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The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

1 Samuel 8:4-5

1 SAMUEL—NOTE ON 1 Samuel 8:4 appoint for us a king... like all the nations. Samuel had appointed judges. The elders, recognizing his authority, ask for a king. They want to exchange their unique position as the people of the incomparable God (1 Samuel 2:2) to be “like all the nations.” The law had given permission to appoint a king, but it was not a requirement (Deuteronomy 17:14).

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See also 1 Samuel 8:4-5 in other biblical comments:

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    II. KING SAUL: HIS REIGN AND REJECTION 1. The King Demanded CHAPTER 8:4-22 _ 1. The king demanded (1 Samuel 8:4)_ 2. The rights of the king (1 Samuel 8:10) The kingly government is now to be estab...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    1 SAMUEL 8. DEMAND FOR A KING. Opening section, continued 1 Samuel 10:17, of later account of Saul's appointment as king: either Deuteronomic or late stratum of E. Probably 1 Samuel 10:17_ a_ (to over...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _the elders of Israel_ Acting as representatives of the people, 1 Samuel 8:7_; 1 Samuel 8:10; 1 Samuel 8:19; 1 Samuel 8:22_. In a patriarch

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    The Installation of Israel's First King, 1 Samuel 8:1 to 1 Samuel 10:27. _The people ask for a King._ 1 Samuel 8:1-5 And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    _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 asse...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    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...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    ISRAEL’S FIRST KING 1 SAMUEL _HELEN POCOCK_ CHAPTER 8 A big change happened in the nation of *Israel. This chapter tells us how it started. The nation of *Israel began with Abraham and Sarah and...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    ALL THE ELDERS OF ISRAEL. — We have here a clear trace of a popular assembly which seems in all times to have existed in Israel. Such a body appears to have met for deliberation even during the Egypti...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    וַ יִּֽתְקַבְּצ֔וּ כֹּ֖ל זִקְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַ...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    CHAPTER X. _ THE PEOPLE DEMAND A KING._ 1 Samuel 8:1. WHATEVER impression the "Ebenezer" of Samuel may have produced at the time, it passed away with the lapse of years. The feeling that, in sympath...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    SEEKING A KING LIKE OTHER NATIONS 1 Samuel 8:1 The sin that Samuel, as a lad, rebuked in Eli, reappeared in his own family and undermined his influence. The names of Samuel's sons are suggestive of h...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    This first Book of Samuel at this point merges into its second division, which has to do with Saul. First we have the account of the clamor of the people for a king and the divine answer thereto. The...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto (c) Ramah, (c) For there his house was, (1 Samuel 7:17)....

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    (4) В¶ Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, (5) And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to...

  • Introductory Lectures - Commentary by William Kelly

    The first Book of Samuel (or of Kings as with some) brings before us that great change for which the Book of Ruth was a preparation, and in order to which the Spirit of God closed it with the generati...

  • James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary

    _WANTED—A KING!_ ‘Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel unto Ramah, and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy way; now make us a ki...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY COVERS CHAPTER S 8, 9, AND 10. But faith is not transmitted by succession. Samuel could not make prophets of his sons. They were no better as judges than Eli's sons had been a...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    THEN ALL THE ELDERS OF ISRAEL GATHERED THEMSELVES TOGETHER,.... At some place of rendezvous appointed; these were the heads of the tribes, and fathers of the houses and families of Israel, the princip...

  • KJV Original Language Details

    1 By occasion of the ill gouernment of Samuels sonnes, the Israelites aske a King. 6 Samuel praying in griefe is comforted by God. 10 Hee telleth the manner of a King. 19 God willeth Samuel to yeel...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel unto Ramah, as a delegation representing the whole people,...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    SAMUEL DISPLEASED AT THE INSISTENT DESIREV. 1. AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN SAMUEL WAS OLD, THAT HE MADE HIS SONS JUDGES OVER ISRAEL, the increasing infirmities of old age prompting him to take this step...

  • Leslie M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible

    However, old age often brings weariness with it. The time comes when Samuel considers it necessary to have others as judges in the land, and it was quite natural (not spiritual) that he should give th...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    4-9 Samuel was displeased; he could patiently bear what reflected on himself, and his own family; but it displeased him when they said, Give us a king to judge us, because that reflected upon God. It...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    THE ELDERS; either for age, or dignity and power....

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    1 Samuel 8:4 elders H2205 Israel H3478 together H6908 (H8691) came H935 (H8799) Samuel H8050 Ramah H7414...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    THE PEOPLE SEEK FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF A KING OVER THEM (1 SAMUEL 8:1). Outwardly the desire of the elders for a king appears reasonable, but what they ignored was the fact that once there was a dynas...

  • Sermon Bible Commentary

    1 Samuel 8:4 The Book of Kings is also the Book of Samuel, not merely because the individual man was the last of the judges and poured the anointing oil upon the first two of the kings, but because h...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Israel demands a king; theocracy rejected. CHARACTERS: God, Samuel, his sons, Joel, Abiajah. CONCLUSION: When God's people will not accept His best for them, they will get the best they ca...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    1 Samuel 8:3. _His sons walked not_ as their father, who always came into court with clean hands. Seeking to aggrandize their families they took bribes, and by consequence perverted judgment. The hist...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _Make us a king to judge us like all the nations._ MAKING A KING As a matter of public notoriety, Samuel’s sons were not like Samuel himself in their moral tone and in their moral example. This bring...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel._ PARENTAL TRIALS The best sometimes meet with the bitterest disappointment, and their grey hairs are brought down...

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES— 1 Samuel 8:5. “MAKE US A KING TO JUDGE US LIKE ALL THE NATIONS.” “This request resembles so completely the law of the king in Deuteronomy 17:14, that the distinct allusi...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION SAUL (CHS. 8-31). THE great interest of the First Book of Samuel lies in the fact that we have in it the orderly consolidation of two of the main factors in the preparation for the manifes...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    Now it came to pass, when Samuel was old, he made his sons the judges over Israel. And the name of his firstborn was Joel; the second was Abiah: and they were judges in Beersheba. [Which is in the sou...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    2 Samuel 5:3; Exodus 24:1; Exodus 3:16...

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