Chapter
Verse

1 Samuel 8:14

ESV He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants.
NIV He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.
NASB He will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants.
CSB He can take your best fields, vineyards, and olive orchards and give them to his servants.
NLT He will take away the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his own officials.
KJV And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
NKJV And he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants.

What does 1 Samuel 8:14 mean?

Here continues Samuel's warning about what a human king would do when given absolute authority in the land (1 Samuel 8:4–5). Having already described how a king would conscript the children of his citizens in order to put them to work in the service of his own household and military (1 Samuel 8:11–13), Samuel now describes the way kings confiscate private property for their own purposes.

The very specific example in this verse has to do with a king taking the best privately-owned fields, vineyards, and olive orchards away from private citizens to give them to his own high-ranking officials. A king might do this to keep his advisors and officials loyal to him and to reward them for faithful service to him. Of course, that means depriving others of their property and their freedoms.
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