1 Samuel 10:17-27

Evangelical Heritage Version

¹⁷ Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mizpah. ¹⁸ He said to the people of Israel, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. I brought Israel up out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians, and from the hand of all the kingdoms that oppressed you. ¹⁹ But today you have rejected your God, the one who saves you out of all your disasters and your distress, and you have said to him, ‘You must set a king over us.’ Now line up in the presence of the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands.”

²⁰ So Samuel brought forward all the tribes of Israel, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen.^{[a] 21} Then he brought forward the tribe of Benjamin by its clans, and the clan of the Matrites was chosen.^[b] Then Saul the son of Kish was chosen, but when they looked for him, he could not be found. ²² Therefore they asked the Lord again, “Has the man arrived here yet?”

The Lord answered, “He has. Look, he is is hiding among the baggage.”

²³ So they ran and brought him from there. When he stood among the people, he was a head taller than any of the people. ²⁴ Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see the one the Lord has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people.”

All the people shouted, “Long live the king!”

²⁵ Samuel told the people the regulations concerning the kingship, and he wrote them on a scroll, which was placed before the Lord. Then Samuel sent all the people away, each man to his own house. ²⁶ Saul went home to Gibeah, and the army went with him, those men whose hearts God had touched. ²⁷ But certain worthless good-for-nothings said, “How can this man save us?” They despised him and brought him no gift, but Saul said nothing.