1 Samuel 8-11

Living Bible

8 In his old age, Samuel retired and appointed his sons as judges in his place. ² Joel and Abijah, his oldest sons, held court in Beersheba; ³ but they were not like their father, for they were greedy for money. They accepted bribes and were very corrupt in the administration of justice. ⁴ Finally the leaders of Israel met in Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel. ⁵ They told him that since his retirement things hadn’t been the same, for his sons were not good men.

“Give us a king like all the other nations have,” they pleaded. ⁶ Samuel was terribly upset and went to the Lord for advice.

⁷ “Do as they say,” the Lord replied, “for I am the one they are rejecting, not you—they don’t want me to be their king any longer. ⁸ Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually forsaken me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment. ⁹ Do as they ask, but warn them about what it will be like to have a king!”

¹⁰ So Samuel told the people what the Lord had said:

¹¹ “If you insist on having a king, he will conscript your sons and make them run before his chariots; ¹² some will be made to lead his troops into battle, while others will be slave laborers; they will be forced to plow in the royal fields and harvest his crops without pay, and make his weapons and chariot equipment. ¹³ He will take your daughters from you and force them to cook and bake and make perfumes for him. ¹⁴ He will take away the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his friends. ¹⁵ He will take a tenth of your harvest and distribute it to his favorites. ¹⁶ He will demand your slaves and the finest of your youth and will use your animals for his personal gain. ¹⁷ He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. ¹⁸ You will shed bitter tears because of this king you are demanding, but the Lord will not help you.”

¹⁹ But the people refused to listen to Samuel’s warning.

“Even so, we still want a king,” they said, ²⁰ “for we want to be like the nations around us. He will govern us and lead us to battle.”

²¹ So Samuel told the Lord what the people had said, ²² and the Lord replied again, “Then do as they say and give them a king.”

So Samuel agreed and sent the men home again.

9 Kish was a rich, influential man from the tribe of Benjamin. He was the son of Abiel, grandson of Zeror, great-grandson of Becorath, and great-great-grandson of Aphiah. ² His son Saul was the most handsome man in Israel. And he was head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the land!

³ One day Kish’s donkeys strayed away, so he sent Saul and a servant to look for them. ⁴ They traveled all through the hill country of Ephraim, the land of Shalisha, the Shaalim area, and the entire land of Benjamin, but couldn’t find them anywhere. ⁵ Finally, after searching in the land of Zuph, Saul said to the servant, “Let’s go home; by now my father will be more worried about us than about the donkeys!”

⁶ But the servant said, “I’ve just thought of something! There is a prophet who lives here in this city; he is held in high honor by all the people because everything he says comes true; let’s go and find him, and perhaps he can tell us where the donkeys are.”

⁷ “But we don’t have anything to pay him with,” Saul replied. “Even our food is gone, and we don’t have a thing to give him.”

⁸ “Well,” the servant said, “I have a dollar! We can at least offer it to him and see what happens!”

^9-11 “All right,” Saul agreed, “let’s try it!”

So they started into the city where the prophet lived. As they were climbing a hill toward the city, they saw some young girls going out to draw water and asked them if they knew whether the seer was in town. (In those days prophets were called seers. “Let’s go and ask the seer,” people would say, rather than, “Let’s go and ask the prophet,” as we would say now.)

^12-13 “Yes,” they replied, “stay right on this road. He lives just inside the city gates. He has just arrived back from a trip to take part in a public sacrifice up on the hill. So hurry, because he’ll probably be leaving about the time you get there; the guests can’t eat until he arrives and blesses the food.”

¹⁴ So they went into the city, and as they were entering the gates they saw Samuel coming out toward them to go up the hill. ¹⁵ The Lord had told Samuel the previous day, ¹⁶ “About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. You are to anoint him as the leader of my people. He will save them from the Philistines, for I have looked down on them in mercy and have heard their cry.”

¹⁷ When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said, “That’s the man I told you about! He will rule my people.”

¹⁸ Just then Saul approached Samuel and asked, “Can you please tell me where the seer’s house is?”

¹⁹ “I am the seer!” Samuel replied. “Go on up the hill ahead of me and we’ll eat together; in the morning I will tell you what you want to know and send you on your way. ²⁰ And don’t worry about those donkeys that were lost three days ago, for they have been found. And anyway, you own all the wealth of Israel now!”

²¹ “Pardon me, sir,” Saul replied. “I’m from the tribe of Benjamin, the smallest in Israel, and my family is the least important of all the families of the tribe! You must have the wrong man!”

²² Then Samuel took Saul and his servant into the great hall and placed them at the head of the table, honoring them above the thirty special guests. ²³ Samuel then instructed the chef to bring Saul the choicest cut of meat, the piece that had been set aside for the guest of honor. ²⁴ So the chef brought it in and placed it before Saul.

“Go ahead and eat it,” Samuel said, “for I was saving it for you, even before I invited these others!”

So Saul ate with Samuel. ²⁵ After the feast, when they had returned to the city, Samuel took Saul up to the porch on the roof and talked with him there. ^26-27 At daybreak the next morning, Samuel called up to him, “Get up; it’s time you were on your way!”

So Saul got up, and Samuel accompanied him to the edge of the city. When they reached the city walls, Samuel told Saul to send the servant on ahead. Then he told him, “I have received a special message for you from the Lord.”

