1 Samuel 8:4

Modern

So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.

Traditional

Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah,

Literal

And all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah,

Latin

Congregati ergo universi majores natu Israël, venerunt ad Samuelem in Ramatha.

Hebrew

English

So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.

When Israel was changing to a monarchy (rule by kings), neither God (1 Samuel 8:7–9) nor Samuel (1 Samuel 12:1–25) liked the people's request for a king. Saul, the first king (1 Samuel 9–11), did not succeed in his role (1 Samuel 13–31) and proved Samuel's warnings true (see 1 Samuel 8:10–18; compare 1 Samuel 16:1–13).

Theme notes and profiles

1 Samuel 7:17
Then he would return to Ramah because his home was there, and there he judged Israel and built an altar to the LORD.
2 Samuel 5:3
So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, where King David made with them a covenant before the LORD. And they anointed him king over Israel.
Exodus 3:16
Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—has appeared to me and said: I have surely attended to you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.
Exodus 24:1
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD—you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders—and you are to worship at a distance.

Israel: Patriarch, son of Isaac, father of twelve tribes Samuel: Prophet and last judge of Israel before the kings

Mizpah: A city in Benjamin; a place of gathering and judgment