1 Samuel 8:16 - Printer Friendly

ESV: He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work.

NIV: Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use.

NASB: He will also take your male servants and your female servants, and your best young men, and your donkeys, and use them for his work.

CSB: He can take your male servants, your female servants, your best cattle, and your donkeys and use them for his work.

NLT: He will take your male and female slaves and demand the finest of your cattle and donkeys for his own use.

KJV: And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.

NKJV: And he will take your male servants, your female servants, your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work.

The Israelites asked Samuel to give them a king, wanting to imitate surrounding cultures (1 Samuel 8:4–5). The Lord has told Samuel to allow this, even though it amounts to a rejection of God's authority (1 Samuel 8:7). First, Samuel is to tell the people everything they should expect a human king to take from them (1 Samuel 8:9). This is framed like a legal disclaimer, pointing out that Israel is taking on the drawbacks of a human king, as well as the benefits.

Describing how the king will confiscate their property, Samuel has already told the Israelites to expect the king to take the best privately-owned fields and vineyards for his servants. He may well take ten percent of the harvest from everyone else (1 Samuel 8:14–15).

Now Samuel adds that the king will even take from his citizens their own servants, male and female, along with best of their cattle and donkeys. Translators differ about whether the word for cattle should be understood as "young men." In either case, the Israelites should expect their king to take from them the best of their resources to serve his own purposes.

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.