1 Samuel 8

wont to detract from the sacred history, it may befit to observe, (to use the words of Hermannus Conringius, in his animadversions on Machiavel’s Princeps, cap. 6.) that the demons, who were worshipped asgods by the gentiles, attempted to imitate this, by setting up a like government. So that memorable history of the original of the commonwealth of the Cyrenianain Egypt, mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Pausanias, Justin, and others; and that history of the beginning of Heraclca in Pontus, which Justin relates, lib. xvi. cap. 3. For this republic being raised by the express command of demons, was, upon that account, they say, exceeding flourishing. No less memorable is the* republic of the Mexicans in America, erected by the command of their demon Vitzipullzi: who, above all others, endeavoured to imitate the miracles wrought by God for the Israelites. Many others, ho there shdws, pretended to this: though all was transacted by themselves. Corinth, is observed by Aristotle to have exacted no more of his subjects than the tenth of their fruits. Such capitations and taxes, as Bodinus speaks, (lib. vi. de Republ. cap. 2.) which are usual now, being unknown in those days. And give to Ins officers, and to his servants.] This revenue being brought into his exchequer, he therewith paid his bedchamber-men, and other servants, their salaries. 1 call them bedchamber-mm, because the Hebrew word (which we translate officers) signifies -eunuchs (as the LXX. here translate it), who commonly attended them in their chambers. And it was the more grievous to have such men maintained out of this revenue, because they were strangers: for it was not lawful for the Jews to make any of their nation an eunuch. This revenue itself also proved a heavy burden upon the Jews, because this tenth part was exacted out of the remainder, after the tenth part had been paid to the Levites, as Kimchi and Abarbinel observe. Ver.lG. And he will.take your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and your goodliest young men.] The most beautiful and proper persons he could find. - And your asses, and put them to his work J] Either at the plough, or for carriage, or any other employment wherein they were necessary.

1 Samuel 8:1

JjLND it came to pass, when Samuel was old. The Jews in Seder Olam Rabba, and other books, make 2K itized by Microsoft ® A COMMENTARY UPON [chap. VIII. Samuel to have lived no more than fifty-two years; when he could not be said to be old. Therefore Aharbinel forsakes the doctors in this, and shews their proofs of it to be very weak; and thinks that he rather lived until he was seventy, if not eighty years old. But less than seventy, he affirms, none of the prophets or good men lived. That he made his sons judges over Israel.] When he could not well sustain all the labour, he took them to assist him: both when he went his circuit, and in hearing causes at home; Or, perhaps, when he was old, he went circuit no more; but settled them in a convenient place (as it follows in tho next verse) where people might have justice done them, either by him or by them.

1 Samuel 8:2

Noiv the name of his first-born ivas Joel, and the name of his second Abijah; they tvere jutlges in Beer-sheba. As his constant residence was at Ramah, so he ordered theirs to be at Beer-shcba. Whereby, as Corn. Bertram observes, (cap. 9. de Itepub. Jud.) the country was divided into two parts, for the greater convenience of the people; that the causes of nil.those who dwelt between Dan and Mount Ephraim, might be brought to be judged by Samuel at Ramah; and the causes of those between Mount Ephraim and Beer-sheba, might be judged by his sons.

1 Samuel 8:3

And his sons walked not in his icays, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment. Covetousness made them take bribes, (contrary to the law, Exod. xviii. 8.) and they made them pervert judgment, (See Exod. xxiii.21. Deut. xvi. 19.) Procopius Gazaeus here asks this question: Why God did not punish Samuel as he did Eli, for the wickedness of his sons? Unto which he answers, that Samuel’s sons were not so bad as Eli’s: for taking bribes privately, was not like open profaning the tabernacle, and making the worship of God contemptible. And, besides, it is possible Samuel might be ignorant of this corruption in his sons: who did not live near him, but he in Ramah, and they at Bcer-sheba.

