The Historical Books

THE HISTORICAL BOOKS

1st & 2nd SAMUEL

LESSON TWO

I Samuel 8:1-2 Samuel 1:27KING SAUL

B-1OI Sam. 8:1-12:25Choice of Saul

PI Sam. 13:1-15:35Provocation of SaulRejection threatened.

OI Sam. 16:1-27:4Choice of David.

PI Sam. 27:5-2 Sam. 1:27Provocation of SaulRejection carried out.

8:1-12:25(O, above).CHOICE OF SAUL

OQ8:1-10:26Settlement of Kingdom.

R10:27Men of Belial

S11:1-11Aggression of Nahas

R11:12,13Men of Belial

Q11:14-12:25Inauguration of Kingdom

8:1-10:26(Q, above)SETTLEMENT OF SAUL’S KINGDOM

QT8:1-22-King desired.

U8:-22Dismissal of People to cities.

T9:1-10:25-King given.

U10:-25,26Dismissal of People to homes.

8:1-22-(T, above)KING DESIRED

TLN8:1-5Desire expressed.

A8:6-9-Compliance.

B8:-9Warning.(General)

B8:10-18Warning.(Particular)

LN8:19,20Desire persisted in.

A8:21,22-Compliance.

1 Samuel 8:1-22

8:1 Israel Demands a King

Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. 3 But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice. 4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, 5 and said to him, "Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations."

6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." So Samuel prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD said to Samuel, "Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. 8 According to all the works, which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day — with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods — so they are doing to you also.

9Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them." 10 So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who asked him for a king.

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11And he said,"This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. 12 He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. 14 And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants. 16 And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants. 18 And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, andthe LORD will not hear you in that day."

19 Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, "No, but we will have a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles." 21 And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the hearing of the LORD. 22 So the LORD said to Samuel,"Heed their voice, and make them a king."And Samuel said to the men of Israel, "Every man goes to his city." NKJV

8:1-22

The Request for a King

8:2 role of Samuel's sons

(1)Samuel was "judging" on the circuit mentioned in 7:16.

(2)This was not the sort of judging he had been involved in earlier in the chapter (7:6) but would have involved giving decisions concerning disputes among the people (see comments on Exodus 18:13-27 and Deuteronomy 16:18-20).

(3)Samuel's sons were serving this type of function, not the delivering type of judges found in the book of Judges.

(4)Their territory was very remote (see next comment), rather than central as Samuel's had been.

(IVP Bible Background Commentary)

8:2. Beersheba. Beersheba is located at the southern extremity of the land in the northern Negev at Tell es-Seba' (three miles east of the modern city). Archaeological finds from this period suggest that the site was in transition from being a temporary to a permanent settlement. Some of the first houses were just being built. The population would have been less than two hundred. Therefore this was a very minor appointment.

Note: God gets His way in the end.

God was their ONLY King in the beginning.
Israel wanted to be like the other nations, so they replaced God with a man.
In Revelation we find that the King of Kings will again reign over Israel forever.

Paul the Learner

8:1 old. From 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 was eighty-six; reached 98 years.

The Companion Bible

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[General Information - 8:1-22: The request for a king]. This narrative is concerned with the advantages and disadvantages of the monarchy. The people desire a strong, centralized government, whereas Samuel warns against the king’s violation of individual rights and liberty. God, though disapproving, yields to the wish of the people.

The first part of the narrative recounts the people’s request, Samuel’s appeal to God, and God’s reply;
The central part contains the “king’s practice;”
And the last part again tells of the people’s request, Samuel’s appeal to God and God’s reply.

[Jewish Study Bible]

8:1-3: Background information regarding the people’s request. Like Eli, Samuel is old and his sons are corrupt and unworthy to succeed him. [Jewish Study Bible]

8:5: C.f. Deuteronomy 17:14. In both places it is the example of the nations that appeals to the people.

[Jewish Study Bible]

1 Samuel 8:6

8:6 kingship in the ancient Near East.

