Jamieson, Fausset and Brown on 1 Samuel 8:11

11. This will be the manner of the king--The following is a very just and graphic picture of the despotic governments which anciently and still are found in the East, and into conformity with which the Hebrew monarchy, notwithstanding the restrictions prescribed by the law, gradually slid.

He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself--Oriental sovereigns claim a right to the services of any of their subjects at pleasure.

some shall run before his chariots--The royal equipages were, generally throughout the East (as in Persia they still are), preceded and accompanied by a number of attendants who ran on foot.