The People Demand a King

When Samuel the prophet had arranged the people’s affairs in good order, he assigned them a city, and commanded them to gather there to have the disputes they had with one another decided. He himself went round the cities year by year and did them justice, and by this means he kept them in very good order for a long time. [a]

But later, weighed down with old age and no longer able to do what he used to, he handed over the government and the care of the people to his sons. The elder was called Joel and the younger Abijah. He told them to live in and judge the people, one at the city of Bethel and the other at Beersheba, and he divided the people into districts to be under the jurisdiction of each. These men give us a clear example and proof that some children are not of the same character as their parents. Sometimes they are good and moderate, though born of wicked parents; sometimes they show themselves wicked, though born of good parents. For these men turned aside from their father’s good ways and took a course contrary to them. They perverted justice for the shameful profit of gifts and bribes, made their judgments not according to the truth but according to bribery, and turned to luxury and an expensive way of living. So, first, they did what was contrary to the will of God, and second, what was contrary to the will of the prophet their father, who had taken a great deal of care and made very careful provision that the people should be righteous. [b]

But the people were very uneasy at the injuries the prophet’s sons were doing to their former constitution and government. They came running to the prophet, who was then living at the city of Ramah, and told him of his sons’ misdeeds. They said that since he was already old, and too weak with age to oversee their affairs as he used to, they begged and pleaded with him to appoint someone as king over them, who would rule the nation and avenge them on the Philistines, who still owed punishment for their past oppression. These words deeply distressed Samuel, because of his inborn love of justice and his hatred of kingly government; for he was deeply attached to aristocracy, as a divine form of government that made those who lived under it happy. He could not think of eating or sleeping for the worry and torment of mind their words caused him, but lay awake all night long turning these thoughts over. [c] While he was in this state, God appeared to him and comforted him. He told him that he ought not to be troubled at what the people wanted, because it was not Samuel but God himself whom they so insolently despised, refusing to have him alone as their king. They had been scheming this from the very day he brought them out of Egypt. Before long, however, they would bitterly regret what they had done, though their regret could not undo what had been done for the future; and they would be rebuked enough for their contempt and for the ungrateful way they had treated him and Samuel’s office as prophet. “So I command you to appoint as their king the man I will name to you beforehand, once you have first described what evils kingly government will bring on them, and have openly warned them what a great change in their affairs they are rushing into.”

When Samuel had heard this, he called the Jews together early in the morning and admitted to them that he was to appoint them a king. But he said he must first describe what would follow: what treatment they would receive from their kings, and how many evils they would have to struggle with. “Know this,” he said, “first of all, they will take your sons away from you. They will order some of them to drive their chariots, some to be their horsemen and bodyguards, others to run before them, and to be commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds. They will make them their craftsmen, makers of armor, of chariots, and of equipment. They will make them their farmers too, the keepers of their fields and the diggers of their vineyards. There will be nothing they will not do at the kings’ command, as if they were slaves bought with money. They will set your daughters to be perfumers, cooks and bakers, and these will be forced to do every kind of work that slave women do who live in fear of whips and torture. Besides this, they will take your property and give it to their eunuchs and bodyguards, and give your herds of cattle to their own servants. In short, you and everything you have will be servants to your king, and you will be no better off than his slaves. And when you suffer these things, you will remember what I am telling you now. When you regret what you have done, you will beg God to have mercy on you and give you a quick deliverance from your kings. But he will not accept your prayers. He will disregard you and let you suffer the punishment your wrongdoing deserves.” [d]

But the people were still foolish enough to turn a deaf ear to these predictions of what would happen to them, and too stubborn to let a decision they had once rashly made be taken out of their minds. They could not be turned from their purpose, and paid no attention to Samuel’s words, but insisted absolutely on their resolve. They wanted him to appoint them a king at once and not trouble himself with fears of what might happen later. They had to have someone with them to fight their battles and avenge them on their enemies, they said, and it was not at all unreasonable, when their neighbors lived under kings, that they should have the same form of government. So when Samuel saw that his words had not turned them from their purpose, and that they remained determined, he said, “Go home, every one of you, for now. When the time is right, I will send for you, as soon as I have learned from God whom he will give you as your king.”