his courtiers, and in the parallel he will take a tenth of their seed and of their vineyards and give them to his officers and courtiers.

1 Samuel 8:7

‘And YHWH said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them.”

YHWH knew the true heart of the people. The ‘golden age’ under Samuel had resulted in their again becoming apathetic in their attitude towards Him. They felt that things were good now, and they wanted to keep them that way, and yet not be too restricted in the way that they lived. They felt that they had found the right balance between keeping YHWH satisfied and at the same time enjoying the good

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things of life. And like many societies after them, they had a dream that once they had the right leadership in place things would go well. They were naturally unaware of the adage, ‘power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ which might have acted as a warning to them. Thus they were rejecting their long tradition of decentralised leadership for a leader who would bind them together as one whole, but who could become corrupt

They overlooked the fact that the system of decentralised leadership, inherited from the tribal system combined with YHWH’s provision of the covenant, had kept them a free people, at least within their own society. But that system of decentralised leadership had only been successful because YHWH Himself had been its centre through the Tabernacle and its priesthood, and through His prophets. All had looked to Him as their King. And it only worked when they did so. Now that that was to be set aside things would be different. And they did not realise what they were losing.

But YHWH knew what they were losing. And He knew that the reason for it was because they were rejecting the essential heart of the covenant, and in essence were rejecting His overlordship. From now on they would have divided loyalty, and God knew that in such a circumstance He would come off second best. Thus, as He reluctantly acquiesced with their request, He made clear to Samuel that it was not he, Samuel, whom they were rejecting, it was Himself. The problem was that they no longer wanted to be under His rule. They no longer wanted Him as their king. Their religious dedication was half hearted.BI 7-9, "Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee.Prayer answered under protestPrayer is certainly a most salutary exercise whenever one is agitated beyond his strength. When the elders of Israel came to Samuel he discovered that the complication was too deep for an old man like him to deal with; and so he went in prayer to God In thy end we shall learn that the petition of these malcontents was granted, but with the answer came retribution and ultimate dismay. Prayers are sometimes answered under protest Let us, then, move on at once in our search.I. We shall have to begin with a fair and detailed exposition of the narrative as it meets us.

1. This verse, besides its bearing upon our main point, contains a valuable lesson of its own: Rejecting Divine Providence is rejecting Divine government and forfeiting Divine favour. There is no sense in a declaration that we accept God’s law in general, but reserve the right to practical freedom in reference to particulars. “The end of all 54

civil government,” says an ancient thinker, writing for our times as wisely as for his own, “is to live well according to the Divine pleasure.” We are surely Christians, but in general, you know; not quite so particular as we might be, possibly, but with a decided respect for religion always. Now this will not do; Jesus Christ, is everything to a man, or He is nothing. In all human history there has never been a fitter leader to command our loyalty or to win our love. We have been told that the ancient Persian kings used to elect, for the education and training of their princes, the four best men in the kingdom—the justest man, the wisest man, the bravest man, and the most temperate man—so that each new sovereign might have the highest advantages, and come to the regal throne best fitted to rule over the people. Christ is the Prince of a kingdom that, is supreme in the universe. When the Providences of God summon us to follow Jesus as our Lord, to reject Him is also to reject the Lord that made us, and defy Him when He is most our friend.2. You must bear in mind, also, as this narrative proceeds, that wilful disobedience, continuously repeated, becomes settled rebellion. The reply which Samuel received reminded him that this was not a new case of sudden refusal of the Divine sovereignty. That nation had actually got into the habit of it. They had never shown anything more commendable since they came up out of the land of Pharaoh; they proved an awkward and ungainly people when Moses was trying to manage them in the wilderness. When one throws off God’s beneficent restraints, it is surprising to see how awfully wicked he can be as in a moment of rapid demoralisation. Things apparently innocent are made the baleful occasion, sometimes even the instrument, of violent outbreak in vice. It is one of the intense severities of Montaigne to say of these atheistic people that “they infect innocent matter with their own venom.” Some sceptics like to do this in their reckless arguments. They force natural science, always loyal and reverent to the Creator of the universe, to speak a lie and bring false testimony against God. It is the deliberate counting out of Divine government which puts this universe in such a false position. The only effective manner in which to deal with such a dangerous experience is found in letting it have its own way until it shall be weary and worn with its follies and be ready to return penitently to God.3. So now we come to the point that we started to reach. Human prayers are sometimes granted with a Divine protest. Solemn moment is that in which God gives to any man or nation in judgment what was asked of Him in petulance and pride! Now let us understand that circumstances may erect; a foreordained fact into a responsible sin, for which those who are the actors are to be held accountable in the end. The Lord said these malcontents in Israel might have their wish, and yet he charges on them the guilt the transaction involved. Furthermore, this very demand of the people had been foreseen and publicly predicted three hundred years before. And yet this whole proceeding was now wrong; it was premature and hasty, and it was conducted without reference to the over-ruling will of Jehovah. God’s Providence does not constrain any man’s iniquity. Foreordination has nothing to do with free will. Those elders were doing their own behest, not God’s; and they suffered for it.

II. We turn now from this story to the one principle it so vividly illustrates. It is worth our while to press a valuable admonition like that which is given here. We are told to let our hearts go forth in prayer continually unto God, and God will grant us our desires. But here we learn that not even the answers we obtain are to be trusted always. What does this mean in real experience?55

1. It means that all petitions are to be offered, and all desires are to be pressed, according to the Lord’s will before our will. If we thrust ourselves forward, Divine Providence will frequently hedge up the way. If now we urge on, sometimes the barrier is seen to move quietly away; then we can have our request if we continue to press it. But is this safe or wise? that is the sober question. It is the creature erecting itself against the supreme judgment of its Creator and taking its case into its own hands. When a man is intelligent, and his conscience tells him that God is not exactly granting, but only permitting, his prayer, is it best for him to persevere in it in the confident hope that courage will carry him through into safety?2. And for another thing, this declaration means that under protest God grants a Christian’s prayer, the answer will be a positive discipline rather than a blessing. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)

8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.

GILL, "According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them out of Egypt,.... This was no new thing; all that they had done since they were wonderfully favoured of God, as to be brought out of Egyptian bondage, was all of a piece with this; one continued series of ingratitude, of rebellion against God, and against his servants, that he employed under him, as Moses, Aaron, &c. even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods; this is what this people were always addicted to, to east off the worship and service of God, and go into idolatry: so do they also unto thee; acted the like ungrateful part to him for all the service he had done them, from his childhood to that time; wherefore, as the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord, if such things as before observed were done to Jehovah himself, Samuel could not expect to meet with better treatment, other than he had, see Mat_10:24.

HENRY, "He must not think it strange, nor marvel at the matter, for they do as they 56

always have done: According to all the works which they have done, since the day that I brought them out of Egypt, so do they unto thee, 1Sa_8:8; They had at first been so very respectful and obsequious to Samuel that he began to hope they were cured of their old stubborn disposition; but now he found himself deceived in them, and must not be surprised at it. They had always been rude to their governors, witness Moses and Aaron; nay, They have forsaken me and served other gods; the greatness of their crime, in affecting new gods, may make this crime of affecting new governors seem little. Samuel might expect they would deal treacherously, for they were called transgressors from the womb, Isa_48:8. This had been their manner from their youth up, Jer_22:21.2. He tells him that which would be an answer to their demand. Samuel would not have known what to say if God had not instructed him. Should he oppose the motion, it would bespeak a greater fondness of power and dominion than did become a prophet, and an indulgence of his sons. Should he yield to the motion, it would look like the betraying of his trust, and he would become accessory to all the bad consequences of a change. Aaron sinned in gratifying the people when they said, Make us gods; Samuel dares not therefore comply with them when they say, Make us a king, but he gives them, with assurance, the answer God sent them.

BENSON, "1 Samuel 8:8-9. So do they also unto thee — Thou farest no worse than myself. This he speaks for Samuel’s comfort and vindication. Yet protest solemnly unto them — That, if it be possible, thou mayest yet prevent their sin and misery. Show them the manner of the king — That is, of the kings which they desire, like those of other nations. Show them at large into what a state of servitude they are going to throw themselves by casting off the government of judges, set over them by myself, and subjecting themselves to the power of such kings as rule in other nations.PETT, "1 Samuel 8:8“In accordance with all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, in that they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also to you.”And He pointed out that this was not new. Indeed it had been the tendency of the hearts of His people ever since He had brought them out of Egypt. Since then they had constantly forsaken Him and served other gods. And in a similar way they were now rejecting all that Samuel had brought them (‘so they do also to you’). And they were replacing YHWH’s authority with that of a man’s. From now on their response to YHWH would on the whole very much depend on who was their king.

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9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.”

CLARKE, "Show them the manner of the king - The word משפט mishpat, which we here render manner, signifies simply what the king would and might require, according to the manner in which kings in general ruled; all of whom, in those times, were absolute and despotic.

The whole of this manner of the king is well illustrated by Puffendorf.“Hitherto,” says he, “the people of Israel had lived under governors raised up of God, who had exacted no tribute of them, nor put them to any charge; but, little content with this form of government. they desire to have a king like other nations, who should live in magnificence and pomp, keep armies, and be able to resist any invasion. Samuel informs them what it was they desired; that when they understood it, they might consider whether they would persist in their choice If they would have a king splendidly attended, he tells them that he would take their sons for his chariots, etc.; if they would have him keep up constant forces, then he would appoint them for colonels and captains, and employ those in his wars who were accustomed to follow their family business; and since, after the manner of other kings, he must keep a stately court, they must be content that their daughters should serve in several offices, which the king would think below the dignity of his wives and daughters, 1Sa_8:13. Many ministers also, in several departments, both of war and peace, must have salaries to support them, which must be paid out of their fields and vineyards, 1Sa_8:14. In one word, that to sustain his dignity their king would exact the tenth of all they possessed, and be maintained in a royal manner out of their estates.”

It is perfectly vain in Grotius, or any one else, to state that this shows what a king, as king, may any where in virtue of his office, claim and exact; and that he can take the property and persons of his subjects, and dispose of them as he may judge necessary for the exigence of the state. This was the manner of Saul, but Saul was not a king of God’s choosing: “He gave him in his wrath, and took him away in his displeasure;” and the manner of such a king should not be arrogated by any potentate who affects to rule jure divino, by Divine right. The manner of the king of God’s choice is distinctly detailed, Deu_17:15-20, to which the reader will do well to refer, that he may have an impartial 58

statement of the subject.

GILL, "Now therefore hearken unto their voice,.... And appoint them a king as they desire: howbeit, yet protest solemnly unto them; not against the thing itself, which was permitted, but against the evil of their request, as to the unseasonable time, ill manner, and unjustifiable reason, in and for which it was made; the Lord would have Samuel lay before them their evil in requesting it, and the evils that would follow upon it to them, and faithfully represent them to them, that they might be left without excuse, and have none to blame but themselves when they, should come upon them: and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them: or the right or judgment (z); not a legal right or form of government, but an assumed, arbitrary, and despotic power, such as the kings of the east exercised over their subjects, a king like whom the Israelites desired to have; namely, what unbounded liberties he would take with them, what slaves he would make of them, and what of their property he would take to himself at pleasure, as is after related. The word signifies, not a divine law, according to which the king should govern, but a custom, or a custom he would introduce, as the word is rendered, 1Sa_2:13 and is different from that in 1Sa_10:25.

HENRY, " He must tell them that they shall have a king. Hearken to the voice of the people, 1Sa_8:7, and again, 1Sa_8:9. Not that God was pleased with their request, but, as sometimes he crosses us in love, so at other times he gratifies us in wrath; he did so here. When they said, Give us a king and princes he gave them a king in his anger (see Hos_13:10, Hos_13:11), as he gave them quails, Psa_106:15; Psa_78:29. God bade Samuel humour them in this matter, [1.] That they might be beaten with their own rod, and might feel, to their cost, the difference between his government and the government of a king; see 2Ch_12:8. It soon appeared how much worse their condition was, in all respects, under Saul, than it had been under Samuel. [2.] To prevent something worse. If they were not gratified, they would either rise in rebellion against Samuel or universally revolt from their religion and admit the gods of the nations, that they might have kings like them. Rather than so, let them have a king. [3.] God knows how to bring glory to himself out of it, and to serve his own wise purposes even by their foolish counsels.

