For its tendency we are prepared by chapter
vii. Samuel has set his countrymen free from their enemies, and
ruled over them afterwards in righteousness and prosperity; why
then should they desire a change in the form of government? They
have just as much and as little reason for desiring this as for
the falling away from Jehovah, which also is a periodical
craving on their part, whenever they have had some years' rest:
it is the expression of the deep-seated heathenism of their nature.
That is the account of chapter viii. with what belongs to it.
Chapter ix. seq., however, gives quite a different account. Here,
at the end of the period of the judges, Israel is not at the
summit of power and prosperity, but in a state of the deepest
humiliation and the means of saving the people from this state is
seen in the monarchy alone. And this difference is closely
connected with another as to the view taken of the authority of
Samuel. In chap. viii. as in chap. vii. he is the vicegerent
of Jehovah, with unlimited authority. He feels the institution of
the monarchy to be his own deposition, yet the children of Israel
by no means rebel against him; they come to him to ask him for
a king.
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