¹⁷ When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, ^(A)“Here is the man of whom I spoke to you! He it is who shall restrain my people.”

³ For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you ^(A)will receive his approval, ⁴ for ^(B)he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, ^(C)an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

²¹ Then ^(A)they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul ^(B)the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.

^25 (A)And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. ^(B)And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.

¹⁹ As soon as it ^(A)began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, that no load might be brought in on the Sabbath day.

⁶ When they came, he looked on ^(A)Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord's anointed is before him.” ⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, ^(B)“Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, ^(C)but the Lord looks on the heart.” ⁸ Then Jesse called ^(D)Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” ⁹ Then Jesse made ^(E)Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” ¹⁰ And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” ¹¹ Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, ^(F)“There remains yet the youngest,^[a] but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, ^(G)“Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.” ¹² And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ^(H)ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, ^(I)“Arise, anoint him, for this is he.”

^13 (A)And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, ^(B)because his sons were blaspheming God,^{[a] (C)}and he did not restrain them.