(2.) But he must tell them, withal, that when they have a king they will soon have enough of him, and will, when it is too late, repent of their choice. This he must protest solemnly to them (1Sa_8:9), that, if they would have a king to rule them, as the eastern kings ruled their subjects, they would find the yoke exceedingly heavy. They looked only at the pomp or magnificence of a king, and thought that would make their nation great and considerable among its neighbours, and would strike a terror upon their enemies; but he must bid them consider how they would like to bear the charges of that pomp, and how they would endure that arbitrary power which the neighbouring kings assumed. Note, Those that set their hearts inordinately upon any thing in this world ought, for the moderating of their desires, to consider the inconveniences as well as the conveniences that will attend it, and to set the one over against the other in their thoughts. Those that submit to the government of the world and the flesh are told plainly what hard masters 59

they are, and what a tyranny the dominion of sin is; and yet they will exchange God's government for it.

K&D, "In order to show them wherein they were wrong, Samuel was instructed tobear witness against them, by proclaiming the right of the king who wouldrule over them. עיד העדּתהם ּב neithermeans “warn them earnestly” (De Wette), nor “explain and solemnlyexpound to them” (Thenius). העידּב means to bear witness, orgive testimony against a person, i.e., to point out to him his wrong. Thefollowing words, וגוּתדּגוה , are to be understood as explanatory, inthe sense of “by proclaiming to them.” “The manner (mishpat) of the king”is the right or prerogative which the king would claim, namely, such a kingas was possessed by all the other nations, and such an one as Israel desiredin the place of its own God-king, i.e., a king who would rule over hispeople with arbitrary and absolute power.

10 Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king.

GILL, "And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto them,.... How he considered this request of theirs as a rejection of him as their king, and that it was acting the same ungrateful part they had always done; and since they were so importunate to have it granted, it should be done; but that he was ordered to lay before them all the inconveniences that would attend it, and the evils that would follow upon it unto them: that asked of him a king; which is observed, not to distinguish a part of them from the rest; for this was an united request of the people.

HENRY 10-11, "IV. Samuel's faithful delivery of God's mind to them, 1Sa_8:10. He told them all the words of the Lord, how ill he resented it, that he construed it a rejecting of him, and compared it with their serving other gods, - that he would grant their request if they insisted on it, but withal had ordered him to represent to them the certain consequences of their choice, that they would be such that if they had any reason left them, and would allow themselves to consult their own interest, they would withdraw their petition, and beg to continue as they were. Accordingly he lays before them, very

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particularly, what would be, not the right of a king in general, but the manner of the king that should reign over them, according to the pattern of the nations, 1Sa_8:11. Samuel does not speak (as bishop Patrick expounds it) of a just and honest right of a king to do these things, for his right is quite otherwise described in that part of Moses's law which concerns the king's duty, but such a right as the kings of the nations had then acquired. This shall be the manner of the king, that is, “thus he must support his dignity at the expense of that which is dearest to you, and thus he will abuse his power, as those that have power are apt to do; and, having the militia in his hand, you will be under a necessity of submitting to him.”

COFFMAN, "GOD'S DESCRIPTION OF THE KINGS THAT ISRAEL WOULD GET"So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking a king from him. He said, "These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your menservants and maidservants, and the best of your cattle and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the Lord will not answer you in that day."

"And Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people" (1 Samuel 8:10). L. P. Smith stated that, "This chapter contains the late account of the institution of the monarchy."[6] How did she justify such an error? She did so on the basis that Samuel's description of the monarchy could not possibly have been foreseen by him but was evidently written by one who had observed the monarchy for centuries! This is another example of Bible commentators who do not believe what the Bible says and whose purpose, therefore, in their writings is open to serious question.

Our text in this place ascribes this prophetic description of Israel's monarchy to

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THE LORD, not to Samuel.

Furthermore, there is overwhelmingly convincing evidence that this chapter is not "a late report" but a very early one. If it had been from a `late source,' as erroneously alleged, who could possibly have left out of the description of Israel's monarchy the fantastic abuse of the custom of concubinage? Concubinage was the very worst of all the abuses and tyrannies of Israel's kings. Who can forget that Solomon had hundreds of concubines? The omission of this shameful abuse in this catalogue describing the kind of kings Israel would get denies in tones of thunder that there is anything late about this chapter.

It was the monarchy that totally ruined Israel. As the Lord himself expressed it, long afterward when the monarchy had run its evil course:

I will destroy you, O Israel;

Who can help you?

Where now is your king to save you?

Where are all your princes to defend you? -

Those of whom you said, "Give me a king and princes."

I have given you kings in my anger, and

I have taken them away in my wrath.

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- Hosea 13:10-11

The great Cambridge scholar, Henry McKeating, has the following comment on this passage from Hosea:

"Hosea is not only antagonistic to the northern kings but to the monarchy as such. The monarchy is powerless to save the nation. Israel was wrong to ask for a king. Her punishment was that she got what she asked."[7]

We are aware that it is popular among many able commentators today to make apologies for Israel's monarchy and to apply what the Scriptures plainly say about it to some specific monarch, Saul, for example, as did Dummelow, or to the kings of Northern Israel as did Hailey; but it is the conviction of this writer that Israel was totally and completely wrong in asking a king and that this rejection of God (that is what the text calls it) contained embryonically all of the later sorrows of the Chosen People. Throughout the whole history of Israel, there were very few monarchs who even tried to serve the Lord. Solomon was to be blamed for the division of the kingdom under his son, because the people simply rejected the excesses of Solomon; and yet, even after God took the monarchy away from them, the nation wanted nothing in heaven or on earth as much as they wanted the restoration of that scandalous Solomonic empire. It was this, more than anything else, that motivated their rejection of God Himself, finally and irrevocably, in their rejection of God's Son, Jesus Christ the Holy One.

Go down the list of Israel's kings, David, the very best of all of them, was an adulterer and a murderer; and he also corrupted the worship of God by two sinful things: (1) his initiating the events that led to the building of the temple (the den of thieves and robbers in Jesus' times); and (2) his introduction of instruments of music into the worship of God. We do not have the space here to outline all of the misdeeds of Israel's shameful monarchy, but it is clear enough that God's disapproval of the monarchy was no late thing, applicable only to the phantom kings of Ephraim's final years, but it rested upon the monarchy from the very beginning of it as outlined in this chapter. If God had ever approved of it, He would

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never have taken it away from them!

Nevertheless, God accommodated to the sinful conduct of His people and in many specific instances blessed the kings of Israel,

There is another word on this subject which we must include.

"They have set up kings, but not by me" (Hosea 8:4). James Luther Mays, writing in 1969, commented on this verse from Hosea, writing: "Hosea here says that God had no part in Israel's king-making. God had no responsibility for Israel's kings, and all that His people could receive from God through them was His anger."[8]HAWKER, "Verses 10-18(10) And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king. (11) And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. (12) And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. (13) And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. (14) And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. (15) And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. (16) And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. (17) He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. (18) And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day.Reader! may not you and I spiritualize this passage? What are all our lusts and corruptions arising from the body of sin and death we carry about with us, but like the galling authority which is here described? I know not what your feelings are: but I know in my own, that these corrupt passions of my unrenewed part, (for such is the body after all the work of grace upon the soul) are continually dragging down the soul, and like the chariots and horsemen here spoken of made me cry out

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continually, as holy Paul did being burthened. Romans 7:24.

CONSTABLE, "The consequences of requesting a king 8:10-22Samuel explained what having a king similar to all the nations would mean. The elders were interested in the functions of monarchy, but Samuel pointed out the nature of monarchy. It meant the loss of freedoms and possessions that the people presently enjoyed. In 1 Samuel 8:11-17, Samuel did not define the rights of a king but described the ways of most kings. [Note: G. Coleman Luck, "Israel's Demand for a King," Bibliotheca Sacra 120:477 (January-March 1963):61.] There is evidence that Israel's neighbor nations really did suffer under their kings exactly as Samuel warned. [Note: See I. Mendelsohn, "Samuel's Denunciation of Kingship in the Light of the Akkadian Documents from Ugarit," Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 143 (October 1956):17-22.] Note the recurrence of the words "take" and "best" in these verses.

"By nature royalty is parasitic rather than giving, and kings are never satisfied with the worst." [Note: Youngblood, p. 614.]

The people would also regret their request because their king would disappoint them (1 Samuel 8:18), but God would not remove the consequences of their choice. Their king could have been a great joy to them, instead of a great disappointment, if the people had waited for God to inaugurate the monarchy. As becomes clear later in Samuel, as well as in Kings and Chronicles, David was God's choice to lead the Israelites from the beginning. If the people had not been impatient, I believe David would have been their first king. Saul proved to be a "false start" to the monarchy. [Note: David Payne, p. 1.]

In the argument of Samuel, this chapter serves to introduce the reason Saul became such a disappointment to the Israelites, and such a disaster as a king. Nevertheless, his reign was not totally unsuccessful, because at its beginning he sought to please Yahweh.LANGE, " 1 Samuel 8:10-18. The right of the king.

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1 Samuel 8:10. And Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people.—This declaration of Samuel was therefore essentially an exhortation to repentance, which set before the people that, by their desire for a king, they had principially rejected God’s sole rule over them. Clericus: ‘ Therefore God declares that He was despised by the Israelites, inasmuch as they were not content with the theocracy, which had heretofore existed.”—The mishpat (ִמְׁשָּפט, “right,” “manner”) is here what pertains to the king in the maintenance of courtly state, and what he claims from his subjects, according to the custom of heathen rulers and to kingly usage; for it was with their eyes on the kings of other nations that the people had demanded a king. Joseph.: τὰ παρὰ τοῦ βασιλέως ἐσόμενα, morem regis et agendi rationem [“the manner of the king”]. Maurer: id quod rex suo arbitrio vivens impune faciet [“what the king, following his own will, would do with impunity”]. Clericus: “It signifies the manner of his life ( 1 Samuel 2:13; Genesis 40:13; Judges 13:12),—not legal right (jus), for several unjust things are afterwards mentioned, such as were practiced by the neighboring kings, whom in fact the Hebrew kings afterwards imitated.” Sept. δικαίωμα [“legal right or ordinance”]. The words: he will take your sons… his chariot, present a single comprehensive statement of the employment of the young men of the people in the royal court. The first sing. of the text “in his chariot” is to be retained (against Then, who, after Sept, Chald, and Syr, reads the Plu, and refers it to war-chariots), and the chariot is in both cases to be understood as the court and state-chariot, the service of which is described in accordance with the actual manner of oriental courts. In this there were1) Chariot-drivers, who are referred to in the words “he will put them in his chariot;” 2) Riders, indicated by the phrase “on his horses” (ָּפָרׁש is here “saddle-horse,” as in 1 Kings 5:6 [Eng. A. V: 1 Samuel 4:26[FN16]])—“he will put them on his saddle-horses,” and3) Runners—“and they will run before his chariot.” It is a description of the usual royal equipage of chariots and horses. Comp. 1 Kings 5:6, 4:26], 2 Samuel 15:1.BI, "And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king.An admonition to the wilfulWhen about to frame the Tabernacle in the wilderness, Moses was specially instructed by God to make it after the pattern which had been shown him in the holy mount. When Jeremiah was set apart to the prophetical office, for which he confessed himself unfit, God said, “Thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee; and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak” (Jer_1:7). The rule with respect to all preachers of the gospel is after a similar form: “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God” (1Pe_4:11); “It is required of stewards that a man be found faithful” (1Co_4:2). Ministerial fidelity is the full declaration of the word of God to the consciences of men. “Who is a true and faithful steward?” asked Latimer of old. “He is true, he is faithful, that coineth no new money,

