02_Walton_179_200_179_200 10/07/15 11:58 Pagina 180 180 JONATHAN H. WALTON 180 I. A Note on Methodology This article undertakes a synchronic reading of 1 Samuel 8 and the portion of the larger “ark narrative” preserved in ch. 4. First Samuel 8 is admittedly a complex document, and the copious amounts of ink spilled on the subject have failed to yield a consensus as to the history of its redaction or its place in the larger context of the Deuterono- mistic History 4. The present analysis will be directed toward offering a coherent interpretation of the final redacted form of the Deuteron- omistic History under the working hypothesis that Israel’s stated mo- tivations for wanting a king, the literary context of their request in relationship to the preceding ark narratives, and the response of YHWH need not reflect diverse and incompatible elements. Text critical issues and the complications of redaction and sources in the compo- sition of the book need not impede such a study 5. 4 R.W. KLEIN, 1 Samuel (WBC; Waco, TX 1983) 73-74; H.W. HERTZBERG, I & II Samuel. A Commentary (OTL; Louisville, KY 1976) 74; A. CAQUOT – P. DE ROBERT, Les livres de Samuel (CAT 6; Genève 1994) 113-118; G.E. GERBRANDT, Kingship according to the Deuteronomistic History (SBLDS 87; Atlanta, GA 1986) 140-150 (esp. 141-142); W. DIETRICH, Samuel 1: 1 Samuel 1-12 (BKAT 8.1; Neukirchen-Vluyn 2010) 349-352; R. E. CLEMENTS, “The Deuteronomistic Interpretation of the Founding of the Monarchy in I Sam. VIII”, VT 24.4 (1974) 398-410. 5 A diachronic reading will not resolve the interpretive issue addressed in this article, which focuses on the phrases “Give us a king like the nations” (5b) and “they have rejected me” (7), which are thought to belong to the same level of redaction (CAQUOT – DE ROBERT, Les livres de Samuel, 114; see also DIETRICH, Samuel 1, 352; R.G. KRATZ, The Composition of the Narrative Books of the Old Testament [trans. J. BOWDEN] [London 2005] 184). The ref- erence to Samuel’s sons in v. 3, which ties to ch. 4 and the Elides, is attributed to this same source, as is the recapitulation of 5b in v. 20 (DIETRICH, Samuel 1, 352; KRATZ, Composition,184). Commentators have shown no inclination to attribute the addition of “to fight our battles” to a different source. The ark narrative is, of course, a different source, but its provenance (though certainly not later than the exilic redaction proposed by Dietrich et al.) and date of in- corporation into the larger Deuteronomistic History are unknown. Klein ob- serves, “the ark narrative may have been written in the tenth century […] but its present function is to be understood within the structure set up by the deuteronomistic historian”. KLEIN, 1 Samuel, 40; see also KRATZ, Composition, 182. Specifically for our purposes, 4,3-11 are considered to be a single unit. See A.F. CAMPBELL, The Ark Narrative (SBLDS 16; Atlanta, GA 1975) 56-57.