8:1. And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he appointed his sons to be judges over Israel.
8:2. Now the name of his firstborn son was Joel: and the name of the second was Abia, judges in Bersabee.
8:3. And his sons walked not in his ways: but they turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.
8:4. Then all the ancients of Israel being assembled came to Samuel to Ramatha.
8:5. And they said to him: Behold thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: make us a king, to judge us, as all nations have.
8:6. And the word was displeasing in the eyes of Samuel, that they should say: Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed to the Lord.
8:7. And the Lord said to Samuel: Hearken to the voice of the people in all that they say to thee. For they have not rejected thee, but me, that I should not reign over them.
Rejected, etc. . .The government of Israel hitherto had been a theocracy, in which God himself immediately ruled, by laws which he had enacted, and by judges extraordinarily raised up by himself; and therefore he complains that his people rejected him, in desiring a change of government.
8:8. According to all their works, they have done from the day that I brought them out of Egypt until this day: as they have forsaken me, and served strange gods, so do they also unto thee.
8:9. Now, therefore, hearken to their voice: but yet testify to them, and foretell them the right of the king, that shall reign over them.