1 Samuel 8

1 Samuel 8:1-22

The People demand a King

1. Judges] They would be subordinate to their father. When the son of a Judge was influential and popular, he might easily succeed to his father’s position: cp. A bimelech in Judges 9:1.
2. Like all the nations] This was the sin of the people. God intended that they, unlike other nations, should be a peculiar people, governed directly by Himself.
3. Displeased Samuel] They had shown themselves forgetful of their relation to God and ungrateful to Samuel himself. But in spite of this, he simply leaves the decision with God.
4. For] Samuel was not to hesitate, for the matter was one which concerned God rather than himself.
5. Which they have done] LXX adds ’to me,’ an addition which is required by the contrast with ’to thee.'
6. It does not follow that a Jewish king was actually like this description, but an Oriental despot was, and Israel had asked for a king like other nations. In later years, Hebrew monarchy sank very low, both in Judah and Israel: cp. the tone both of Hosea and of Ezekiel(Ezekiel 45:9; Ezekiel 46:18).
7. Confectionaries] RM ‘perfumers’: cp. Exodus 30:25.
8. Officers] Heb. ’eunuchs.’