1 Samuel 8:10-22

The Voice

¹⁰So Samuel told the people who were asking for a king what the Eternal One had said.

Samuel: ¹¹If a king rules over you, things will be different from now on. He will make your sons drive his chariots, be his horsemen, and go into battle ahead of his chariots. ¹²Your king will select commanders over 1,000 and commanders over 50. He will make some of you to plow his fields and collect his harvest; some of you will be the blacksmiths forging his shields and swords for battle and outfitting his chariots. ¹³He will force your daughters to make perfumes, to cook his meals, and to bake his bread. ¹⁴He will seize the choicest of your fields, vineyards, and olive orchards to give to his courtiers, ¹⁵and a tenth of your grain and your vineyards to give to his court eunuchs and servants. ¹⁶This king you ask for will take your slaves, male and female, as his own and put the choicest of your donkeys and your young men to do his work. ¹⁷He will take a tenth of your flocks. You will essentially become his slaves. ¹⁸One day you will cry for mercy from the Eternal One to save you from this king you have chosen for yourselves, but be assured, He will not hear you on that day.

People of Israel (ignoring Samuel): ¹⁹We have decided that we will have a king who will rule over us ²⁰so that we will be like all other nations and will have someone to judge us and to lead us into battle.

²¹After Samuel had heard their demands, he told the Eternal One what they had said.

Eternal One (to Samuel): ²²Do as they have asked. Give them a king.

So Samuel told the people of Israel to go back to their cities until he would call them together to anoint them a king.

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