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.”^(A)

¹² But when you saw that King Nahash of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ though the Lord your God was your king.^(A)

Israel’s Request for a King Granted

¹⁹ But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, “No! We are determined to have a king over us,

The Tribes Renew the Covenant

24 Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.^(A)

The Ruler from Bethlehem

¹⁷ Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call upon the Lord, that he may send thunder and rain, and you shall know and see that the wickedness that you have done in the sight of the Lord is great in demanding a king for yourselves.”^{(A) 18} So Samuel called upon the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.^(B)

¹⁹ All the people said to Samuel, “Pray to the Lord your God for your servants, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins the evil of demanding a king for ourselves.”^(C)

⁶ But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the Lord,^{(A) 7} and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.^{(B) 8} Just as they have done to me^[a] from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. ⁹ Now then, listen to their voice; only, you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”^(C)

¹⁴ In the morning, therefore, you shall come forward tribe by tribe. The tribe that the Lord takes shall come near by clans, the clan that the Lord takes shall come near by households, and the household that the Lord takes shall come near one by one. ¹⁵ And the one who is taken as having the devoted things shall be burned with fire, together with all that he has, for having transgressed the covenant of the Lord and for having done an outrageous thing in Israel.’ ”^(A)

¹⁶ So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel near tribe by tribe, and the tribe of Judah was taken. ¹⁷ He brought near the clans of Judah, and the clan of the Zerahites was taken, and he brought near the clan of the Zerahites by households,^[a] and Zabdi was taken.^{(B) 18} And he brought near his household one by one, and Achan son of Carmi son of Zabdi son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken. ¹⁹ Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession to him. Tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.”^{(C) 20} And Achan answered Joshua, “It is true; I am the one who sinned against the Lord God of Israel. This is what I did:^{(D) 21} when I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, then I coveted them and took them. They now lie hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”

²² So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and there it was, hidden in his tent with the silver underneath. ²³ They took them out of the tent and brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites, and they spread them out before the Lord. ²⁴ Then Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan son of Zerah, with the silver, the mantle, and the bar of gold, with his sons and daughters, with his oxen, donkeys, and sheep, and his tent and all that he had, and they brought them up to the Valley of Achor.^{(E) 25} Joshua said, “Why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord is bringing trouble on you today.” And all Israel stoned him to death; they burned them with fire, cast stones on them,^{(F) 26} and raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his burning anger. Therefore that place to this day is called the Valley of Achor.^[b](G)

² “Speak to the Israelites, and get twelve staffs from them, one for each ancestral house, from all the leaders of their ancestral houses. Write each man’s name on his staff,