1 Samuel 8:4

And all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah. AH the great men who were dissatisfied with the management of affairs came to Ramah: which was one of the places where Samuel judged the people, and determined their controversies, (vii. And they said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons tvalk not in thy ways: make 21s a king to judge us like j all the nations.] The weakness of Samuels body, and the •ill disposition of his sons’ minds, they make their pretence of demanding what they had long desired to have. The Gemara of the Sanhedrin, cap. 2. sect. 6. according to the \ tradition of R. Eliezer, saith, the elders were in the right:m desiring a king to judge them: for, according to the ppii nion of some of their doctors, this was one of the three things God commanded to be done, when they came into Canaan, that they should make them a king. The only error was, which arose, they say, from the perverseness of the vulgar people, that they desired a king like all the nations/ Put these arc mere fancies; for God gave no j such command, as their best authors,.Bechai, Nachman, I Ralbag, and others, acknowledge. But their own pride and vanity suggested these desires to them, that they might not’ want that outward pomp and show which was among their neighbours. Fear also of ajpotent enemy, who was about to invade them, might make them think a king necessary to lead them on successfully to encounter him, (ver. 20. and xii. 12.) But above all, this proceeded from their insensibility of the great honour they enjoyed above all mankind, in being under the peculiar government of God: for whom they had so little regard, that he saith, (ver. 7.) they despised him; that is, made nothing of such a King as they could not see. But that ho had the supreme power over them was apparent, in that when they prayed Samuel to make them a king, immediately he prayed to God; shewing it was not in his power to do it> but in God alone. Ver. G. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord.] To give him direction \vhat to do in this case: but thus far ttyc elders were in the right, that they camo to the prophet to ask a king: for none, as I said, conld make one, but the Lord alone, who w T as their sovereign.

1 Samuel 8:7

And the Lord said, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee. These are the words of an angry sovereign, (Hos. xiii. 11.) being as much as to say, Let them have their will. Which he indulged to them, partly to punish them, and partly to preserve them from apostacy from their religion. For being as violently set upon having a king, after tho manner of the Egyptians, as they had been to follow their gods, they might have thrown off the law itself, and conformed entirely to the customs of other nations, if they had not been humoured: for they were so set upon it, as appears from ver. 19. that after the prophet had represented to them, how much they would lose by having their desires.granted, they persisted in them, saying, " Nay, but we will have a king," &c. Which expresses a resolution to have one whatsoever became of them. For they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.] These words shew that Samuel took it very heavily, that they should be dissatisfied with his government: but God tells him, ho himself had more reason to be angry:. for, in truth, they had thrown off his authority, who was their king: (as Samuel tells them afterward, xii. 12.) and therefore was highly offended they should desire any other. Which the Jewish doctors abovementioned (ver. 5.) justly make an argument that God did not command them in the book of Deuteronomy to make them a king; because ho was displeased when they desired to have one. For the supreme Lord of the world was their sovereign; who governed them by judges, whom he raised up and extraordinarily inspired, when he saw occasion: as Jie had before conducted them by Joshua and Moses, who never ordained any thing of moment without a special command for it from God: who reserved to himself the sole power of establishing laws, and appointing magistrates, and making war, asappears by the war against the Midianites, Numb.xxxi. For there is no truth in their opinion, who imagine that the government of the Israelites, before they had a king, was an aristocracy. Josephus, indeed, seems to say so, in one or two places of his Antiquities: but, in.his book against Appion (a very learned gentile), wherein he writes most accurately, he makes it a distinct sort of government, different from all other; which he truly calls by a new name, Ofo^arui, the government of Go l <J, (lib.ii.) For God exercised the supreme authority among them, thy his express command. Which being without example, that it may not seem incredible to llio:;e who are

1 Samuel 8:8

According to all the works that they have done, since the day that I brought them out of Egypt unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto the$.] No wonder they desired another sort of ruler than Samuel, for they had chosen other gods. And this bad been their wicked humour ever since they were delivered from the tyranny of Pharaoh.

1 Samuel 8:9

Now therefore hearken unto their voice. Since they had no greater regard unto God and his minister; he resolved to let them exchange his government for such a one as the nations had, who often oppressed them. * Howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them tlie manner of the king that sluill reign over them.] Ho continuing still their king, God was so very gracious as to order Samuel to lay before them at largQ, into what servitude they were going to throw themselves by casting off tho government of judges set over them by Cfod himself; and subjecting themselves to tho powor of such kings a$ ruled in other nations.

