1 Samuel 8:4-7
“Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel to Ramah; and they said to him, "Behold, you are old, and your sons don't walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations." The thing displeased Samuel, when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." Samuel prayed to Yahweh. Yahweh said to Samuel, "Listen to the voice of the people in all that they tell you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them."”
This passage describes the elders of Israel approaching the prophet Samuel in the late 11th century BCE. They express their desire for a king to lead them, specifically one like the kings of other nations, rather than continuing under the system of judges led by God.
What does it mean for a community to desire a leader like those 'of all the nations,' and what might be lost or gained in that desire?