1 Samuel 8:4

Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah,

Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together. This was evidently the general council or assembly of the nation, which is, 1 Samuel 5:7, 1 Samuel 5:10,19,21 , called "the people," as represented by the elders as their heads (cf. 1 Samuel 10:17; 1 Samuel 10:19; 1 Samuel 11:14; 1 Samuel 12:1). The limited and occasional authority of the judges, the disunion and jealousy of the tribes under the administration of those rulers, had been creating a desire for a united and permanent form of government; while the advanced age of Samuel, together with the risk of his death happening in the then unsettled state of the people, was the occasion of calling forth an expression of this desire now.