Jonathan H. Walton, «A King Like The Nations: 1 Samuel 8 in Its Cultural Context.» biblica, Vol. 96 (2015) 179-200 page 199

Vol 96 (2015)

Jonathan H. Walton, «A King Like The Nations: 1 Samuel 8 in Its Cultural Context.», Vol. 96 (2015) 179-200

Commentators on 1 Samuel 8 offer a variety of interpretations about what the requested king is expected to replace: judgeship, YHWH himself, or Israel's covenant identity. This article demonstrates that none of these proposals account for the Biblical text adequately. It is proposed instead that the king is intended to replace the Ark of the Covenant. The king will then manipulate YHWH into leading in battle. This is what ancient Near Eastern kings were able to do with their gods, and what the ark failed to do in 1 Samuel 4.

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02_Walton_179_200_179_200 10/07/15 11:58 Pagina 199 199 A KING LIKE THE NATIONS: 1 SAMUEL 8 IN ITS CULTURAL CONTEXT 199 food for my banquet […]. I am waiting for [it] […]. I have van- quished your enemy […] from this you shall see that I am Ishtar 88. No Israelite king could ever get away with this. YHWH will not rush to their aid in battle and then beg for food. But this is exactly what a “king like the nations” is supposed to do, and this is exactly what the elders want when they ask for one. A “king like the na- tions” means “a god like the nations”. There is no secularism here; a passive, codependent God whose support and attention is urgently sought is nowhere near the same thing as no God at all. But a pas- sive, codependent God is not what YHWH is. And this is exactly what YHWH means when he says, “they have rejected me”. IX. Conclusion: Is God irritated with the idea of kingship or with the elders? Commentators on 1 Samuel 8 generally try to find the source of YHWH’s irritation with the request for a king as having something to do with the institution of kingship, either as a sociopolitical or theological construct. But a synchronic reading of the Deuteronomistic History as a whole, or even just the books of Samuel, will not allow for such a ubiquitously negative interpretation. Further, the desire that their king be “like the nations” means that their request cannot be reduced to any form of secularism or atheism. Therefore, the problem does not lie in the object of the request, but in those who make it. The elders of Israel believe that they can manipulate their God into serving them. They have tried this before in ch. 4, using the ark of the covenant to drag God into battle. This attempt failed, and the ark was lost; even after its return they will not ask for it again. Now that Samuel is old, the ability he has demonstrated to bring YHWH to battle will soon be lost, and his corrupt sons have no chance of being able to “operate” the ark. Therefore, to replace their now useless palladium, the elders ask for a king. YHWH’s irritation is not with a king or kingship; the problem is the elders. A “king like the nations” oversees the entire social (and cultic) operation that exists to meet the needs of the gods. While the king 88 Excerpted from “3.5 The Word of Ishtar of Arbela”, in S. PARPOLA, As- syrian Prophecies (SAA IX; Helsinki 1997) 25-27.