^{7 Ref} Keep 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.

^{8 Ref} When 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.

^{9 Ref} But 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.

^{10 Ref} Then 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.

^{11 Ref} So 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.

^{12 Ref} And 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.

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

^{14 Ref} If 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:

^{15 Ref} But 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.