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but seeketh it ready coined of the goodman of the house; and neither changeth it nor clippeth it, after it is taken to him to spend, but spendeth even the selfsame that he had of his Lord; and spendeth it as his Lord commanded him.” Such a man was Samuel, who “told all the words of the Lord unto the people.” This fidelity is essential to the proper discharge of the ministerial office, as it was of the prophetical. The fear of man may not alter the doctrine of the pulpit. The preacher of the word must declare all the counsel of God, whether men hear or whether they forbear. Ere the people proceeded to make a change of Government, Samuel declared the manner of the king that should reign over them. Samuel did not show the people what a king ought to be—that was written in the books of the law of Moses; but what he would be. In the East, kings maintain great magnificence, live in highest luxury, and indulge their passions. Followed by sycophants baser than themselves, they soon get beyond amendment, and, secure in their self-sufficiency, are heedless of the complaints and wrongs of their subjects. Such were the men who wore a crown in the days of Samuel, nor have Eastern monarchs much changed since then. But when an object is earnestly desired, all connected with it is viewed through the coloured glasses of the beholder, The people of Israel saw only the magnificence, not the luxury; the dignity, not the expense; the power, not the oppression of a king. They were willing to run before a royal chariot,—that would be no slavery. They would enlist in an army,—that would be no yoke. They would give the best to a Hebrew king,—that would be no sacrifice. The enthusiasm of the people saw no evil in a royal crown or a courtly retinue. Like little children, the passions of a people are blind to the future. They will have their desire, though it prove their ruin. Thus French factions would have their objects in the revolutionary era, regardless of the wrong they caused, the blood they shed, the religion they blasphemed, the God they dishonoured, until the Red Republic was more cruel than ever despotic monarchy had been. Thus the sinner will have his desire, though he imperil his soul foreverse The avaricious will have gold, though it becomes his idol, and his immortal spirit worships the golden calf. The inebriate will have his drink, though he degrade his being, blast his character, beggar his family, and damn his soul. The sinner will have his sin though it ruin him foreverse But there is personal danger resulting from the indulgence of wrong motives, and from the eager pursuit of sin. The soul is debased, made guilty, and exposed to retribution. It may awaken too late to retrace its steps, to secure pardon and salvation. Present decision to be right with God is therefore an imperative duty, as it is the guarantee of future blessing. Faithful as Samuel was to the people in declaring the words of God, he is none the less so in rehearsing the words of the people of God. The decided indication of the popular will does not alter Samuel’s views, or tempt him to depart from God. He can go back to the presence of God with the same uprightness as he bad come from that sacred place. The tides of popular feeling did not bear him away. He could stand alone in his devotedness to God if the people should all reject the word of the Most High. He acted as the commissioner of Jehovah, and therefore laid the wish of the people before the throne of God. He was willing to abide by the Divine decision. God granted the request of the people, and Samuel gave information accordingly. This did not indicate Divine approbation of their conduct; for it showed that they were to bear the responsibility of the step. They become new opportunities of well-doing if rightly improved, or means of conviction of the sin committed. They had confidence in Samuel’s prayers, and were willing to abide the issue. “The history of the world,” says a judicious commentator, “cannot produce another instance in which a public determination was formed to appoint a king, and yet no one proposed either himself or any other person to be king, but referred the determination entirely to God.” (R. Steel.)67

11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots.

BARNES, "This organization was as old as the time of Moses Num_31:14; Deu_1:15, and prevailed among the Philistines also 1Sa_29:2. The civil and military divisions were identical, and the civil officers were the same as the captains of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, in time of war.

To ear his ground - literally, “to plow his plowing.” “To ear” is an old English word, now obsolete, for to plow.

GILL, "And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties,.... Which though posts of honour, yet when they are not matter of choice, and especially being precarious, and depending on the arbitrary will of a prince, are not eligible, and less so to persons that choose another sort of life: and will set them to ear his ground; to plough it; not the same persons made captains of thousands and fifties, but others, whom he will employ in tilling and manuring his fields, and oblige them to it: and to reap his harvest; when it is ripe, and gather it in, and bring it home into his barns and garners: and to make his instruments of war: as swords, spears, bows and arrows, most commonly used in those times: and instruments of chariots; which seem to design chariots of war, and the iron spikes and scythes which were joined to them, to cut down the foot soldiers, when driven among them in battle, which are commonly called chariots of iron; see Jos_17:16.

HENRY 11-13, "1. If they will have such a king as the nations have, let them consider, (1.) That king must have a great retinue, abundance of servants to wait on him, grooms to look after his chariots and horses, gentlemen to ride about with him, and footmen to

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run before his chariots. This is the chief grandeur of princes, and the imaginary glory of great men, to have a multitude of attendants. And whence must he have these? “Why, he will take your sons, who are free-born, have a liberal education, and whom you now have at your own disposal, and will appoint them for himself,” 1Sa_8:11. They must wait upon him, and be at his beck; those that used to work for their parents and themselves must work for him, ear his ground, and reap his harvest (1Sa_8:12), and count it their preferment too, 1Sa_8:16. This would be a great change. (2.) He must keep a great table; he will not be content to dine with his neighbours upon a sacrifice, as Samuel used to do (1Sa_9:13); but he must have a variety of dainty dishes, forced meats, and sweet-meats, and delicate sauces; and who must prepare him these? “Why, he will take your daughters, the most ingenious and handy of them, whom you hoped to prefer to houses and tables of their own; and, whether you be willing or no, they must be his confectioners, and cooks, and bakers, and the like.” (3.) “He must needs have a standing army, for guards and garrisons; and your sons, instead of being elders of your cities, and living in quiet and honour at home, must be captains over thousands and captains over fifties, and must be disposed of at the pleasure of the sovereign.”

JAMISON, "he will appoint him captains — In the East, a person must accept any office to which he may be nominated by the king, however irksome it may be to his taste or ruinous to his interests.PULPIT. "1Sa_8:12Captains over thousands, and captains over fifties. The largest and smallest divisions respectively of an Israelite, army. However objectionable the king’s personal state might be, this would fall in with the people’s wishes, for it would give them the promise of a well organised army. Not so the next clause, to ear i.e. to plough—his ground. Forced labour was one of the most unjust, oppressive, and wasteful exactions of absolute governments, and was the chief cause of the revolt of the ten tribes from Rehoboam. And yet it was the universal rule in ancient times, and in some countries it has continued even to the present day to be the law that the peasants must at certain seasons give their labour unpaid either to the proprietors or to the state. Naturally, for a nation of agriculturists to have to leave their own fields just when their presence at home was most needed to plough the king’s ground and reap his harvest would be a bitter annoyance, because to the loss would be added a sense of wrong. How determinately a high-spirited nation like the Jews did resist this injustice we gather not merely from the indignation felt against Solomon’s levies, but also from the reproach cast in Jehoiakim’s teeth by Jeremiah, that "he used his neighbour’s service without wages, and gave him not for his work" (Jer_22:13). To make his instruments of war. Such work must be done; but in well organised states it is paid for by means of taxes, i.e. by a money compensation in place of personal service. In semi-barbarous states forced labour is used, and the national arsenals furnished at the greatest possible expense and vexation to those compelled to labour, and loss to the national resources.

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K&D, "1Sa_8:12“And to make himself chiefs over thousands and over fifties;” - the greatest and smallest military officers are mentioned, instead of all the soldiers and officers (comp.

Num_31:14; 2Ki_1:9., with Exo_18:21, Exo_18:25). ְוָלׂשּום is also dependent upon ִיַּקח(1Sa_8:11), - “and to plough his field ,and reap his harvest ,(lit. the ploughed ,ָחִריׁש)and make his instruments of war and instruments of his chariots.”

BENSON, "1 Samuel 8:11. He will take your sons — Injuriously, and by violence. And appoint them for himself — To attend him as the guards of his body, and in other offices. This shows that he speaks of the arbitrary power which the kings in those days used. And therefore Samuel doth not say absolutely, I will show you the manner (Hebrews מׂשפת, mispeth, judgment, or right) of a king, as if it were a right belonging to all kings, but, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: or, such will be the consequence of your having kings. They will indeed be like those of the neighbouring nations, puffed up with their authority, haughty, arbitrary, and tyrannical: and you will find yourselves in a state of oppression and servitude. For his chariots, and to be his horsemen — To look after his chariots and his horses. Some shall run before his chariots — As his footmen.ELLICOTT, " (11) And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you.—In obedience to the word of the Lord, Samuel, the judge of Israel, without blaming the people for their desire, quietly asks them if they were in real earnest—if they had fully considered the grave changes which such an appointment as that of a sovereign over the nation would bring about in the constitution. Were they willing to exchange their Republican freedom for the condition of subjection to a sovereign who, after the manner of those other kings of foreign nations—the Pharaohs, for instance—would of course govern Israel after his own will? in other words, were they really willing to give up their Republic for a Despotism?In this whole transaction of the appointment of an earthly king in Israel, we must not forget that although under the present circumstances of Israel it was the best course to pursue, and, as such, received the Divine sanction, yet it was giving up the old grand ideal of a nation dwelling on earth ruled over directly by a King whose throne and home were in the eternal heavens. The glorious hope had to be given up, because Israel had been tried and found unworthy to share in the undreamed-of blessings of such a Government.He will take your sons.—Here follows a graphic picture of the changed life of the people under a despotic monarch. They must be prepared, must those elders, for a

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court—a gorgeous court such as they had heard of, and perhaps some of them had seen on the banks of the Nile, the Euphrates, or the Tigris; all that was best and choicest in Israel would be summoned there. The old pastoral life would disappear; the dwelling under their own vines and fig-trees would give place to a very different way of living; the pleasures and vices of a gay and brilliant city life would allure the sons and daughters. and tempt them from the old simple way of living, dear to so many in Israel. War, too, on a scale they hitherto had never dreamed of, would be their portion—all these heavy burdens would become the heritage of Israel if they chose to imitate in their government the nations of the world. Had they thought of all this when they asked for a king?K&D, "1 Samuel 8:11“He will take your sons, and set them for himself upon hischariots, and upon his saddle-horses, and they will run before his chariot;”i.e., he will make the sons of the people his retainers at court, hischarioteers, riders, and runners. The singular suffix attached to וּתבּכמרּב is not to be altered, as Thenius suggests, into theplural form, according to the lxx, Chald., and Syr., since the word refers,not to war-chariots, but to the king's state-carriage; and רׁשּפ does not mean a rider, but a saddle-horse, as in 2 Samuel 1:6; 1 Kings 5:6, etc.COKE, "1 Samuel 8:11. This will be the manner of the king— They had desired such a king to judge or rule over them as all the nations had. Now it is very well known, that all the eastern nations were under despotic government. It is, therefore, such a kind of government which Samuel sets forth in the following verses, in order to dissuade them from their purpose. This is very evident from the 18th verse particularly. The people of Israel, says Baron Puffendorff, had hitherto lived under governors raised up by God, who had exacted no tribute of them, nor put them to any charge; but, little content with this form of government, they desire to have a king like other nations, who should live in magnificence and pomp, keep armies, and be ready to resist any invasion. Samuel informs them what it was that they desired, that when they understood it they might consider whether they would persist in their choice. If they would have a king splendidly attended, he tells them, that he would take their sons for his chariots, &c. If they would have him keep up constant forces, then he would appoint them for colonels and captains, and employ those in his wars who were accustomed to follow their family business: and since, after the manner of other kings, he must keep a stately court, they must be content that their daughters should serve in several offices, which the king would think below the dignity of his wives and daughters; 1 Samuel 8:13. Many ministers also, in several departments both of war and peace, must have salaries to support them, which must be paid out of their fields and vineyards; 1 Samuel 8:14. In one word, that, to

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sustain his dignity, their king would exact the 10th of all they possessed, and be maintained in a royal manner out of their estates. See Puffendorff de Rebus Gestis Philippi. PETT, "1 Samuel 8:11-12‘And he said, “This will be the manner of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons, and appoint them to him for his chariots, and to be his horsemen, and they will run before his chariots (see 2 Samuel 15:1; 1 Kings 1:5), and he will appoint them to him for captains of thousands, and captains of fifties. And he will set some to plough his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots.” ’The first requirement that this king will have will be concerning his own splendour. The picture is firmly based on the lifestyle of Canaanite kings. He will want ceremonial chariots, and horsemen, and it will be their sons who will drive his chariots and be his horsemen, ever at his beck and call. And some will be appointed to run before the chariots proclaiming that the king is coming. Others will be made captains of military units, both large and small. Still others will be called on to plough his fields and reap his harvests, thus either losing their own land, or having far less time to work on it. And yet others would be set to making his instruments of war and all the requirements for his chariots. It would introduce a totally new subservient lifestyle, along with any punishments that the king decided to mete out.

12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.

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BARNES, "This organization was as old as the time of Moses Num_31:14; Deu_1:15, and prevailed among the Philistines also 1Sa_29:2. The civil and military divisions were identical, and the civil officers were the same as the captains of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, in time of war.

To ear his ground - literally, “to plow his plowing.” “To ear” is an old English word, now obsolete, for to plow.

GILL, "And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties,.... Which though posts of honour, yet when they are not matter of choice, and especially being precarious, and depending on the arbitrary will of a prince, are not eligible, and less so to persons that choose another sort of life: and will set them to ear his ground; to plough it; not the same persons made captains of thousands and fifties, but others, whom he will employ in tilling and manuring his fields, and oblige them to it: and to reap his harvest; when it is ripe, and gather it in, and bring it home into his barns and garners: and to make his instruments of war: as swords, spears, bows and arrows, most commonly used in those times: and instruments of chariots; which seem to design chariots of war, and the iron spikes and scythes which were joined to them, to cut down the foot soldiers, when driven among them in battle, which are commonly called chariots of iron; see Jos_17:16.

