And they said, “If you are going to send the ark of the God of Israel away, do not send it empty; but you shall certainly return to Him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be revealed to you why His hand does not leave you.”

So you shall make likenesses of your tumors and likenesses of your mice that are ruining the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps He will lighten His hand from you, your gods, and your land.

And the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom will He go up from us?”

Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone; and He will save you from the hand of the Philistines.”

So the sons of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that He will save us from the hand of the Philistines!”

Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt even to this day—in that they have abandoned Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you as well.

But he said to him, “Behold now, there is a man of God in this city, and the man is held in honor; everything that he says definitely comes true. Now let’s go there, perhaps he can tell us about our journey on which we have set out.”

Then Saul said to his servant, “But look, if we go, what shall we bring the man? For the bread is gone from our sacks and there is no gift to bring to the man of God. What do we have?”

The servant answered Saul again and said, “Look, I have in my hand a fourth of a shekel of silver; I will give it to the man of God and he will tell us our way.”

(Previously in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he used to say, “Come, and let’s go to the seer”; for he who is called a prophet now was previously called a seer.)

Then Saul said to his servant, “Good idea; come, let’s go.” So they went to the city where the man of God was.

God’s Choice for King

Now a day before Saul’s coming, the Lord had revealed this to Samuel, saying,

As they were going down to the edge of the city, Samuel said to Saul, “Speak to the servant and have him go on ahead of us and pass by; but you stand here now, so that I may proclaim the word of God to you.”

Then you will go on further from there, and you will come as far as the oak of Tabor, and there three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you: one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a jug of wine.

Afterward you will come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is; and it shall be as soon as you have come there to the city, that you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and a lyre in front of them, and they will be prophesying.

And it shall be when these signs come to you, do for yourself what the occasion requires, because God is with you.

Then it happened, when he turned his back to leave Samuel, that God changed his heart; and all those signs came about on that day.

When they came there to the hill, behold, a group of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God rushed upon him, so that he prophesied among them.

and he said to the sons of Israel, “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 power of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’

But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your catastrophes and your distresses; yet you have said, ‘No, but put a king over us!’ Now then, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your groups of thousands.”

Saul also went to his house in Gibeah; and the valiant men whose hearts God had touched went with him.

Then the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and he became very angry.

But they forgot the Lord their God, so He sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them.

The King Confirmed

But when you saw that Nahash the king of the sons of Ammon was coming against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us!’ Yet the Lord your God was your king.

If you will fear the Lord and serve Him, and listen to His voice and not rebel against the command of the Lord, then both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God.