043 Israel Demands a King

Jul 15, 2026

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A Bible-based story from 1 Samuel 8:1–9:21 explaining Israel’s request for a king after Samuel becomes old and his sons fail as honest judges. Israel’s leaders ask for a monarchy “like all the other nations,” displeasing Samuel. God instructs Samuel to warn them clearly: a king would take land, servants, animals, and crops, impose forced labor, and offer no help when they complain. The people still insist on having a king to lead them in war.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryReligion & Spirituality

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

Israel’s leadership failure

Samuel’s sons as judges

Israel asks for a king

Samuel prays and God replies

The warning about a king’s rule

The people’s decision

043 Israel Demands a King 1 Sam. 8:1-9:21 English Spiritual 043 Israel Demands a King English © 2020 Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) You are free to make commercial use of this work. You may adapt and add to this work, but you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one. You must keep the copyright and credits for authors, illustrators, etc. Original illustrations by Jim Padgett, © Sweet Publishing licensed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. [www.sweetpublishing.com](www.sweetpublishing.com) Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. has skin darkened all of the Jim Padgett illustrations in our collection, and has modified some of them. Story script © 2018 Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. licensed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Template © 2017 Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. licensed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Music © 2017 Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. licensed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. A special thanks to the 50+ unnamed people who worked on the story scripts, templates, adapted illustrations and music. When Samuel was old, he appointed his sons as judges over Israel. But his sons were not honest judges. They took bribes and did unjust things. So all the leaders in Israel met with Samuel. They said, "You are old, and your sons are not following your ways. Appoint a king to lead us like all the other nations have.” This request displeased Samuel, so he prayed to the Lord. The Lord replied, "Do everything the people tell you. They are not rejecting you. They are rejecting me. Warn them clearly about the way a king will rule them.” So Samuel warned the people, saying, "A king will force your children to work for him. He will take your best land, servants, animals and crops for himself. He will make you slaves. And when you complain, the Lord will not help you.” But the people refused to listen to Samuel. They insisted, "We want a king to rule over us and lead us in war. Then we will be like the other nations.” Samuel heard what the people said. Then he repeated it to the Lord. And the Lord replied,"Do what the people want and give them aking.”

FAQs

Why did Israel ask for a king?

Israel’s leaders said Samuel was old and his sons were not following his ways, so they wanted a king to lead them like other nations and to help them in war.

What did God tell Samuel to do after the request?

God told Samuel to listen to the people’s request, warning them clearly that they were rejecting God rather than rejecting Samuel.

What warning did Samuel give about how a king would rule?

Samuel warned that a king would take the people’s children for forced work, seize their best land, servants, animals, and crops, and make them slaves, and that God would not help when they complained.

Jul 15, 2026

Upload by Asher