^17 (A)Is it not wheat harvest today? ^(B)I will call upon the Lord, that he may send thunder and rain. And you shall know and see that ^(C)your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking for yourselves a king.”

⁷ And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, ^(A)for they have not rejected you, ^(B)but they have rejected me from being king over them.

⁹ So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And ^(A)Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him. ¹⁰ As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. ^(B)But the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel.

¹⁶ Therefore, ^(A)confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, ^(B)that you may be healed. ^(C)The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.^{[a] 17} Elijah was a man ^(D)with a nature like ours, and ^(E)he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for ^(F)three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. ^18 (G)Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

The Lord Will Not Relent

15 Then the Lord said to me, ^(A)“Though ^(B)Moses ^(C)and Samuel ^(D)stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go!

¹² At that time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,