The kings of the ancient world enjoyed nearly limitless power and authority, and regularly claimed divine support for their rule.
Kingship was believed to have been lowered from heaven and to have its roots in the original creation and organization of the world.
The king functioned as vice-regent for the divine ruler, and it was his duty to preserve orderand justice in society.
He was entrusted with a divine stewardship over the people and the land.
Kings were often considered to possess a divine office while they lived (understood differently in the various times and cultures) and to become gods when they died.
Justice and law came from them.
They often had priestly duties and were depicted as shepherds.
The maintenance of the temples and provisions for them was an important obligation of the king.
Throughout the ancient Near East kings were military leaders.
They brought protection or deliverance for their people as well as acquiring other lands.
These conquests brought access to additional natural resources and trade routes, as well as bringing plunder into the royal coffers and slave labor into the kingdom.
Both of these would reduce the burden on the population of the country. (IVP Commentary)

8:6 what the leaders want.

The leaders of Israel have decided that they want a permanent head of government empowered with centralized authority over the tribes and commanding a standing army.
They have concluded that their organization as a federation of tribes has put them at a military disadvantage.
They believe that a king with a trained standing army at his command will level the playing field and enable them to successfully defend their land.
They have been mistaken in assessing their problem as a political problem and consequently opting for a political solution.
What Samuel seeks to clarify for them is that their problem isnot political but spiritual.
Their political solution will solve nothing unless it is accompanied by a spiritual solution. (IVP)

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1 Samuel 8:7

8:7 divine king versus human king.

In Israel's tribal structure there had been no provision made for a human centralized authority.
Moses had provided prophetic authority and Joshua had been granted military authority, but no one had succeeded Joshua in such a position.
Moses had been understood to be the intermediary, giving God's instructions as God led the people.
Likewise, as the book of Joshua repeatedly indicates, Joshua was subordinate to God's commander (Joshua 5:13-15), and the victories were the Lord's victories.
Each tribe had its leadership, but central authority belonged to the Lord and was his to give.
The judges were those whom the Lord raised up and endowed with a recognized central authority (see comment on Judges 2:16-19).
The fact that God was seen as raising up military leaders and that God was the one who brought the victories demonstrates that God was the one who was the king leading out the armies in battle.
Victory in battle was assured if the Lord was pleased with Israel.
By making their request, the leaders are implying that God has been less than successful in bringing victory and that somehow a king will do a better job. (IVP Bible Commentary)

8:7: God’s kingship is presumed to be conflicting with human kingship. For God’s kingship, (see Exodus 15:18; Judges 8:23). [Jewish Study Bible]

8:8: Just as the people were always ungrateful to God, so they are now to Samuel. [Jewish Study Bible]

1 Samuel 8:1-5

The monarchy of Saul from his election till his ultimate rejection chapters 8-15.

The earthly monarchy in Israel was established in the time of Samuel, and through his mediation. At the pressing desire of the people, Samuel installed the Benjaminite Saul as king, according to the command of God. The reign of Saul may be divided into two essentially different periods:

(1)The establishment and vigorous development of his regal supremacy (chapters 8-15);

(2)The decline and gradual overthrow of his monarchy (chapters 16-31).

The establishment of the monarchy is introduced by the negotiations of the elders of Israel with Samuel concerning the appointment of a king (chapter 8). This is followed by:

The account of the anointing of Saul as king (1 Samuel 9:1-10:16), of his election by lot, and of his victory over the Ammonites and the confirmation of his monarchyat Gilgal (1 Samuel 10:17-11:15), together with Samuel's final address to the nation (chapter 12);
The history of Saul's reign, of which only his earliest victories over the Philistines are given at all elaborately (1 Samuel 13:1-14:46), his other wars and family history being disposed of very summarily (1 Samuel 14:47-52);
The account of his disobedience to the command of God in the war against the Amalekites, and the rejection on the part of God with which Samuel threatened him in consequence (chapter 15). The brevity, with which the history of his actual reign is treated, in contrast with the elaborate account of his election and confirmation as king, may be accounted for from the significance and importance of Saul's monarchy in relation to the kingdom of God in Israel.

