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

And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. When Samuel was old. He was now about 54 years of age, having discharged the office of sole judge for 12 years.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 8 Samuel makes his sons judges over Israel; their names, and ill government, . The people ask a king: Samuel is grieved; prays, . God is displeased with the people; but commands Samuel to hearken to them, and to represent to them the tyrannical government of kings, ; which he doth, . The people continue in their request: God commands Samuel to yield to them, . when Samuel was old, and so unable for his former travels and labours, he made his sons judges; not supreme judges, for such there was to be but one, and that of God’ s choosing, and Samuel still kept that office in his own hands, ; but his vicegerents or deputies, who might go about and determine matters, but with reservation of a right of appeals to himself. He advanceth his sons to this place, not so much out of paternal indulgence, the sad effects whereof he had seen in Eli; but because 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 inspection and authority he still had over them, would have obliged them to diligence and faithfulness in the execution of their trust.

1 Samuel 8:1 And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel.Ver. 1. And it came to pass, when Samuel was old.] Sixty at least, say interpreters; and so less able to do all himself. Omnia fert aetas, animum quoque … fert, i.e., aufert. Age disableth for duty many times. That he made his sons judges over Israel.] Substitutes to himself, not without God’ s permission and consent likely, being so holy a man. It may well be thought that he had given them good breeding, and had great hopes of their good behaviour in executing their office. It is probable also that at first they carried the matter well, till puffed up with their new dignity, and corrupted by gifts. Nero’ s first five years were such that Trajan was wont to say, that none ever attained to the perfection of them. Be it that Samuel was some way faulty in setting up his sons, as there is no pomegranate but hath one or more rotten kernels in it, yet it is no way likely that he was guilty of that indulgence for which his own month had denounced God’ s judgments against Eli: yet he succeeded him in his cross as well as his place, though not in his sin.

(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 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:— st 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.rd 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.th 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.(2) They were judges in Beer-sheba.—It was natural that the father, as the infirmities of old age were beginning to make his toilsome life more burden some, should turn to his sons, and endeavour to train them up to share in his high duties, but beyond the natural regret of a father that the honours and dignities he had himself so hardly won should pass from his house for ever, no murmur seems to have escaped Samuel’s lips when the will of the Eternal was made known to him; and the aged prophet, forgetting he had sons and a house which bore his name, was the principal agent in the establishment of the king, in whom all the powers of the judge were to be merged.

CHAPTER VIII Samuel, grown old, makes his sons judges in Beer-sheba, 1, 2. They pervert judgment; and the people complain, and desire a king, 3-5. Samuel is displeased, and inquires of the Lord, 6. The Lord is also displeased; but directs Samuel to appoint them a king, and to show them solemnly the consequences of their choice, 7-9. Samuel does so; and shows them what they may expect from an absolute monarch, and how afflicted they should be under his administration, 10-18. The people refuse to recede from their demand; and Samuel lays the matter before the Lord, and dismisses them, 19-22. NOTES ON CHAP. VIII Verse 1. 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 1 Samuel 7:16.

Ch. 1 Samuel 8:1-5. Request of the people for a king 1. when Samuel was old] A considerable time, probably not much less than 20 years, must have elapsed since the victory of Ebenezer, before Samuel required the help of his sons on the ground of old age, and some years more before their misgovernment became so flagrant as to give occasion for the request of the elders. On the chronology see Introd. p. 22 ff.

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 1 Samuel 7:13-17.

1. Made his sons judges — Not with authority equal to his own, but assistant judges, who might attend to judicial matters in remote places, to which Samuel’s age prevented his going.