1 Samuel 8:10

Arid Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king J. How ill God took it, looking upon it as a rejection of himself; who had hitherto governed them most graciously, and often delivered them from the heaviest oppressions. For he cither stirred up some person, by an immediate signification of his will and pleasure, to be their judge: or, when there was none, he was ready to rule their proceedings himself, by urim and thummim, directing them what course to follow in the public concerns of the nation. These two things plainly demonstrated (as our Mr. Thorndike hath well observed) that God was their king, whom they now cast off. (See Review of the Rites of the Church, p. 68. 133.)

1 Samuel 8:11

And he said, This shall be the manner of the king that shallreign over you. And, moreover, he declared what kind of government they chose instead of God’s, There are various opinions about the jus regium, the royal power, here mentioned. “Which containing divers particulars that seem arbitrary and unjust, interpreters have chosen to expound the Hebrew word mishpat, not by jus, but by mos and consuetudo; that is, not by right, but by manner and custom. And so tho words may be translated, as Joseph Scaliger observed long ago from many instances,(Epist. xv.) particularly Gen, xl. 13. and in this book, xxvii. 11. (Soe Petavius also upon Epiphanius, Haeres.lv. n. 9.) But there is no necessity of thic*, as Grolius rightly observes, and from him Conringius. For Samuel doth pot speak of a just and honest right of a king to* do these things (for his right, is quite otherwise described in that part of Moses’s law which concerns the king’s duty), but such a right as the kipgs of the. nations had then acquired: for they desired such a king as then* neighbours had; whowerq allunder the absolute dominion of thejr princes. Which Aristotle calls, $E<nroTt)ct)v apxoV lib. v. polit. cap, 10. 01 7rcpt 7rjv’Acrtav inroixivovat fuv SeairoTiKrjv apX^ v OvSev, $va)(EpatvQVTte, Tliey of Asia endure a despotic government, nothing at. all complaining. He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself.] To attend him as the guards of his body, and in other offices. This shews that he speaks of an arbitrary power, which kings in those days used. And therefore Abarbinel observes, that Samuel doth not say absolutely, I will shew you, the manner or right of the king (as if it were a right belonging to all kings), but that shall reign over you; that is, of such a king as you desire, who will administer affairs in this fashion. For his chariots, and to be his horsemen,] To look after his chariots and his horses. For so the word paras signifies (as Lud. de Dieu and Bochartus have observed), and* these words should be thus translated, For his chariots and his hor$es. And some shall run before his chariots.] Be his footmen.

1 Samuel 8:12

And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties. Others should be disposed of to military offices, higher or lower, as pleased him, (xiv. 52.) who werq to be perfectly subject to him, and displaced by him when he thought good. And wilt set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest,] Others should be mado husbandmen, to plough his. ground and reap his corn on his own terms; when, perhaps, their labour was necessary about their own fields. And to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.] Others he would mako artificers: which was. not very agreeable to that nation, who were inclined from their beginning rather to look after the breed of cattle.

1 Samuel 8:13

And he will take your daughters to be, confectioners, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. He would exorcise, he shews, as arbitrary power over tho women as over the men; whom he would make to serve in such employ^ ments as he thought fit, either for nothing, or such wages as he pleased to give them.

1 Samuel 8:14

And lie will take your fields, and yonr vineyards, and your olive-yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. Bestow them on such of his courtiers as ho thought good to raise to great estates. Which is not to bo understood as if he should challenge a right to take their lands from them (for the contrary appears from the story of Ahab, who without a very wicked contrivance could not possess himself of Naboth’s vineyard), but that he should take the fruit of them when he thought it necessary, especially in time, of war, to gratify his soldiers. To this case Abarbinel confines the sense of these words.

