⁵ And 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.

¹⁴ When you have come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and have taken it for a heritage and are living in it, if it is your desire to have a king over you, like the other nations round about you;

¹⁵ Then see that you take as your king the man named by the Lord your God: let your king be one of your countrymen, not a man of another nation who is not one of yourselves.

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

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

²¹ Then at their request for a king, God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the family of Benjamin, who was their king for forty years.

⁹ From the top of the rocks I see him, looking down on him from the hills: it is a people made separate, not to be numbered among the nations.

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

⁷ And 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.

⁸ As 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.

¹⁷ Is 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.

¹⁰ Where is your king, that he may be your saviour? and all your rulers, that they may take up your cause? of whom you said, Give me a king and rulers.

¹¹ I have given you a king, because I was angry, and have taken him away in my wrath.