In | Monarchy in the Torah and 1 and 2 Samuel, Part 1

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While God did not recommend monarchy for Israel, the Bible hints at monarchy already in the five books of Moses. Long before the people demanded a king from Samuel, their desire to have a king was anticipated in Deuteronomy:

When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,” you may indeed set over you a king whom the LORD your God will choose. One of your own community you may set as king over you; you are not permitted to put a foreigner over you, who is not of your own community.

Deuteronomy 17:14-15 (NRSV)

Although monarchy would be a divine concession, predictions of a ruler provided a means to conquer enemies Israel accumulated in the Pentateuch. Balaam, the non-Israelite prophet from Numbers who famously spoke with a donkey, also appears to suggest a future monarchy for Israel in his fourth message:

“I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near—
a star shall come out of Jacob,
and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;
it shall crush the borderlands of Moab,
and the territory of all the Shethites.
Edom will become a possession,
Seir a possession of its enemies,
while Israel does valiantly.
One out of Jacob shall rule,
and destroy the survivors of Ir.”

Then he looked on Amalek, and uttered his oracle, saying:

“First among the nations was Amalek,
but its end is to perish forever.”
Numbers 24:17-20 (NRSV)