1 Samuel 8:18

18 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."

1 Samuel 8:18 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 8:18

And ye shall cry out in that day, because of your king
His power and pride, his oppression and tyranny, his heavy exactions, and intolerable yoke, and yet not be able to free themselves from them; all that they could do would be only to cry out under them as grievously distressed, and not knowing how to help themselves; and which would be the more aggravated, because they brought all this upon themselves, as it follows:

which ye shall have chosen you;
for though the choice of a king for them, at a proper time, God had reserved to himself, yet in later times, as is here suggested, they would choose for themselves, and did, see ( Hosea 8:4 ) besides, to have a king in general was at first their own choice, though the particular person was by the designation of the Lord:

and the Lord will not hear you in that day;
will not regard them, have no compassion on them, suffer them to remain under their oppressions, and not deliver them out of them; because they rejected him from being their King, and put themselves out of his protection, into the hands of another, and therefore it was just to leave them to their own choice.

1 Samuel 8:18 In-Context

16 Your prize workers and best animals he'll take for his own use.
17 He'll lay a tax on your flocks and you'll end up no better than slaves.
18 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."
19 But the people wouldn't listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We will have a king to rule us!
20 Then we'll be just like all the other nations. Our king will rule us and lead us and fight our battles."
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.