The Kingdom · c. 1050 BC
Chapter 2
A King Like the Nations
Only fear Yahweh, and serve him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you.
For parents
In this chapter Nahash the Ammonite says he will make an agreement with the town of Jabesh Gilead only if every man there has his right eye gouged out (1 Samuel 11:2). Saul cuts a pair of oxen in pieces and sends them through Israel as a warning, and his army attacks the Ammonite camp and kills Ammonites until the heat of the day (11:7–11). Afterward the people want to put to death the men who doubted Saul, and he refuses (11:12–13). It is told plainly, without detail.
When was old, he made his sons judges over Israel: his firstborn son, , and his second son, . They were judges in .
But his sons didn’t live the way he did. They went after dishonest money, took bribes and judged unfairly.
Then all the of Israel gathered and came to Samuel at . “You are old,” they told him, “and your sons don’t live the way you do. So give us a king to judge us, as all the other nations have.”
Samuel didn’t like it when they asked for a king to judge them, and he prayed to the Lord.
The Lord told Samuel, “Listen to the people in everything they tell you. It isn’t you they have rejected. They have rejected me as their king. They have been leaving me for other gods ever since I brought them up out of , and now they are doing the same to you. So listen to them. But warn them strongly, and tell them what the king who rules over them will do.”
Samuel passed on all the Lord’s words to the people asking him for a king. “Here is what your king will do,” he said. “He will take your sons to work for him. They will serve with his chariots and be his horsemen, and they will run ahead of his chariots.
“He will make some of them officers over a thousand men, and others over fifty. Some will plow his ground and bring in his harvest, and some will make his weapons and his chariot gear. He will take your daughters to be his perfume makers, cooks and bakers.
“He will take the best of your fields, vineyards and olive groves and hand them over to his men. He will take a tenth of your grain and grapes and give it to his officers and his men.
“He will take your servants, men and women, your best young men and your donkeys, and use them for his own work. A tenth of your flocks will be his, and you yourselves will be his servants.
“The day will come when you cry out because of the king you chose, and on that day the Lord will not answer you.”
But the people wouldn’t listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We are going to have a king over us, so we can be like all the other nations too. Our king will judge us, go out ahead of us and fight our battles.”
Samuel heard everything the people said and repeated it to the Lord. “Listen to them,” the Lord told him, “and give them a king.”
Then Samuel told the men of Israel, “Everyone go home to your own town.”
There was a man of named , a brave and powerful man. He was the son of Abiel, and his family line went back through Zeror, Becorath and Aphiah. His son was an impressive young man. No one in Israel was more handsome, and he stood head and shoulders above everyone else.
When some of Kish’s donkeys went missing, he told his son Saul, “Take one of the servants along and go search for them.”
So Saul and the servant went through the hill country of and the lands of Shalishah, Shaalim and Benjamin, but they found no trace of the donkeys.
When they reached the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant, “Let’s turn back, or my father will stop caring about the donkeys and worry about us instead.”
But the servant said, “Listen, there’s a man of God in this town. People honor him, and whatever he says comes true. Let’s go there. Maybe he can tell us which way to go.”
“But if we go, what can we bring him?” Saul asked. “Our bread is gone, and we have no gift for the man of God.”
The servant had a quarter of a of silver, a small piece about a tenth of an ounce. “I’ll give it to the man of God,” he said, “so he will tell us which way to go.”
(In earlier days in Israel, someone going to ask God about something would say, “Let’s go to the .” What people now call a used to be called a seer.)
“Good idea,” said Saul. “Let’s go.” So they set off for the town to find the man of God.
On the climb up to the town they met some young women going out to get water and asked them, “Is the seer here?”
“He is,” they answered. “He’s just ahead of you. Hurry! He came to town today, because the people are offering a at the . Go into town right away and you’ll find him, before he goes up there to eat. The people won’t eat until he arrives, because he blesses the sacrifice. After that the guests eat. Go up now.”
They went up, and just as they came into the town, Samuel came out toward them, heading up to the high place.
The day before Saul came, the Lord had told Samuel, “Tomorrow at about this time I will send you a man out of the land of Benjamin. him as ruler over my people Israel, and he will save my people from the . I have seen my people, because their cry has reached me.”
When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said to him, “There he is, the man I told you about! He is the one who will rule my people.”
Saul came up to Samuel in the gateway. “Could you tell me where the seer’s house is?” he asked.
