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1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 8
Samuel makes his sons judges over Israel; their names, and ill government, 1Sa_8:1-3. The people ask a king: Samuel is grieved; prays, 1Sa_8:4-6. God is displeased with the people; but commands Samuel to hearken to them, and to represent to them the tyrannical government of kings, 1Sa_8:7-9; which he doth, 1Sa_8:10-18. The people continue in their request: God commands Samuel to yield to them, 1Sa_8:19-22.
when Samuel was old, and so unable for his former travels and labours, he made his sons judges; not supreme judges, for such there was to be but one, and that of God’s choosing, and Samuel still kept that office in his own hands, 1Sa_7:15; but his vicegerents or deputies, who might go about and determine matters, but with reservation of a right of appeals to himself. He advanceth his sons to this place, not so much out of paternal indulgence, the sad effects whereof he had seen in Eli; but because he had doubtless instructed them in a singular manner, and fitted them for the highest employments; and he hoped that the example he had set them, and the inspection and authority he still had over them, would have obliged them to diligence and faithfulness in the execution of their trust.