1 Samuel 8:1

_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. Unable, from growing infirmities to prosecute his circuit journeys through the country, he at length confined his magisterial duties to Ramah and its neighbourhood (1 Samuel 7:15), delegating to his sons as his deputies the administration of justice in the southern districts of Palestine, their provincial court being held at Beer-sheba. He appointed them to this high and responsible office, not like Eli, from the fondness of doating partiality, but, from the careful training they had received under his direction, as well as from the paternal authority and the good example he had set them, he hoped and believed that they would prove faithful and impartial in the execution of thei

1-3 It does not appear that Samuel's sons were so profane and vicious as Eli's sons; but they were corrupt judges, they turned aside after lucre. Samuel took no bribes, but his sons did, and then they perverted judgment. What added to the grievance of the people was, that they were threatened by an invasion from Nahash, king of the Ammonites....

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....

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. The general idea conveyed is of a time of peace and prosperity, analogous to that under other Judges....

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 manifestation of our Lord, namely, prophecy and the kingdom. The first seven chapters give us the history of Samuel's birth, and of the gradual development in him of those spiritual powers which finally made him not merely a prophet, but the founder of prophecy as a permanent and regularly organised institution of the Jewish Church. The whole of the rest of the book, while adding many interesting particulars about Samuel, is occupied with the establishment of the kingdom and with Saul. We have in him, both in his uprise and his fall, one of the most remarkable personages of the Old Testament. But his character for good and for evil will develop itself as we proceed. Before, however, we can apprecia...

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 came upon him sooner than they commonly do, through his indefatigable labours from his childhood, and the cares and burdens of government he had long bore; though some think he was about sixty years of age; and Abarbinel is of opinion that he was more than seventy. It is a rule with the Jews u, that a man is called an old man at sixty, and a grey headed man at seventy: THAT HE MADE HIS SONS JUDGES OVER ISRAEL; under himself, not being able through old age to go the circuits he used; he sent them, and appointed them to hear and try causes in his stead, or settled them in some particular places in the land, and, as it seems by what follows, at Beersheba; though whether that was under his directio...

8. SAMUEL EXERCISING HIS OFFICE AND HIS FAILURE Chapter S 7:15-8:3 _ 1. Samuel the Prophet-Judge (1 Samuel 7:15)_ 2. His failure (1 Samuel 8:1) Samuel's activity as the great prophet-judge is now seen. He had a blessed circuit of ministry, which has its spiritual lessons for us. He first visited Bethel (the house of God). Judgment must begin there. When Jacob was obedient to the divine call “Arise and go up unto Bethel,” he buried the strange gods, the household gods under the oak of Shechem. So the evil things must be put away. Then came Gilgal (rolling). There the reproach of Egypt was rolled away (Joshua 5). This is what we need, to be freed from the world, dead to it and the world dead to us. Mizpeh

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 us) in the Deuteronomic document stood in the place of 1 Samuel 8:10, giving the following sequence of events: appeal of the elders, convocation of assembly (as in 1 Samuel 7:5), Saul's election, etc. Also, in 1 Samuel 8:22; Go ye every man unto his city, is, like 1

OLD. From 1 Samuel 28:3 he predeceased Saul by about two years. Consequently he acted for thirty-eight years after Saul's anointing (i.e. 1000-962 B.C.) When he anointed David he would be about eighty-six; and lived to about the age of Eli, ninety-eight years....

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....