8:7 they have not rejected you. Since the elders couch their request in terms of a “king to judge us” (v. 5 note), Samuel initially interprets their overture as an attack on his own leadership (v. 6). But the Lord points out to him that the affront is far graver than that.

they have rejected me. The offense of the elders’ request lies not in the concept of human kingship in itself, for kingship in Israel had long been anticipated (2:10 note), but in breaking their covenant relationship with God. Their sin was to reject God as their king and to take instead a human monarch (10:19; 12:12–20; and contrast Gideon’s refusal in Judg. 8:23).