⁵ They said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Therefore, appoint a king to judge us the same as all the other nations have.”^(A)

⁶ When they said, “Give us a king to judge us,” Samuel considered their demand wrong, so he prayed to the Lord. ⁷ But the Lord told him, “Listen to the people and everything they say to you. They have not rejected you; they have rejected me as their king.^{(B) 8} They are doing the same thing to you that they have done to me,^[a] since the day I brought them out of Egypt until this day, abandoning me and worshiping other gods. ⁹ Listen to them, but solemnly warn them^(C) and tell them about the customary rights of the king who will reign over them.”