1 Samuelchapter 8
22 verses · Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition · 10th century BC · History
And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
Introduction
Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition, History, 1 Samuel Overview.
This chapter turns the book from the judges to the kings. It was kept for Israelites who lived beside nations that all had kings, and who had seen two leading households fail within living memory. It is almost entirely speech: a request, a complaint to God, an answer and a warning. Listen for the words the elders use, which Moses had already foreseen in Deuteronomy. Weigh how God names what the request really is. Then hear the warning as a list of what a king takes, and notice how the people answer it.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who lived beside nations that all had kings, and who had watched two judges' houses fail in two generations
- What
- The elders ask Samuel for a king like the nations have, and the LORD grants the request with a warning of what a king will take.
- Where
- Samuel's house at Ramah, where the elders come to him, with his sons judging at Beersheba in the far south.
- When
- About 1052 BC, shortly before Saul was anointed about 1050 BC.
- Why
- To show that the demand for a king was a rejection of the LORD as King, granted under warning.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to the elders of Israel, who bring the request, and to Samuel, who is old and has appointed his own sons in his place. Joel and Abiah judge at Beersheba, on Judah's southern frontier, probably on ground recovered after the victory of chapter 7.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The occasion is stated in two parts. Samuel is old, and his sons take bribes and pervert judgment. A first hearer heard the second part against the first four chapters of this book, where Eli's sons did the same at Shiloh. Two priestly and judicial houses have now failed in the same way within living memory.
The request itself quotes the law. Deuteronomy 17:14 had predicted that Israel would one day say, let us set a king over us like all the nations, and the elders use those words at verse 5. The law had allowed for a king and had fenced the office round with limits.
The manner of the king at verses 11 to 18 is a catalogue of taking, and each item had a counterpart a first hearer could name. Chariots and horsemen answer the prohibition on multiplying horses at Deuteronomy 17:16. The tenth of the seed and the tenth of the flocks answer the tithe already owed to the LORD. The closing line, that they shall be his servants, uses the same word used of the king's own officers.
What a first hearer knew about kingship in that world is what makes the catalogue concrete. A king raised a standing army by conscription, a court by household service, and a revenue by a tithe on land and livestock, and the nations around Israel all worked that way.
Significance
The LORD's answer at verse 7 moves the injury from Samuel to Himself. They have not rejected Samuel, they have rejected the LORD from reigning over them, which sets the request inside the whole history since Egypt.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The book of Judges had closed on the line that there was no king in Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes. This chapter is the answer that book was left holding open, and it is granted with a warning attached.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
Rashi is the only commentator the corpus carries with text on this chapter, in the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., under CC-BY. The charge against Samuel's sons is where he parts most sharply from the plain reading. He distinguishes the two verb forms, one saying the sons turned aside themselves and the other that they turned justice aside (Rashi on I Samuel 8:3:1 and 8:3:2). He then hands on the ruling of the Rabbis in Maseches Shabbos 56a, that "Shmuel's sons did not sin" (Rashi on I Samuel 8:3:2). On that reading they failed only in this, that their father went to the cities of Israel to judge while they stayed and summoned litigants to them (same ref). Rashi adds that they did so "in order to increase the income of their agents and scribes" (same ref). On what displeased Samuel he is exact, and puts the fault in the words of the request, "to judge us like all the nations" (Rashi on I Samuel 8:6:1). On the warning Samuel is told to give he reads it as teaching them the fear due to a king (Rashi on I Samuel 8:9:1). On the king's men making his weapons he reads the verse as training them as craftsmen, blacksmiths and carpenters (Rashi on I Samuel 8:12:1). On the daughters taken for