1 Samuel 8:5

And said unto him, behold, thou art old,.... See 1 Samuel 8:1, his age was no reproach to him, nor was it becoming them to upbraid him with it; nor was it a reason why he should be removed from his

And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. No JFB commentary on this verse.

They feared that Samuel would not live long; and that either he through infirmity and indulgence might leave the government in his sons’ hands, or that they would invade and keep it after their father’ s death; and therefore they jointly make their complaints against them, and procure their removal from their places. Thus they are brought low, and crushed by those very wicked ways by which they desired to advance and establish themselves. So true is it, that honesty is the best policy, and unrighteousness the greatest folly. Make us a king to judge us: their conclusion outruns their premises, and their desires exceed their reasons or arguments, which extended no further than to the removal of Samuel’ s sons from their places, and the procuring some other just and prudent assistance to Samuel’ s age. Nor was the grant of their desire a remedy for their disease, but rather an aggravation of it; for the sons of their king might and were likely to be as corrupt as Samuel’ s sons; and if they were, would not be so easily removed as these were. Like all the nations, i.e. as most of the nations about us have. But there was not the like reason, because God had separated them from all other nations, and cautioned them against the imitation of their examples, and had taken them into his own immediate care and government; which privilege other nations had not.

1 Samuel 8:5 And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.Ver. 5. Behold, thou art old.] But what of that? was he therefore to be cast off as a Depontanus, a dotard? Or were they weary of receiving so many benefits by one man? But this is Merces mundi. Samuel was not so old but he could do his office, and did for many years after: but they had the itch of innovation, and would needs be of the mode of other nations. And besides all this, there was another pad lay in the straw, and that was the fear of Nahash, king of Ammon, who was now making great preparations against them. See 1 Samuel 12:12. And hence this headlong and preposterous desire of theirs to change their aristocracy, or rather theocracy, as Josephus calleth it, into a monarchy: a king they would have upon any terms. And thy sons walk not in thy ways.] But might they not have amended by wholesome admonition? or better judges have been set in their room? Must they needs be exauthorated, and the government altered? Now make us a king to judge us.] Ut iudicet seu vindicet nos. But were they sure that their king would prove any better than Samuel’ s sons had been? And was it so long since they had suffered deeply in Abimelech their king, set up by some of them to their cost? But these men are set upon it, being pricked forward by that unruly evil, ambition, that rideth without reins; they are stiffly resolved contra gentes, to have an absolute, constant, powerful, and pompous king as other nations had, though their condition were far unlike. Planeque non sine exemplo amentiae, praeoptabant libertatem servitio mutare, saith Sulpitius, i.e., so madly bent were they to change their liberty for slavery. Sacr. Hist., lib. i.

(5) 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 the surrounding hostile nations; secondly, the degeneracy of his sons, who, placed by their father in positions of great trust, naturally looked to succeed him in his high dignity. They felt that the cares and duties of government were too weighty for Samuel, now growing old; and the men who through their kinship to him would naturally succeed him were utterly unfit for his office. The prospect before them was, they felt, a gloomy one. The Philistine power, too, was becoming daily greater in the south. But what confidence must this assembly of elders have reposed in their aged judge to have used such a plea—his own growing infirmity and the unworthiness of his own sons, whom he had himself appointed to high offices! The elders of the people knew Samuel, the man of God, would do what was right and just—would give them the wisest counsel, utterly regardless of any private interest or feeling. The result justified their perfect confidence.

Verse 5. Make us a king] Hitherto, from the time in which they were a people, the Israelites were under a theocracy, 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.

5. make us a king] Lit. set, i.e. appoint, the same word as in the corresponding passage, Deuteronomy 17:14. like all the nations] i.e. as all the surrounding nations have kings.

5. Make us a king — What higher tribute of esteem and confidence could a people show their governor than to submit entirely to his hands the reorganization of their government, and the selection and appointment of a king?