1 Samuel 8:14-22

8:14 He will take your best fields and vineyards and give them to his own servants. 8:15 He will demand a tenth of your seed and of the produce of your vineyards and give it to his administrators 1  and his servants. 8:16 He will take your male and female servants, as well as your best cattle and your donkeys, and assign them for his own use. 8:17 He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will be his servants. 8:18 In that day you will cry out because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord won’t answer you in that day.” 2 

8:19 But the people refused to heed Samuel’s warning. 3  Instead they said, “No! There will be a king over us! 8:20 We will be like all the other nations. Our king will judge us and lead us 4  and fight our battles.”

8:21 So Samuel listened to everything the people said and then reported it to the Lord. 5  8:22 The Lord said to Samuel, “Do as they say 6  and install a king over them.” Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Each of you go back to his own city.”

1 tn Or “eunuchs” (so NAB); NIV “officials”; KJV, NASB, NRSV, NLT “officers.”

2 tc The LXX adds “because you have chosen for yourselves a king.”

3 tn Heb “and the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel.”

4 tn Heb “and go out before us.”

5 tn Heb “and Samuel heard all the words of the people and he spoke them into the ears of the Lord.”

6 tn Heb “listen to their voice.”