What Does 1 Samuel 8:22 Mean in the King James?

And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city.

1 Samuel 8:22 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The Hebrew lets the command “make them a king” sound as “king them a king”: the act and the office grow from the same root.

THE MEANING

A collective voice meets an instruction that gives its demand political form: Samuel is told to install a king. Then each man returns to his own city, and the shared demand disperses into separate lives.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the idea that being heard is only being acknowledged: here, hearing becomes a concrete grant of political authority.

THE ROOT

מֶלֶךְ

melekh

GROWS FROM

מלך

to reign or be king; kingship

The command translated “make them a king” uses ⁨וְהִמְלַכְתָּ⁩ (v’himlakhta, install as king), from the same ⁨מלך⁩ (m-l-k) root as ⁨מֶלֶךְ⁩ (melekh, king). The action and the office sound from one seed: Samuel is told to king them a king.

ALSO GROWS

mālak: to reign, become king

מָלַךְ

This verb shares the root of the instruction to install a king, linking the appointment with the act of reigning.

malkut: kingship, kingdom

מַלְכוּת

This names the ruling order that the appointment brings into view.

שְׁמַע

shemaʿ

GROWS FROM

שמע

to hear and respond

“Hearken” in this verse is shemaʿ. Shema carries hearing through into response; it is more than sound reaching the ear. Here that response takes the concrete form of appointing a king.

ALSO GROWS

shamaʿ: to hear, listen

שָׁמַע

This is the root behind the command to hear the people’s voice as something to answer.

shemuʿah: report, tidings; something heard

שְׁמוּעָה

This branch shows how what is heard can arrive as a message with consequences.

THE PATTERN

In Scripture, hearing a voice can enter the next event as a consequential response.

And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;

Exodus 3:7 · KJVThe LORD hears the cry and names the people’s suffering as something known; the next verse moves that hearing toward deliverance.

The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.

Psalm 34:17 · KJVThe verse joins the cry, the hearing, and deliverance in one line, making the response explicit.

But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.

Luke 1:13 · KJVThe prayer is declared heard alongside the answer announced to Zacharias.

THE THREAD

And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.

1 Samuel 8:7 · KJV

This repeats the same ⁨שְׁמַע⁩ (shemaʿ, hear and respond) command to Samuel. The line reveals the tension inside that command: the people’s voice is to be answered even as they reject the LORD’s reign over them.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us