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8:1-5

(A)The people of Israel traced the cause of the oppression and distress, from which they had suffered more and more in the time of the judges, to the defects of their own political constitution.

(B)They wished to have aking, like all the heathen nations, to conduct there wars and conquer their enemies.

(C)Now, although the desire to be ruled by a king, which had existed in the nation even from the time of Gideon, was not in itself at variance with the appointment of Israel as a kingdom of God.

(D)Yetthe motive which led the people to desire it was both wrong and hostile to God, since the source of all the evils and misfortunes from which Israel suffered was to be found in the apostasy of the nation from its God, and its coquetting with the gods of the heathen.

(E)Consequently their self-willed obstinacy in demanding a king, notwithstanding the warnings of Samuel, was an actual rejection of the sovereignty of Jehovah,

(F)Since He had always manifested himself to His people as their king by delivering them out of the power of their foes, as soon as they returned to Him with simple penitence of heart.

(G)Samuel pointed this out to the elders of Israel, when they lay their petition before him that he would choose them a king.

(H)But Jehovah fulfilled their desires.

(I)He directed Samuel to appoint them a king, who possessed all the qualifications that were necessary to secure for the nation what it looked for from a king,

(J)And who therefore might have established the monarchy in Israel as foreseen and foretold by Jehovah, if he had not presumed upon his own power, but had submitted humbly to the will of God as made known to him by the prophet.

Saul, who was chosen from Benjamin, the smallest but yet the most warlike of all the tribes, a man in the full vigor of youth, and surpassing all the rest of the people in beauty of form as well as bodily strength, not only possessed "warlike bravery and talent, unbroken courage that could overcome opposition of every kind, a steadfast desire for the well-being of the nation in the face of its many and mighty foes, and zeal and pertinacity in the execution of his plans" (Ewald), but also a pious heart, and an earnest zeal for the maintenance of the provisions of the law, and the promotion of the religious life of the nation.

1 Samuel 8:1

[When Samuel was old] Supposed to be about sixty.

[He made his sons judges] He appointed them as his lieutenants to superintend certain affairs in Beer-sheba, which he could not conveniently attend to himself. But they were never judges in the proper sense of the word; Samuel was the last judge in Israel, and he judged it to the day of his death. See <1 Samuel 7:15Adam Clarke

1 Samuel 8:3

[His sons walked not in his ways] Their iniquity is pointed out in three words:

They turned aside after money; the original baatsa` (OT 1215) 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 lookedaftermamon dishkar, the mammon of unrighteousness;" of which they did not make unto themselves friends but enemies; see the note at <Matthew 6:24

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8:3

2. They took bribes; shochad (OT 7810), gifts or presents, to blind their eyes.

3. They perverted judgment-- they turned judgment aside; they put it out of its regular path; they sold it to the highest bidder: thus, the wicked rich man had his cause, and the poor man was oppressed and deprived of his right.Adam Clarke Commentary

8:5 make us a king. Note the words “gave judges” and “desired a king.” So the Hebrew monarchy began with the choosing of Saul as king, and it ended with the nation of Israel choosing for their king Caesar of Rome. Thus ended the king of Israel until Yeshua [Jesus] comes back to rule and reign as their King and Savior. Compare Hosea 13:10, 11 and Acts 13:20, 21. Paul the Learner

1 Samuel 8:5

[Make us a king] Hitherto, from the time in which they were a people, the Israelites were under atheocracy, they had no other king but GOD. Now they desire to have a king like the other nations around them, who may be their general in battle; for this is the point at which they principally aim.

Adam Clarke

Note: at this time in history, the Nation of Israel committed two evils:

(1)Them choosing a king and not waiting for God’s time;

(2) And not waiting for God’s king David of Bethlehem as God had promised Genesis 17:6, 16; 35:11; 49:10; Numbers 24:17; Deuteronomy 17:14-20. Paul the Learner

1 Samuel 8:6

[The thing displeased Samuel] Because he saw that this amounted to a formal renunciation of the divine government.

[Samuel prayed unto the Lord] He begged to know his mind in this important business.

Adam Clarke