1 Samuel 8:10-22

Evangelical Heritage Version

¹⁰ Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people, who had asked him for a king. ¹¹ He said, “This is what the king who reigns over you will do. He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and with his teams of horses,^[a] and they will have to run ahead of his chariots. ¹² He will make them serve as commanders of a thousand soldiers and as commanders of fifty. He will assign some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest. He will assign some to make his weapons and the trappings^[b] for his chariots. ¹³ He will take your daughters to serve as perfume makers, cooks, and bakers. ¹⁴ He will take your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, even the best of them, and give them to his officials. ¹⁵ He will take a tenth of your seed and of the produce of your vineyards, and he will give it to the members of his court and to his officials. ¹⁶ He will take your male servants, your female servants, your best young men,^[c] and your donkeys, and he will use them to do his work. ¹⁷ He will take a tenth from your flocks, and you will become his servants. ¹⁸ In that day you will cry out because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you on that day.”

¹⁹ But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel. Instead they said, “No, we want to have a king over us, ²⁰ so that we also can be like all the nations, and our king can judge us and lead us out to fight our battles.”

²¹ Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the hearing of the Lord. ²² The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to them, and appoint a king for them.”

So Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Each of you go home to your own city.”