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Scripture · Old Testament

1 Samuel 8:20

1 Samuel 8:20 is verse 20 of 1 Samuel chapter 8, shown here in the Berean Standard Bible.

Berean Standard Bible

Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to judge us, to go out before us, and to fight our battles.”

BSB source and public domain terms

King James Version

That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.

World English Bible

that we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.”

Read in context

1 Samuel 8:18–22 · Berean Standard Bible

18 When that day comes, you will beg for relief from the king you have chosen, but the LORD will not answer you on that day.”

19 Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We must have a king over us.

20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to judge us, to go out before us, and to fight our battles.”

21 Samuel listened to all the words of the people and repeated them in the hearing of the LORD.

22 “Listen to their voice,” the LORD said to Samuel. “Appoint a king for them.” Then Samuel told the men of Israel, “Everyone must go back to his city.”

Read all of 1 Samuel 8

Hebrew words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Study 1 Samuel 8:20

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Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

1 Samuel 8:5

“Look,” they said, “you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king to judge us like all the other nations.”

Exodus 33:16

For how then can it be known that Your people and I have found favor in Your sight, unless You go with us? How else will we be distinguished from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

Leviticus 20:24

But I have told you that you will inherit their land, since I will give it to you as an inheritance—a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the LORD your God, who has set you apart from the peoples.

Leviticus 20:25

You are therefore to distinguish between clean and unclean animals and birds. Do not become contaminated by any animal or bird, or by anything that crawls on the ground; I have set these apart as unclean for you.

Leviticus 20:26

You are to be holy to Me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be My own.

Numbers 23:9

For I see them from atop the rocky cliffs, and I watch them from the hills. Behold, a people dwelling apart, not reckoning themselves among the nations.

Deuteronomy 7:6

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth.

Psalms 106:35

but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs.

John 15:19

If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.

Romans 12:12

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, persistent in prayer.

2 Corinthians 6:17

“Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

Philippians 3:20

But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,

1 Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

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