perfumers he says they prepare perfumes and spices for the king's wives (Rashi on I Samuel 8:13:1). Radak, Malbim and Metzudat David comment at eighteen verses, and the corpus holds no English version of any of them, so they stand as citations. They are Radak on I Samuel 8:2:1, 8:5:1, 8:8:1, 8:11:1, 8:15:1, 8:17:1, 8:19:1, 8:20:1 and 8:21:1. Beside them stand Malbim on I Samuel 8:1:1, 8:4:1, 8:10:1 and 8:14:1, and Metzudat David on I Samuel 8:2:1, 8:7:1, 8:16:1, 8:18:1 and 8:22:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-one of them Midrash and nine Talmud, each a locator without text. Samuel growing old and setting his sons as judges draws the largest cluster of the chapter, nine locators. They are Aggadat Bereshit 41:4, Bamidbar Rabbah 10:5, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 5:7, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Taanit 1:14 and Ein Yaakov, Megillah 1:14. The rest are Ein Yaakov, Shabbat 5:11, Megillah 10b:7, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Shoftim 1:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Shoftim 1:1. The names of the sons, and their seat at Beersheba, draw Pesikta Rabbati 43:1 and Ruth Rabbah 4:3. Their turning after gain, and the bribes and the perverted justice, draw another nine. Those are Bereshit Rabbah 85:12, Chullin 133a:6, Ein Yaakov, Khullin 10:2, Ein Yaakov, Makkot 2:12 and Jerusalem Talmud Ketubot 13:1:3. The rest are Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 1:4:5, Makkot 11a:21, Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 47:30:1 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 47:31:9. The elders gathering to Samuel draws Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 6:9:4. The request for a king draws Devarim Rabbah 5:9, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 2:7, Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 17:14:1, Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 17:14:1 and Pesikta Rabbati 33:1. The answer that they have rejected the LORD draws Midrash Shmuel 13:4 and Sifrei Devarim 156:4. The manner of the king draws Sanhedrin 20b:6, the making of his weapons draws Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 168:2, and the daughters draw Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 17:15:1. Verse 17 draws Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 1:12:2, and verse 19 draws Midrash Shmuel 13:5. The wish to be like all the nations draws Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 2:8, Midrash Aggadah, Deuteronomy 17:14:1, Sanhedrin 20b:10, Sifrei Devarim 156:6 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 912:1. Verse 22 draws Esther Rabbah 5:4 and Midrash Shmuel 13:6. The rabbis teach in these places, and this site reports them as their teaching rather than as a rule of the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Samuel 8:3:1, 8:3:2, 8:6:1, 8:9:1, 8:12:1 and 8:13:1, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY; Radak, Radak on I Samuel 8:2:1, 8:5:1, 8:8:1, 8:11:1, 8:15:1, 8:17:1, 8:19:1, 8:20:1 and 8:21:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus; Malbim, Malbim on I Samuel 8:1:1, 8:4:1, 8:10:1 and 8:14:1, cited only; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Samuel 8:2:1, 8:7:1, 8:16:1, 8:18:1 and 8:22:1, cited only.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Make us a king to judge us like all the nations
1 Samuel 8:1-2
Samuel's age forces the question the whole chapter turns on: no judge holds office forever, and this judge has no heir fit to follow him. He appoints Joel and Abiah at Beersheba, on Judah's southern frontier, likely ground recovered from the Philistines after the victory of chapter 7. The office passes from a prophet raised up by God to sons he only raised up himself, and the difference becomes the next verse's subject.
1 Samuel 8:1
“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.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Samuel 8:1
“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.”
Samuel's sons judged at Beersheba, on the far southern frontier of Judah. Albert Barnes ties the posting to the land Israel took back from the Philistines at 7:14. John Gill notes that 1 Chronicles 6:28 names Samuel's firstborn son Vashni.
1 Samuel 8:2
“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.”
Three clauses name one failure: they turned aside after lucre, took bribes, and perverted judgment, corrupt justice sold for pay. Samuel had judged Israel in a yearly circuit without charge to anyone, and his own sons undo that record at Beersheba. The elders' grievance at verse 5 answers a real wound before it answers a real theology, for they have watched a judge's house fail exactly as Eli's did.
