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Front Page  Quotations Other Quotes Week of 4 October, 2004
About this Quotation:
The prophet warns the Israelite people to be careful of what they wish for. If they truly want a king to rule over them, then they are also wishing for whatever comes with rulership by a monarch: conscription of their sons, confiscation of their crops and vineyards, the requisitioning of the labor of their daughters, and a level of taxation which will rise to the appalling level of ten percent of what they own.
Other quotes from this week:Other quotes about Religion & Toleration:- 2012: The 6th Day of Christmas: Vicesimus Knox on the Christian religion and peace on earth (1793)
- 2012: The 5th Day of Christmas: Samuel Cooper on the Articles of Confederation and peace on earth (1780)
- 2009: Noah Webster on the resilience of common religious practices in the face of attempts by the state to radically change them (1794)
- 2009: David Hume argues that “love of liberty” in some individuals often attracts the religious inquisitor to persecute them and thereby drive society into a state of “ignorance, corruption, and bondage” (1757)
- 2009: St. John, private property, and the Parable of the Wolf and the Good Shepherd (2ndC AD)
- 2008: John Locke believed that the magistrate should not punish sin but only violations of natural rights and public peace (1689)
- 2008: Job rightly wants to know why he, “the just upright man is laughed to scorn” while robbers prosper (6thC BC)
- 2008: William Findlay wants to maintain the separation of church and state and therefore sees no role for the “ecclesiastical branch” in government (1812)
- 2006: In Ecclesiastes there is the call to plant, to love, to live, and to work and then to enjoy the fruits of all one’s labors (3rdC BC)
- 2006: Pierre Bayle begins his defence of religious toleration with this appeal that the light of nature, or Reason, should be used to settle religious differences and not coercion (1708)
- 2006: Voltaire argued that religious intolerance was against the law of nature and was worse than the “right of the tiger” (1763)
- 2004: Voltaire notes that where Commerce and Toleration predominate, a Multiplicity of Faiths can live together in Peace and Happiness (1764)
- 2004: The Prophet Isaiah urges the people to “beat their swords into plowshares” and learn war no more (700s BC)
- 2004: The Psalmist laments that he lives in a Society which “hateth peace” and cries out “I am for peace: but when I speak they are for war” (1000 BC)
4 October, 2004Read the full quote in context here. The prophet Samuel tells the people of Israel what lies in store for them if they have their wish granted that a King rule over them:
- And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king.
11. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.
12. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
13. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
14. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
15. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.
16. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.
17. He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.
The full passage from which this quotation was taken can be be viewed below (front page quote in bold):Chapter 8
- And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel.
2. Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: they were judges in Beersheba.
3. And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.
4. Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah,
5. And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
6. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD.
7. 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.
8. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee.
9. Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.
10. And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king.
11. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.
12. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
13. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
14. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
15. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.
16. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.
17. He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.
18. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day.
19. Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us;
20. 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.
21. And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the LORD.
22. 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.
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