1 Samuel 7-12

I Samuel 7

¹So the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took the ark of the Lord to the house of Abinadab in Gibeah, and they made his son Eleazar holy and put the ark in his care.

²And the ark was in Kiriath-jearim for a long time, as much as twenty years: and all Israel was searching after the Lord with weeping.

³Then Samuel said to all Israel, If with all your hearts you would come back to the Lord, then put away all the strange gods and the Astartes from among you, and let your hearts be turned to the Lord, and be servants to him only: and he will make you safe from the hands of the Philistines.

⁴So the children of Israel gave up the worship of Baal and Astarte, and became worshippers of the Lord only.

⁵Then Samuel said, Let all Israel come to Mizpah and I will make prayer to the Lord for you.

⁶So they came together to Mizpah, and got water, draining it out before the Lord, and they took no food that day, and they said, We have done evil against the Lord. And Samuel was judge of the children of Israel in Mizpah.

⁷Now when the Philistines had news that the children of Israel had come together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And the children of Israel, hearing of it, were full of fear.

⁸And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Go on crying to the Lord our God for us to make us safe from the hands of the Philistines.

⁹And Samuel took a young lamb, offering all of it as a burned offering to the Lord; and Samuel made prayers to the Lord for Israel and the Lord gave him an answer.

¹⁰And while Samuel was offering the burned offering, the Philistines came near for the attack on Israel; but at the thunder of the Lord's voice that day the Philistines were overcome with fear, and they gave way before Israel.

¹¹And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and went after the Philistines, attacking them till they came under Beth-car.

¹²Then Samuel took a stone and put it up between Mizpah and Jeshanah, naming it Eben-ezer, and saying, Up to now the Lord has been our help.

¹³So the Philistines were overcome, and did not come into the country of Israel again: and all the days of Samuel the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines.

¹⁴And the towns which the Philistines had taken were given back to Israel, from Ekron to Gath, and all the country round them Israel made free from the power of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.

¹⁵And Samuel was judge of Israel all the days of his life.

¹⁶From year to year he went in turn to Beth-el and Gilgal and Mizpah, judging Israel in all those places.

¹⁷And his base was at Ramah, where his house was; there he was judge of Israel and there he made an altar to the Lord.

I Samuel 8

¹Now when Samuel was old, he made his sons judges over Israel.

²The name of his first son was Joel and the name of his second Abijah: they were judges in Beer-sheba.

³And his sons did not go in his ways, but moved by the love of money took rewards, and were not upright in judging.

⁴Then all the responsible men of Israel got together and went to Samuel at Ramah,

⁵And said to him, See now, you are old, and your sons do not go in your ways: give us a king now to be our judge, so that we may be like the other nations.

⁶But Samuel was not pleased when they said to him, Give us a king to be our judge. And Samuel made prayer to the Lord.

⁷And the Lord said to Samuel, Give ear to the voice of the people and what they say to you: they have not been turned away from you, but they have been turned away from me, not desiring me to be king over them.

⁸As they have done from the first, from the day when I took them out of Egypt till this day, turning away from me and worshipping other gods, so now they are acting in the same way to you.

⁹Give ear now to their voice: but make a serious protest to them, and give them a picture of the sort of king who will be their ruler.

¹⁰And Samuel said all these words of the Lord to the people who were desiring a king.

¹¹And he said, This is the sort of king who will be your ruler: he will take your sons and make them his servants, his horsemen, and drivers of his war-carriages, and they will go running before his war-carriages;

¹²And he will make them captains of thousands and of fifties; some he will put to work ploughing and cutting his grain and making his instruments of war and building his war-carriages.

¹³Your daughters he will take to be makers of perfumes and cooks and bread-makers.

¹⁴He will take your fields and your vine-gardens and your olive-gardens, all the best of them, and give them to his servants.

¹⁵He will take a tenth of your seed and of the fruit of your vines and give it to his servants.

¹⁶He will take your men-servants and your servant-girls, and the best of your oxen and your asses and put them to his work.

¹⁷He will take a tenth of your sheep: and you will be his servants.

¹⁸Then you will be crying out because of your king whom you have taken for yourselves; but the Lord will not give you an answer in that day.

¹⁹But the people gave no attention to the voice of Samuel; and they said, No, but we will have a king over us,

²⁰So that we may be like the other nations, and so that our king may be our judge and go out before us to war.

