| I Samuel 8:7
| And the Lord said to Samuel: Hearken to the voice of the people in all that they say to thee. For they have not rejected thee, but me, that I should not reign over them.
| Thee. "God, in anger, grants a person what he desires wrongfully." (St. Augustine) --- He permits the people to follow their own plans; and the Hebrews believe, that he gave them Saul to punish them, being well apprised of his proud and cruel nature. (Cuneus Rep.) (Calmet) --- Rejected, etc. The government of Israel hitherto had been a theocracy: in which God himself immediately ruled, by laws which he had enacted, and by judges extraordinarily raised up by himself: and therefore he complains that his people rejected him, in desiring a change of government, (Challoner) and wishing to appoint their own magistrates. The priests and judges had been commissioned by God, Exodus xix., and Deuteronomy xvii. (Worthington)
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