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1 Samuel 12 · a question people ask

Chapter 8 gives one reason for asking for a king, and chapter 12 names another moment. Which was it?

In the text

In chapter 8 the elders came to Samuel at Ramah (8:4) and said, "Behold, you are old, and your sons don’t walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations" (8:5). When Samuel warned them, the people said, "No, but we will have a king over us" (8:19), "that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles" (8:20). In chapter 12 Samuel says, "When you saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ when the LORD your God was your king" (12:12). The book tells of Nahash coming up against Jabesh Gilead (11:1) after Saul had been chosen at Mizpah (10:24). It doesn't say when Israel first saw Nahash coming, and it doesn't set 8:5 and 12:12 side by side or explain how they fit together.

The verses

“Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel to Ramah. They said to him, “Behold, you are old, and your sons don’t walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.””
1 Samuel 8:4-5 · World English Bible
“But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No, but we will have a king over us, 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.””
1 Samuel 8:19-20 · World English Bible
““When you saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ when the LORD your God was your king.”
1 Samuel 12:12 · World English Bible
“Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see him whom the LORD has chosen, that there is no one like him among all the people?” All the people shouted and said, “Long live the king!””
1 Samuel 10:24 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 1 Samuel 12

1 Samuel 12: Whose ox have I taken?

In Hebrew the thunder the LORD sent at wheat harvest is the plural of qol, the word for voice. Samuel began by saying he had listened to the people's voice (12:1), set before them the LORD's voice (12:14-15), and then the thunder came, with rain (12:18).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions