1 Samuel 8:20

Bible in Basic English

So that we may be like the other nations, and so that our king may be our judge and go out before us to war.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Then we’ll be like all the other nations: our king will judge us, go out before us, and fight our battles.”

Hebrew Names Version
that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.

King James Version
That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.

Lexham English Bible
so that we also may be like all the nations, and our king may rule us and go out before us and fight our battles."

English Standard Version
that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles."

New Century Version
Then we will be the same as all the other nations. Our king will judge for us and go with us and fight our battles."

New English Translation
We will be like all the other nations. Our king will judge us and lead us and fight our battles."

Amplified Bible
so that we too may be like all the nations [around us], that our king may judge [and govern] us and go out before us and fight our battles."

New American Standard Bible
so that we also may be like all the nations, and our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles."

Geneva Bible (1587)
And we also will be like all other nations, and our King shall iudge vs, and goe out before vs, and fight our battels.

Legacy Standard Bible
that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles."

Complete Jewish Bible
so that we can be like all the nations, with our king to judge us, lead us and fight our battles."

Darby Translation
that we also may be like all the nations; and our king shall judge us, and go out before us, and conduct our wars.

Easy-to-Read Version
Then we will be the same as all the other nations. Our king will lead us. He will go before us and fight our battles."

George Lamsa Translation
That we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.

Good News Translation
so that we will be like other nations, with our own king to rule us and to lead us out to war and to fight our battles."

Literal Translation
And we shall be, even we, like all the nations. And our king shall judge us and shall go out before us and fight our battles.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
yt we maye be as all other Heithe, yt or kynge maie iudge vs, & go forth before vs, and gouerne oure warres.

American Standard Version
that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
That we may be lyke other nations, and that our king may iudge vs, and go out before vs, and fight our battailes.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
that we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.'

King James Version (1611)
That we also may be like all the nations, and that our King may iudge vs, and goe out before vs, and fight our battels.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
An we also will be like all the nations; and our king shall judge us, and shall go out before us, and fight our battles.

English Revised Version
that we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.

Berean Standard Bible
Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to judge us, to go out before us, and to fight our battles."

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and we also schulen be as alle folkis, and oure kyng schal deme vs, and he schal go out bifor vs, and he schal fiyte oure batel for vs.

Young's Literal Translation
and we have been, even we, like all the nations; and our king hath judged us, and gone out before us, and fought our battles.'

Update Bible Version
that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.

Webster's Bible Translation
That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.

World English Bible
that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.

New King James Version
that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles."

New Living Translation
"We want to be like the nations around us. Our king will judge us and lead us into battle."

New Life Bible
so we may be like other nations. Our king may rule over us and go out before us and fight our battles."

New Revised Standard
so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles."

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
so shall, even we, become like all the nations, - and our king shall judge us, and go forth before us, and fight our battles.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And we also will be like all nations: and our king shall judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles for us.

Revised Standard Version
that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles."

New American Standard Bible (1995)
that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles."

Contextual Overview

⁴ Then all the responsible men of Israel got together and went to Samuel at Ramah, ⁵ And said to him, See now, you are old, and your sons do not go in your ways: give us a king now to be our judge, so that we may be like the other nations. ⁶ But Samuel was not pleased when they said to him, Give us a king to be our judge. And Samuel made prayer to the Lord. ⁷ And the Lord said to Samuel, Give ear to the voice of the people and what they say to you: they have not been turned away from you, but they have been turned away from me, not desiring me to be king over them. ⁸ As they have done from the first, from the day when I took them out of Egypt till this day, turning away from me and worshipping other gods, so now they are acting in the same way to you. ⁹ Give ear now to their voice: but make a serious protest to them, and give them a picture of the sort of king who will be their ruler. ¹⁰ And Samuel said all these words of the Lord to the people who were desiring a king. ¹¹ And he said, This is the sort of king who will be your ruler: he will take your sons and make them his servants, his horsemen, and drivers of his war-carriages, and they will go running before his war-carriages; ¹² And he will make them captains of thousands and of fifties; some he will put to work ploughing and cutting his grain and making his instruments of war and building his war-carriages. ¹³ Your daughters he will take to be makers of perfumes and cooks and bread-makers.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

1 Samuel 8:5, Exodus 33:16, Leviticus 20:24-26, Numbers 23:9, Deuteronomy 7:6, Psalms 106:35, John 15:19, Romans 12:12, 2 Corinthians 6:17, Philippians 3:20, 1 Peter 2:9

Reciprocal: Numbers 27:17 - go out Deuteronomy 17:14 - I will set 1 Samuel 12:2 - walketh 1 Samuel 12:12 - Nay Hosea 13:10 - thy judges

Cross-References

Genesis 4:4
And Abel gave an offering of the young lambs of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord was pleased with Abel's offering;

Genesis 7:2
Of every clean beast you will take seven males and seven females, and of the beasts which are not clean, two, the male and his female;

Genesis 8:1
And God kept Noah in mind, and all the living things and the cattle which were with him in the ark: and God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters went down.

Genesis 8:4
And on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

Genesis 8:7
Noah sent out a raven, which went this way and that till the waters were gone from the earth.

Genesis 8:8
And he sent out a dove, to see if the waters had gone from the face of the earth;

Genesis 8:15
And God said to Noah,

Genesis 8:16
Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives.

Genesis 8:17
Take out with you every living thing which is with you, birds and cattle and everything which goes on the earth, so that they may have offspring and be fertile and be increased on the earth.

Genesis 13:4
To the place where he had made his first altar, and there Abram gave worship to the name of the Lord.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

That we also may be like all the nations,.... Even though they were slaves, like them; a king they would have, as they had, such was their stupidity. It was their greatest honour and glory, as well as happiness, not to be like other nations; as in their religion, laws, and liberties, so in their form of government; God being their King in such a peculiar sense as he was not of others, but with this they could not be content:

and that our king may judge us; hear their causes, administer justice and judgment to them, protect their persons and properties, and rule them according to the civil laws that were given them:

and go out before us, and fight our battles; which Samuel their present judge did not, and to which perhaps they may have some respect; but then he gained more for them by his prayers, than a king or general would by his military skill or prowess, see 1 Samuel 7:10, and it is very remarkable, and what is observed by some, that their first king died in a battle. What made them so pressing and importunate to have a king at, this time, and not defer it to another, it is very probable was, that they understood that Nahash, king of the children of Ammon, was preparing to attack them, and therefore they were desirous to have a king also to go out before them, and meet him, and give him battle, 1 Samuel 12:12.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Fight our battles - It appears from 1 Samuel 12:12, that the warlike movements of Nahash had already begun to excite alarm.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Samuel 8:20. May judge us — This appears to be a rejection of Samuel.

Go out before us — Be in every respect our head and governor.

And fight our battles. — Be the general of our armies.