² And now, behold, the king walketh before you; and I am old and grayheaded; and, behold, my sons are with you: and I have walked before you from my youth unto this day.

⁵ and they said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.

²⁰ that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.

¹ And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel.

³ And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted justice.

¹⁹ And Samuel grew, and Jehovah was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.

²⁰ And all Israel from Dan even to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of Jehovah.

¹⁷ who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in; that the congregation of Jehovah be not as sheep which have no shepherd.

¹⁴ knowing that the putting off of my tabernacle cometh swiftly, even as our Lord Jesus Christ signified unto me.

⁶ For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is come.

³ Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been borne `by me' from their birth, that have been carried from the womb;

⁴ and even to old age I am he, and even to hoar hairs will I carry `you'; I have made, and I will bear; yea, I will carry, and will deliver.

¹⁸ Yea, even when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not, Until I have declared thy strength unto `the next' generation, Thy might to every one that is to come.

¹⁶ Then Eli called Samuel, and said, Samuel, my son. And he said, Here am I.

¹³ For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever, for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons did bring a curse upon themselves, and he restrained them not.

²⁹ Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering, which I have commanded in `my' habitation, and honorest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel my people?

²² Now Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons did unto all Israel, and how that they lay with the women that did service at the door of the tent of meeting.