1 Kings 8:5
And they said to him: Behold thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: make us a king, to judge us, as all nations have.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Dixeruntque ei : Ecce tu senuisti, et filii tui non ambulant in viis tuis : constitue nobis regem, ut judicet nos, sicut et universæ habent nationes.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ εἶπαν αὐτῷ Ἰδοὺ σὺ γεγήρακας, καὶ οἱ υἱοί σου οὐ πορεύονται ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ σου· καὶ νῦν κατάστησον ἐφ᾽ ἡμᾶς βασιλέα δικάζειν ἡμᾶς καθὰ καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ ἔθνη.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּאמְר֣וּ אֵלָ֗יו הִנֵּה֙ אַתָּ֣ה זָקַ֔נְתָּ וּבָנֶ֕יךָ לֹ֥א הָלְכ֖וּ בִּדְרָכֶ֑יךָ עַתָּ֗ה שִֽׂימָה לָּ֥נוּ מֶ֛לֶךְ לְשָׁפְטֵ֖נוּ כְּכָל הַגּוֹיִֽם
Haydock's commentary
Judge us, in a different manner from what had been hitherto done. (Haydock)
By a crying ingratitude, they reject the government of a wise old man, who had rendered them the most signal services. Perhaps the power of Naas, king of the Ammonites, might afford them some pretext for acting as they did. (Calmet)
As all, &c. They seem to prefer the dominion of kings, who ruled over the surrounding barbarous nations as they thought proper, (Haydock) before one who should be tied down to observe the laws, prescribed by God, (Menochius) in case the Israelites should wish to have a king, Deuteronomy xvii. (Haydock)
In the East, monarchy was the most ancient form of government. (Tacitus, Hist. iv.; Just. i.) "Principio, imperium penes Reges erat."
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XVIII
1. That is, for the strong of hand, Christ in His Manhood. “The words of this song which he spoke to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him out of the hands of his enemies, and of the hand of Saul; and he said, On the day when the Lord delivered him out of the hands of his enemies and of the hand of Saul:” namely, the king of the Jews, whom they had demanded for themselves. For as “David” is said to be by interpretation, strong of hand; so “Saul” is said to be demanding. Now it is well known, how that People demanded for themselves a king, and received him for their king, not according to the will of God, but according to their own will.
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).