Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Deuteronomio 17:15

Rashi explains the words שלח לך, as “in accordance with your judgment.” G’d meant: “I am not commanding you to do this, but I leave it up to you.” What Rashi means is that although the dispatch of the spies took place at G’d’s “instructions,” על פי ה', the commandment did not originate in G’d’s mind but was an accomodation to a desire uttered by the people. It is similar to Deut. 17,15 where the Torah commands שום תשים עליך מלך, “you shall surely appoint a king over you,” and proceeds to describe who is suitable to be king. The Torah, i.e. G’d, was not enthused about the idea of governing the Jewish people by a king of flesh and blood, but concurred knowing there would be political pressure to have such a king, and the alternative would probably be worse. We have the testimony of the prophet Hoseah 13,11 that appointing a king for the Jewish people was something that took place against G’d’s will and that the cessation of the Davidic dynasty when the first Temple was destroyed was also a display of G’d’s anger.

והאבדתם מהר, all the battles you will fight will result in your speedy victory, without your having to exert yourself, nor will you have to lay siege for a long period. In spite of all this, you will not be able to drive out all the inhabitants of the land in short order as the result would be a vacuum and the free roaming beasts would take over the part of the land which you could not populate immediately. (compare Deut. 7,22) This is the reason why I will not let you conduct wars immediately against all the Canaanite tribes. The words לא תוכל, are in the nature of a warning, just as in Deuteronomy 17,15 where the Torah warns against appointing a king who is not born of Jewish parents, or as in Deuteronomy 12,17 לא תוכל לאכול בשעריך, where the Torah forbids the eating in your homes instead of in Jerusalem of certain gifts vowed to G’d by you.

And this shall be the judgment of the priests, etc. Most commentators have struggled to find a connection between this section and the preceding section, and they have not found a sufficient explanation. See the book of Abarbanel, which brings many opinions on this matter. I say that since it is stated This will be the manner of the king who will reign over you, etc., and he will take your fields and your vineyards, etc. (First Samuel 8:11–14), the word over you indicates that the judgment of the king and his actions are already hinted at in the Torah, as it is written, You shall surely set over yourself a king. That He will rule over you in your person, and all the more so over your possessions. Therefore, the section about the king, whose judgment is to take everything by force, is juxtaposed with the section about the priests, whose judgment is not so, but rather they take their wages for their service, as it is written, to stand to serve, etc. This is not as Korah claimed, that they take in a domineering manner like a king, as explained in its place. And it is possible that this hints to the king not to touch anything that the priests have received from the Divine table, and toll, tax, and land-tax, one is not permitted to impose upon them (Ezra 7:24).

The matter was wrong. Because they said, "to judge us like all the nations."⁵ Shmuel was not displeased at the Bnei Yisroel’s request, because the Torah explicitly permits the institution of the monarchy in Devarim 17:15. It therefore seems that seeking to appoint a new king, now that the nation had settled in Eretz Yisroel was appropriate. What disturbed Shmuel was that the motive behind the request was not a desire to fulfill a mitzvah of appointing a king. Rather, they were complaining and rejecting Shmuel’s leadership [below verse 8] and their reason for seeking to appoint a king was because of their desire to be “…like all the nations…”