JAMISON, "he will appoint him captains — In the East, a person must accept any office to which he may be nominated by the king, however irksome it may be to his taste or ruinous to his interests.

BENSON, "1 Samuel 8:12. He will appoint him — Hebrew, To or for himself; for his own fancy, or glory, and not only when the necessities of the kingdom require it. Captains over thousands, and captains over fifties — Will dispose of them to military offices, higher or lower as he pleases, (1 Samuel 14:52,) to be perfectly subject to him, and placed or displaced as he thinks fit. And though this might seem to be no disadvantage, but an honour to the persons so advanced; yet even in them that honour was accompanied with great dangers, and pernicious snares of many kinds, for which those faint shadows of glory could not recompense them; and as to the public, their pomp and power proved very burdensome to the people, whose

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lands and fruits were taken from them, and bestowed upon these, for the support of their state. And will set them to ear his ground, &c. — Will make them his husbandmen, to plough his ground and reap his corn, at his own pleasure, and on his own terms, when, perhaps, their labour is necessary about their own fields. To make his instruments of war, &c. — Others he will make artificers: which was not very agreeable to that nation, who were inclined, from their first rise, rather to employ themselves in attending to the breeding of cattle, and in looking after their flocks and herds.K&D, "1 Samuel 8:12“And to make himself chiefs over thousands and over fifties;” - the greatest and smallest military officers are mentioned, instead of all thesoldiers and officers (comp. Numbers 31:14; 2 Kings 1:9., with Exodus 18:21, Exodus 18:25). םּוולׂש is also dependent upon חּקי (1 Samuel 8:11), - “and toplough his field (חריׁש, lit. the ploughed), and reap his harvest,and make his instruments of war and instruments of his chariots.”LANGE, "1 Samuel 8:12 refers partly to military service, partly to agricultural service. “And to set”[FN17] depends on “he will take;” the twice-used לֹו [“for himself”] indicates his purely selfish aim. The “captains over thousands and fifties”[FN18] represent the whole army in all its grades between these highest and lowest positions. For the charge of the “captain over fifty” comp. 2 Kings 14-1:9 .—All the tillage of the royal possessions must be performed by them; it is described by its beginning and end (ploughing and reaping). To this is added the work of the royal artificers for war and peace.K&D, "1Sa_8:12

“And to make himself chiefs over thousands and over fifties;” - the greatest and smallest military officers are mentioned, instead of all the soldiers and officers (comp. Num_31:14; 2Ki_1:9., with Exo_18:21, Exo_18:25). ְוָלׂשּום is also dependent upon ִיַּקח(1Sa_8:11), - “and to plough his field ,and reap his harvest ,(lit. the ploughed ,ָחִריׁש)and make his instruments of war and instruments of his chariots.”

13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers 74

and cooks and bakers.

GILL, "And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries,.... Such as deal in spices, and mix them, and make them up in various forms very agreeable to the taste. Men are commonly in our countries and times employed in such arts, but it seems this was the business of women in those times and places. Some versions (d) render it "unguentariae", makers or sellers of ointments, and such there were in some nations (e), such was Lydia in Juvenal (f): and to be cooks; to dress all sorts of food, especially what were boiled, as the word signifies: and to be bakers; to make and bake bread, which though with us is the work of men, yet in the eastern countries was usually done by women; See Gill on Lev_26:26.

JAMISON, "he will take your daughters to be confectionaries — Cookery, baking, and the kindred works are, in Eastern countries, female employment, and thousands of young women are occupied with these offices in the palaces even of petty princes.PULPIT, "1Sa_8:13Confectionaries. Rather, "perfumers," makers of ointments and scents, of which Orientals are excessively fond. It is remarkable that Samuel does not mention the far worse use to which Solomon put their daughters (1Ki_11:3), and to a less extent David and some other kings.

BENSON, "1 Samuel 8:13. He will take your daughters, &c. — He will exercise as arbitrary a power over the women as over the men; whom he will make to serve in such employments as he shall think fit; either for nothing, or such wages as he shall please to give them. To have their daughters taken in this manner would be peculiarly grievous to the parents, and dangerous to themselves, because of the tenderness of their sex, and their liableness to many injuries.LANGE, "1 Samuel 8:13. The daughters of the people will be employed in the service of the royal household. [Women were, in ancient times, cooks, bakers, and preparers of ointments and spices. This last work embraced the preparation of highly-seasoned food, meats and drinks, and of perfumed oils for anointing the body. The household of oriental princes is even now organized on a gigantic scale, and there are indications that a similar luxury was practiced by the nations who lived about the Israelites. All this, as well as the use of horses and chariots, though

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not absolutely forbidden in the Law, was contrary to its spirit.—Tr.]. 1 Samuel 8:14 sqq. describe the arbitrary dealing of the king with the property of the people in order to enrich his courtiers. ַסִרים is properly “a eunuch,” then any court-officer.

14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.

GILL, "And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards,.... Which includes the whole increase of their land, their corn, and wine, and oil; and it is these, the fruits of their fields, vineyards, and oliveyards, which are here meant; for otherwise kings might not, and did not by their absolute authority, take away those from their subjects; otherwise Ahab would have taken away Naboth's vineyard at once, nor would Jezebel have needed to have taken such a method she did, to put Ahab into the possession of it: even the best of them, and give them to his servants; for their service; and which some restrain to times of war, when necessity obliged to use such methods.

HENRY 14-17, " “You may expect that he will have great favourites, whom, having dignified and ennobled, he must enrich, and give them estates suitable to their honour; and which way can he do that, but out of your inheritances? 1Sa_8:14. He will take your fields and vineyards, which descended to you from your ancestors, and which you hoped to leave to your posterity after you, even the best of them; and will not only take them to himself (you could bear that better), but he will give them to his servants, who will be your masters, and bear rule over that for which you have laboured, How will you like that?” (5.) “He must have great revenues to maintain his grandeur and power with; and whence must he have them but from you? He will take the tenth of the fruits of your ground (1Sa_8:15), and your cattle, 1Sa_8:17. You think the tenths, the double tenths, which the law of God has appointed for the support of the church, grievous enough, and grudge the payment of them; but, if you have a king, there must issue another tenth out of your estates, which will be levied with more rigour, for the support of the royal dignity. Consider the expense with the magnificence, and whether it will quit cost.”

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JAMISON, "he will take your fields, etc. — The circumstances mentioned here might be illustrated by exact analogies in the conduct of many Oriental monarchs in the present day.PULPIT, "1Sa_8:14Your fields. The history of the seizure of Naboth’s vineyard shows that the kings were not able to exercise this arbitrary power. Jezebel had to use great art and falsehood before she could get possession of the coveted plot of ground. But throughout Samuel describes a despot ruling after the fashion of heathen kings such as the people had desired.

K&D, "1Sa_8:14-17All their possessions he would also take to himself: the good (i.e., the best) fields, vineyards, and olive-gardens, he would take away, and give to his servants; he would tithe the sowings and vineyards (i.e., the produce which they yielded), and give them to

his courtiers and servants. ָסִריס, lit. the eunuch; here it is used in a wider sense for the royal chamberlains. Even their slaves (men-servants and maid-servants) and their beasts of draught and burden he would take and use for his own work, and raise the tithe of the flock. The word ַּבחּוֵריֶכם, between the slaves (men-servants and maid-servants) and the asses, is very striking and altogether unsuitable; and in all probability it is only an ancient copyist's error for ִּבְקֵריֶכם, your oxen, as we may see from the lxx rendering, τὰ βουκόλια. The servants and maids, oxen and asses, answer in that case to one another; whilst the young men are included among the sons in 1Sa_8:11, 1Sa_8:12. In this way the king would make all the people into his servants or slaves. This is the meaning of the second clause of 1Sa_8:17; for the whole are evidently summed up in conclusion in the expression, “and ye shall be his servants.”

BENSON, "1 Samuel 8:14-15. He will take your fields — By fraud or force, as Ahab did from Naboth. And give them to his servants — He will not only take the fruits of your lands for his own use, but will take away your possessions to give to his servants. The tenth — Besides the several tenths which God hath reserved for his service, he will when he pleaseth, impose another tenth upon you. And give to his officers — Hebrew, to his eunuchs, which may imply a further injury, that he should, against the command of God, make some of his people eunuchs; and take those into his court and favour whom God would have cast out of the congregation.K&D, "1 Samuel 8:14-17All their possessions he would also take to himself: the good(i.e., the best) fields, vineyards, and olive-gardens, he would take away,and give to his servants; he would

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tithe the sowings and vineyards (i.e., theproduce which they yielded), and give them to his courtiers and servants. סריס, lit. the eunuch; here it is used in a wider sense for the royalchamberlains. Even their slaves (men-servants and maid-servants) and theirbeasts of draught and burden he would take and use for his own work, andraise the tithe of the flock. The word ריכםּוחּב , between theslaves (men-servants and maid-servants) and the asses, is very striking andaltogether unsuitable; and in all probability it is only an ancient copyist'serror for קריכםּב , your oxen, as we may see from the lxx rendering, τὰ βουκόλια . The servants and maids, oxen and asses, answer in that caseto one another; whilst the young men are included among the sons in 1 Samuel 8:11, 1 Samuel 8:12. In this way the king would make all the people into his servants orslaves. This is the meaning of the second clause of 1 Samuel 8:17; for the whole areevidently summed up in conclusion in the expression, “and ye shall be hisservants.”PETT, "1 Samuel 8:14“And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.”But worse. He will want to reward his favourites. And in order to do this he will take the very best of their fields, and their vineyards, and their oliveyards, and will give them to his favourite courtiers. They will not have any choice in the matter. It will be required of them. And they will have no one to whom to appeal.

15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.

GILL, "And he will take the tenth of your seed,.... When grown up and ripe, as their wheat and barley: and of your vineyards; the tenth of the grapes they should produce:

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and give to his officers, and to his servants; for the support and maintenance of them; and to pay this, besides the tithes of the priests and Levites, would make it very burdensome to them; and this was no other than what kings of other nations usually had, the like to whom they were desirous of having, and therefore must expect that they would insist upon the privileges and revenues that others had. In Babylon, as Aristotle (g) relates, there was an ancient law which required the tenth of whatever was imported for the public revenue, which was revived in the times of Alexander by Antimenes the Rhodian. In Arabia Felix was an island abounding with frankincense and myrrh, and various spices, the tenth of the fruits of which the king always had, as Diodorus Siculus (h) reports, as in the Apocrypha:"And as for other things that belong unto us, of the tithes and customs pertaining unto us, as also the saltpits, and the crown taxes, which are due unto us, we discharge them of them all for their relief.'' (1 Maccabees 11:35)

PULPIT, "1Sa_8:15The tenth. i.e. the king will cost you as much as all the ordinances of religion. Still national security would be cheaply purchased at this, or even a greater cost, if the money were well spent; but Samuel says that the king would lavish it not on his officers, but on his eunuchs, those miserable creatures, so cruelly wronged, and generally so hateful, who ministered to the pleasures of Oriental kings.

16 Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle[c] and donkeys he will take for his own use.

GILL, "And he will take your manservants, and your maidservants,.... Into his own family, for his own use and service, if he wants them, or likes them better than what he has: and your goodliest young men: that are tall and lusty, comely and beautiful, of a proper stature and good aspect; and such in all countries used to be chosen for officers in courts, or attendants there; and so the Turks to this day pitch upon young men to attend on great personages, who are of a comely form, have admirable features, and are

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well shaped; see Gill on Dan_1:4, and your asses, and put them to his work; employ them in ploughing his fields, drawing his carriages, or bearing his burdens; and so any other cattle that would serve the same purposes, as oxen, camels, &c.