²¹Then Samuel, after hearing all the people had to say, went and gave an account of it to the Lord.

²²And the Lord said to Samuel, Give ear to their voice and make a king for them. Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, Let every man go back to his town.

I Samuel 9

¹Now there was a man of Benjamin named Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a man of wealth.

²He had a son named Saul, a specially good-looking young man; there was no one better-looking among the children of Israel: he was taller by a head than any other of the people.

³Now the asses of Saul's father Kish had gone wandering away. And Kish said to his son Saul, Take one of the servants with you, and get up and go in search of the asses.

⁴So they went through the hill-country of Ephraim and through the land of Shalishah, but they saw no sign of them: then they went through the land of Shaalim, but they were not there: and they went through the land of the Benjamites, but they did not come across them.

⁵And when they had come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to the servant who was with him, Come, let us go back, or my father may give up caring about the asses and be troubled about us.

⁶But the servant said to him, See now, in this town there is a man of God, who is highly honoured, and everything he says comes true: let us go there now; it may be that he will give us directions about our journey.

⁷Then Saul said to his servant, But if we go, what are we to take the man? all our bread is gone, and we have no offering to take to the man of God: what are we to do?

⁸But the servant said in answer, I have here a fourth part of a shekel of silver: I will give that to the man of God, and he will give us directions about our way.

⁹(In the past in Israel, when a man went to get directions from God, he said, Come let us go to the Seer, for he who now is named Prophet was in those days given the name of Seer.)

¹⁰Then Saul said to his servant, You have said well; come, let us go. So they went to the town where the man of God was.

¹¹And when they were on the way up to the town, they saw some young girls going out to get water and said to them, Is the seer here?

¹²And they said, He is; in fact he is before you: go quickly now, for he has come into the town today, for the people are making an offering in the high place today:

¹³When you come into the town you will see him straight away, before he goes up to the high place for the feast: the people are waiting for his blessing before starting the feast, and after that the guests will take part in it. So go up now and you will see him.

¹⁴So they went up to the town, and when they came inside the town, Samuel came face to face with them on his way to the high place.

¹⁵Now the day before Saul came, the word of God had come to Samuel, saying,

¹⁶Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and on him you are to put the holy oil, making him ruler over my people Israel, and he will make my people safe from the hands of the Philistines: for I have seen the sorrow of my people, whose cry has come up to me.

¹⁷And when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said to him, This is the man of whom I gave you word! he it is who is to have authority over my people.

¹⁸Then Saul came up to Samuel in the doorway of the town and said, Give me directions, if you will be so good, to the house of the seer.

¹⁹Then Samuel said to Saul, I am the seer; go up before me to the high place and take food with me today: and in the morning I will let you go, after opening to you all the secrets of your heart.

²⁰As for your asses which have been wandering for three days, give no thought to them, for they have come back. And for whom are all the desired things in Israel? are they not for you and your father's family?

²¹And Saul said, Am I not a man of Benjamin, the smallest of all the tribes of Israel? and my family the least of the families of Benjamin? why then do you say these words to me?

²²Then Samuel took Saul and his servant into the guest room, and made them take the chief place among all the guests who were there, about thirty persons.

²³And Samuel said to the cook, Give me that part which I gave you orders to keep by you.

²⁴And the cook took up the leg with the fat tail on it, and put it before Saul. And Samuel said, This is the part which has been kept for you: take it as your part of the feast; because it has been kept for you till the right time came and till the guests were present. So that day Saul took food with Samuel.

²⁵And when they had come down from the high place into the town, where a bed was made ready for Saul, he went to rest.

²⁶And about dawn Samuel said to Saul on the roof, Get up so that I may send you away. So Saul got up, and he and Samuel went out together.

²⁷And on their way down to the end of the town, Samuel said to Saul, Give your servant orders to go on in front of us, (so he went on,) but you keep here, so that I may give you the word of God.

I Samuel 10

¹Then Samuel took the bottle of oil, and put the oil on his head and gave him a kiss and said, Is not the Lord with the holy oil making you ruler over Israel, his people? and you will have authority over the people of the Lord, and you will make them safe from the hands of their attackers round about them, and this will be the sign for you:

²When you have gone away from me today, you will see two men by the resting-place of Rachel's body, in the land of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say to you, The asses which you went in search of have come back, and now your father, caring no longer for the asses, is troubled about you, saying, What am I to do about my son?

