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¹ Now when Samuel was old, he made his sons judges over Israel.² The name of his first son was Joel and the name of his second Abijah: they were judges in Beer-sheba.³ And his sons did not go in his ways, but moved by the love of money took rewards, and were not upright in judging.

⁴ Then all the responsible men of Israel got together and went to Samuel at Ramah,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.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.⁹ Give 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.¹⁰ And Samuel said all these words of the Lord to the people who were desiring a king.¹¹ And 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;¹² And 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.¹³ Your daughters he will take to be makers of perfumes and cooks and bread-makers.¹⁴ He will take your fields and your vine-gardens and your olive-gardens, all the best of them, and give them to his servants.¹⁵ He will take a tenth of your seed and of the fruit of your vines and give it to his servants.¹⁶ He will take your men-servants and your servant-girls, and the best of your oxen and your asses and put them to his work.¹⁷ He will take a tenth of your sheep: and you will be his servants.¹⁸ Then 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.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 Samuel, after hearing all the people had to say, went and gave an account of it to the Lord.²² And 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.