“I am the seer,” Samuel answered. “Go up to the high place ahead of me; you’re eating with me today. In the morning I’ll let you go and tell you all that’s on your mind. Don’t give the donkeys you lost three days ago another thought. They’ve been found. And who is it that all Israel longs for? Isn’t it you and all your father’s family?”
“But I’m a Benjamite,” Saul answered, “from the smallest of Israel’s , and my family is the least important family in all Benjamin. Why are you talking to me like this?”
Samuel took Saul and his servant into the guest room and seated them in the best place among the thirty or so guests. Then he told the cook, “Bring the share I gave you, the one I told you to set aside.”
The cook brought the thigh and what was on it, and put it in front of Saul. “Here is what was set aside for you,” Samuel said. “Eat. It was saved for you for this moment, because I said, ‘I have invited the people.’” So Saul ate with Samuel that day.
When they came down from the high place into town, Samuel talked with Saul on the flat roof of the house.
They got up early, and at daybreak Samuel called up to Saul on the roof, “Get up, so I can send you on your way.” The two of them went out together. On their way down to the edge of town, Samuel said, “Tell the servant to go on ahead of us.” When the servant had gone, Samuel said, “But you stay here a moment, so I can give you God’s message.”
Then Samuel took a small jar of oil and poured it on Saul’s head, and he kissed him. “Hasn’t the Lord anointed you to be ruler over his own people?” he said.
“When you leave me today, you will find two men by ’s tomb, on the border of Benjamin at Zelzah. They will tell you that the donkeys you went looking for have been found. They will say that your father has stopped caring about the donkeys and is worried about you, and that he is asking, ‘What should I do for my son?’
“Go on from there to the oak of Tabor. Three men will meet you there, on their way up to to worship God. One will be carrying three young goats, one three loaves of bread and one a container of wine. They will greet you and give you two loaves. Take them.
“After that you will come to the hill of God, where the Philistines have soldiers posted. As you enter the town, a group of prophets will come down from the high place and meet you. They will be prophesying, with a lute, a tambourine, a pipe and a harp played in front of them. The Spirit of the Lord will come on you with power. You will prophesy with them, and you will become a different person.
“When these signs have happened, do whatever the moment calls for, because God is with you. Go down to ahead of me, and I will come there to offer and . Wait seven days, until I come and show you what to do.”
As Saul turned to leave Samuel, God gave him a different heart, and all those signs came true that day.
When they came to the hill, a group of prophets met him. The Spirit of God came on him with power, and he prophesied among them.
Everyone who had known him before saw him prophesying with the prophets. “What has come over the son of Kish?” they asked one another. “Is Saul also among the prophets?”
A man from there answered, “Who is their father?” That is how the saying began: “Is Saul also among the prophets?”
When Saul had finished prophesying, he went to the high place.
Saul’s uncle asked him and his servant where they had gone. “To look for the donkeys,” Saul said. “When we saw they couldn’t be found, we went to Samuel.” His uncle asked what Samuel had told them. “He told us plainly that the donkeys were found,” Saul answered. But he didn’t tell his uncle what Samuel had said about the kingdom.
Samuel called the people together in the Lord’s presence at . “The Lord, the God of Israel, says this,” he told them: “‘I brought Israel up from Egypt, and I rescued you from the Egyptians and from every kingdom that was treating you cruelly.’ But you have rejected your God today, the one who saves you from all your disasters and troubles. You have said to him, ‘No! Give us a king!’ So now, come and stand in the Lord’s presence, tribe by tribe and clan by clan.”
So Samuel had all the tribes of Israel come near, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen. Then he had the tribe of Benjamin come near, family by family, and the family of the Matrites was chosen. Then Saul son of Kish was chosen. But when they looked for him, he wasn’t there.
So they asked the Lord again, “Is there still a man to come here?” “He has hidden himself among the baggage,” the Lord answered.
They ran and brought him out. He stood among the people, and he was taller than every one of them from the shoulders up.
“Do you see the man the Lord has chosen?” Samuel asked all the people. “There is no one like him among all the people!”
And all the people shouted, “Long live the king!”
Samuel told the people the rules of the kingdom, wrote them in a book and put it away in the Lord’s presence. Then he sent everyone home.
Saul also went home to , and the army went with him: the men whose hearts God had touched.
But some worthless men said, “How can this man save us?” They looked down on him and brought him no gifts. But Saul said nothing.
Then the came up and set up camp to attack . The men of Jabesh all said to Nahash, “Make an agreement with us, and we will serve you.”
