The execution of the command that a king be set over the people had to be preceded by a solemn protest, “Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit protest solemnly against them (Hebrew, “Thou shaft certainly witness against them,”) and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them,—the manner of the king, that is, his customary way of acting, normal behavior, what he will do as king in the throne. This is what he will do. He will take their sons for himself, for his chariots and horsemen, to cultivate his fields, and manufacture his implements...