1 Samuel 8: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Samuel is old, and the sons he has appointed as judges take bribes and twist justice. Israel's elders come to him at Ramah and ask for a king, so they can be like the other nations. God tells Samuel the request is a rejection of God himself, but instructs him to agree while warning the people what a king will take from them: their sons, daughters, fields, harvests, servants, and animals. The people still insist, and God tells Samuel to give them a king.

Claim by Claim

1. 8:1
   • Samuel became old.
   • When Samuel was old, he appointed his sons as judges over Israel.
2. 8:2
   • The name of Samuel's firstborn son was Joel.
   • The name of Samuel's second son was Abijah.
   • Joel and Abijah served as judges in Beersheba.
3. 8:3
   • Samuel's sons did not walk in his ways.
   • Samuel's sons turned aside after dishonest gain.
   • Samuel's sons took bribes.
   • Samuel's sons perverted justice.
4. 8:4
   • All the elders of Israel gathered themselves together.
   • The elders of Israel came to Samuel at Ramah.
5. 8:5
   • The elders said to Samuel that he was old.
   • The elders said that Samuel's sons did not walk in his ways.
   • The elders asked Samuel to appoint a king over them to judge them.
   • The elders asked for a king like all the nations had.
6. 8:6
   • The demand displeased Samuel.
   • What displeased Samuel was their saying, Give us a king to judge us.
   • Samuel prayed to the LORD.
7. 8:7
   • The LORD spoke to Samuel.
   • The LORD told Samuel to listen to the voice of the people in all that they said to him.
   • The LORD said the people had not rejected Samuel.
   • The LORD said the people had rejected the LORD himself.
   • The LORD said the people had rejected him from reigning over them.
8. 8:8
   • The LORD said the people were acting toward Samuel according to all the deeds they had done since the day he brought them up out of Egypt until that day.
   • The LORD said the people had forsaken him.
   • The LORD said the people had served other gods.
   • The LORD said the people were doing the same to Samuel.
9. 8:9
   • The LORD told Samuel to listen to the people's voice.
   • The LORD told Samuel to solemnly warn them.
   • The LORD told Samuel to declare to them the manner of the king who would reign over them.
10. 8:10
    • Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people.
    • The people were the ones asking Samuel for a king.
11. 8:11
    • Samuel said this would be the manner of the king who would reign over them.
    • The king will take their sons.
    • The king will assign their sons to his chariots.
    • The king will assign their sons to be his horsemen.
    • Some of their sons will run before the king's chariot.
12. 8:12
    • The king will appoint some as commanders of thousands.
    • The king will appoint some as commanders of fifties.
    • The king will set some to plow his ground.
    • The king will set some to reap his harvest.
    • The king will set some to make his weapons of war.
    • The king will set some to make the equipment of his chariots.
13. 8:13
    • The king will take their daughters.
    • The king will make their daughters perfumers.
    • The king will make their daughters cooks.
    • The king will make their daughters bakers.
14. 8:14
    • The king will take their fields.
    • The king will take their vineyards.
    • The king will take their olive groves.
    • The king will take the best of these.
    • The king will give them to his servants.
15. 8:15
    • The king will take a tenth of their seed.
    • The king will take a tenth of their vineyards.
    • The king will give it to his officers.
    • The king will give it to his servants.
16. 8:16
    • The king will take their menservants.
    • The king will take their maidservants.
    • The king will take their best young men.
    • The king will take their donkeys.
    • The king will put them to his own work.
17. 8:17
    • The king will take a tenth of their flocks.
    • They themselves will become the king's servants.
18. 8:18
    • In that day they will cry out because of their king.
    • The king they will cry out about is the one they chose for themselves.
    • The LORD will not answer them in that day.
19. 8:19
    • The people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel.
    • The people said no.
    • The people said a king would be over them.
20. 8:20
    • The people said they would be like all the nations.
    • The people said their king would judge them.
    • The people said their king would go out before them.
    • The people said their king would fight their battles.
21. 8:21
    • Samuel heard all the words of the people.
    • Samuel repeated the people's words in the hearing of the LORD.
22. 8:22
    • The LORD said to Samuel to listen to the people's voice.
    • The LORD told Samuel to make them a king.
    • Samuel said to the men of Israel that each man should go to his own city.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

8:1

In this period a "judge" was not mainly a court official. Judges were leaders who rose up in a crisis, commanded in war, and settled disputes between people; the position was not inherited, and no judge before Samuel had handed it to his sons.