“I will make one with you,” Nahash answered, “on one condition: every one of you must have his right eye gouged out. That is how I will shame all Israel.”
The elders of Jabesh said to him, “Give us seven days to send messengers through all Israel. Then, if no one comes to save us, we will come out to you.”
When the messengers came to Gibeah, Saul’s town, and told the people, they all wept aloud.
Just then Saul came in from the field, following his oxen. “What’s wrong with the people?” he asked. “Why are they weeping?” They told him what the men of Jabesh had said.
When Saul heard it, the Spirit of God came on him with power, and his anger burned hot. He took a pair of oxen and cut them in pieces. He sent messengers to carry the pieces all through Israel, with this warning: “Whoever doesn’t come out and follow Saul and Samuel will have the same done to his oxen!” Fear of the Lord came over the people, and they all came out together as one.
Saul counted them at Bezek: three hundred thousand from Israel and thirty thousand from .
They told the messengers who had come, “Tell the men of Jabesh Gilead, ‘Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you will be rescued.’” When the messengers brought the news, the men of Jabesh were glad.
So the men of Jabesh said, “Tomorrow we will come out to you. Then you can do with us whatever you like.”
The next day Saul divided his men into three groups. Before dawn they came into the middle of the Ammonite camp and killed Ammonites until the heat of the day. The survivors scattered so widely that no two of them were left together.
Then the people said to Samuel, “Who was it that said, ‘Is Saul going to rule over us?’ Bring those men here, and we will put them to death!”
“No one is going to be put to death today,” Saul said, “because today the Lord has rescued Israel.”
Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, let’s go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom there.”
So everyone went to Gilgal and made Saul king there in the Lord’s presence. They offered peace offerings in the Lord’s presence, and there Saul and all the men of Israel celebrated with great joy.
Samuel said to all Israel, “I have done everything you asked me. I have given you a king, and now the king will lead you. I am old and gray, and my sons are among you. I have led you since I was young.
“Here I am. If you have anything against me, say it here in front of the Lord and the king he has anointed. Have I taken anyone’s ox or donkey? Have I cheated or mistreated anyone, or taken a bribe from anyone to look the other way? If I have, I will pay it back.”
“You haven’t cheated us or mistreated us,” they answered. “You haven’t taken anything from anyone.”
“The Lord is a witness against you,” Samuel said, “and the king he has anointed is a witness today: you have found that I took nothing.”
“He is a witness,” they said.
Then Samuel told the people, “It was the Lord who appointed and and led your ancestors out of Egypt. Now stand here in the Lord’s presence while I reason with you about all the righteous things he has done for you and your ancestors.
“After went into Egypt, your ancestors cried out to the Lord. The Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who led them out of Egypt and gave them a home in this place.
“But they forgot the Lord their God. Then he handed them over to , who commanded the army of , and to the Philistines and the king of . All of these fought against them.
“They cried out to the Lord, ‘We have sinned. We have left the Lord and served the and the . But now rescue us from our enemies, and we will serve you.’
“Then the Lord sent , , and Samuel. He rescued you from your enemies on every side, and you lived in safety.
“But when you saw Nahash king of the Ammonites coming against you, you told me, ‘No! We are going to have a king to rule over us!’ But all the while, the Lord your God was your king. So here is the king you chose, the king you asked for. The Lord has put a king over you.
“If you fear the Lord, serve him, listen to his voice and don’t rebel against his commands, then you and your king are both following the Lord your God. But if you won’t listen to him, and you rebel against his commands, the Lord will be against you, as he was against your ancestors.
“Now stand still and watch the great thing the Lord will do before your eyes,” Samuel went on. “Isn’t it wheat harvest today? I will call to the Lord to send thunder and rain. Then you will see how wicked it was in the Lord’s sight to ask for a king.”
So Samuel called to the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day. All the people were terribly afraid of the Lord and of Samuel.
“Pray for us to the Lord your God, so we don’t die,” all the people said to Samuel. “We have added this wrong to all our sins: we asked for a king.”
“Don’t be afraid,” Samuel told them. “You have done all this wrong, but don’t turn away from following the Lord. Serve him with all your heart. Don’t turn away to go after useless things that can’t help you or rescue you. They are useless.
“The Lord won’t abandon his people, for the honor of his great name, because it pleased him to make you his own people.
“As for me, I would never sin against the Lord by giving up praying for you. I will teach you the right and good way.
“Only fear the Lord, and serve him truly with all your heart. Think about the great things the Lord has done for you. But if you keep on doing wrong, both you and your king will be wiped out.”