4. Is the book of Samuel pro-monarchy or anti-monarchy? Why/Why not?
The Book of Samuel is Pro-Monarchy; because the founding of the Monarchy about 1000 BCE, marked the evolution of the earlier clan-based chiefdom society under Saul to a true state-level government with its seat of government in Jerusalem. This change involved a shift of legal authority from the clans and their judges to the king and his beauracracy. The change was not without conflict. Those who lost power objected to the rise of governmental authority in Jerusalem. In 1 Kings, chapter 12, we learn that there was opposition to the census taken by the king, and 1 Samuel tells us that there was opposition to kingship as well: Samuel, who had been a clan chief, or judge, for all his life and whose sons were also judges preached this message regarding kingship:
“. . . These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his courtiers. He will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle and donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves” (1 Sam. 8:8-18).
The conflict between those who favored the Monarchy’s rule by law and those who longed for the old days of clan-based rule by judges and customary family morality continues throughout the history of the Monarchy. Even the prophets during the Monarchy were divided between those who favored the new system of government by kingship and those who favored the old order. The former included Nathan of Jerusalem (1 Kings 1:8), Shemaiah (2 Chron. 12:5-8), Zedekiah ben Chenaanah (1 Kings 22), Jonah ben Amittai (2 Kings 14:25), Hananiah ben Azzur (Jer. 28), Shemaiah the Nehelemite (Jer.29), Ahab ben Kolaiah (Jer. 29), Nahum, Obadiah, as well as others who are referred to but whose names were not recorded. Of all these, only Nahum and Obadiah’s views are recorded as books of the Bible. The prophets who longed for a return to the old days of rule by Yahweh through clan judges and mishpat were Ahijah of Shiloh (1 Kings 11), Jehu ben Hanani (1 Kings 16), Elijah of Gilead (1 Kings 17), Micaiah ben Imlah (1 Kings 22), Elisha ben Shaphat (1 Kings 19), Amos of Tekoa, Hosea ben Beeri, Micah of Moresheth, Isaiah ben Amoz, Zephaniah ben Cushi, Jeremiah ben Hilkiah, and Urijah of Kiriath-jearim (Jer. 26). These anti-Monarchy prophets are more well represented in the books of the Bible–Amos, Hoseah, Micah, Isaiah, Zephaniah, and Jeremiah. Generally, the pro-Monarchy prophets tended to be those who lived in the more urbanized areas of the kingdom, while the opposition represented the voices of the rural areas.
The Literary Guide to the Bible By: Robert Alter & Frank Kermode