8 As they have done from the first, from the day when I took them out of Egypt till this day, turning away from me and worshipping other gods, so now they are acting in the same way to you. 9 Give ear now to their voice: but make a serious protest to them, and give them a picture of the sort of king who will be their ruler. 10 And Samuel said all these words of the Lord to the people who were desiring a king. 11 And he said, This is the sort of king who will be your ruler: he will take your sons and make them his servants, his horsemen, and drivers of his war-carriages, and they will go running before his war-carriages; 12 And he will make them captains of thousands and of fifties; some he will put to work ploughing and cutting his grain and making his instruments of war and building his war-carriages. 13 Your daughters he will take to be makers of perfumes and cooks and bread-makers. 14 He will take your fields and your vine-gardens and your olive-gardens, all the best of them, and give them to his servants. 15 He will take a tenth of your seed and of the fruit of your vines and give it to his servants. 16 He will take your men-servants and your servant-girls, and the best of your oxen and your asses and put them to his work. 17 He will take a tenth of your sheep: and you will be his servants. 18 Then you will be crying out because of your king whom you have taken for yourselves; but the Lord will not give you an answer in that day. 19 But the people gave no attention to the voice of Samuel; and they said, No, but we will have a king over us, 20 So that we may be like the other nations, and so that our king may be our judge and go out before us to war. 21 Then Samuel, after hearing all the people had to say, went and gave an account of it to the Lord. 22 And the Lord said to Samuel, Give ear to their voice and make a king for them. Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, Let every man go back to his town.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 1 Samuel 8:8-22
Commentary on 1 Samuel 8:4-9
(Read 1 Samuel 8:4-9)
Samuel was displeased; he could patiently bear what reflected on himself, and his own family; but it displeased him when they said, Give us a king to judge us, because that reflected upon God. It drove him to his knees. When any thing disturbs us, it is our interest, as well as our duty, to show our trouble before God. Samuel is to tell them that they shall have a king. Not that God was pleased with their request, but as sometimes he opposes us from loving-kindness, so at other times he gratifies us in wrath; he did so here. God knows how to bring glory to himself, and serves his own wise purposes, even by men's foolish counsels.
Commentary on 1 Samuel 8:10-22
(Read 1 Samuel 8:10-22)
If they would have a king to rule them, as the eastern kings ruled their subjects, they would find the yoke exceedingly heavy. Those that submit to the government of the world and the flesh, are told plainly, what hard masters they are, and what tyranny the dominion of sin is. The law of God and the manner of men widely differ from each other; the former should be our rule in the several relations of life; the latter should be the measure of our expectations from others. These would be their grievances, and, when they complained to God, he would not hear them. When we bring ourselves into distress by our own wrong desires and projects, we justly forfeit the comfort of prayer, and the benefit of Divine aid. The people were obstinate and urgent in their demand. Sudden resolves and hasty desires make work for long and leisurely repentance. Our wisdom is, to be thankful for the advantages, and patient under the disadvantages of the government we may live under; and to pray continually for our rulers, that they may govern us in the fear of God, and that we may live under them in all godliness and honesty. And it is a hopeful symptom when our desires of worldly objects can brook delay; and when we can refer the time and manner of their being granted to God's providence.