From 1st Samuel:
10 Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.
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I mentioned this quote in my weekly reading vlog yesterday, but I thought I'd highlight it here as well. I was pondering whether or not this was worth making a separate blogpost about, but then I remembered that I had made a big deal out of highlighting Herodotus's arguments against monarchy during my readthrough of Herodotus a few years ago, so I might as well do the same thing for the arguments in the Old Testament. It's always interesting to see these anti-ruling class ideas show up way back in ancient literature.
The above quotation is from the NIV translation. I'm reading through The Jerusalem Bible at the moment, but the NIV is more widely available on the web, so it's easier to cut and paste. Plus I grew up on the NIV, so this is the wording I'm more familiar with anyway.
Christine Hayes, in her lectures on the Old Testament, points out that in the Book of Judges and in 1st Samuel there are echoes of both an anti-monarchist tradition and a pro-monarchist position.
The footnotes of the Jerusalem Bible make the same point. According to the Jerusalem Bible, 1st Samuel 8, 10:17-24 and 12 are the anti-royalist history, and 1st Samuel 9-10:16 and 11 are the pro-royalist version. So, for example, in the very next chapter (chapter 9), God suddenly seems to be in favor of the idea of a king:
15 Now the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed this to Samuel: 16 “About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. Anoint him ruler over my people Israel; he will deliver them from the hand of the Philistines. I have looked on my people, for their cry has reached me.” (NIV)
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