1 Samuel 8:20

New Living Translation

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

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 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 Finally, all the elders of Israel met at Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel. ⁵ "Look," they told him, "you are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have." ⁶ Samuel was displeased with their request and went to the Lord for guidance. ⁷ "Do everything they say to you," the Lord replied, "for they are rejecting me, not you. They don't want me to be their king any longer. ⁸ Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment. ⁹ Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way a king will reign over them." ¹⁰ So Samuel passed on the Lord 's warning to the people who were asking him for a king. ¹¹ "This is how a king will reign over you," Samuel said. "The king will draft your sons and assign them to his chariots and his charioteers, making them run before his chariots. ¹² Some will be generals and captains in his army, some will be forced to plow in his fields and harvest his crops, and some will make his weapons and chariot equipment. ¹³ The king will take your daughters from you and force them to cook and bake and make perfumes for him.

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
Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift,

Genesis 7:2
Take with you seven pairs—male and female—of each animal I have approved for eating and for sacrifice, and take one pair of each of the others.

Genesis 8:1
But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and livestock with him in the boat. He sent a wind to blow across the earth, and the floodwaters began to recede.

Genesis 8:4
exactly five months from the time the flood began, the boat came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

Genesis 8:7
and released a raven. The bird flew back and forth until the floodwaters on the earth had dried up.

Genesis 8:8
He also released a dove to see if the water had receded and it could find dry ground.

Genesis 8:15
Then God said to Noah,

Genesis 8:16
"Leave the boat, all of you—you and your wife, and your sons and their wives.

Genesis 8:17
Release all the animals—the birds, the livestock, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—so they can be fruitful and multiply throughout the earth."

Genesis 13:4
This was the same place where Abram had built the altar, and there he worshiped the Lord again.

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.