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¹ THEN Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his head and kissed him, and said to him, Behold, the LORD has anointed you to be a ruler over his inheritance.² When you depart from me today, behold, you will find two men at Rachels sepulchre in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say to you, The asses which you went to seek are found; and, lo, your father has ceased worrying about the asses, and is concerned about you, saying, What shall I do for my son?³ Then when you shall go on from there and you shall come to the oak of Tabor, behold, you will find there three men going up to God to Beth-el, one carrying three kids and another carrying three loaves of bread and another carrying a skin of wine;⁴ And they will salute you, and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall receive from their hands.⁵ After that you shall come to the hill of God where there is a garrison of the Philistines; and it shall come to pass when you arrive there at the city, behold, you will meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place with psalteries and tabrets and tambourines and timbrels before them; and they will be prophesying;⁶ And the Spirit of the LORD will come upon you, and you shall prophesy with them, and you shall be changed into another man.⁷ And it shall be when these signs are come to you, that you shall do whatever you wish, for the LORD is with you.⁸ And you shall go down before me to Gilgal; and, behold, I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and to make sacrifices of peace offerings; seven days you shall wait, till I come to you, and show you what you shall do.

⁹ And it came to pass when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day.¹⁰ And when they came to Ramtha, behold, a company of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them.¹¹ And it came to pass when all that knew him beforetime saw that, behold, he prophesied among the prophets, then the people said one to another, What is this that has come to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?¹² And a man of the same place answered and said, But who is his father? Therefore it became a byword, Is Saul also among the prophets?¹³ And when he had finished prophesying, he left the high place, and came home.¹⁴ And Sauls uncle said to him and to his servant, Where did you go? And they said, To seek the asses; and when we found them nowhere, we went to Samuel.¹⁵ And Sauls uncle said to him, Tell me what Samuel said to you.¹⁶ And Saul said to his uncle, He told us plainly that the asses were found. But of the matter of the kingdom of which Samuel had spoken, he did not tell him.

¹⁷ And Samuel called the people together before the LORD at Mizpeh;¹⁸ And he said to the children of Israel, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt and later delivered you from the hand of the Philistines and from the hand of all the kingdoms that oppressed you;¹⁹ But you have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you from all your calamities and your tribulations; and you have said, Not so, but set a king over us. Now therefore present yourselves before the LORD by your tribes and by your thousands.²⁰ And when Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot.²¹ Then when he caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri was taken by lot, and Saul the son of Kish was taken by lot. But when they sought him, he could not be found.²² Therefore Samuel inquired further of the LORD, saying, Where is this man? And the LORD said to Samuel, Behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage.²³ And they ran and brought him from there; and when he stood among the people, he was head and shoulders higher than any of the people.²⁴ And Samuel said to all the people, Now have you seen him whom the LORD has chosen, because there is none like him among all the people? And the people shouted and said, Long live the king!²⁵ Then Samuel told the people the law governing the king, and wrote it in a book and laid it before the LORD. And Samuel sent all the people away, and they went every man to his house.²⁶ And Saul also went to his house at Ramtha; and there went with him a band of men whose hearts God had touched.²⁷ But some of the wicked men said, How shall this man save us? And they despised him and brought him no presents. But he held his peace.