Skip to content
mannafest.faith

1 Samuel 8:20

in 1 Samuel 8

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

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

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.

KJV

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.

This verse in 1 Samuel 8

Commentary

10 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

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.

This site's exposition

the people refused to listen to Samuel

on 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.

This site's exposition

Then we will be like all the other nations

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.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

14, 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.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number+unbalanced-parens

A commentator

John Gill

1697–1771

Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)

proposed

That we also may be like all the nations,.... Even though they were slaves, like them; a king they would have, as they had, such was their stupidity.
That we also may be like all the nations,.... Even though they were slaves, like them; a king they would have, as they had, such was their stupidity.

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

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 (Nu 23:9;

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

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.
2 more voices on this verse

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Albert Barnes

1798–1870

Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

proposed

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

The words behind it

12 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וְהָיִ֥ינוּand we will be

    vehayinuH1961 →3559 times

  • גַם־also

    gam-H1571 →769 times

  • אֲנַ֖חְנוּwe

    ʾanachnuH587 →120 times

  • כְּכָל־like all

    kekhol-H3605 →5413 times

  • הַגּוֹיִ֑םthe nations

    hagoyimH1471 →

  • וּשְׁפָטָ֤נוּand he will judge us

    ushefatanuH8199 →202 times

  • מַלְכֵּ֙נוּ֙king our

    malkenuH4428 →2525 times

  • וְיָצָ֣אand he will go out

    veyatza'H3318 →1067 times

  • לְפָנֵ֔ינוּ<to> before us

    lefaneinuH6440 →2123 times

  • וְנִלְחַ֖םand he will fight

    venilchamH3898 →177 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • מִלְחֲמֹתֵֽנוּ׃battles our

    milchamotenuH4421 →320 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Philippians 3:20

    But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,

    it leads to

    • Ephesians 2:19

      Therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,

    • Colossians 3:1–3

      Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

    • 2 Corinthians 4:18

      So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

    • Hebrews 12:22

      Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels

    • 1 Peter 1:3–4

      Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

  • Through

    Exodus 33:16

    For how then can it be known that Your people and I have found favor in Your sight, unless You go with us? How else will we be distinguished from all the other people…

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 4:7

      For what nation is great enough to have a god as near to them as the LORD our God is to us whenever we call on Him?

    • Numbers 14:14

      And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have already heard that You, O LORD, are in the midst of this people, that You, O LORD, have been seen face…

  • Through

    Numbers 23:9

    For I see them from atop the rocky cliffs, and I watch them from the hills. Behold, a people dwelling apart, not reckoning themselves among the nations.

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 33:28

      So Israel dwells securely; the fountain of Jacob lives untroubled in a land of grain and new wine, where even the heavens drip with dew.

Where this verse is studied

On this page

Studies1

About 1 Samuel

Anointing of David by Samuel, Félix-Joseph Barrias, 1842, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris. Public domain.
Anointing of David by Samuel, Félix-Joseph Barrias, 1842, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.