“We want to be like the nations around us. Our king will judge us and lead us into battle.”
Parallel translations
- WEB that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.”
- KJV That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.
- BSB Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to judge us, to go out before us, and to fight our battles.”
- NKJV that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”
- NASB so that we also may be like all the nations, and our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
They want a king to make them like other nations, to lead them and fight their battles.
Overview
Israel's reasons expose their loss of faith: they want a human leader to do what God Himself had always done for them. The desire to be 'like all the nations' rejects their calling to be a distinct, God-ruled people. They forget that the LORD had been their warrior and judge.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Sam 8:5They said to him, “Behold, you are old, and your sons don’t walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.”
- Exod 33:16For how would people know that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Isn’t it that you go with us, so that we are separated, I and your people, from all the people who are on the surface of the earth?”
- Phil 3:20For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
- Ps 106:35but mixed themselves with the nations, and learned their works.
- Num 23:9For from the top of the rocks I see him. From the hills I see him. Behold, it is a people that dwells alone, and shall not be listed among the nations.
- Deut 7:6For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.
- 1 Pet 2:9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:
- 2 Cor 6:17Therefore “‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you.
- John 15:19If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
- Lev 20:24–26But I have said to you, “You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am Yahweh your God, who has separated you from the peoples.
- Rom 12:12rejoicing in hope; enduring in troubles; continuing steadfastly in prayer;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The rise of the anointed king after Israel's failed first choice points to the true Anointed One (Messiah means 'anointed'), the shepherd-king after God's own heart from Bethlehem.
How 1 Samuel 8:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.