³Then you are to go on from there, and when you come to the oak-tree of Tabor, you will see three men going up to God to Beth-el, one having with him three young goats and another three cakes of bread and another a skin full of wine:

⁴They will say, Peace be with you, and will give you two cakes of bread, which you are to take from them.

⁵After that you will come to Gibeah, the hill of God, where an armed force of the Philistines is stationed: and when you come to the town, you will see a band of prophets coming down from the high place with instruments of music before them; and they will be acting like prophets:

⁶And the spirit of the Lord will come on you with power, and you will be acting like a prophet with them, and will be changed into another man.

⁷And when these signs come to you, see that you take the chance which is offered you; for God is with you.

⁸Then you are to go down before me to Gilgal, where I will come to you, for the offering of burned offerings and peace-offerings: go on waiting there for seven days till I come to you and make clear to you what you have to do.

⁹And it came about, that when he went away from Samuel, God gave him a changed heart: and all those signs took place that day.

¹⁰And when they came to Gibeah, a band of prophets came face to face with him; and the spirit of God came on him with power and he took his place among them as a prophet.

¹¹Now when Saul's old friends saw him among the band of prophets, the people said to one another, What has come to Saul, the son of Kish? Is even Saul among the prophets?

¹²And one of the people of that place said in answer, And who is their father? So it became a common saying, Is even Saul among the prophets?

¹³Then going away from the prophets, he came to the house.

¹⁴And Saul's father's brother said to him and his servant, Where have you been? And he said, Searching for the asses: and when we saw no sign of them, we came to Samuel.

¹⁵Then he said, And what did Samuel say to you?

¹⁶And Saul, answering him, said, He gave us word that the asses had come back. But he said nothing to him of Samuel's words about the kingdom.

¹⁷Then Samuel sent for the people to come together before the Lord at Mizpah;

¹⁸And he said to the children of Israel, The Lord, the God of Israel, has said, I took Israel out of Egypt, and made you free from the hands of the Egyptians and from all the kingdoms which kept you down:

¹⁹But today you are turned away from your God, who himself has been your saviour from all your troubles and sorrows; and you have said to him, Put a king over us. So now, take your places before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands.

²⁰So Samuel made all the tribes of Israel come near, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken.

²¹Then he made the tribe of Benjamin come near by families, and the family of the Matrites was taken: and from them, Saul, the son of Kish, was taken: but when they went in search of him he was nowhere to be seen.

²²So they put another question to the Lord, Is the man present here? And the answer of the Lord was, He is keeping himself from view among the goods.

²³So they went quickly and made him come out; and when he took his place among the people, he was taller by a head than any of the people.

²⁴And Samuel said to all the people, Do you see the man of the Lord's selection, how there is no other like him among all the people? And all the people with loud cries said, Long life to the king!

²⁵Then Samuel gave the people the laws of the kingdom, writing them in a book which he put in a safe place before the Lord. And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house.

²⁶And Saul went to Gibeah, to his house; and with him went the men of war whose hearts had been touched by God.

²⁷But certain good-for-nothing persons said, How is this man to be our saviour? And having no respect for him, they gave him no offering.

I Samuel 11

¹Then about a month after this, Nahash the Ammonite came up and put his forces in position for attacking Jabesh-gilead: and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, Make an agreement with us and we will be your servants.

²And Nahash the Ammonite said to them, I will make an agreement with you on this condition, that all your right eyes are put out; so that I may make it a cause of shame to all Israel.

³Then the responsible men of Jabesh said to him, Give us seven days, so that we may send men to every part of Israel: and then, if no one comes to our help, we will come out to you.

⁴So they sent representatives to Saul's town Gibeah, and these gave the news to the people: and all the people gave themselves to weeping.

⁵Now Saul came from the field, driving the oxen before him; and he said, Why are the people weeping? And they gave him word of what the men of Jabesh had said.

⁶And at their words, the spirit of God came on Saul with power, and he became very angry.

⁷And he took two oxen and, cutting them up, sent them through all the land of Israel by the hand of runners, saying, If any man does not come out after Saul and Samuel, this will be done to his oxen. And the fear of the Lord came on the people and they came out like one man.

⁸And he had them numbered in Bezek: the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.

