1 Samuel 8:15 - Printer Friendly

ESV: He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants.

NIV: He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.

NASB: And he will take a tenth of your seed and your vineyards and give it to his high officials and his servants.

CSB: He can take a tenth of your grain and your vineyards and give them to his officials and servants.

NLT: He will take a tenth of your grain and your grape harvest and distribute it among his officers and attendants.

KJV: And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.

NKJV: He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants.

At the Lord's direction, Samuel is being as blunt as possible to warn Israel about having a human king (1 Samuel 8:4–5, 9). The problem with kings is that they have nearly absolute power over the citizens they rule. Absolute power nearly always leads to corruption. Centralizing power in human hands may be more "efficient," but it is also ripe for abuse.

In addition to taking some of his citizen's children to be his own servants and taking some of their fields and vineyards to give to his own high-ranking officials (1 Samuel 8:10–14), the king will tax the harvest of his people. Samuel says that he will take a tenth or a "tithe" of the grain and the grapes to give as payment to his servants and officials.

On one hand, this makes some sense to modern readers. We're familiar with government taxing income to function properly—and there are legitimate purposes to human government (Romans 13:1–7). The tax described here seems to be different: the money is going to feed the king's own officials and servants. The tax might not necessarily be meant as compensation for the job those officers and servants are performing for the community. Nor is it apparently for meeting the needs of the community. Whatever the case, for Israelites who had never had a king, it may have been conveniently forgotten that kings could take a share of their harvest whether they liked it or not (Genesis 47:23–26). This would be in addition to the tithes required within the context of the religious rules and commands of the law of Moses.

First Samuel 8:10–18 describes a solemn, legal warning Samuel gives the elders of Israel. He cautions about all the things a human king will take from them. He will take their sons and daughters as his servants, their land for his officials, and a percentage of their crops and flocks. In many ways, Samuel officially warns the Israelites that they will become slaves to their own king. When that happens and they cry out to the Lord, He will not answer them because they will have chosen this for themselves.

Samuel is old, and his sons are corrupt. The elders of Israel gather in Ramah to ask Samuel to appoint a king over them. Samuel resists, but the Lord tells the prophet to do as the people have said after warning them about what a king will take from them. The list includes their children, property, fields, crops, and freedom. The Lord will not save them from their king, Samuel warns. The elders insist they still want a king like all the other nations. The Lord agrees and tells Samuel to provide them one.

First Samuel 8 jumps forward in time perhaps thirty years from the events of the previous chapter. Samuel is now old and his sons, also judges, are corrupt. The elders of Israel gather to ask Samuel to appoint a king for them. Samuel doesn't like it, but he takes the request to the Lord. The Lord tells Samuel to do it, even though the people are rejecting Him as their king. Samuel warns the elders of all the things a king will take from them to serve himself. The elders still insist, and the Lord grants their request.

First Samuel introduces the key figures who led Israel after the era of the judges. The books of 1 and 2 Samuel were originally part of a single text, split in certain translations shortly before the birth of Christ. Some of the Bible’s most famous characters are depicted in this book. These including the prophet Samuel, Israel’s first king, Saul, her greatest king, David, and other famous names such as Goliath and Jonathan. By the end of this book, Saul has fallen; the book of 2 Samuel begins with David’s ascension to the throne.