choosing (v. 15a), a brother Israelite, not a foreigner (v. 15b), without the customary royal perks—military machine, multiple wives, and massive wealth (vv. 16–17), and subservient to the rule of Yahweh’s law (vv. 18–20). So the fault (in 1 Sam. 8) was not in the fact of the request but in the motive for the request. It was not the request itself but what was behind the request that tainted it.2 If we cheat and run to 1 Samuel 12, we will find the verdict of 8:7–8 confirmed. There as Samuel accuses