And it came to pass when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel.
Samuel stood in a line of judges, and he meant his sons to continue it:
Eli the priest was one of these judges (1 Sam. 4:18), and Samuel, the first prophet (Acts 3:24; Acts 13:20), was also a judge over Israel (1 Sam. 7:6). He thought he could establish his sons as judges after himself (1 Sam. 8:1), but their unfaithfulness brought this whole period to an end.
What the verse leaves out matters. Moses faced the same moment and acted differently:
There is no mention of any word from the LORD, and no record of any prayer by the prophet! Yet this was the man known in his day for his powerful prayers for others! But why appoint his sons? Moses did not do this. When he felt his own service was drawing to a close, he said, "Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation… that the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep that have no shepherd" (Num. 27:15-17). This is beautiful… But he did not take it on himself to appoint anyone, and he did not suggest his own sons for the work.
Behind the mistake lies an assumption about how God works:
Samuel himself lacks spiritual discernment here. He makes his sons judges without any direction from the Lord, as though he could hand on to others the work God entrusted to him. But no one hands on gifts, or even responsibilities, by succession.
Samuel's own record was no protection either:
"When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel." But this was a very different thing from God appointing them. Samuel's faithfulness was no guarantee for his sons — just as we see in the boasted theory of apostolic succession.
The choice was an understandable one, and that is the danger in it:
The time comes when Samuel decides that others must judge in the land. It was quite natural (not spiritual) that he should give this place to his sons, especially since God had clearly not raised up anyone else for the responsibility. In fact, people usually expect something like this… He could have sought the Lord's face first about a matter so important; but we are only told, "he made his sons judges over Israel." However, godliness is not inherited.
Samuel was trying to provide for God's people. Two questions expose the flaw:
Samuel meant well when he put his sons into the judgeship… But did the LORD not know the age of His servant? And did He not care for His people? Let us remember that the people belonged to God, not to Samuel… The man who spoke of getting old lived nearly fifty years longer. He lived to see his sons run their course and fade into obscurity; he saw Saul rise and fall; he anointed David king in his place.
The people turned Samuel's family failure into a demand of their own:
When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. God's own arrangement made Eli's sons priests, but what right had Samuel to make his sons judges? A father's favouritism showed in both Eli and Samuel, and it blinded them both. Even Samuel, blessed as he is, is not perfect. The elders complain that his sons do not walk in his ways, and they propose a remedy — but not God's remedy. It was not His mind that they should desire a king, although it was His will to give them one. They were making the greedy ways of Samuel's sons an excuse for doing far worse. Man has often made one sin an excuse for another.
The story does not end in disgrace:
Samuel's eldest son was Joel (1 Sam. 8:1) and he stands out in the record of the failure of Samuel's sons. But in 1 Chronicles 6:33 we find that Joel's eldest son, Heman, held a most honoured place as one of the singers.
- Natural — Appointing his sons was the obvious human step. That is the problem. It was natural, not spiritual, with no word from God and no prayer on record.
- Not inherited — What God gives, He gives directly. No one inherits a place of service, and a father's faithfulness guarantees nothing in his children.
- Anxious — Samuel acted to secure Israel's future. But the people belonged to God, not to him. He then lived nearly fifty years longer.
- Exploited — Israel used the sons' greed as an excuse to demand a king. They answered one sin with a far worse one.
- Redeemed — The failure did not have the last word. From this same family came Heman, honoured as one of the singers.
And the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abijah; they judged in Beer-sheba.
Near the end of his life, Samuel hands the work of judging to his two sons. This verse names them and names the town where they sat — and their record there became Israel's reason for demanding a king.
The names given here are not decoration. Abijah is also spelled Abiah, and that is the form the writers below use. One writer reads them as the standard the two brothers had to uphold as judges:
Their names stand for what they were responsible as judges to maintain — Jehovah as the Mighty God (Joel), and the Father of the people (Abiah).
The elder brother's name appears in a puzzling form elsewhere in Scripture, and a reference work explains the likely reason:
Oldest son of Samuel. He and his brother Abiah acted as judges. Their corrupt practices were the plea on which Israel demanded a king (1 Sam. 8:2; 1 Chr. 6:33; 1 Chr. 15:17). It seems Joel is called VASHNI in 1 Chr. 6:28. But the word Joel may have dropped out of that verse. It would then read "the firstborn Joel, and 'the second' Abiah," as in the Revised Version.
Notice what the verse never says: that God chose these men. Writers point to that silence:
The history of the judges, like that of the priesthood, ends in complete ruin. Samuel himself is lacking in spiritual discernment here. He makes his sons judges without any direction from the Lord. He acts as if he could pass on to others the work God had trusted to him. But succession passes on nothing — neither gifts nor even responsibilities.
Another writer draws the same principle out into its wider use:
Samuel makes the mistake of making his sons judges. He was a judge and a prophet, and he had success in it, so his sons are to follow him in the same role. God does not work by succession. He does not pass gift and power from father to son… The Lord alone can call to service and give gifts for ministry.
Commentators differ on how much blame Samuel carries. One says the choice was understandable, since God had raised up no one else. Even so, he notes that the verse only says Samuel made his sons judges. It does not say he asked the Lord first about something so important (Leslie M. Grant).
The town named here sits at the far southern edge of the country:
The name means well of the oath. It was given to the place where Abraham and Abimelech made a covenant not to harm each other… After Israel settled the land, writers always speak of Beersheba as its most southern point, and of Dan as its most northern.
The elders would later make the sons' corruption their public complaint. One writer weighs it:
They made his sons the stated cause of their discontent. Yet they must have known that bribery in the courts was as common as could be in the nations around them… A king was no cure and no safeguard against bribery in the courts! Beersheba also lay at the far south of the land, in a thinly settled area. Only the smallest number of people could be touched by the bribes taken there.