1 Samuel 8:3
“His sons walked not in his ways - Their iniquity is pointed out in three words: 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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 8:3
“But possibly you flatter yourself that since the bishop who has made you a deacon is a holy man, his merits will atone for your transgressions. I have already told you that the father is not punished for the son or the son for the father. "The soul that sins shall itself die." Samuel too had sons who forsook the fear of the Lord and "turned aside after lucre" and iniquity.”
Jerome · written before 420 · LETTER 147.10patristic
1 Samuel 8:4-6
The elders come to Ramah and ask, “Now appoint a king to judge us like all the other nations”, the words Deuteronomy 17:14 foretold Israel would one day say. The complaint against his sons is real, yet the demand asks for the form every nation around Israel had. Samuel takes it as a personal grievance and prays, and the Lord's answer in verse 7 corrects him.
1 Samuel 8:4
“Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together,.... At some place of rendezvous appointed; these were the heads of the tribes, and fathers of the houses and families of Israel, the principal persons of age and authority: and came to Samuel unto Ramah; the place of his nativity and abode, and where he now dwelt, and judged Israel; they went in a very respectable body with an address to him.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 8:4
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The elders give two reasons, Samuel's age and his sons' conduct, and then ask for a king. Adam Clarke notes that God alone had been Israel's king until now, and that the elders wanted a king like the nations to lead them in battle. Matthew Henry notes they ask for any king at all.
1 Samuel 8:5
“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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Samuel answers the elders' demand with prayer. Adam Clarke traces his displeasure to a demand that amounted to a formal rejection of God as king. Albert Barnes hears Samuel's own hurt in it, and the LORD answers that hurt in verse 7 by naming whom the people have rejected.
1 Samuel 8:6
“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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 8:7-9
The Lord reframes the request at once: “it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king”. Verse 8 sets it inside a pattern of forsaking that runs back to Egypt. God still tells Samuel to grant it after warning them, so “the manner of the king who will reign over them” is the plain cost of trading a divine king for a human one.
1 Samuel 8:7
“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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 8:7
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The LORD ranks the demand for a king with every turning to other gods since Egypt. Albert Barnes reads this as comfort for Samuel, whose wound is small beside the people's long ingratitude to God himself. Matthew Henry recalls Aaron yielding at Sinai.
Adam Clarke reads the manner of the king as the demands every king of that day made on the people under his reign. Gregory the Dialogist hears mercy in the warning, given so the people might drop their demand. Matthew Henry adds that they would regret the king too late.
1 Samuel 8:9
“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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 8:9
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
This will be the manner of the king
1 Samuel 8:10-12
The catalogue of taking opens with Israel's sons, set to the king's “chariots and horses, to run in front of his chariots”, then made commanders or sent to plow and reap for him. Deuteronomy 17:16 had forbidden the king to multiply horses for himself, and Samuel's first item is the thing the law had fenced off. What the elders picture as glory, Deuteronomy had already priced as loss.
This will be the manner of the king: The manner of the king begins with the sons of Israel, taken to run in front of his chariots. John Gill reads the list as what kings will do, true in some measure of every king Israel would have. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown call it a picture of Eastern despotism.
1 Samuel 8:11
“This will be the manner of the king--The following is a very just and graphic picture of the despotic governments which anciently and still are found in the East, and into conformity with which the Hebrew monarchy, notwithstanding the restrictions prescribed by the law, gradually slid.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Commanders of thousands and of fifties were as old as Moses, and Albert Barnes points to Numbers 31:14 and Deuteronomy 1:15. The same officers led in peace and in war. Under a king they are appointed for the king himself, and the farm work of the nation follows them.
1 Samuel 8:12
“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.”
1 Samuel 8:13-15
Daughters follow sons, taken “to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers”, a household conscription beside the military one. The best fields go to the king's servants, and “a tenth of your grain and grape harvest” to his officials, a tithe once brought to the Lord's house. With the tenth of the flocks in verse 17, he takes what the law reserved for God.
1 Samuel 8:13
“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.”
The warning reaches the family land itself. The best fields, vineyards and olive groves pass to the king's servants, and Albert Barnes points to Solomon's forced labour in 1 Kings 5:13-18 and the heavy yoke protested in 1 Kings 12:4.