⁹Then he said to the representatives who had come, Say to the men of Jabesh-gilead, Tomorrow, by the time the sun is high, you will be made safe. And the representatives came and gave the news to the men of Jabesh; and they were glad.

¹⁰So the men of Jabesh said, Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you.

¹¹Now on the day after, Saul put the people into three bands, and in the morning watch they came to the tents of the Ammonites, and they went on attacking them till the heat of the day: and those who were not put to death were put to flight in every direction, so that no two of them were together.

¹²And the people said to Samuel, Who was it who said, Is Saul to be our king? give the men up, so that we may put them to death.

¹³And Saul said, Not a man is to be put to death today: for today the Lord has made Israel safe.

¹⁴Then Samuel said to the people, Come, let us go to Gilgal and there make the kingdom strong in the hands of Saul.

¹⁵So all the people went to Gilgal; and there in Gilgal they made Saul king before the Lord; and peace-offerings were offered before the Lord; and there Saul and all the men of Israel were glad with great joy.

I Samuel 12

¹And Samuel said to all Israel, You see that I have given ear to everything you said to me, and have made a king over you.

²And now, see, the king is before you: and I am old and grey-headed, and my sons are with you: I have been living before your eyes from my early days till now.

³Here I am: give witness against me before the Lord and before the man on whom he has put the holy oil: whose ox or ass have I taken? to whom have I been untrue? who has been crushed down by me? from whose hand have I taken a price for the blinding of my eyes? I will give it all back to you.

⁴And they said, You have never been untrue to us or cruel to us; you have taken nothing from any man.

⁵Then he said, The Lord is witness against you, and the man on whom he has put the holy oil is witness this day that you have seen no wrong in me. And they said, He is witness.

⁶And Samuel said to the people, The Lord is witness, who gave authority to Moses and Aaron, and who took your fathers up out of the land of Egypt.

⁷Keep your places now, while I take up the argument with you before the Lord, and give you the story of the righteousness of the Lord, which he has made clear by his acts to you and to your fathers.

⁸When Jacob and his sons had come into Egypt, and were crushed by the Egyptians, the prayers of your fathers came up to the Lord, and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who took your fathers out of Egypt, and he put them into this place.

⁹But they were false to the Lord their God, and he gave them up into the hands of Sisera, captain of the army of Jabin, king of Hazor, and into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the king of Moab, who made war against them.

¹⁰Then crying out to the Lord, they said, We have done evil, because we have been turned away from the Lord, worshipping the Baals and the Astartes: but now, make us safe from those who are against us and we will be your servants.

¹¹So the Lord sent Jerubbaal and Barak and Jephthah and Samuel and took you out of the power of those who were fighting against you on every side, and made you safe.

¹²And when you saw that Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, was coming against you, you said to me, No more of this; we will have a king for our ruler: when the Lord your God was your king.

¹³Here, then, is the king marked out by you: the Lord has put a king over you.

¹⁴If in the fear of the Lord you are his servants, hearing his voice and not going against the orders of the Lord, but being true to the Lord your God, you and the king ruling over you, then all will be well:

¹⁵But if you do not give ear to the voice of the Lord, but go against his orders, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and against your king for your destruction, as it was against your fathers.

¹⁶Now keep where you are and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes.

¹⁷Is it not now the time of the grain cutting? My cry will go up to the Lord and he will send thunder and rain: so that you may see and be conscious of your great sin which you have done in the eyes of the Lord in desiring a king for yourselves.

¹⁸So Samuel made prayer to the Lord; and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people were in fear of the Lord and of Samuel.

¹⁹And all the people said to Samuel, Make prayer for us to the Lord your God so that death may not overtake us: for in addition to all our sins we have done this evil, in desiring a king.

²⁰Then Samuel said to the people, Have no fear: truly you have done evil, but do not be turned away from the Lord; be his servants with all your heart;

²¹And do not go from the right way turning to those false gods in which there is no profit and no salvation, for they are false.

²²For the Lord will not give his people up, because of the honour of his name; for it was the Lord's pleasure to make of you a people for himself.

²³And as for me, never will I go against the orders of the Lord by giving up my prayers for you: but I will go on teaching you the good and right way.

²⁴Only go in the fear of the Lord, and be his true servants with all your heart, keeping in mind what great things he has done for you.

²⁵But if you still do evil, destruction will overtake you and your king.