15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.
15 And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers,
15 He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants.
15 He'll tax your harvests and vintage to support his extensive bureaucracy.
15 He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants.
15 He will take a tenth of your grain and your grape harvest and distribute it among his officers and attendants.
12 Can you trust it to haul in your grain and bring it to your threshing floor?
12 Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?
12 Do you have faith in him that he will return your grain and gather it to your threshing floor?
12 You wouldn't for a minute depend on him, would you, to do what you said when you said it?
12 Will you trust him to bring home your grain, And gather it to your threshing floor?
12 Can you rely on it to bring home your grain and deliver it to your threshing floor?
God inquires of Job concerning several animals.
In these questions the Lord continued to humble Job. In this chapter several animals are spoken of, whose nature or situation particularly show the power, wisdom, and manifold works of God. The wild ass. It is better to labour and be good for something, than to ramble and be good for nothing. From the untameableness of this and other creatures, we may see, how unfit we are to give law to Providence, who cannot give law even to a wild ass's colt. The unicorn, a strong, stately, proud creature. He is able to serve, but not willing; and God challenges Job to force him to it. It is a great mercy if, where God gives strength for service, he gives a heart; it is what we should pray for, and reason ourselves into, which the brutes cannot do. Those gifts are not always the most valuable that make the finest show. Who would not rather have the voice of the nightingale, than the tail of the peacock; the eye of the eagle and her soaring wing, and the natural affection of the stork, than the beautiful feathers of the ostrich, which can never rise above the earth, and is without natural affection? The description of the war-horse helps to explain the character of presumptuous sinners. Every one turneth to his course, as the horse rushes into the battle. When a man's heart is fully set in him to do evil, and he is carried on in a wicked way, by the violence of his appetites and passions, there is no making him fear the wrath of God, and the fatal consequences of sin. Secure sinners think themselves as safe in their sins as the eagle in her nest on high, in the clefts of the rocks; but I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord, Jeremiah 49:16. All these beautiful references to the works of nature, should teach us a right view of the riches of the wisdom of Him who made and sustains all things. The want of right views concerning the wisdom of God, which is ever present in all things, led Job to think and speak unworthily of Providence.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 1 Samuel 8:15
Commentary on 1 Samuel 8:10-22
(Read 1 Samuel 8:10-22)
If they would have a king to rule them, as the eastern kings ruled their subjects, they would find the yoke exceedingly heavy. Those that submit to the government of the world and the flesh, are told plainly, what hard masters they are, and what tyranny the dominion of sin is. The law of God and the manner of men widely differ from each other; the former should be our rule in the several relations of life; the latter should be the measure of our expectations from others. These would be their grievances, and, when they complained to God, he would not hear them. When we bring ourselves into distress by our own wrong desires and projects, we justly forfeit the comfort of prayer, and the benefit of Divine aid. The people were obstinate and urgent in their demand. Sudden resolves and hasty desires make work for long and leisurely repentance. Our wisdom is, to be thankful for the advantages, and patient under the disadvantages of the government we may live under; and to pray continually for our rulers, that they may govern us in the fear of God, and that we may live under them in all godliness and honesty. And it is a hopeful symptom when our desires of worldly objects can brook delay; and when we can refer the time and manner of their being granted to God's providence.