Chapter 8

¹It happened, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. ²Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abijah: they were judges in Beersheba. ³His sons didn’t walk in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted justice. ⁴Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel to Ramah; ⁵and they said to him, Behold, you are old, and your sons don’t walk in your ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. ⁶But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. Samuel prayed to Yahweh. ⁷Yahweh said to Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people in all that they tell you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them. ⁸According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, in that they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also to you. ⁹Now therefore listen to their voice: however you shall protest solemnly to them, and shall show them the manner of the king who shall reign over them. ¹⁰Samuel told all the words of Yahweh to the people who asked of him a king. ¹¹He said, This will be the manner of the king who shall reign over you: he will take your sons, and appoint them to him, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and they shall run before his chariots; ¹²and he will appoint them to him for captains of thousands, and captains of fifties; and he will set some to plow his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots. ¹³He will take your daughters to be perfumers, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. ¹⁴He will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive groves, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. ¹⁵He will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. ¹⁶He will take your male servants, and your female servants, and your best young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. ¹⁷He will take the tenth of your flocks: and you shall be his servants. ¹⁸You shall cry out in that day because of your king whom you shall have chosen you; and Yahweh will not answer you in that day. ¹⁹But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; and they said, No: but we will have a king over us, ²⁰that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles. ²¹Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of Yahweh. ²²Yahweh said to Samuel, Listen to their voice, and make them a king. Samuel said to the men of Israel, Go you every man to his city.