to grasp · conjunction + verb, hithpael sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
came
וַיָּבֹ֥אוּvai.ya.Vo.'u
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
Samuel
שְׁמוּאֵ֖לshe.mu.'El
H8050
Shemuel · proper noun, a man's name
Ramah
הָרָמָֽתָהha.ra.Ma.tah
H7414
Ramah · definite article + proper noun, a place name + directional suffix
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
1 Samuel 7:17 And his return was to Ramah; for there was his house; and there he judged Israel; and there he built an altar unto the LORD.
2 Samuel 5:3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the LORD: and they anointed…
Exodus 3:16 Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, a…
Exodus 24:1 And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the LORD, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar o…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 8:4–end
We have here the starting of a matter perfectly new and surprising, which was the setting up of kingly government in Israel. Perhaps the thing had been often talked of among them by those that were given to change and affected that which looked great. But we do not find that it was ever till now publicly proposed and debated. Abimelech was little better than a titular king, though he is said to reign over Israel (Jdg 9:22), and perhaps his fall had for a great while rendered the title of king odious in Israel, as that of Tarquinius did among the Romans; but, if it had, by this time the odium was worn off, and some bold steps are here taken towards so great a revolution as that amounted to. H…
His sons walked not in his ways - Their iniquity is pointed out in three words:
1. They turned aside after lucre; the original (בצע batsa) signifies to cut, clip, break off; and therefore Mr. Parkhurst thinks that it means nearly the same with our clipping of coin. It however expresses here the idea of avarice, of getting money by hook or by crook. The Targum says, "They looked after ממון דשקר mamon dishkar, the mammon of unrighteousness;" of which they did not make unto themselves friends but enemies; see the note on Mat 6:24.
2. They took bribes; שחד shochad, gifts or presents, to blind their eyes.
3. They perverted judgment - they turned judgment aside; they put it out of its regular path…
Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together,.... At some place of rendezvous appointed; these were the heads of the tribes, and fathers of the houses and families of Israel, the principal persons of age and authority:
and came to Samuel unto Ramah; the place of his nativity and abode, and where he now dwelt, and judged Israel; they went in a very respectable body with an address to him.
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Samuel 8:1-5
The Church Fathers
3. But for those who were living under spiritual governance, to ask for a king—what else is it than to eagerly desire to transform that same spiritual leadership into secular domination? Yet when holy men see that they are despised by their subjects, what displeases them is not so much that they are despised, but that those who despise them do not please God. For by the contempt shown to them, they see that increases are given to their own interior glory; but they groan that their merits are increased by the failings of their subjects, whom they would rather have advance in merits, so that in the eternal reward of merits they might have been able to have with them those over whom they preside. Therefore it is also added: (Verse 6) The word was displeasing in the eyes of Samuel, because they had said: Give us a king, to judge us.
Therefore, all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel, etc. Therefore, after the ascension of the Lord, all the elders of carnal Israel gathered together against him, and sent out to follow him into Ramah, that is, into the heights of heaven, where whatever we do on earth is quickly revealed, saying: 'We do not want this man to reign over us' (Luke 19); and as if speaking to him who can hide nothing, they said: 'Behold, they said, your faith and love in us have grown old, and the sons whom you have nurtured and lifted up, they have despised you' (Isaiah 1). Therefore, we preferred, like the nations that did not know you, and the kingdoms that did not call on your name, to remain strangers to your leadership rather than be deprived of the kingdom, faith, and homeland of your grace. For if, leaving the skill of fighting, we follow the simplicity of your doctrine, the Romans will come and take away our place and our nation. This indeed the Jews, though not in voice, at least in their depraved mind and intention, spoke against the Lord and against His Christ.
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
Elder — A name frequently used in the Old Testament as denoting a person clothed with authority, and entitled to respect and reverence (Gen. 50:7). It also denoted a political office (Num. 22:7). The “elders…
Ramah — (a hill). This is the name of several places in the holy land.
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…
Abia · 2. — 2.
Judge · .Samuel’s — .Samuel’s
Ramah · .Home of Samuel — .Home of Samuel
Samuel · People — People
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).
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…
they were not like their father: They were more like Eli’s two sons (2:12-17). Their corruption was a primary reason the era of the judges ended.
Rashi on 1 Samuel 8:3
They were swayed. Themselves.1 וַיִטּוּ is in the קַל [simple] form.
[They] perverted. Something else, i.e., justice.2וַיַטּוּ is in the הִפֽעִיל [causative] form. Our Rabbis said3Maseches Shabbos 56a. that Shmuel's sons did not sin. They merely did not follow in their father's ways. Their father would travel to all places in Yisroel, and judge them in their cities. But they did not do so,4They did not travel, but rather settled in בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע and would summon litigants to their court. Because the litigants had to pay additional travel expenses to go to בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע, many chose to forgo their claims and thereby corrupting the justice system. in order to increase the income of their agent…
