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1 Samuel 8 Bible study: Like all the nations
The elders asked for a king in words from Moses' law for a king, "like all the nations" (8:5). The LORD called it a rejection of himself as king, and still told Samuel to listen to their voice (8:7, 8:22). And Samuel's warning ends with "your king whom you will have chosen for yourselves" (8:18), where the law had said "him whom the LORD your God chooses" (Deuteronomy 17:15).
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“The LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they tell you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me as the king over them.”
Try it · Did you catch it?
“The LORD said the people had rejected him as king, and in the same breath told Samuel to listen to their voice.”
Is that in 1 Samuel 8, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
His sons didn't walk in his ways
"When Samuel was old, he made his sons judges over Israel" (8:1). "Now the name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba" (8:2), the town at the southern end of "from Dan even to Beersheba" (3:20). Samuel's own circuit had been Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpah, with his house at Ramah (7:16-17). One verse gives three charges against the sons: they "turned away after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice" (8:3) (tap dishonest gain and bribes). The Law had forbidden two of them, in the same Hebrew words: "You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe" (Deuteronomy 16:19). The elders say it to Samuel plainly: "your sons don’t walk in your ways" (8:5).
Where it leads to Jesus
Not wanting him to reign
1 Samuel 8:7leads toLuke 19:14
The LORD told Samuel, "they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me as the king over them" (8:7). Near Jerusalem, Jesus told a parable of "A certain nobleman" who "went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return" (Luke 19:12). "But his citizens hated him, and sent an envoy after him, saying, ‘We don’t want this man to reign over us.’" (Luke 19:14). The parable doesn't quote or name 1 Samuel 8, and no New Testament verse links the two, so setting them side by side is a reading. Some hear the same refusal in both, a people who don't want their king to reign over them, and read the nobleman who receives a kingdom as Jesus himself, who after telling it "went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem" (Luke 19:28). Others read each in its own setting: in 1 Samuel the people ask for a king and the LORD gives them one (8:22), while Jesus told the parable "because he was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that God’s Kingdom would be revealed immediately" (Luke 19:11).
Honest questions
Questions people ask about 1 Samuel 8
That was a taste
The rest of 1 Samuel 8 is waiting in Favor
- "Like all the nations"
- "They have rejected me"
- "He will take"
- Two customs of taking
- Kings promised, and a king made
- "Fight our battles"
- 9 questions as you read
- 11 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach 1 Samuel 8 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
מֶלֶךְmelekhsay MEH-lekh
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "king". Strong's: "a king", and "from 4427", the verb malakh (tap reign). In 1 Samuel it comes once before this chapter, in Hannah's prayer: "He will give strength to his king" (2:10). Here it comes in nine verses, from the elders' "make us a king" (8:5) to the LORD's "make them a king" (8:22). Moses used it for the same request: "I will set a king over me" (Deuteronomy 17:14). Samuel later reminds the people that they asked "when the LORD your God was your king" (12:12).
For your group
1 Samuel 8 Bible study questions
- 1The elders wanted a king "like all the nations" (8:5), and the people said it again: "that we also may be like all the nations" (8:20). Where do you feel the pull to be like everyone around you, and what does it cost?
- 2They wanted a king to "go out before us, and fight our battles" (8:20). What battles in your life are you tempted to hand to someone or something other than God?
- 3Samuel told them what the king would take (8:11-17), and they still said, "No, but we will have a king over us" (8:19). Have you ever wanted something badly enough to set aside a clear warning? What happened?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads 1 Samuel 8 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home