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1 Samuel 8 · a question people ask

Was "the way of the king" a law giving a king these rights?

In the text

The chapter doesn't call it a law. The LORD tells Samuel, "you shall protest solemnly to them, and shall show them the way of the king who will reign over them" (8:9), and Samuel's words are all about what is to come: "This will be the way of the king who shall reign over you: he will take your sons" (8:11). In Hebrew way here is mishpat, a word Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "judgment", with senses that include "custom, manner"; it is "justice" in "perverted justice" (8:3). Moses' law for a king says what he must not gather and what he must do: "he shall not multiply horses to himself" (Deuteronomy 17:16), and "he shall write himself a copy of this law in a book" (Deuteronomy 17:18). After Saul is chosen, "Samuel told the people the regulations of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book and laid it up before the LORD" (10:25). Regulations there is mishpat too, with the word for kingdom after it instead of king. The book doesn't say what was written.

The verses

“His sons didn’t walk in his ways, but turned away after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.”
1 Samuel 8:3 · World English Bible
“Now therefore, listen to their voice. However, you shall protest solemnly to them, and shall show them the way of the king who will reign over them.””
1 Samuel 8:9 · World English Bible
“He said, “This will be the way of the king who shall reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them as his servants, for his chariots and to be his horsemen; and they will run before his chariots.”
1 Samuel 8:11 · World English Bible
“Then Samuel told the people the regulations of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book and laid it up before the LORD. Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house.”
1 Samuel 10:25 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 1 Samuel 8

1 Samuel 8: 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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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