C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on 1 Samuel 8:1-2

1Sa 8:1-2

The reason assigned for the appointment of Samuel’s sons as judges is his own advanced age. The inference which we might draw from this alone, namely, that they were simply to support their father in the administration of justice, and that Samuel had no intention of laying down his office, and still less of making the supreme office of judge hereditary in his family, is still more apparent from the fact that they were stationed as judges of the nation in Beersheba, which was on the southern border of Canaan (Jdg 20:1, etc.; see at Gen 21:31). The sons are also mentioned again in 1Ch 6:13, though the name of the elder has either been dropped out of the Masoretic text or has become corrupt.