1 Samuel 8:2

Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: they were judges in Beersheba.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
name	שֶׁם shem-	H8034	an appellation · noun, common masculine singular construct
firstborn	בְּנ֤וֹ be.No	H1121	a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Joel	יוֹאֵ֔ל yo.'El	H3100	Joel · proper noun, a man's name
name	וְשֵׁ֥ם ve.Shem	H8034	an appellation · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
second	מִשְׁנֵ֖הוּ mish.Ne.hu	H4932	properly · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Abiah	אֲבִיָּ֑ה 'a.vi.Yah	H29	Abijah · proper noun, a man's name
judges	שֹׁפְטִ֖ים sho.fe.Tim	H8199	to judge · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
Beer-sheba	בִּבְאֵ֥ר biv.'Er	H884	Beer-Sheba · preposition + proper noun, a place name

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Genesis 22:19 So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba.
1 Kings 19:3 And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.
1 Chronicles 6:28 And the sons of Samuel; the firstborn Vashni, and Abiah.
1 Chronicles 6:38 The son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, the son of Israel.
Amos 5:5 But seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Beth-el shall come t…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 8:1-3

Two sad things we find here, but not strange things: - 1. A good and useful man growing old and unfit for service (Sa1 8:1): Samuel was old, and could not judge Israel, as he had done. He is not reckoned to be past sixty years of age now, perhaps not so much; but he was a man betimes, was full of thoughts and cared when he was a child, which perhaps hastened the infirmities of age upon him. The fruits that are the first ripe keep the worst. He had spent his strength and spirits in the fatigue of public business, and now, if he think to shake himself as at other times, he finds he is mistaken: old age has cut his hair. Those that are in the prime of their time ought to be busy in doing the wo…

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Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 8:1

When Samuel was old - Supposed to be about sixty. He made his sons judges - He appointed them as his lieutenants to superintend certain affairs in Beer-sheba, which he could not conveniently attend to himself. But they were never judges in the proper sense of the word; Samuel was the last judge in Israel, and he judged it to the day of his death. See Sa1 7:16.

John Gill on 1 Samuel 8:2

Now the name of his firstborn was Joel,.... In 1 Chronicles 6:28 he is called Vashni; See Gill on 1 Chronicles 6:28. This was not Joel the prophet, as some have thought, neither his parentage, nor his office, nor his times, will agree with this: and the name of his second Abiah: which two sons seem to be all he had: they were judges in Beersheba; in the utmost border of the land, to the south, as Ramah, where Samuel dwelt and judged, was more to the north; where they were placed by their father, for the greater convenience of the people of Israel that lived southward, to bring their causes to them, as those lived more northward might bring them to him: according to Josephus (w), they were…

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Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Samuel 8:1-5

Sa1 8:1-2 The reason assigned for the appointment of Samuel's sons as judges is his own advanced age. The inference which we might draw from this alone, namely, that they were simply to support their father in the administration of justice, and that Samuel had no intention of laying down his office, and still less of making the supreme office of judge hereditary in his family, is still more apparent from the fact that they were stationed as judges of the nation in Beersheba, which was on the southern border of Canaan (Jdg 20:1, etc.; see at Gen 21:31). The sons are also mentioned again in Ch1 6:13, though the name of the elder has either been dropped out of the Masoretic text or has become c…

The Church Fathers

The name of his firstborn son was Joel, etc. Joel means 'beginning' or 'was of God', Abia stands for 'father', and Beersheba means 'well of the oath'. It is indeed a place, as the name itself proves, where Abraham and Isaac made a covenant with Abimelech by swearing; this signifies that very fountain of salvation, which, united in the pact of one and the same faith, washes those circumcised and uncircumcised; in which the aforementioned brothers are appointed as judges so that they may both offer and drink the fountain of life. But they according to their name began but did not persevere to the end, to be saved, and though once belonging to God and worthy of the name of the patriarchs, now changed to the contrary, they preferred their own traditions and crimes over both the law and grace. And when any of us, cooling with the spiritual fervor he had begun, places base and earthly thoughts before his mind, it is as if the aging Samuel set the degenerate sons as judges in Beersheba; for the perverse senses are subject to the mystery of baptism.
— Bede, Commentary on Samuel

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Abijah — Father (i.e., “possessor or worshipper”) of Jehovah. (1.) 1 Chr. 7:8. (2.) 1 Chr. 2:24. (3.) The second son of Samuel (1 Sam. 8:2; 1 Chr. 6:28). His conduct, along with that of his brother, as a…
Joel — Jehovah is his God. (1.) The oldest of Samuel’s two sons appointed by him as judges in Beersheba (1 Sam. 8:2). (See VASHNI.) (2.) A descendant of Reuben (1 Chr. 5:4, 8). (3.) One of David’s famous…
Samuel — Heard of God. The peculiar circumstances connected with his birth are recorded in 1 Sam. 1:20. Hannah, one of the two wives of Elkanah, who came up to Shiloh to worship before the Lord, earnestly…
Saul — Asked for. (1.) A king of Edom (Gen. 36:37, 38); called Shaul in 1 Chr. 1:48. (2.) The son of Kish (probably his only son, and a child of prayer, “asked for”), of the tribe of Benjamin, the first…
Vashni — (strong), the first-born of Samuel as the text now stands. (1 Chronicles 6:28) (13); but in (1 Samuel 8:2) the name of his first-born is Joel. Most probably in the Chronicles the name of Joel has…
Abia · 2. — 2.
Beer-Sheba · .Two — .Two
Joel · 1. — 1.
Judge · .Samuel’s — .Samuel’s
Samuel · Makes his corrupt — Makes his corrupt

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 8:1-3

Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 8:1

John Gill on 1 Samuel 8:2

Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Samuel 8:1-5

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 8:1-3

Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 8:1

John Gill on 1 Samuel 8:2

Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Samuel 8:1-5

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on 1 Samuel 8:2