The LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they tell you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me as the king over them.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 7. Thee. “God, in anger, grants a person what he desires wrongfully.” Saint Augustine—He permits the people to follow their own plans; and the Hebrews believe, that he gave them Saul to punish them, being well apprised of his proud and cruel nature. Cuneus Rep. Calmet.—Rejected, and so forth 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, ( Ch). and wishing to appoint their own magistrates. The priests and judges had been commissioned by God. Exodus 19. Deuteronomy 17. Worthington.