BENSON, "1 Samuel 8:16-18. He will take your men-servants — By constraint, and without sufficient recompense. Your goodliest young men — The most beautiful and proper person she can find; and your asses, and put them to his work — Either at the plough, or for carriage, or any other employment wherein he shall think they will be useful. And ye shall be his servants — So subject to him, that if he please ye shall be no better than slaves, deprived of that liberty which you now enjoy. And ye shall cry out in that day — Ye shall bitterly mourn for the sad effects of this inordinate desire of a king. This shows that in the foregoing verses Samuel describes the uncontrollable power which the eastern princes exercised over their subjects, who were obliged patiently to bear whatever their kings imposed upon them, without any power to help themselves. The Lord will not hear you in that day — Because you will not hear nor obey his counsel in this day; but he will leave you under this heavy yoke.ELLICOTT, "(16) And your goodliest young men.—The LXX. Greek Version here reads, “your best oxen,” which required only the change of one letter of similar sound in the Hebrew word here. This was, no doubt,. the reading of the original text, as the young men seem included among the sons in 1 Samuel 8:11-12, and oxen would naturally precede the asses mentioned in the next clause of this verse.LANGE, "1 Samuel 8:16 sqq. The king will use the serving-classes also, men-servants, maid-servants, and cattle, for himself, and will take the tenth of the small cattle [sheep, etc.]. For “young men” (בחר) we must read “cattle” (בקר) with Sept. (τὰ βουκόλια), since the young men are already included in the sons in 1 Samuel 8:11 [and the menservants in 1 Samuel 8:16.—Tr.], and here both the juxtaposition of servants and animals and the correspondence between the two clauses, men, maids—oxen, asses (comp. Exodus 20:17) would be destroyed by this inappropriate word. Small cattle are here named in addition to large cattle, to show how completely the king would claim their property for his own uses.—And you shall be his servants. These words include all that is said before; the loss of political and social freedom is connected with the kingdom which the people demand “as among the heathen nations.” Thus the folly of their reference to the example of other nations is held up before them in contrast with the freedom and blessing, which they enjoyed under the rule of their invisible king, the living God/\

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PETT, "1 Samuel 8:16“And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your finest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.”And he will take their servants for himself, and especially their finest young men (as he has previously taken their daughters - 1 Samuel 8:13), and also their asses and set them to work for him.LXX has ‘cattle’ instead of ‘young men’ which requires only a slight change in the Hebrew text and would be more in line with Deuteronomy 5:14. On the other hand ‘young men’ is a good parallel for ‘your daughters’ in the chiasmus, and is the more difficult reading. Thus we should retain ‘young men’.PULPIT, "1Sa_8:16He will … put them to his work. Again the hateful forced service, but here not, as in 1Sa_8:12, of themselves, but of their households. Instead of your goodliest young men the Septuagint reads, "your best oxen," which requires only the change of one letter, and is in agreement with the rest of the verse. Samuel would scarcely place their choicest young men between the female slaves and the asses. But while the ass was used chiefly for riding, the ox was, as he still continues to be upon the Continent, man’s most faithful and valued friend and fellow labourer.

17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.

GILL, "He will take the tenth of your sheep,.... As well as of their seed and vineyards; and not the tithe of their flocks only, but of their herds also, which are here included, as Kimchi observes: and ye shall be his servants: made slaves of by him, even as the Canaanitish servants were, according to Abarbinel; though others interpret it more mildly of their being obliged to pay tribute and taxes, for the support of his government.

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ELLICOTT, "(17) And ye shall be his servants.—This statement generally includes all that has gone before. In other words, “Ye elders and chiefs of the people must make up your minds, in the event of electing a king, to the loss of all political and social freedom.” How bitterly the nation, even in the successful and glorious reign of King Solomon, felt the pressure of the royal yoke, so truly foretold by their last judge, is shown in the history of the times which followed the death of Solomon, when the public discontent at the brilliant but despotic rule of the great king led to the revolution which split up the people into two nations. (See 1 Kings 12:4.) “This whole passage bears internal evidence of having been written before the establishment of the monarchy.”—Speaker’s Commentary.PULPIT, "1Sa_8:17His servants. Literally, "his slaves." Under an absolute monarchy no one is free.

18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

GILL, "And ye shall cry out in that day, because of your king,.... His power and pride, his oppression and tyranny, his heavy exactions, and intolerable yoke, and yet not be able to free themselves from them; all that they could do would be only to cry out under them as grievously distressed, and not knowing how to help themselves; and which would be the more aggravated, because they brought all this upon themselves, as it follows: which ye shall have chosen you; for though the choice of a king for them, at a proper time, God had reserved to himself, yet in later times, as is here suggested, they would choose for themselves, and did, see Hos_8:4 besides, to have a king in general was at first their own choice, though the particular person was by the designation of the

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Lord: and the Lord will not hear you in that day; will not regard them, have no compassion on them, suffer them to remain under their oppressions, and not deliver them out of them; because they rejected him from being their King, and put themselves out of his protection, into the hands of another, and therefore it was just to leave them to their own choice.

HENRY, "2. These would be their grievances, and, (1.) They would have none but God to complain to. Once they complained to the prince himself, and were answered, according to the manner of the king, Your yoke is heavy, and I will add to it, 1Ki_12:11. (2.) When they complained to God he would not hear them, 1Sa_8:18. Nor could they expect that he should, both because they had been deaf to his calls and admonitions, and this trouble, in particular, they had brought upon themselves by rejecting him, and would not believe when he told them what would come of it. Note, When we bring ourselves into distress by our own irregular desires and projects we justly forfeit the comfort of prayer and the benefit of divine aids, and, if God be not better to us than we deserve, must have our relief in our own hands, and then it is bad with us.

ELLICOTT, " (18) The Lord will not hear you in that day.—After the separation of the north and the south, when King Solomon was dead, a large proportion of the northern sovereigns—or kings, as they were called, of “Israel,” in distinction to the southern monarchs, the kings of “Judah”—fulfilled in their lives and government of the realm the dark forebodings of the seer. The northern tribes broke with all the hallowed associations connected with the Ark and temple, and set up a rival and semi-idolatrous religion in some of their own popular centres. There no holy influences swayed the councils of their despotic kings. The lives of the Israelites who still loved the law of the Lord, and cherished the glorious memories of their fathers, must have been very bitter and hard when men like Omri and Ahab reigned with all their cruel power in Tirzah and Samaria.But no prayers then availed; one wicked dynasty succeeded another, until the cup of iniquity was filled, and Israel carried away captive for ever out of their fair land.K&D, "1 Samuel 8:18Israel would then cry out to God because of its king, but theLord would not hear it then. This description, which contains a fearfulpicture of the tyranny of the king, is drawn from the despotic conduct ofthe heathen kings, and does not presuppose, as many have maintained, thetimes of the later kings, which were so full of painful experiences.

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LANGE, "1 Samuel 8:18. Their painful condition under such a government will be matter of unavailing lamentation before the Lord. ִמִּלְפֵני מ׳ is not “because of your king,” but properly “from your king,” that Isaiah, to the Lord. It is herein hinted that they will wish to be delivered from the oppressive royal government. But the Lord will continue to shut His ears. Clericus: “God will not for your sake change the government of a master into the free commonwealth which you have hitherto enjoyed. The yoke once assumed you must hear forever.” The evil which their own sin has brought on them they must bear—so divine justice ordains.PETT, "1 Samuel 8:18“And you shall cry out in that day because of your king whom you will have chosen for yourselves, and YHWH will not answer you in that day.”And when in the midst of their distress they cry out, as they inevitably will, they will have no one to cry to. For YHWH will no longer be their King, and will no longer answer them and interfere between them and the king. They will have chosen the rod for their own backs.Part of what is said might not sound so bad to us. We might even compare it to our own society and look on it favourably. But we must remember that the working conditions, and the length of time that they would have to work daily, and the amount that they would be paid (if at all), would not be regulated except by the king, and scant regard would be had to many of them. And above all that they could not resign and walk away. We must measure their total loss of freedom by the freedom that was once theirs and was guaranteed to them by YHWH, and which while they were obedient to YHWH made life so worth while. All the miseries of the future are in fact being described in these words. And they could all be observed by looking more carefully under the surface at the Canaanites round about them.It would in fact not be quite so bad for Israel as for other nations because they would still have the covenant Law, and heed would be taken to the priests and the elders, but it would certainly gradually become a different, and harsher, type of society.PULPIT, "1Sa_8:18Ye shall cry. In despair at this cruel oppression ye shall appeal to Jehovah, but in vain. The king was given them at their own request, persisted in even after warning, and they must abide by their choice. It is worth noting that in the northern kingdom a majority of the kings more or less fulfilled Samuel’s evil forebodings, and there they were much more completely the product of the temper condemned by the prophet than they were in Judah. The ten tribes roughly snapped the tie which bound them to Jehovah; they discarded the ark and all the services of the sanctuary, and were content with so poor an

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imitation of them that all piously disposed men were compelled to abandon their lands and migrate into Judaea (2Ch_11:16); and so the majority of their kings, not being held in check by religious influences, were tyrants. At Jerusalem, on the contrary, most of them were content to remain within the limits of the Mosaic law, and were upon the whole a series of men far superior, not merely to the judges and the monarchs in old time, but to any European dynasty.

19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us.

CLARKE, "The people refused to obey - They would have the king, his manner and all, notwithstanding the solemn warning which they here receive.

GILL, "Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel,.... The advice he gave not to think of a king, but be content with the government under which they were; but to this they would not hearken, notwithstanding all the inconveniences that would attend such a change: and they said, nay, but we will have a king over us; they would not believe what Samuel said concerning a king, even though they were the words of the Lord he delivered to them; and though they knew Samuel was a prophet, and spoke by a spirit of prophecy, and none of his words had ever fallen to the ground: but such was their stubbornness and obstinacy, and so set upon having a king, that one they would have, let them suffer what hardships, or be at what expenses they might; at all events, and against all remonstrances, they were determined to have one.

HENRY, 19-20, "V. The people's obstinacy in their demand, 1Sa_8:19, 1Sa_8:20. One would think such a representation of the consequences as this was, coming from God himself, who can neither deceive by his word nor be deceived in his knowledge, should have prevailed with them to waive their request: but their hearts were upon it, right or

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wrong, good or evil: “We will have a king over us, whatever God or Samuel say to the contrary; we will have a king, whatever it cost us, and whatever inconvenience we bring upon ourselves or our posterity by it.” See their folly. 1. They were quite deaf to reason and blind to their own interest. They could not answer Samuel's arguments against it, nor deny the force of them, and yet they grow more violent in their request, and more insolent. Before it was, “Pray, make us a king;” now it is, “Nay, but we will have a king;yea, that we will, because we will; nor will we bear to have any thing said against it.” See the absurdity of inordinate desires, and how they rob men of their reason. 2. They could not stay God's time. God had intimated to them in the law that, in due time, Israel should have a king (Deu_17:14, Deu_17:15), and perhaps they had some intimation that the time was at hand; but they are all in haste: “We, in our day, will have this king over us.” Could they but have waited ten or twelve years longer they would have had David, a king of God's giving in mercy, and all the calamities that attended the setting up of Saul would have been prevented. Sudden resolves and hasty desires make work for a long and leisurely repentance. 3. That which they aimed at in desiring a king was not only, as before, that they might be like the nations, and levelled with the one above whom God had so far advanced them, but that they might have one to judge them, and to go out before them when they took the field, and to fight their battles. Foolish people and unwise! Could they ever desire a battle better fought for them that the last was, by Samuel's prayer and God's thunder? 1Sa_7:10. Was victory hereby too sure to them? And were they fond of trying the chance of war at the same uncertainty that others did? So sick, it seems, were they of their privileges: and what was the issue? Their first king was slain in a battle, which none of their judges ever were; so was Josiah, one of the last and best.

JAMISON 19-22, "Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel — They sneered at Samuel’s description as a bugbear to frighten them. Determined, at all hazards, to gain their object, they insisted on being made like all the other nations, though it was their glory and happiness to be unlike other nations in having the Lord for their King and Lawgiver (Num_23:9; Deu_33:28). Their demand was conceded, for the government of a king had been provided for in the law; and they were dismissed to wait the appointment, which God had reserved to Himself (Deu_17:14-20).

K&D, "With such a description of the “right of the king” as this, Samuel had pointed out to the elders the dangers connected with a monarchy in so alarming a manner, that they ought to have been brought to reflection, and to have desisted from their demand. “But the people refused to hearken to the voice of Samuel.” They repeated their demand, “We will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and conduct our battles.”

BENSON, "1 Samuel 8:19-20. Nevertheless the people refused to obey — This 86

description of kingly government, as then exercised in the East, did not deter them from persisting in their desires. But they still peremptorily demanded a king, although Samuel told them that this demand was, in effect, throwing off the government of God. That we also may be like all other nations —Strange blindness and stupidity, that they could not see it was their singular felicity that they were not like other nations! Numbers 23:9; Deuteronomy 33:28; as in other glorious privileges, so especially in this, that they had God for their king and governor, who never failed in time of need to raise up men of wonderful worth to be their deliverers. But they wanted a king to go out before them, and to fight their battles — Could they desire a battle better fought for them than the last was, by Samuel’s prayers and God’s thunders? Were they fond to try the chance of war at the same uncertainty that others did? And what was the issue? Their first king was slain in battle; and so was Josiah, one of the last and best. COFFMAN, "THE PEOPLE INSIST ON HAVING A KING"But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; and they said, `No! but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.' And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, `Hearken to their voice, and make them a king.' Samuel then said to the men of Israel, `Go every man to his city.'""That we also may be like all the nations" (1 Samuel 8:20). How natural it is for people to SUPPOSE that what seems to be "successful" in the world of unbelievers would also be helpful among the people of God. Willis believed that the principal sin of Israel was precisely in this matter of their wanting to be like the nations around them.[9] Of course, this also was sin on the part of Israel."He repeated them in the ears of the Lord" (1 Samuel 8:21). Fred Young has an interesting comment on this. "The word `repeated' here is also translated `rehearsed'; and the word comes from Old French word "rehercier" meaning `to harrow over again.' Samuel once more went over the matter as a farmer harrowing again a plot before planting it."[10]"Go every man to his city" (1 Samuel 8:22). The abbreviated nature of this narrative is conspicuous here. Samuel evidently told the elders that their request would be granted, and he may have requested on his own behalf that he be allowed some time in which to pray and consult the Lord concerning the man who would be appointed king of Israel.

