When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons Joel and Abijah as judges in Beersheba. They did not walk in his ways. They pursued gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.
Israel’s elders came to Samuel at Ramah and asked him to appoint a king to judge them like all the other nations. Samuel was displeased and prayed. God told him that the people had not rejected Samuel alone but had rejected God as king. He told Samuel to listen to them but to warn them seriously about what a king would do.
Samuel warned that a king would take their sons for his armies, their daughters for his household work, their best fields and vineyards for his servants, and a tenth of their produce and flocks. One day, he said, they would cry out because of the king they had chosen. But the people refused to listen. They wanted a king to lead them and fight their battles.
A Benjamite named Kish had a son named Saul, a striking young man taller than anyone else. When Kish’s donkeys were lost, he sent Saul and a servant to look for them. They searched through several regions without finding them. When Saul suggested returning, the servant said that a man of God in the nearby town might tell them the way they should go.
As they entered the town, Samuel was coming out to go up to the high place. God had told Samuel the day before that he would send a man from Benjamin to be anointed as leader over Israel. Samuel recognized Saul as the man God had described. He told Saul that the donkeys had been found and invited him to the sacrificial meal.
Samuel seated Saul in the place of honor and gave him the portion of meat set aside for him. The next day, after sending the servant ahead, Samuel poured oil on Saul’s head, kissed him, and said that God had anointed him ruler over God’s inheritance.
Samuel told Saul about signs he would meet on the way and said that God’s Spirit would come upon him and change him. When Saul left, God changed his heart, and the signs happened. Saul met a group of prophets, God’s Spirit came upon him, and he prophesied among them.
Samuel gathered Israel at Mizpah and used lots. The tribe of Benjamin was chosen, then the family of Matri, then Saul. Saul was hiding among the baggage. God revealed where he was, and the people brought him out. He stood taller than everyone else.
Samuel told the people to see the one God had chosen, unlike any other among them. The people shouted, “Long live the king!” Samuel wrote the rights and duties of the kingdom in a book and set it before God. Saul went to his home at Gibeah with men whose hearts God had touched. Some worthless men despised him and brought no gift, but Saul said nothing.