VIII. (1 Samuel 8:1) Israel desires an earthly King. The Elders bring the Bequest to Samuel. The Eternal sees fit to Grant their Request. EXCURSUS D: ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MONARCHY IN ISRAEL (1 Samuel 8). It is an error to see in the foundation of the Hebrew monarchy by Samuel in the person... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN SAMUEL WAS OLD. — We are not able with any precision to fix the dates of Samuel’s life. When the great disaster happened which resulted in the capture of the Ark of God and Eli’s death. the young prophet was barely thirty years old. For the next twenty years we have seen how unweariedly he labo... [ Continue Reading ]
TOOK BRIBES, AND PERVERTED JUDGMENT. — This sin, at all times a fatally common one in the East, was especially denounced in the Law. (See Exodus 23:6; Deuteronomy 16:19.) It is strange that the same ills that ruined Eli’s house, owing to the evil conduct of his children, now threatened Samuel. The p... [ Continue Reading ]
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 Egyptian captivity (see Exodus 3:16). Of this popular council we know little beyond the fact of its existe... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SAID UNTO HIM. — They ground their request — which, however, they framed almost in the very terms used in the prophecy of the Law (Deuteronomy 17:14) — upon two circumstances: first, the age of Samuel, and his consequent inability to act as their leader in those perpetual wars and forays with th... [ Continue Reading ]
THE THING DISPLEASED SAMUEL. — It is clear that it was perfectly justifiable in the elders of the people to come to the resolution contained in their petition to Samuel. The Deuteronomy directions contained in 1 Samuel 17:14 are clear and explicit in this matter of an earthly king for the people, an... [ Continue Reading ]
HEARKEN UNTO THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE. — The words spoken to Samuel, probably in a vision, by the Most High are very touching and very sad. _Very touching,_ in their extreme tenderness to the noble old man. Take courage, they seem to say, “my old true servant, and be not dismayed at this apparently b... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE SAID, THIS WILL BE THE MANNER OF THE KING THAT SHALL REIGN OVER YOU. — In obedience to the word of the Lord, Samuel, the judge of Israel, without blaming the people for their desire, quietly asks them if they were in real earnest — if they had fully considered the grave changes which such an... [ Continue Reading ]
TO EAR HIS GROUND. — To ear, that is, _to plough._ The word is an old word (Anglo-Saxon _earian_)_,_ and connected with the Latin _arare. _... [ Continue Reading ]
CONFECTIONARIES. — Better rendered _perfumers — _that is, makers of ointments and scents, of which Orientals are inordinately fond.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND YOUR GOODLIEST YOUNG MEN. — The LXX. Greek Version here reads, “your best oxen,” which required only the change of one letter of similar sound in the Hebrew word here. This was, no doubt,. the reading of the original text, as the young men seem included among the sons in 1 Samuel 8:11, and oxen... [ Continue Reading ]
AND YE SHALL BE HIS SERVANTS. — This statement generally includes all that has gone before. In other words, “Ye elders and chiefs of the people must make up your minds, in the event of electing a king, to the loss of all political and social freedom.” How bitterly the nation, even in the successful... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD WILL NOT HEAR YOU IN THAT DAY. — After the separation of the north and the south, when King Solomon was dead, a large proportion of the northern sovereigns — or kings, as they were called, of “Israel,” in distinction to the southern monarchs, the kings of “Judah” — fulfilled in their lives... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PEOPLE REFUSED. — The warning words of the prophet-judge were evidently carefully considered and debated in a formal assembly, but the majority at least abided by the terms of their request.... [ Continue Reading ]
LIKE ALL THE NATIONS. — There is something strangely painful in these terms with which the elders urged their request — the wish “to be like other nations” seems to have been very strong with them. They forgot, or chose to ignore, the solitary position of lofty pre-eminence God had given them among... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE EARS OF THE LORD. — Again the seer returns from the council chamber, where he had met the elders of the people, to some quiet spot, probably the sanctuary he had set up in his own “Ramah of the Watchers,” where he poured out his heart before his God-Friend.... [ Continue Reading ]
HEARKEN UNTO THEIR VOICE. — And for the third time (see 1 Samuel 8:7; 1 Samuel 8:9) the voice of the Eternal, which Samuel the seer knew so well, used the same expression, bidding the reluctant and indignant old man comply with the request of the people. God had allowed His servant to remonstrate, w... [ Continue Reading ]