Samuel's Farewell Address

12 And Samuel said to all Israel, “Behold, I have obeyed ^(A)your voice in all that you have said to me ^(B)and have made a king over you.

²⁴ And Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see him ^(A)whom the Lord has chosen? There is none like him among all the people.” And all the people shouted, ^(B)“Long live the king!”

¹⁴ Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and there renew the kingdom.” ¹⁵ So all the people went to ^(A)Gilgal, and there they made Saul king ^(B)before the Lord in Gilgal. There ^(C)they sacrificed peace offerings before the Lord, and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.

Saul Anointed King

10 ^(A)Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head ^(B)and kissed him and said, “Has not the Lord anointed you to be prince^[a] over ^(C)his people Israel? And you shall reign over the people of the Lord and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies. And this shall be the sign to you that the Lord has anointed you to be prince^[b] over his heritage.

The Lord Grants Israel's Request

¹⁹ But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, ^20 (A)that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” ²¹ And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. ²² And the Lord said to Samuel, ^(B)“Obey their voice and make them a king.” Samuel then said to the men of Israel, “Go every man to his city.”

⁵ and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. ^(A)Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” ⁶ But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. ⁷ And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, ^(B)for they have not rejected you, ^(C)but they have rejected me from being king over them. ⁸ According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you.