Saul selected as king

¹⁷ Samuel summoned the people to the Lord at Mizpah. ¹⁸ Then he told the Israelites: “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: I brought Israel up out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the Egyptians’ power and from the power of all the kingdoms that oppressed you. ¹⁹ But today you’ve rejected your God who saved you from all your troubles and difficulties by saying, ‘No! Appoint a king over us!’ So now assemble yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and clans.”

²⁰ Then Samuel brought all the Israelite tribes forward, and the tribe of Benjamin was selected. ²¹ Next Samuel brought the tribe of Benjamin forward by its families, and the family of Matri was selected. Samuel then brought the family of Matri forward, person by person,^[a] and Saul, Kish’s son, was selected. But when they looked for him, he wasn’t to be found. ²² So they asked another question of the Lord: “Has the man come here yet?”

The Lord said, “Yes, he’s hiding among the supplies.” ²³ They ran and retrieved Saul from there, and when he stood up in the middle of the people, he was head and shoulders taller than anyone else.

²⁴ “Can you see the one the Lord has chosen?” Samuel asked all the people. “He has no equal among the people.”

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

²⁵ Samuel then explained to the people how the monarchy should operate^[b] and wrote it in a scroll and placed it in the Lord’s presence. Then Samuel sent every person back to their homes. ²⁶ Saul also went back to his home in Gibeah. Along with him went courageous men whose hearts God had touched. ²⁷ But some despicable people said, “How can this man save us?” They despised Saul and didn’t bring him gifts, but Saul didn’t say anything.

Saul delivers Jabesh-gilead

^[c] Nahash the Ammonite king had been severely oppressing the Gadites and the Reubenites. He gouged out everyone’s right eye, thereby not allowing Israel to have a deliverer. There wasn’t a single Israelite left across the Jordan River who hadn’t had their right eye gouged out by the Ammonite king Nahash. But seven thousand people had escaped from the Ammonites’ power and fled to Jabesh-gilead.