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There is a marvelous lesson in prayer in this chapter. When the request of the elders for a king came as a severe stroke of disappointment and grief to Samuel, he took his sorrow to the Lord in prayer. And when, despite all the warnings, Israel's elders said, "No! we will have a king," once more, it is stated that Samuel repeated all the words of the people in the ears of the Lord (1 Samuel 8:21). This is the great example for all believers, "Take it to the Lord in prayer."HAWKER, "Verse 19-20(19) Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; (20) That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.That this spirit of rebellion was not against Samuel and his sons, but (as I said before) against God, is here somewhat more plain. For they speak of their king fighting their battles. Had not God fought their battles all the way along from Egypt to Canaan? Nay, in the preceding chapter is it not related, that the Lord thundered from heaven upon their enemies? 1 Samuel 7:10-11. Besides, God had promised them a king in his own time and way, and one whom he should choose. And no doubt David was that one, and therefore in allusion to this, is called the man after God's own heart; that is, as the shepherd and king of his people. But both God's choice and God's time are to be waited for, See Deuteronomy 17:14-15.K&D, "Verse 19-20With such a description of the “right of the king” as this, Samuel hadpointed out to the elders the dangers connected with a monarchy in soalarming a manner, that they ought to have been brought to reflection, andto have desisted from their demand. “But the people refused to hearken tothe voice of Samuel.” They repeated their demand, “We will have a kingover us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king mayjudge us, and go out before us, and conduct our battles.”LANGE, "1 Samuel 8:19-20. The reply of the people (through the elders). They “refused to hearken to Samuel’s voice.” The voice or address of Samuel contained enough to detach the people from their desire. Instead of this there follows, with a decided “no,[FN19] the repetition of the demand: “There shall be a king over us.” The dehortatory description of the royal privilege and custom among the surrounding nations is met with the declaration: “And we also will be as all the nations.” In this there is an ignoring and denying the lofty position which God the Lord had given His people above all nations by choosing them as His people, and establishing His royal rule among them. The demand for a kingdom like that of other nations was an act of sin against the Lord, who wished to be sole king over His

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people, and had sufficiently revealed Himself as such in their former history. “Judging” and “leading in war” are summarily mentioned as representing the duties of the king to be chosen. Without and within, in war and in peace, he was to be leader and governor of the people.PETT, "1 Samuel 8:19‘But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, “No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.” ’However, the people were quite adamant, in spite of the fact that it was being made clear to them that at this time He did not desire them to have a king. They blatantly refused to listen to Samuel’s words, and said, ‘No, we will have a king over us so that we can be like all the other nations and so that he may judge us (rule over us) and go out before us and fight our battles.’ Fear of the Philistines once Samuel was dead may well have been partly at the root of their request. Without Samuel they were not quite so sure that YHWH would intervene for them, whereas they could be sure that a king would always be there. But there was clearly also a desire to be like the other nations. They envied the sophisticated nations around them who seemed to be doing so well (they did not look at the failures. That was for pessimists) and they wanted to be like them, BI, "And they said, Nay, but we will have a king over us.A king desiredIf we were asked what is the prevailing feeling which the study of this history is calculated to produce, we should answer in one word—disappointment.I. The request of the Israelites brings before us a melancholy view of the progress of degeneracy in a community. It requires no effort to perceive in this desire of the Israelites the renewed manifestation of the discontented and rebellious disposition which prevailed in the camp at the Red Sea, and on subsequent occasions in the wilderness; but now it was marked by a greater fixedness of criminal resolve and of God-dishonouring purpose. It was the sin of the fathers living over again, but with greater intensity, in the persons of the children. This view of the case is, in a high degree, admonitory. None of us, perhaps, think enough of the connection between ourselves and the future. Each age exerts a very considerable influence on that which succeeds it, and the men of any particular age are responsible to God in a very large and affecting measure for the characteristics of the period which may come after them The degeneracy of communities is after all the degeneracy of individuals; and he who makes the effort to prevent in the conduct of a single individual the continuance of sin—who attempts in the case of a single individual to raise the tone of morals, does so far provide a better State of things for the age that shall come after him. If looking at the clamorous assembly which the narrative brings before us as now surrounding Samuel and asking a change in the

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form of government, we inquire whence learnt they those low thoughts of God which led them so much to dishonour Him as to wish to put Him aside in order to make room for an earthly ruler? the only proper and correct reply would be, “From those who went before them.” We live for a future age, and virtually we have the character of that age in our hands, whether as it concerns the nation, the church, or the familyII. The scene brought before us by this demand of Israel for a king, teaches us the perilousness of allowing our thoughts to run in an improper direction and our wishes to centre upon a wrong object. And this for a reason which is very distinctly conveyed to us in the tenour of the narrative—the absorbing effect of one wrong thought, and its consequent power to throw into oblivion all those counteracting thoughts and objects which from any other source might be suggested. Trace the progress of this one wrong desire, in Israel, of having a king. Was there nothing to be said on the other side? Rather we might ask, Is it not exceedingly easy to conceive of the counteracting effect which at the first stage might have been presented to such a wish by a recollection of their actual privileges at the moment? There is a matchless sublimity—the sublimity of condescension and graciousness—about the very idea of a theocracy. But if its sublimity did not appeal to their moral sense, its peculiar advantageousness might have appealed to their self-regard. The God-honouring wish grew stronger and stronger. At least, however, it might have been expected that they would be moved by a vivid delineation of the unwelcome consequences which God declared would attend on the new arrangement. Yet, after all, this is but a picture of real life, applicable to every age. It contains a faithful warning. It says—“Beware of the first wrong desire, give it no encouragement. Beware of the first misdirection of thought. Be sure you are right at first in your plans and purposes, because afterwards, by reason of the very force with which wrong thoughts indulged exclude all suggestions to the contrary, it may be too late to alter.” To the young it especially says—“In the purposes you cherish, the plans you propose, the changes you contemplate, the objects on which you allow your affections to rest, beware of a mistake at the first.”III. It is of importance that we should carefully study the essential evil of the motive which here operated in the minds of the Hebrew nation. That motive was—that they might be like other people. And if in a thoughtful mood we take a survey of the causes which have wrought to produce moral desolation in communities from that day until the present, there will appear none whose operation has proved more widely mischievous, more intensely active to harm than this—a desire to be like others. Many a time has that young man left the house of God full of conviction, and ready to resolve that, whatever others did, he would serve the Lord. But he turned to take another look at the world, and the thought came along with the look, float much of his worldly interest depended upon the friendship of those around him, and that if he expected them to be his friends, his opinions and his habits must not be opposed to theirs. He gave in to the principle of being like them; and, having resembled them in time, his lot now throughout eternity resembles theirs too. Alas! the wreck of souls which this principle involves! and, we must, add, the wreck of earthly comfort, too. (J. A. Miller.)

PULPIT, "1Sa_8:19, 1Sa_8:20The people refused to obey—literally, to hearken to—the voice of Samuel. The words of Samuel were no doubt formally considered by the elders, and we may be sure that there would not be wanting men to urge attention and obedience to his warning; but

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when the decision had to be made, whether by vote or acclamation, the majority persisted in their choice, and for a reason which completely justified Samuel’s displeasure; for they say—That we also may be like all the nations. Their wish was not to develop and perfect their own institutions, but to revolt from them, and escape from the rigour of the Mosaic law. It is remarkable that their nearest neighbours and most inveterate enemies, the Philistines, had no king, but an oligarchy of five princes. Probably it had been argued, in the assembly of the elders, that if the whole power of Israel were gathered into one hand it would be more than a match for the Philistines, whose energy must often have been diminished by discords among its rulers. That our king may judge—i.e. govern (1Sa_7:17)—us, and fight our battles. Here the people had reason on their side. Both the internal administration of justice and the defence of the country would be better managed under a permanent and regular authority than under the judges, whose rule was extemporised to meet difficulties, and had no inherent stability.

20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”

BARNES, "Fight our battles - It appears from 1Sa_12:12, that the warlike movements of Nahash had already begun to excite alarm.

CLARKE, "May judge us - This appears to be a rejection of Samuel.Go out before us - Be in every respect our head and governor.And fight our battles - Be the general of our armies.

GILL, "That we also may be like all the nations,.... Even though they were slaves, 91

like them; a king they would have, as they had, such was their stupidity. It was their greatest honour and glory, as well as happiness, not to be like other nations; as in their religion, laws, and liberties, so in their form of government; God being their King in such a peculiar sense as he was not of others, but with this they could not be content: and that our king may judge us; hear their causes, administer justice and judgment to them, protect their persons and properties, and rule them according to the civil laws that were given them: and go out before us, and fight our battles; which Samuel their present judge did not, and to which perhaps they may have some respect; but then he gained more for them by his prayers, than a king or general would by his military skill or prowess, see 1Sa_7:10, and it is very remarkable, and what is observed by some, that their first king died in a battle. What made them so pressing and importunate to have a king at, this time, and not defer it to another, it is very probable was, that they understood that Nahash, king of the children of Ammon, was preparing to attack them, and therefore they were desirous to have a king also to go out before them, and meet him, and give him battle, 1Sa_12:12.

ELLICOTT, "(20) Like all the nations.—There is something strangely painful in these terms with which the elders urged their request—the wish “to be like other nations” seems to have been very strong with them. They forgot, or chose to ignore, the solitary position of lofty pre-eminence God had given them among the nations. They had, it is true, failed to comprehend it in past, as in present days, but this haste to give up their lofty privileges, and to descend from the pedestal on which their God had set them, was in the eye of one like Samuel a strange inexplicable foolishness.COKE, "1 Samuel 8:20. That we may be like all other nations— What unaccountable blindness was it in the Israelites, not to perceive that their happiness principally consisted in their not being like other nations, but under the immediate government of that Almighty King who had chosen them for his own peculiar people and possession!

REFLECTIONS.—We have here a motion made for the alteration of the government, and the introduction of monarchy among the Jewish people.

1. Taking occasion from the ill conduct of Samuel's sons, some intriguing spirits excite the people in general to a change of government; and for this purpose they assemble in a body at Ramah, with a remonstrance of their grievance, and a petition

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for redress in the appointment of a king over them, like the nations around them, that he might keep a court, and appear in state and dignity among them: a request not only highly sinful against God, but most ungrateful to Samuel, whose own administration had been so upright, and who deserved no blame for his sons' ill conduct, having given them better advice, and being ready to supersede their commissions on the people's just complaints. Note; It is not unusual for those to meet with ungrateful returns, and to be neglected when they are old, who have spent their lives in the service of the public.

2. Samuel deeply resents the proposal, not because of their ill usage of himself, but sensible of their great sin against God; and therefore, ere he returns an answer, he flies to God for direction, and probably intercedes with him for their pardon, fearing lest wrath should go forth against them. Note; (1.) When we are in difficulties, it is a great relief to have a God of wisdom and love to fly to. (2.) They who use us ungratefully must have a remembrance in our prayer, not only to engage God to pardon them, but ourselves to forgive and love them.

3. God answers his prayer, and gives him directions what to reply to the people. He must not be grieved at the insult offered him, since it was more directly aimed against God himself. He was their king, and is rejected by them; nor was their ingratitude to their governors a new thing: ever since they came from Egypt they had acted thus, even to Moses and Aaron; nor was it to be wondered that they sought a new king, when they had so often sought new gods: let them, therefore, have their request; but it shall be a king in anger, and of this Samuel must solemnly warn them. Note; (1.) When we come to God in prayer, he will answer us for our direction and comfort. (2.) We need not expect kind returns from those who have shewn their ingratitude to others before us.

