Saul Publicly Chosen King

¹⁷ Now Samuel called the ^(A)people together to the Lord at Mizpah; ¹⁸ and he said to the sons of Israel, “^(B)This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘I brought Israel up from Egypt, and I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the ^[a]power of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’ ¹⁹ But today you ^(C)have rejected your God, who saves you from all your catastrophes and your distresses; yet you have ^[b]said, ‘No, but put a king over us!’ Now then, ^(D)present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your ^[c]groups of thousands.”

²⁰ So Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel forward; and the tribe of Benjamin was selected by lot. ²¹ Then he brought the tribe of Benjamin forward by its families, and the Matrite family was selected by lot. And Saul the son of Kish was selected by lot; but when they looked for him, he could not be found. ²² Therefore ^(E)they inquired further of the Lord: “Has the man come here yet?” And the Lord said, “Behold, he is hiding himself among the baggage.” ²³ So they ran and took him from there, and when he stood among the people, ^(F)he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward. ²⁴ Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see him ^(G)whom the Lord has chosen? Surely there is no one like him among all the people.” So all the people shouted and said, “^[d](H)Long live the king!”

²⁵ Then Samuel told the people ^(I)the ordinances of the kingdom, and wrote them in the book, and ^(J)placed it before the Lord. And Samuel sent all the people away, each one to his house. ²⁶ Saul also went ^(K)to his house in Gibeah; and the valiant men whose hearts God had touched went with him. ²⁷ But certain ^[e](L)useless men said, “How can this one save us?” And they despised him and ^(M)did not bring him a gift. But ^[f]he kept silent about it.