1 Samuel 8:20

THE MESSAGE

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.

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.

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

⁴Fed up, all the elders of Israel got together and confronted Samuel at Ramah. They presented their case: "Look, you're an old man, and your sons aren't following in your footsteps. Here's what we want you to do: Appoint a king to rule us, just like everybody else." ⁶ When Samuel heard their demand—"Give us a king to rule us!"—he was crushed. How awful! Samuel prayed to God . ⁷ God answered Samuel, "Go ahead and do what they're asking. They are not rejecting you. They've rejected me as their King. From the day I brought them out of Egypt until this very day they've been behaving like this, leaving me for other gods. And now they're doing it to you. So let them have their own way. But warn them of what they're in for. Tell them the way kings operate, just what they're likely to get from a king." ¹⁰So Samuel told them, delivered God 's warning to the people who were asking him to give them a king. He said, "This is the way the kind of king you're talking about operates. He'll take your sons and make soldiers of them—chariotry, cavalry, infantry, regimented in battalions and squadrons. He'll put some to forced labor on his farms, plowing and harvesting, and others to making either weapons of war or chariots in which he can ride in luxury. He'll put your daughters to work as beauticians and waitresses and cooks. He'll conscript your best fields, vineyards, and orchards and hand them over to his special friends. He'll tax your harvests and vintage to support his extensive bureaucracy. Your prize workers and best animals he'll take for his own use. He'll lay a tax on your flocks and you'll end up no better than slaves. The day will come when you will cry in desperation because of this king you so much want for yourselves. But don't expect God to answer." ¹⁹But the people wouldn't listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We will have a king to rule us! Then we'll be just like all the other nations. Our king will rule us and lead us and fight our battles." ²¹Samuel took in what they said and rehearsed it with God . God told Samuel, "Do what they say. Make them a king." Then Samuel dismissed the men of Israel: "Go home, each of you to your own city."

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 7:2
"Take on board with you seven pairs of every clean animal, a male and a female; one pair of every unclean animal, a male and a female; and seven pairs of every kind of bird, a male and a female, to insure their survival on Earth. In just seven days I will dump rain on Earth for forty days and forty nights. I'll make a clean sweep of everything that I've made."

Genesis 8:1
Then God turned his attention to Noah and all the wild animals and farm animals with him on the ship. God caused the wind to blow and the floodwaters began to go down. The underground springs were shut off, the windows of Heaven closed and the rain quit. Inch by inch the water lowered. After 150 days the worst was over.

Genesis 8:4
On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ship landed on the Ararat mountain range. The water kept going down until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains came into view. After forty days Noah opened the window that he had built into the ship.

Genesis 8:7
He sent out a raven; it flew back and forth waiting for the floodwaters to dry up. Then he sent a dove to check on the flood conditions, but it couldn't even find a place to perch—water still covered the Earth. Noah reached out and caught it, brought it back into the ship.

Genesis 8:15
God spoke to Noah: "Leave the ship, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives. And take all the animals with you, the whole menagerie of birds and mammals and crawling creatures, all that brimming prodigality of life, so they can reproduce and flourish on the Earth."

Genesis 13:18
Abram moved his tent. He went and settled by the Oaks of Mamre in Hebron. There he built an altar to God .

Genesis 22:2
He said, "Take your dear son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I'll point out to you."

Genesis 22:9
They arrived at the place to which God had directed him. Abraham built an altar. He laid out the wood. Then he tied up Isaac and laid him on the wood. Abraham reached out and took the knife to kill his son.

Genesis 26:25
Isaac built an altar there and prayed, calling on God by name. He pitched his tent and his servants started digging another well.

Genesis 35:1
God spoke to Jacob: "Go back to Bethel. Stay there and build an altar to the God who revealed himself to you when you were running for your life from your brother Esau."

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.