4. Samuel makes a faithful report of the Divine message; admonishing them of God's displeasure at their request, and the consequences that would follow from the establishment of that kingly government upon which their minds were so bent. They looked only to the pomp, but considered not that they must bear the burden. Under his despotic sway, their sons would be enslaved, listed in his guards as soldiers, or as footmen attendant on his chariots, or as servants employed to till and reap his ground. His table, covered with luxury, would require their daughters' laborious service to prepare for it provisions and delicacies: to gratify his favourites, or

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reward his officers, the instruments of his oppression, the best of their possessions would be plundered; whilst, rivalling the tabernacle of God, another tenth of their increase must be paid for support of his grandeur. When these burdens were felt they would complain, but to no purpose: God would justly reject their petitions, and leave them to the misery they had courted. Note; (1.) The gratification of our inordinate desires brings a plague along with it. (2.) They who reject God are justly rejected by him.

5. Far from desisting on this representation, they obstinately persevere in their demands, and will have a king, discrediting Samuel's report, perhaps suspecting him of design. They will be like the nations, though slaves; and have a king to go before them to battle, though taught by late experience, how much better it was to have God to fight for them than to fight for themselves. Note; (1.) No reproofs will restrain the obstinate sinner. (2.) The kindest advice is sometimes liable to be misrepresented as selfish and designing.

6. Samuel, at God's command, consents to their request. Having retired, to wait upon God and know his final resolution, he is commanded to assure them that they shall have a king; and he bids them in the mean time return, and expect shortly to hear the nomination of the person that God would choose to reign in Israel.

21 When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the Lord.

CLARKE, "Rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord - He went to the altar, and in his secret devotion laid the whole business before God.

GILL, "And Samuel heard all the words of the people,.... Patiently, and without 94

interruption; attentively heard them, took notice of them, laid them up in his memory; but gave no answer to them, but reported them to the Lord, as in the next clause: and he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord; privately, in a free and familiar manner, with great exactness, as they were expressed; this he did, not before the people publicly, but in secret prayer, seeking for direction what he should further do, or what answer he should return to them.

HENRY, "VI. The dismissing of them with an intimation that very shortly they should have what they asked. 1. Samuel rehearsed all their words in the ears of the Lord, v. 21. Not but that God perfectly knew it, without Samuel's report; but thus he dealt faithfully between God and Israel, as a prophet, returning the answer to him that sent him; and thus he waited on God for further direction. God is fully acquainted with the state of the case we are in care and doubt about, but he will know it from us. His rehearsing it in the ears of the Lord intimates that it was done in private; for the people were not disposed to join with him in prayer to God for direction in this matter; also it bespeaks a holy familiarity, to which God graciously admits his people: they speak in the ears of the Lord, as one friend whispers with another; their communion with God is meat they have to eat which the world knows not of, Joh_4:32.

K&D, "These words of the people were laid by Samuel before the Lord, and the Lord commanded him to give the people a king. With this answer Samuel sent the men of Israel, i.e., the elders, away. This is implied in the words, “Go ye every man unto his city,” since we may easily supply from the context, “till I shall call you again, to appoint you the king you desire.”

BENSON, "1 Samuel 8:21. He rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord — He repeated them privately between God and himself, for his own vindication and comfort, and as a foundation for his prayers to God for direction and assistance.ELLICOTT, "(21) In the ears of the Lord.—Again the seer returns from the council chamber, where he had met the elders of the people, to some quiet spot, probably the sanctuary he had set up in his own “Ramah of the Watchers,” where he poured out his heart before his God-Friend.HAWKER, "Verse 21-22(21) And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the LORD. (22) And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city.

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I beg the Reader to remark with me this striking feature in the character of Samuel; his constant intercourse and communion with God. Samuel was a child of prayer; for his mother called him Samuel, being asked of God what the word Samuel signifies; but Samuel was a man of prayer also. And why should not you and I? Did Enoch; did holy men of old walk with God? Had they clearer views of God the Father then than we have now? Did they know more of the gracious way to the throne than we? Oh! thou dearest Jesus! did thy servants of old know thee more by faith, before that thou hadst finished redemption-work, than thy people know thee now? Be pleased, dearest Lord, to quicken our souls to the more earnest, to the more frequent, drawing nigh to thee: and let these holy men of old shame our cold hearts, if thy love cannot warm them, to blush, that patriarchs and prophets should so far exceed thy disciples now, when we know that we have a throne of grace always open: a Father of mercies and of great consolation always to fly to, and one to trust in, whom the Father heareth alway, and who is the propitiation of his people!K&D, "Verse 21-22These words of the people were laid by Samuel before the Lord, and theLord commanded him to give the people a king. With this answer Samuelsent the men of Israel, i.e., the elders, away. This is implied in the words,“Go ye every man unto his city,” since we may easily supply from thecontext, “till I shall call you again, to appoint you the king you desire.”LANGE, "1 Samuel 8:21 sqq. Samuel’s intermediation. As mediator between God and the people he had hitherto striven with God in prayer, and with the elders of the people in earnest dealings and warnings concerning this important and eventful question. We see him wrestling anew with God in prayer; again he carries before the Lord in prayer the whole matter, as it now stands after the unsuccessful dealing with the people. God’s answer is: Make them a king. The demand, made in sin, from a disposition not well-pleasing to God, is fulfilled. The element of sin and error must, in the history of the kingdom of God, aid in the preparation and realization of the divine plans and ends. Samuel dismisses the men of Israel to their homes. We must here read between the lines, that Samuel communicated the divine decision to the people, and, dismissing the elders of the people, took into consideration, in accordance with the Lord’s command, the necessary steps for the election of a king. Following the sense, Josephus adds to the words of dismissal the following: “And I will send for you at the proper time, when I learn from the Lord whom he will give you as king” [Ant. VI:3, 6].

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PETT, "1 Samuel 8:21‘And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he went over them in the ears of YHWH.’Having heard what they had to say Samuel went back to YHWH and went over with Him all that they had said (there was clearly much more that had been said than is recorded for us above).PULPIT, "1Sa_8:21All the words. The elders had of course reported to Samuel all the arguments used in the assembly, and just as previously he had carried his own distress at the national discontent with his government to Jehovah’s footstool in prayer (1Sa_8:6), so now, in his mediatorial office as prophet, he carries thither the nation’s petition.

22 The Lord answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.”Then Samuel said to the Israelites, “Everyone go back to your own town.”

BARNES, "A repetition for the third time 1Sa_8:7, 1Sa_8:9 of the expression of God’s will in the matter, marks Samuel’s great unwillingness to comply with the people’s request. Besides the natural aversion which he felt to being thrust aside after so many years of faithful and laborious service, and the natural prejudice which he would feel at his age against a new form of government, he doubtless saw how much of the evil heart of unbelief there was in the desire to have a visible king for their leader, instead of trusting to the invisible Lord who had hitherto led them. But God had His own purpose in setting up the kingdom which was to be typical of the kingdom of His only begotten Son.

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CLARKE, "Hearken unto their voice - Let them have what they desire, and let them abide the consequences.

Go ye every man unto his city - It seems the elders of the people had tarried all this time with Samuel, and when he had received his ultimate answer from God, he told them of it and dismissed them.On this account we may observe:1. That God did not change the government of Israel; it was the people themselves who changed it.2. That though God permitted them to have a king, yet he did not approve of him.3. That, notwithstanding he did not suffer them to choose the man, he ordered his servant Samuel to choose him by lot, he disposing of that lot.4. That God never gave up the supreme government; he was still King in Israel, and the king, so called, was only the vicegerent or deputy of the Lord.5. That no king of Judah attempted to be supreme, therefore they never made new laws, nor altered the old; which was a positive confession that God was the supreme Legislator.6. That an absolute monarchy is always an evil, and is contrary to all the rights, civil and religious, of mankind; a mode of government that all people should avoid, as pregnant with evils to mankind.7. That although it was a sin in the Israelites to desire a king, that is, to change a constitution of which God was the author, yet kingly government, properly understood, is a good of the first magnitude to the civil happiness of mankind.8. That by kingly government, properly understood, I mean such a monarchical government as that of Great Britain, where the king, the nobles, and the people, are duly mixed, each having his proper part in the government, and each preventing the other from running to excess, and all limited by law.9. That the three grand forms of government which have obtained among mankind, viz., monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, have each certain advantages without which no state can be well preserved; but they have evils by which any state may be injured.10. That, from a proper mixture of these, the advantages of the whole may be reaped without any of their attendant evils, and that this is the British constitution; which, not merely the wisdom of our ancestors, but the providence of God has given unto us, and of which no other state has had common sense enough to avail themselves, though they see that because of this the British empire is the most powerful and the most happy in the universe, and likely at last to give laws to the whole world.The manner of our king is constitutional, widely different from that of Saul, and from that of any other potentate in the four quarters of the globe. He is the father of his people, and the people feel and love him as such. He has all the power necessary to do good; they have all the liberty necessary to their political happiness, had they only a diminution of taxes, which at present are too heavy for any nation to bear.

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GILL, "And the Lord said to Samuel,.... an audible voice, or by an impulse upon his mind: hearken unto their voice, and make them a king; since they will have a king, let them have one, and let them know that they shall have one: and Samuel said unto the men of Israel: the elders of the people that addressed him on this occasion, 1Sa_8:4. go ye every man unto his city; signifying they might return in peace, and be assured their request would be granted, and a king would be appointed in a short time, and which they might report to their fellow citizens; and they might expect to hear from him quickly, as soon as he had instructions from the Lord who should be their king, which right he had reserved to himself; and therefore in the mean while they might rest contented that they would have one in a little time.

HENRY, "God gave direction that they should have a king, since they were so inordinately set upon it (1Sa_8:22): “Make them a king, and let them make their best of him, and thank themselves if that very pomp and power which they are so eager to see their sovereign in be their plague and burden.” So he gave them up to their own hearts' lusts. Samuel told them this, but sent them home for the present, every man to his city;for the designation of the person must be left to God; they had now no more to do. When God saw fit to notify the choice to Samuel they should hear further from him; in the mean time let them keep the peace and expect the issue.

BENSON, "1 Samuel 8:22. Go ye every man unto his city — Betake yourselves to your several homes and employments, till you hear more from me in this matter. Thus he bade them leave the business unto him, intimating, that he doubted not but God would set a king over them.ELLICOTT, " (22) Hearken unto their voice.—And for the third time (see 1 Samuel 8:7; 1 Samuel 8:9) the voice of the Eternal, which Samuel the seer knew so well, used the same expression, bidding the reluctant and indignant old man comply with the request of the people. God had allowed His servant to remonstrate, well knowing all the time what would be the result of his remonstrances.

So now, with the self-same words with which He had spoken to the seer when at the first he laid the petition of Israel before the eternal throne, He finally directs Samuel

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respecting the course of action he was to pursue on this momentous occasion.

The men of Israel.—That is, to the elders. The words which follow, “Go ye every man unto his city,” show that these elders were in truth a representative body, drawn from the chief centres of the land.Attention has already been drawn to the perfect trust which the Eternal must have placed in Samuel the judge, seeing that He entrusted him with all the arrangements connected with this vital change in the Hebrew constitution, although his own downfall from power was necessarily involved in it. The confidence of the God-Friend of Israel in their upright judge was evidently shared in by the people. It was to their ruler, to the earthly head of their republic, that they in the first instance carried, through their representative chiefs, their request, which in other words said, “Let kings for the future, and not judges like yourself, rule over us.” The elders of Israel seem to have listened respectfully to the urgent remonstrances of their great judge, and to have deliberated carefully over them, and then, still respectfully, but firmly, to have reiterated their first request, which asked for a king instead of a judge. Again they watched him go alone into the presence of the Eternal, and after the seer’s solitary prayer, the “elders,” at the bidding of their judge, dispersed quietly, each one journeying to his own city. They loved and trusted the patriot Samuel, and though they were ready to depose him, they waited till he should give them a sign.PULPIT. "1Sa_8:22Hearken unto their voice. The Divine consent is now given for the third time to their request (see 1Sa_8:7, 1Sa_8:9). For the will of God ever leaves the will of man free, even when overruling it to the carrying out of some higher and fore ordained purpose. Everything was ripe in Israel for the change, but it was due to the moderation and disinterestedness of Samuel that the revolution was made without bloodshed or armed struggle. Ordinary rulers too often resist a popular demand, and stem back the flowing current of thought till it breaks through the opposing barrier, and sweeps with resistless violence all opposition away. Samuel yielded, and the nation trusted him so thoroughly that they left the choice of the king entirely to him, permitted him to settle the terms and limits of the monarchy, or, as we should say, to give the nation a constitution (1Sa_10:25), and treated him throughout the rest of his life with the deepest respect. He was deprived neither of his prophetic rank nor of his judicial functions, for "Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life" (1Sa_7:15), i.e. he remained to the last a coordinate power by the side of a king so self-willed and energetic even as Saul. Go ye every man unto his city. Prudence forbade a hasty choice. It would be well to let the agitation subside, or otherwise some busy intriguer among the elders might have managed to get himself selected by the popular voice. We gather from 1Sa_10:27 that there were leading men who felt aggrieved when the choice fell on none of them. But how wonderful is the

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confidence reposed in Samuel by the nation, when thus it left to the ruler whom virtually it was setting aside the choice of the person to whom he should cede his powers.

