What does 1 Samuel 8:14 mean?
Here continues Samuel's warning about what a human king would do when given absolute authority in the land (1 Samuel 8:4–5). Having already described how a king would conscript the children of his citizens in order to put them to work in the service of his own household and military (1 Samuel 8:11–13), Samuel now describes the way kings confiscate private property for their own purposes.The very specific example in this verse has to do with a king taking the best privately-owned fields, vineyards, and olive orchards away from private citizens to give them to his own high-ranking officials. A king might do this to keep his advisors and officials loyal to him and to reward them for faithful service to him. Of course, that means depriving others of their property and their freedoms.