8:2

Beersheba was at the far southern edge of Israel's territory, a journey of some fifty miles from Samuel's home at Ramah in the central hills, far enough that Samuel could not easily oversee what his sons were doing.

8:3

The King James "lucre" simply means profit or gain; the Hebrew word means gain got by crooked means. "Perverted judgment" means they bent the verdicts. Israel's law flatly forbade a judge to take a gift, on the ground that a gift blinds the eyes of those who see clearly.

8:4

The "elders" were the heads of the leading families and clans, the men who spoke for their towns in any matter affecting the whole people. Their coming together as a body made this a formal national demand, not a complaint from individuals.

8:5

The nations around Israel (Moab, Ammon, Edom, the Philistine cities) all had kings whose sons inherited the throne, along with the standing armies, palaces, and taxation that went with them. Israel until this moment had no permanent central ruler and no capital.

8:6

The Hebrew says literally that the thing "was evil in Samuel's eyes": that is, he judged it a bad thing, not merely that his feelings were hurt.

8:7

The King James "they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them" means that until now the arrangement had no human throne at all, and God is described as the one who ruled Israel directly. Asking for a king is treated as a request to replace that arrangement.

8:8

Long before this, God's people were slaves in Egypt. God brought them out and made them free. Other gods means the statues that other countries prayed to.

8:9

"The manner of the king" translates a Hebrew word (mishpat) that also means a judgment, a ruling, or a legal custom, the same word used when the people ask for a king "to judge" them. Samuel's answer uses their own word back at them: here is the ruling practice you are asking for.

8:11

Chariots were the expensive, elite arm of an ancient army, requiring trained horses, drivers, and workshops, exactly the sort of standing establishment Israel did not yet have. The men who ran ahead of the chariot were a royal escort, part guard and part display.

8:12

"Captains over thousands and over fifties" are ranks in a standing army, organized in units of a thousand down to fifty. To "ear" the ground is the old English word for plowing it, nothing to do with ears.

8:13

The King James "confectionaries" does not mean sweet-makers. The Hebrew means women who compound perfumes and scented ointments, a specialist trade of the royal household.

8:14

Olive groves take a very long time to become productive, often more than a decade before a real harvest and much longer to reach full yield, so an established grove represents work done by an earlier generation. Vineyards are similar. Confiscating them and handing them to palace officials transfers not just land but decades of accumulated labor.

8:15

A tenth was the standard rate of a levy in the ancient Near East, and it was also the share Israelites already gave for the upkeep of worship. The point is that the king's claim would come on top of that, and be collected by force.

8:16

The Hebrew text here reads "your finest young men." The ancient Greek translation reads "your best cattle", the two words differ by one letter in Hebrew, and translators are divided over which is original. Donkeys were the ordinary farm animal for plowing and hauling; losing them meant losing your ability to work your own land.

8:17

The word translated "servants" and the word for "slaves" are the same in Hebrew. Israel would stand to the king in the relation they had once stood to Egypt.

8:18

"Cry out" is the same verb used of Israel's outcry under slavery in Egypt, the cry that God is said to have heard and answered. Here the same cry is raised and, Samuel says, not answered.

8:20

Ancient kings were expected to lead their troops in person, marching at the head of the column. The people are asking for a permanent commander as much as for a ruler.

8:21

"Rehearsed" in 1611 English meant repeated aloud, word for word. It has nothing to do with practicing.

8:22

"Go every man unto his city" dismisses the assembly. The demand has been granted in principle, but no king is named here; the elders are sent home to wait.