1 Samuel 8:3

_AND HIS SONS WALKED NOT IN HIS WAYS, BUT TURNED ASIDE AFTER LUCRE, AND TOOK BRIBES, AND PERVERTED JUDGMENT._ HIS SONS WALKED NOT IN HIS WAYS. The question may arise in the mind of a reader, Why Samuel was not punished, as Eli, for the misconduct of his sons. But the answer is obvious. Not only was the offence of Samuel's sons of a far less heinous criminality than the unblushing and daring profanity of Eli's, but Samuel might not know, owing to the distance of Beer-sheba, anything of the delinquency of his sons, whereas Eli not only knew, but tolerated the iniquitous courses of his. The young men, however, did not inherit the high qualities of their father; and, they having, at their distant post of duty, where were temptation and opportunity for concealment, unawed by the presence of their father, corrupted the fountains of justice for their own private aggrandizement, a deputation of...

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....

Verse 1 Samuel 8:3. _HIS SONS WALKED NOT IN HIS WAYS_] Their iniquity is pointed out in _three_ words: 1. _They turned aside after lucre_; the original (בצע _batsa_) signifies to _cut, clip, break off_; and therefore Mr. Parkhurst thinks that it means nearly the same with our _clipping of coin_. It however expresses here the idea of _avarice_, of _getting money by hook or by crook_. The _Targum_ says, "They looked after ממון דשקר _mamon dishkar, the mammon of_ _unrighteousness_;" of which they did not make unto themselves _friends_ but _enemies_; Matthew 6:24. 2. _They took bribes_; שחד shochad, gifts or _presents_, to blind their eyes. 3. _They perverted judgment _- they _turned judgment aside_; they p

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 HIS SONS WALKED NOT IN HIS WAYS,.... The meaning of which is not that they did not go the circuit he did, which is too low a sense of the words some Jewish writers give; but they did not walk in the fear of God, in the paths of religion and righteousness, truth and holiness; they neither served God, nor did justice to men, as Samuel had done: BUT TURNED ASIDE AFTER LUCRE, AND TOOK BRIBES, AND PERVERTED JUDGMENT; indulged to covetousness, sought to get riches at any rate, took bribes, which blind the eyes of judges; and so passed wrong judgment, and gave the cause to those that gave the largest gifts, right or wrong....

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

TURNED ASIDE, &c.: i.e. stooped to extortion. took bribes: contrary to Deuteronomy 16:19....

_turned aside after Lucre_ From the _straight-forward_path of their father's example. _Lucre_(from Lat. lucrum) is only used in the E. V. in a bad sense of _ill-gotten gain_. _took bribes and perverted judgment_ The same phrases are coupled together in Deuteronomy 16:19, though differently translated in the E. V. "Thou shalt not _wrest_judgment … nor take a _gift_." Cp. Exodus 23:6; Exodus 23:8....

AND HIS SONS WALKED NOT IN HIS WAYS— Eli was punished for the wickedness of his sons, but Samuel was not; because it does not appear that the crimes of Samuel's sons were in any respect so flagrant as those of the sons of Eli, nor does it appear that Samuel knew of their crimes. They lived at a great distance from him, and might receive the bribes secretly: nor, further, does it appear, that he was wanting in a proper chastisement of them when he did know of their enormities; at least nothing of this kind is recorded in history....