HAWKER, "REFLECTIONSAMIDST the growing age and infirmities of all God's faithful servants, though we see Samuel and all the holy men and prophets going the way of all flesh, what a sweet and soul-reviving thought is it, that our Jesus liveth forever! Yes! thou precious Holy One of Israel, thou ever livest; and because thou livest, we shall live also. Triumph my soul in this well-founded confidence!And here, Lord, let me learn, from the rebellion of Israel in desiring a king, when thou thyself wast the gracious king of thy people, let me learn how prone the heart, even of thy people, is to rebel against thee. Oh! ye wretched, misguided, unhappy sons of men, who by deeds, if not by words, are continually saying: We will not have this man to reign over us. Think, I charge you, ere it be too late, whether he hath not a right to govern, who, as one with the Father is God; and as Mediator, hath all power in heaven and in earth. Is not every creature his, both by creation and redemption? And shall not every knee bend before him, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father! Oh! kiss the Son lest he be angry, and so ye perish from the right way. Acknowledge him now for your lawful king and sovereign, before he comes in the clouds as your just Judge. If his wrath be kindled, yea but a little, blessed are all they that put their trust in him.As for my soul, let angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect, let all heaven and earth bear witness for me, that I desire no other king, neither will I know any other but he that is a Priest upon his throne. Do thou holy, blessed, royal Lord Jesus, reign in me, and over me, and establish, and preserve, and maintain thy rightful kingdom in my soul, against all there enemies, my lusts and corruptions, as well as the world, and the powers of darkness. Oh! do thou bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of our Christ! Do thou manifest thyself to my soul, in all thy sovereignty, grace, and goodness, in thy kingdom, both temporal and spiritual. Do thou pardon my sins as a king; do thou rule over my affections as a king; do thou bestow all needed grace as a king; do thou bless, protect, restrain; subdue, regulate and dispose of all things concerning me as a king, the glorious, gracious king which our God hath set in Zion. And by thus living under thine own kingly influences here below, mine eyes continually beholding the king in his beauty; in that tremendous day, when thou shalt come to take away all things that

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offend out of thy kingdom, my soul will find a growing confidence in thy salvation. For sure I am, since none but Jesus is king, h e who hath borne my sins will not plead against me in judgment. The language of my heart, will be like the church of old; the Lord is our judge: the Lord is our Lawgiver: the Lord is our King; he will save us.PETT, "1 Samuel 8:22‘And YHWH said to Samuel, “Listen to their voice, and make them a king.” And Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Go you every man to his city.”YHWH then instructed Samuel to give them their wish. If they would not listen they must learn the lesson the hard way. So He tells Samuel to listen to what they are saying and give them a king. And He no doubt already had His man in mind.The question that as far as Samuel was concerned would now have to be resolved was as to whom that king would be. Upset though he was Samuel wanted to do his best for them. So he told the elders to return to their cities while he took the matter in hand. He would consult with YHWH on the matter.

BI, "Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king.“Vox populi, vox Dei”Perhaps there is no proverb which is more familiar, as it is certain there is none more faulty, than this: “The voice of the people is the voice of God.” And since the motto is Latin, it might as well go now with a comment upon it from one of the greatest of the old Roman philosophers, even Cicero himself, who says in his treatise Concerning Laws: “It is most absurd to suppose that all the things are just which are found in the enactments and institutions of a State. There is no such power in the sentence and command of fools as that by their vote the nature of things can be reversed. The law did not begin when first written, but when it first had existence; that is, when the Divine mind first had existence.”

1. The story gives us the date to start with, and connects present histories with those of a great and honoured past. Samuel is still at the nation’s head, but failing: “And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel.” Piety cannot be transmitted according to physical laws; and yet it seems as if we might insist, upon the signal benefits of being born of good stock rather than of corrupt.2. Who were these sons of Samuel? Unfortunately there is no account of them that gives any satisfaction. The lesson we learn here is worth pressing a little: noble names do not change bad hearts nor make wicked men fit to hold high office. Samuel probably hoped a great deal for those sons of his when he fixed upon them such names as these in the reverent regard for the old faith of Israel. “Joel” signifies Jehovah is God; and “Abiah” means Jehovah is my Father. We have no evidence that these children cared for their fine names while they were little, as Samuel did for his

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when he moved reverently around in the ministrations of the Tabernacle, a devout lad, obedient to God and to Eli. We surely might expect that a maiden called “Sophia” ought not to be a fool, for her name means wisdom. And just so “Gertrude” suggests a character of all-truth. And “Alfred” becomes a pledge of all-peace. And “Leonard” must not be a coward as long as he is called lion-like. “Francis” is to be frank, and “Anna” is to be gracious, or intelligent people will laugh when their names are called out in the room. Surely Nathanael, Theodore, Elnathan, and Dorothy ought to bear in mind every day and hour that their names all alike signify the gift of God.3. The illustration of all this grows more and more vivid as the story moves on; the next verse reads: “And his sons walked not, in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes and perverted judgment.” The lesson we learn from this is explanatory as well as full of admonition: covetousness is idolatry. A curious word is this here rendered “lucre;” it is precisely that which Moses employed when he was defining the duties and charactor of a judge: “Moreover, thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness.” That word “covetousness” is the same as the word “lucre” in this verse before us. The old Hebrew Targum translates it, “the mammon of falsehood.”4. At this point the Scripture narrative begins to indicate the effect of all this disastrous corruption in Samuel’s own family. “Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah.” Croakers always find easy companionship: that is our lesson now. Ravens are said to detect afar off birds of the same black feather and the same lugubrious voice. These “elders of Israel” in the story might surely have been about better business than ministering to popular discontent. They were living under a theocracy, and God was overhead; they could have interfered before for the suppression of these corrupt judges, and in a wiser way. It was a remark of Lord Beaconsfield that “it is much easier to be critical than to be correct.” Joel and Abiah were bad enough; we wonder if the monarchists liked the atmosphere better when Saul came into power. The plan proceeds plausibly. It is fashionable to prate about the voice of the people: vox populi, vox Dei: here the voice of the people is directly against the voice of God on a great moral and political issue. A thousand votes for a wrong is not enough to make it right: once nothing is nothing, twice nothing is nothing, tea times nothing is nothing, a thousand times nothing is nothing: how many Israelite elders would be necessary so to multiply nothing as to make it foot up something at last? Just as many, we reply, as at any time it would take of wrong-headed men to make wrong right.5. But now let us bear in mind that when a mean thing has to get itself done somehow, it requires a vast amount of meaningless talk for its advancement into recognition and success. Our practical lesson from this part of the story is this: graceful language is sometimes used to conceal thought, and not express it. Diplomacy has a certain strong flavour of antiquity about it. Just notice how these crafty elders plead their hypocritical arguments for an overthrow of the government, and shake the conscientious scruples of the faithful old man by the humiliating and cruel arraignment of his sons. Those were not the real reasons why they wanted a king. Lord Bacon declares that “in all wise human governments they that sit at the helm do more happily bring their purposes about, and insinuate more easily into the minds of the people, by pretext and oblique courses than by direct methods; so that all sceptres and maces of authority ought in very deed to be crooked in the upper

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end.” It was an old saying of Pascal that the world is satisfied with words, and few care to dive beneath the surface of them. Logic has very little to de with the utterances of a bad heart when politicians begin to reason; and there is truth in the sarcasm of one of the wittiest of Frenchmen: “When the major of an argument is an error, and the minor a passion, it is to be feared that the conclusion will be a crime, for this is a syllogism of self-love.” Why did they not suppress the sons and cling to God.6. We become more and more sure as we read on that majorities are not to be trusted among even the wisest of men. Majorities can be gotten on almost every occasion for the right or for the wrong indiscriminately, according to the popular epidemic of enthusiasm at the time. What is wanted in our day is the virtue of an individual courage and of a personal conviction. We need voters with a conscience that impels them to stand by the right measures and support the righteous men for administering them. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.).

HOMILIES BY D. FRASER1Sa_8:22

The unwise demand granted.The government by judges fell into discredit. Samuel, indeed, was without reproach; but when advancing age made the burden of public affairs too heavy for him, his sons, to whom he naturally delegated his authority, proved unrighteous rulers. They do not seem to have been licentious, like the sons of Eli, but they were covetous, and corrupted the fountains of justice by taking bribes. What a persistent thing sin is! How it repeats itself! How hard it is to eradicate it! Samuel’s lifelong example of integrity was lost upon his sons. The terrible fate of Eli’s family was lost on them too. To the dignity of justice, to the honour of truth, they were indifferent for filthy luere’s sake. Then the elders of Israel asked Samuel to set a king over them.I. THE IMPROPRIETY OF THE REQUEST.1. It followed a bad precedent. The experiment had been tried about 150 years before. The people asked Gideon to be their hereditary prince, and that hero declined the proposal, as inconsistent with a pure theocracy. After his death Abimelech was king for three years; but his career began in cruelty, ended soon in disaster and death, and no one from that time had sought the royal dignity.2. It proceeded on a wrong principle. The desire to be as the other nations round about was in fiat contradiction to the revealed purpose of God that Israel should be separate as a people unto him. The wish to have a king to lead them out to battle betrayed a thirst for war unworthy of a holy nation, and a mistrust of the Lord’s power to defend them. Here, indeed, is the point in which they departed from the permissive law regarding a king recorded in the seventeenth chapter of Deuteronomy. A regal government was not to be reckoned inconsistent with the theocracy, provided the king was not a foreigner, and was chosen by Jehovah, whose vicegerent he should be. The elders asked for a king not after the mind of the Lord, but after the pattern of the heathen round about.

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II. REASONS OF THE DIVINE CONSENT.1. A headstrong people must learn by experience. The elders and people of Israel were warned of the risk they ran. A king such as they desired would restrain their ancient liberties, and subordinate all their rights and interests to the maintenance of his court and army. They heard Samuel’s warning, and persisted in their demand. So the Lord bade his servant make them a king. If men will not take advice, let them have their way. Wisdom seldom comes to wilful men but through sharp lessons of the results of folly.2. The way must be prepared for the king and the kingdom that God would choose. It is important to remember that Divine purposes are accomplished on earth not by direct fiats of authority or exertions of power, but through long and complex processes of human action and counteraction, by the corrections of experience, the smart of suffering, and the recoil from danger. It was God’s design to constitute Israel into a kingdom under a sure covenant—a kingdom which should furnish the basis for glowing prophetic visions of the kingdom of Christ; but this design was not to be fulfilled abruptly, or by a sudden assertion of the Divine will. The way was prepared by the failure of all other devices for holding together the Hebrew people. First the government by judges lost credit; then the kingdom as set up by popular desire failed; so that the tribes, seeing the ruin of their own devices, might be ready to receive the kingdom as God would have it, and the man whom he would choose to "feed Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance."III. ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SAME PROCESS.1. Men have set up their own devices in the administration of the Church; and with what result? They have not been content with an unseen Lord and King. The early patriarchates may be described as a government by judges; but men were not content therewith, and Latin Christianity set up an ecclesiastical and spiritual supremacy on earth, a Saul-like kingship at Rome. Those parts of the Western Church which broke away from this doomed kingdom at the Reformation, for the most part gave power to secular princes in exchange for their protection. All such arrangements are temporary devices; but they are witnesses and preludes to something higher and more Divine. They prepare the way for the reign of Jesus Christ, as the broken, confused reign of Saul prepared for the strong kingdom of David.2. Inward Christian experience can tell a similar tale. What plans have to be tried and found wanting, what thrones of confusion in the heart to be subverted, before the Lord alone is exalted! We are permitted to have our own way that we may learn how small our wisdom is, how vain are our devices. We exalt our own righteousness, our own will, our own religious confidence. It is our Saul; and the issue is confusion and disorder, till we renounce our pride and vainglory, and receive the Son of David Jehovah’s true Anointed, to reign over and rule in us. Self religion starts thus—"Nay; but we will have a king." The religion which is taught of God says, "Blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord!"—F.

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