10 Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it over Saul’s head, and kissed him on the cheek and said,

“I am doing this because the Lord has appointed you to be the king of his people, Israel! ² When you leave me, you will see two men beside Rachel’s tomb at Zelzah, in the land of Benjamin; they will tell you that the donkeys have been found and that your father is worried about you and is asking, ‘How am I to find my son?’ ³ And when you get to the oak of Tabor, you will see three men coming toward you who are on their way to worship God at the altar at Bethel; one will be bringing three young goats, another will have three loaves of bread, and the third will have a bottle of wine. ⁴ They will greet you and offer you two of the loaves, which you are to accept. ⁵ After that you will come to Gibeath-elohim, also known as “God’s Hill,” where the garrison of the Philistines is. As you arrive there you will meet a band of prophets coming down the hill playing a psaltery, a timbrel, a flute, and a harp, and prophesying as they come.

⁶ “At that time the Spirit of the Lord will come mightily upon you and you will prophesy with them, and you will feel and act like a different person. ⁷ From that time on your decisions should be based on whatever seems best under the circumstances, for the Lord will guide you. ⁸ Go to Gilgal and wait there seven days for me, for I will be coming to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. I will give you further instructions when I arrive.”

⁹ As Saul said good-bye and started to go, God gave him a new attitude, and all of Samuel’s prophecies came true that day. ¹⁰ When Saul and the servant arrived at the Hill of God, they saw the prophets coming toward them, and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he too began to prophesy.

¹¹ When his friends heard about it, they exclaimed, “What? Saul a prophet?” ¹² And one of the neighbors added, “With a father like his?” So that is the origin of the proverb, “Is Saul a prophet too?”^[a]

¹³ When Saul had finished prophesying he climbed the hill to the altar.

¹⁴ “Where in the world did you go?” Saul’s uncle asked him.

And Saul replied, “We went to look for the donkeys, but we couldn’t find them; so we went to the prophet Samuel to ask him where they were.”

¹⁵ “Oh? And what did he say?” his uncle asked.

¹⁶ “He said the donkeys had been found!” Saul replied. (But he didn’t tell him that he had been anointed as king!)

¹⁷ Samuel now called a convocation of all Israel at Mizpah ^18-19 and gave them this message from the Lord God: “I brought you from Egypt and rescued you from the Egyptians and from all of the nations that were torturing you. But although I have done so much for you, you have rejected me and have said, ‘We want a king instead!’ All right, then, present yourselves before the Lord by tribes and clans.”

²⁰ So Samuel called the tribal leaders together before the Lord, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen by sacred lot. ²¹ Then he brought each family of the tribe of Benjamin before the Lord, and the family of the Matrites was chosen. And finally the sacred lot selected Saul, the son of Kish. But when they looked for him, he had disappeared!

²² So they asked the Lord, “Where is he? Is he here among us?”

And the Lord replied, “He is hiding in the baggage.”

²³ So they found him and brought him out, and he stood head and shoulders above anyone else.

²⁴ Then Samuel said to all the people, “This is the man the Lord has chosen as your king. There isn’t his equal in all of Israel!”

And all the people shouted, “Long live the king!”

²⁵ Then Samuel told the people again what the rights and duties of a king were; he wrote them in a book and put it in a special place before the Lord. Then Samuel sent the people home again.

²⁶ When Saul returned to his home at Gibeah, a band of men whose hearts the Lord had touched became his constant companions. ²⁷ There were, however, some bums and loafers who exclaimed, “How can this man save us?” And they despised him and refused to bring him presents, but he took no notice.

11 At this time Nahash led the army of the Ammonites against the Israeli city of Jabesh-gilead. But the citizens of Jabesh asked for peace. “Leave us alone and we will be your servants,” they pleaded.

² “All right,” Nahash said, “but only on one condition: I will gouge out the right eye of every one of you as a disgrace upon all Israel!”

³ “Give us seven days to see if we can get some help!” replied the elders of Jabesh. “If none of our brothers will come and save us, we will agree to your terms.”

⁴ When a messenger came to Gibeah, Saul’s hometown, and told the people about their plight, everyone broke into tears.

⁵ Saul was plowing in the field, and when he returned to town he asked, “What’s the matter? Why is everyone crying?”

So they told him about the message from Jabesh. ⁶ Then the Spirit of God came strongly upon Saul and he became very angry. ⁷ He took two oxen and cut them into pieces and sent messengers to carry them throughout all Israel.

“This is what will happen to the oxen of anyone who refuses to follow Saul and Samuel to battle!” he announced. And God caused the people to be afraid of Saul’s anger, and they came to him as one man. ⁸ He counted them in Bezek and found that there were three hundred thousand of them in addition to thirty thousand from Judah.

⁹ So he sent the messengers back to Jabesh-gilead to say, “We will rescue you before tomorrow noon!” What joy there was throughout the city when that message arrived!

¹⁰ The men of Jabesh then told their enemies, “We surrender. Tomorrow we will come out to you and you can do to us as you wish.”

¹¹ But early the next morning Saul arrived, having divided his army into three detachments, and launched a surprise attack against the Ammonites and slaughtered them all morning. The remnant of their army was so badly scattered that no two of them were left together.

¹² Then the people exclaimed to Samuel, “Where are those men who said that Saul shouldn’t be our king? Bring them here and we will kill them!”

¹³ But Saul replied, “No one will be executed today; for today the Lord has rescued Israel!”

¹⁴ Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us all go to Gilgal and reconfirm Saul as our king.”

¹⁵ So they went to Gilgal and in a solemn ceremony before the Lord they crowned him king. Then they offered peace offerings to the Lord, and Saul and all Israel were very happy.