1 Samuel 8:15

And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards.\ This was part of the jus regium in the eastern countries, (see my notes upon Gen. xxviii, 22.) to have the tenth part of the fruit of tho land for the king’s share: and if they contented themselves with this portion they were accounted good kings. As Cypsclus, king of 2K2

1 Samuel 8:17

And he will take the tenth of your slteep: and ye shall be his servants. So subject to him, that, if he pleased, they should be no better than his slaves. I know none that* hath discoursed this whole matter so perspicuously -and fully, as the late learned Puffcndorf, whose words I shall translate, as 1 find them in his book, De Rebus Gcstis Philippi. This people, saith he, had hitherto lived under governors raised up by Divine instinct, who had exacted no tribute of them, nor put them to any charges. With which government they being not contented,* but desiring to have a king, like other nations, that should live in pomp and splendour, and keep standing forces about him, to be ready to resist any invasion; Samuel informs them what it was they desired, that they might consider, when they understood it, whether they would persist in their choice:- if they would have a king magnificently attended, then he tells them, the king will take their sons, and put them in his chariots, &c. (ver. 11.) If they would have him keep up constant forces, then he must appoint them for colonels and captains, and employ those in his wars who were wont to follow their family business, (ver. 12.) And since, after the manner of other kings, he must keep a stately court, they must be content that their daughters (ver. 13.) should serve in several offices; which the king would think below the dignity of his wives and daughters. Many ministers also in several employments, both in war and-peace, must have salaries to support them; which must be’paid out of their fields and vineyards, (ver. 14.) For which services, he tells them, the king will exact the tenth’ of all belonging to them, that he may maintain his reyal expenses. In one word, if you will have a king, he must be maintained, after a royal manner, out of your estates. *•'

1 Samuel 8:18

And ye shall cry out in that day, because of your king which you fiave chosen. This shews, that, in all the foregoing verses, Samuel describes the uncontrollable power which the eastern princes exercised over their subjects; who were patiently to bear whatsoever their princes imposed upon them, without any power to help themselves. For, as Grotius observes, this misupat doth not signify a true right, but such a fact as hath effectum juris. (the effect of right), viz. an obligation of not resisting:.w T hich is the. reason that Samuel adds these words; that the people,, loaded with intolerable oppressions, should implore the, help of God: because there was no human remedy left for their relief. (See lib. i. de Jure Belli et Pacis, cap. 4. sect. 3.) This plainly confutes the fancy of the Jews con-, cerning their Sanhedrin, and their power to scourge princes:* for, as Samuel consulted nobody in making a king, but God, alone; so, when he was made, he got such a power, that it. is ridiculous to think that high court could control him. And the Lord will not hear you in that day.] But leave them, under this heavy yoke; because. they would not* hearken unto him, when he represented to them what would be the effect of that power which they desired him to set over them..

1 Samuel 8:19

Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel: and they said, Nay; but wezvill have a king over its.* . This description of the government of the eastern kings did not deter them from persisting in their desires. But. they peremptorily demanded a king, though Samuel told them that this demand was a throwing off the government of God. Who always heard their cry, when they were oppressed by their enemies; but now would leave them without any help, -when they groaned under the oppression of. their kings. Which obstinacy, as an excellent person of. ours (Dr. Jackson) speaks, did prognosticate that incurable and desperate disease, which had its fatal crisis in their rejecting Christ: who was both priest and prophet, and their lawful king. In casting off whom they could not butcast off God, that he should not reijgn over them. And so a great admirer of his paraphrascth the seventh verse of this chapter: Let it not grieve thy spirit that they grow, weary of thee: but let them have their will, for so will they serve the Lord and thy Redeemer.

1 Samuel 8:20

That we may be like all other nations. Strange blindness! that they could not see it was their singular, felicity, that they were not like other nations: but had God for their governor, who never failed, in time of need, to raise up men of wonderful worth to be their deliverers.. It was their vain-glorious humour, therefore, that made thorn think they were inferior to other nations, unless they, saw a prince set over them shining in gold. and jewels, living in a sumptuous palace, attended with guards richly clothed, appearing in great pomp and state, as they did in, other countries; which they fancied would be for the glory of their land. To judge us, and go out before usj and fight our battles.] There was anciently a respect to their military. virtue, in the choice of their kings; the very word rex, among the Romans, having its original from their abilities to govern, armies, and keep.them in good order and discipline. Such were all those great men whom God had raised up, as thero was occasion, to judge Israel. Who had been so successful when they fought for them, that they were al- A. ways victorious; which they could not promise themselves their kings would be; the very first of which was slain in battle.

1 Samuel 8:21

And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord. As he had % told all the w T ords of the Lord unto the people, (ver. 10.)