²⁶ Then at the break of dawn^[a] Samuel called to Saul upon the roof, “Get up, so that I may send you on your way.” Saul got up, and both he and Samuel went out into the street.

Samuel Anoints Saul

²⁷ As they were going down to the outskirts of the town, Samuel said to Saul, “Tell the young man to go on before us, and when he has passed on, stop here yourself for a while, that I may make known to you the word of God.” 10 ¹ Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him; he said, “The Lord has anointed you ruler over his people Israel. You shall reign over the people of the Lord, and you will save them from the hand of their enemies all around. Now this shall be the sign to you that the Lord has anointed you ruler^[b] over his heritage:^{(A) 2} When you depart from me today you will meet two men by Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah; they will say to you, ‘The donkeys that you went to seek are found, and now your father has stopped worrying about them and is worrying about you, saying: “What shall I do about my son?” ’^{(B) 3} Then you shall go on from there further and come to the oak of Tabor; three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there: one carrying three kids, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine.^{(C) 4} They will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall accept from them. ⁵ After that you shall come to Gibeath-elohim,^[c] at the place where the Philistine garrison is; there, as you come to the town, you will meet a band of prophets coming down from the shrine with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre playing in front of them; they will be in a prophetic frenzy.^{(D) 6} Then the spirit of the Lord will possess you, and you will be in a prophetic frenzy along with them and be turned into a different person.^{(E) 7} Now when these signs meet you, do whatever you see fit to do, for God is with you.^{(F) 8} And you shall go down to Gilgal ahead of me; then I will come down to you to present burnt offerings and offer sacrifices of well-being. Seven days you shall wait, until I come to you and show you what you shall do.”^(G)

Saul Prophesies

⁹ As he turned away to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart, and all these signs were fulfilled that day.^{(H) 10} When they were going from there to Gibeah,^[d] a band of prophets met him, and the spirit of God possessed him, and he fell into a prophetic frenzy along with them.^{(I) 11} When all who knew him before saw how he prophesied with the prophets, the people said to one another, “What has come over the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?”^{(J) 12} A man of the place answered, “And who is their father?” Therefore it became a proverb, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” ¹³ When his prophetic frenzy had ended, he went home.^[e]

¹⁴ Saul’s uncle said to him and to the young man, “Where did you go?” And he replied, “To seek the donkeys, and when we saw they were not to be found, we went to Samuel.” ¹⁵ Saul’s uncle said, “Tell me what Samuel said to you.” ¹⁶ Saul said to his uncle, “He told us that the donkeys had been found.” But about the matter of the kingship, of which Samuel had spoken, he did not tell him anything.^(K)

God’s Election of Israel

9 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit^(A)— ² I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood.^{(B) 4} They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;^{(C) 5} to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever.^[a] Amen.^(D)

⁶ It is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all those descended from Israel are Israelites,^{(E) 7} and not all of Abraham’s children are his descendants, but “it is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you.”^{(F) 8} This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants. ⁹ For the word of the promise is this: “About this time I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.”^{(G) 10} Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one husband, our ancestor Isaac:^{(H) 11} even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election might continue, ¹² not by works but by his call) she was told, “The elder shall serve the younger.”^{(I) 13} As it is written,

¹⁴ What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!^{(K) 15} For he says to Moses,

¹⁶ So it depends not on human will or exertion but on God who shows mercy. ¹⁷ For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I may show my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”^{(M) 18} So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses.

God’s Wrath and Mercy

¹⁹ You will say to me then, “Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”^{(N) 20} But who indeed are you, a human, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, “Why have you made me like this?”^{(O) 21} Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use?^{(P) 22} What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction,^{(Q) 23} and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— ²⁴ including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the gentiles? ²⁵ As he also says in Hosea,

²⁷ And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved,^{(T) 28} for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth quickly and decisively.”^{[b] 29} And as Isaiah predicted,

Israel’s Unbelief

³⁰ What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith,^{(V) 31} but Israel, who did strive for the law of righteousness, did not attain that law.^{(W) 32} Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,^{(X) 33} as it is written,

Saul Proclaimed King

¹⁷ Samuel summoned the people to the Lord at Mizpah^{(A) 18} and said to the Israelites, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’^{(B) 19} But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses, and you have said, ‘No, but set a king over us.’ Now, therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your clans.”^(C)

²⁰ Then Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot.^{(D) 21} He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its families, and the family of the Matrites was taken by lot. Finally he brought the family of the Matrites near man by man,^[a] and Saul the son of Kish was taken by lot. But when they sought him, he could not be found. ²² So they inquired again of the Lord, “Did the man come here?”^[b] And the Lord said, “See, he has hidden himself among the baggage.”^{(E) 23} Then they ran and brought him from there. When he took his stand among the people, he was head and shoulders taller than any of them.^{(F) 24} Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see the one whom the Lord has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people.” And all the people shouted, “Long live the king!”^(G)

²⁵ Samuel told the people the rights and duties of the kingship, and he wrote them in a book and laid it up before the Lord. Then Samuel sent all the people back to their homes.^{(H) 26} Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went warriors whose hearts God had touched.^{(I) 27} But some worthless fellows said, “How can this man save us?” They despised him and brought him no present. But he held his peace.

Now Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had been grievously oppressing the Gadites and the Reubenites. He would gouge out the right eye of each of them and would not grant Israel a deliverer. No one was left of the Israelites across the Jordan whose right eye Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had not gouged out. But there were seven thousand men who had escaped from the Ammonites and had entered Jabesh-gilead.^[c](J)

The Man with an Unclean Spirit

³¹ He went down to Capernaum, a city in Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbath.^{(A) 32} They were astounded at his teaching because he spoke with authority.^{(B) 33} In the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, ³⁴ “Leave us alone! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”^{(C) 35} But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!” Then the demon, throwing the man down before them, came out of him without doing him any harm.^{(D) 36} They were all astounded and kept saying to one another, “What kind of word is this, that with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits and they come out?”^{(E) 37} And news about him began to reach every place in the region.^(F)

Healings at Simon’s House

³⁸ After leaving the synagogue he entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him about her. ³⁹ Then he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she got up and began to serve them.^(G)

⁴⁰ As the sun was setting, all those caring for any who were sick with various kinds of diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on each of them and cured them.^{(H) 41} Moreover, demons also came out of many, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Messiah.^[a](I)

Jesus Preaches in the Synagogues

⁴² At daybreak he departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowds began looking for him, and when they reached him they tried to keep him from leaving them.^{(J) 43} But he said to them, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.” ⁴⁴ So he continued proclaiming the message in the synagogues of Judea.^[b](K)