1 Samuel 8:14
“See illustrations in marginal references; 1Ki 5:13-18; 1Ki 12:4.”
Israel's law already claimed a tenth of the harvest as the LORD's, at Leviticus 27:30. Samuel warns of another tenth, taken for the king's officials and servants, whom the text Gregory the Dialogist read calls eunuchs. The crown taxes the harvest.
1 Samuel 8:15
“There follows: "But he will also tithe your crops and the revenues of your vineyards, to give to his eunuchs and his servants." When the wicked are in charge, it is very difficult that one who is subject to them should suffer no losses to his religion. For the minds of some perish entirely: but those whom they cannot completely pervert, while they unceasingly observe their wicked words and deeds, are stained with some sort of defilement. Rightly therefore it is said: "He will tithe your crops and the revenues of your vineyards."”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 2patristic
1 Samuel 8:16-18
Menservants, maidservants and the best cattle and donkeys go to the king's use, and “a tenth of your flocks” follows the tenth of the grain. The list ends with the people themselves: “you yourselves will become his slaves”. Verse 18, “the LORD will not answer you on that day”, states the moral: a king got by rejecting God's reign brings a burden his own request cannot undo.
1 Samuel 8:16
“There follows: "He will also take your male servants and female servants, and your best young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work." The male and female servants of the saints are those who supply them with temporal necessities. They are male and female servants because, while they provide them with bodily necessities, in this same work of mercy some are stronger than others.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 2patristic
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 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 ( ch. ix.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The list ends with the people themselves. John Gill reports Abarbinel's reading, that Israel would be made slaves like the Canaanite servants, and a milder reading that takes the words as tribute and taxes owed to the crown.
1 Samuel 8:17
“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.”
The words the king you have chosen place the blame on the people who asked for him. Matthew Henry holds that people who bring distress on themselves by their own desires lose the comfort of prayer. In 1 Kings 12 the people beg the king for relief.
1 Samuel 8:18
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Nay, but we will have a king over us
1 Samuel 8:19-20
The people refuse the warning outright and say, “We must have a king over us”. Verse 20 repeats “like all the other nations” from verse 5 and adds a king “to go out before us, and to fight our battles”, the role Samuel filled by prayer in chapter seven. The warning leaves the demand standing, restated in fuller and plainer form.
1 Samuel 8:19
“The people refused to obey - They would have the king, his manner and all, notwithstanding the solemn warning which they here receive.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The people add a war leader to their demand. Albert Barnes connects it with 12:12, where the threat of Nahash the Ammonite already stood behind the request. Adam Clarke reads the wish for a king to judge them as a rejection of Samuel himself.
1 Samuel 8:20
“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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 8:21-22
As at verse 6, Samuel takes the complaint back to God, and the answer is short: “Listen to their voice” and “Appoint a king for them”. God grants what he has named a rejection of himself, and Samuel sends the men of Israel home to wait. Judges ended with no king in Israel and everyone doing right in his own eyes, and this chapter answers what that book left open.
1 Samuel 8:21
“And Samuel heard all the words of the people,.... Patiently, and without 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.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 8:21
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The LORD tells Samuel to listen to the people for the third time, after verses 7 and 9. Albert Barnes reads the repetition as a mark of Samuel's own reluctance to appoint a king. Then Samuel sends every man home to his city.
