Scriptures

New Living Translation (NLT)

1 Samuel 8
¹⁷ He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you will be his slaves.
¹⁸ When that day comes, you will beg for relief from this king you are demanding, but then the LORD will not help you.”
¹⁹ But the people refused to listen to Samuel’s warning. “Even so, we still want a king,” they said.
²⁰ “We want to be like the nations around us. Our king will judge us and lead us into battle.”
²¹ So Samuel repeated to the LORD what the people had said,
²² and the LORD replied, “Do as they say, and give them a king.” Then Samuel agreed and sent the people home.
1 Samuel 9
¹ There was a wealthy, influential man named Kish from the tribe of Benjamin. He was the son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah, of the tribe of Benjamin.
² His son Saul was the most handsome man in Israel—head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the land.
³ One day Kish’s donkeys strayed away, and he told Saul, “Take a servant with you, and go look for the donkeys.”
⁴ So Saul took one of the servants and traveled through the hill country of Ephraim, the land of Shalishah, the Shaalim area, and the entire land of Benjamin, but they couldn’t find the donkeys anywhere.
⁵ Finally, they entered the region of Zuph, and Saul said to his servant, “Let’s go home. By now my father will be more worried about us than about the donkeys!”