The next verse tells us how these sons turned out. One writer draws the lesson for every home:
When he was old, Samuel "made his sons judges over Israel… his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice." Godliness is not inherited. Only watchful, prayerful care, kept up day after day, gives us any hope of training our children in the way they should go.
One writer asks whether Samuel's constant travelling explains the failure at home. He then asks God's mercy on the families of those who travel today to preach (W. W. Fereday).
The sons' failure was real. What Israel did with it was worse:
The elders complain that his sons do not walk in his ways. They propose a cure, but not one that follows the way of God… They were making the greedy ways of Samuel's sons an excuse for doing far worse. Man has often made one sin an excuse for another.
The direction of their reaction is the tell:
The evil they complained about does not push them toward the Lord, but toward the nations around them. They look to human help to cure man's ruin.
- Named — Joel and Abiah mean God's might and God's fatherhood. As judges they had to uphold what their own names declared.
- Appointed — Samuel installed them with no word from the Lord. Gift and calling never pass from father to son.
- Placed — Beersheba sat on the far southern edge of the land, with few people there, so fewer were harmed than the outcry suggested.
- Failed — godliness is not inherited. A godly father is no guarantee, so the home needs watchful, prayerful care.
- Exploited — Israel turned a real failure into an excuse for a worse one. They ran toward the nations instead of toward God.
And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted justice.
Samuel had put his two sons in office as judges, and they sold justice for money. If the prophet's own household fails like this, where is Israel to look next?
The New Testament uses this same word when it names what rules a man out of leading a church.
"Gain," the sort of profit a judge should never have wanted or accepted (1 Sam. 8:3). In the New Testament it is called "filthy" or "shameful gain": wanting it disqualified a man from the position of elder in the church, and so on. 1 Tim. 3:3, 8; Titus 1:7, 11; 1 Peter 5:2.
Bringing presents to men in office was an old custom. The law had already drawn a line.
Gifts to judges: these very easily became bribes, and the law strictly forbade them. Ex. 23:8; Deut. 16:19; 2 Chr. 19:7. It was also usual to bring presents to prophets (1 Sam. 9:7). Since the prophets were sometimes judges, the gifts were liable to become bribes, as they did with the sons of Samuel. 1 Sam. 8:3.
Samuel could hand his sons the office. He could not hand them what made him fit for it.
But faith is not passed on by succession. Samuel could not make prophets of his sons. They were no better as judges than Eli's sons had been as priests, and the people had no faith themselves to lean directly on God. They ask to be made like the nations.
Set Samuel's own record beside his sons', and the gap is total.
"When Samuel was old, he made his sons judges." But this was a very different thing from God's appointment. Samuel's faithfulness was no guarantee for his sons; just as we see in the boasted theory of apostolic succession... Samuel could say, "Behold, here I am: witness against me before the Lord and before His anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose donkey have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or from whose hand have I received any bribe to blind my eyes?" But sadly, Samuel's sons and successors could not say this! For them, shameful gain was the driving motive.
Commentators do not spare the prophet. His appointment of his sons is read as a step he took on his own.
When Samuel was old he made his sons judges. It was according to divine order that Eli's sons should be priests, but what warrant had Samuel to make his sons judges? A father's partiality is seen in both, and it blinded them both. Even Samuel, blessed as he is, is not perfect.
The damage ran back onto Samuel himself and outward into the nation.
There is no mention of any turning to God and asking Him to choose a successor. He seemed to forget the history of the judges. In each emergency God Himself raised up the judge of His own choice to deliver His people. Samuel would do it himself instead... They take bribes and pervert judgment. Their father had carried on the honour of God; they bring indirect reproach on him instead. They expose him to the humiliation of a public rebuke by the people. And they weaken in the people's minds that confidence in God's sufficiency which Samuel had worked so hard to build.
The same collapse had already happened once in this book, to a man of real piety.
Samuel seems to have failed in the same way, for the complaint of the children of Israel was that his sons did not walk in his ways, and the Spirit of God records that they did not. (1 Samuel 8:3.) But this, it may be said, was due to their own perversity. True, they were perverse; still the Scripture says, "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it." So if the children of godly parents do not follow them in their walk, it is because their parents did not train them in the way they should go, whatever hard efforts they may have made. There could not be failure on God's side.
One writer wonders aloud whether constant travel in the Lord's service cost Samuel his home.
It is sad to learn that Samuel's sons "did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after gain, and took bribes, and perverted justice" (1 Sam. 8:3)... Could it be that his going on circuit year after year explains the breakdown? May God have mercy on the families of those who in our own day are called to travel here and there preaching the Word of God.
The elders' complaint was real, but it was not their true motive.
They made his sons the apparent cause of their discontent, while they must have known that bribery in the courts was as common as could be in the Gentile kingdoms around them. Samuel's sons, Joel and Abiah, must have been mere beginners at such corruption. A kingly form of government was no remedy or safeguard against bribery in court! Beersheba, too, lay at the far south of the land, in a thinly settled area. There their bribery could touch only the smallest number of people.
Yet the failure did not set the agenda; God's purpose did.
The go-between, however blessed, cannot meet the depth of the need. The seer is not Christ; the herald is not His master... But let us notice that God makes His plan known before man, as the enemy, seems to bring it in... Who was it that raised the hope of a king? ... It was God.
- Not passed down — faith does not travel by succession. Samuel gave his sons the office, not his character.
- Not appointed — no word from God sent these two to the bench; Samuel chose them himself.
- Not trained — godly parents can still miss this, and the warning lands on every busy home.
- Not the real reason — the nation used corrupt courts as an excuse for a king, when a king was no cure for bribery at all.
- Not the last word — every go-between falls short, and God had already planned something better than Samuel or his sons.