1 Samuel 8:22
“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.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 8:22
“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? Their first king was slain in battle: and so was Joshua, one of the last and best.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative carrying one prophetic speech, the manner of the king, set inside a request and its granting, as guide classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The manner of the king, itemised as taking | Verses 11 to 17 run as one list with the same verb driving it. He will take your sons for his chariots and his horsemen, and your daughters for his kitchens. He will take your fields, your vineyards and your oliveyards, and a tenth of your seed. He will take your menservants, your maidservants, your best young men, your asses and a tenth of your sheep. The list ends on the word that names the result, that ye shall be his servants.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 1 Samuel 8:11 to 17. | 1 Samuel 8:11, 1 Samuel 8:13, 1 Samuel 8:14, 1 Samuel 8:15, 1 Samuel 8:17 |
| Like all the nations, said twice | The elders use the phrase at verse 5 when they first ask. The people use it again at verse 20 after the warning has been read to them. They add what the elders had left unsaid, that the king should go out before them and fight their battles. The warning does not shrink the request. It is restated in fuller form.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Samuel 8:19 to 20. | 1 Samuel 8:5, 1 Samuel 8:20 |
| Rejected, three times in two verses | Verse 7 says they have not rejected Samuel, they have rejected Me from reigning over them. Verse 8 repeats the verb against the whole history since Egypt, forsaking God and serving other gods. The same charge is laid three times in two verses, and each time the object moves further from Samuel and closer to God.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel, 1875, on 1 Samuel 8:7 to 8. | 1 Samuel 8:7, 1 Samuel 8:8 |
| Samuel takes it back to God twice | At verse 6 the thing displeases Samuel and he prays unto the LORD. At verse 21 he hears all the words of the people and rehearses them in the ears of the LORD. The section opens and closes with the same action, and the second time the answer is three words long, make them a king.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Samuel 8:21 to 22. | 1 Samuel 8:6, 1 Samuel 8:21, 1 Samuel 8:22 |
What the chapter is built on
13 more paragraphs on the patterns
The request quotes Deuteronomy 17:14 almost word for word, and the warning answers Deuteronomy 17:16 and 17:17 item by item. The law had set three limits on a king, that he should not multiply horses, wives or silver and gold, and Samuel's list opens on the first of them.
The chapter also answers the book of Judges. That book closes on the refrain that there was no king in Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes, at Judges 17:6 and 21:25. This chapter is the answer Judges was left holding open, and the answer comes with a warning.
Gideon's refusal at Judges 8:23 is the other passage in view. He tells Israel that the LORD shall rule over them, which is the theology God states here in His own words.
The New Testament's use
This chapter is not quoted in the New Testament. Its subject is taken up at Acts 13:21. Paul tells the synagogue at Antioch that the people asked for a king, and that God gave them Saul the son of Kish for forty years. Paul reads the request as this chapter reads it, as something Israel asked for.
Hosea 13:10 to 11 gives the prophetic comment on the same request, that God gave Israel a king in His anger and took him away in His wrath.
The reading the chapter has drawn argument over
Whether the request itself was sinful has been read two ways, and both readings are drawn from this chapter with Deuteronomy 17 in hand.
One reading holds that the kingship was always intended and that the sin lay in the motive and the timing. Deuteronomy 17:14 to 20 provides for a king and legislates for him, and Jacob's word over Judah at Genesis 49:10 looks toward a sceptre. On this reading the fault is the clause like all the nations, and the demand that a man go out and fight the battles God had been fighting.
The other reading holds that the request was a rejection in itself, on the plain sense of verse 7, and sets it beside Gideon's refusal at Judges 8:23 and Hosea 13:11. Keil and Delitzsch weigh both and hold that the office was foreseen while this particular asking was a turning away.
The chapter grants the request and calls it a rejection in the same passage, and it explains neither away.
The thing the chapter states before its time
The warning at verses 11 to 18 describes a state Israel had never lived under. Conscription, a royal household staffed by its subjects, a claim on the best of the fields and a tithe on seed and flocks are all named before Israel has a king. The complaint of the next generation is recorded in the same terms at 1 Kings 12:4, that Solomon's yoke was heavy. The forced labour behind it stands at 1 Kings 9:15 to 22.
Keep studying
Words12
Subjects1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel, 1875, on 1 Samuel 8:7 to 9; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Samuel 8:4 to 6 and This site's published book guide, src/components/book/guides/1-samuel/Book1SamuelGuide.tsx, which opens act II, Saul Given, Saul Rejected, at this chapter, under the line taken from 8:5.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Gregory the Dialogist; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.