1 Samuel 8

¹⁸You are to appoint judges and officials for your tribes in every town that the Lord your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment.

¹⁹Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

²¹I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to maintain these principles without bias, and to do nothing out of partiality.

²²Then the Israelites said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you and your son and grandson—for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.”

²³But Gideon replied, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son. The Lord shall rule over you.”

²Then I put my brother Hanani in charge of Jerusalem, along with Hananiah the commander of the fortress, because he was a faithful man who feared God more than most.

¹⁴He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. And he judged Israel eight years.

⁵He appointed judges in the land, in each of the fortified cities of Judah.

⁶Then he said to the judges, “Consider carefully what you do, for you are not judging for man, but for the Lord, who is with you when you render judgment.

¹⁹Abraham went back to his servants, and they got up and set out together for Beersheba. And Abraham settled in Beersheba.

²⁸The sons of Samuel: Joel his firstborn and Abijah his second son.

⁵Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal; do not journey to Beersheba, for Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing.

³⁸the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, the son of Israel.

³And Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there,

¹⁹Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

¹⁰For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

⁵who lends his money without interest and refuses a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.

²¹Furthermore, select capable men from among the people—God-fearing, trustworthy men who are averse to dishonest gain. Appoint them over the people as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

⁸Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the righteous.

¹⁵He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, who refuses gain from extortion, whose hand never takes a bribe, who stops his ears against murderous plots and shuts his eyes tightly against evil—

³So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, where King David made with them a covenant before the Lord. And they anointed him king over Israel.

¹⁷Then he would return to Ramah because his home was there, and there he judged Israel and built an altar to the Lord.

¹Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord—you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders—and you are to worship at a distance.

¹⁶Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—has appeared to me and said: I have surely attended to you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.

¹⁴When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,”

¹⁵you are to appoint over yourselves the king whom the Lord your God shall choose. Appoint a king from among your brothers; you are not to set over yourselves a foreigner who is not one of your brothers.

¹⁹Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We must have a king over us.

²⁰Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to judge us, to go out before us, and to fight our battles.”

⁶But when they said, “Give us a king to judge us,” their demand was displeasing in the sight of Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord.

⁷And the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king.

¹⁰Where is your king now to save you in all your cities, and the rulers to whom you said, “Give me a king and princes”?

¹¹So in My anger I gave you a king, and in My wrath I took him away.

⁹For I see them from atop the rocky cliffs, and I watch them from the hills. Behold, a people dwelling apart, not reckoning themselves among the nations.

¹⁷Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call on the Lord to send thunder and rain, so that you will know and see what a great evil you have committed in the sight of the Lord by asking for a king.”

¹¹“I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned away from following Me and has not carried out My instructions.” And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the Lord all that night.

⁵Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

¹⁷Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call on the Lord to send thunder and rain, so that you will know and see what a great evil you have committed in the sight of the Lord by asking for a king.”

²¹“What did this people do to you,” Moses asked Aaron, “that you have led them into so great a sin?”

⁴⁶Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, place fire from the altar in it, and add incense. Go quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, because wrath has come out from the Lord; the plague has begun.”

⁴In return for my love they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer.

¹⁶Whoever listens to you listens to Me; whoever rejects you rejects Me; and whoever rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”

¹⁹But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your troubles and afflictions, and you have said to Him, ‘No, set a king over us.’ Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and clans.”

⁸And Moses added, “The Lord will give you meat to eat this evening and bread to fill you in the morning, for He has heard your grumbling against Him. Who are we? Your grumblings are not against us but against the Lord.”

¹⁰Where is your king now to save you in all your cities, and the rulers to whom you said, “Give me a king and princes”?

¹¹So in My anger I gave you a king, and in My wrath I took him away.

¹⁴But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We do not want this man to rule over us.’

²⁷And these enemies of mine who were unwilling for me to rule over them, bring them here and slay them in front of me.’”

¹Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!”

³⁴They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord had commanded them,

³⁵but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs.

¹Again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord; so He delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years,

²All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness!

³Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?”

⁵¹You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.

⁵²Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—

⁵⁶But they tested and disobeyed God Most High, for they did not keep His decrees.

⁵⁷They turned back and were faithless like their fathers, twisted like a faulty bow.

²⁵Then Samuel explained to the people the rights of kingship. He wrote them on a scroll and laid it up before the Lord. And Samuel sent all the people away, each to his own home.

¹¹He said, “This will be the manner of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them to serve his own chariots and horses, and to run in front of his chariots.

¹²He will appoint some for himself as commanders of thousands and of fifties, and others to plow his ground, to reap his harvest, and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.

¹⁸The prince must not take any of the inheritance of the people by evicting them from their property. He is to provide an inheritance for his sons from his own property, so that none of My people will be displaced from his property.’”

¹⁸If I say to the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him or speak out to warn him from his wicked way to save his life, that wicked man will die in his iniquity, and I will hold you responsible for his blood.

⁷Now the prince will have the area bordering each side of the area formed by the holy district and the property of the city, extending westward from the western side and eastward from the eastern side, running lengthwise from the western boundary to the eastern boundary and parallel to one of the tribal portions.

⁸This land will be his possession in Israel. And My princes will no longer oppress My people, but will give the rest of the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

¹³or for the custom of the priests with the people. When any man offered a sacrifice, the servant of the priest would come with a three-pronged meat fork while the meat was boiling

⁵²And the war with the Philistines was fierce for all the days of Saul. So whenever he noticed any strong or brave man, Saul would enlist him.

²⁵Then Samuel explained to the people the rights of kingship. He wrote them on a scroll and laid it up before the Lord. And Samuel sent all the people away, each to his own home.

¹Some time later, Absalom provided for himself a chariot with horses and fifty men to run ahead of him.

¹⁴When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,”

¹⁵you are to appoint over yourselves the king whom the Lord your God shall choose. Appoint a king from among your brothers; you are not to set over yourselves a foreigner who is not one of your brothers.

²⁶Solomon accumulated 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses, which he stationed in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem.

⁵At that time Adonijah, David’s son by Haggith, began to exalt himself, saying, “I will be king!” And he acquired chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run ahead of him.

²⁸He also made storehouses for the harvest of grain and new wine and oil, stalls for all kinds of livestock, and pens for the flocks.

²⁹He made cities for himself, and he acquired herds of sheep and cattle in abundance, for God gave him very great wealth.

²⁷Each month the governors in turn provided food for King Solomon and all who came to his table. They saw to it that nothing was lacking.

²⁸Each one also brought to the required place their quotas of barley and straw for the chariot horses and other horses.

⁷Solomon had twelve governors over all Israel to provide food for the king and his household. Each one would arrange provisions for one month of the year,

²²Solomon’s provisions for a single day were thirty cors of fine flour, sixty cors of meal,

²³ten fat oxen, twenty range oxen, and a hundred sheep, as well as deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened poultry.

⁷Then Saul said to his servants, “Listen, men of Benjamin! Is the son of Jesse giving all of you fields and vineyards and making you commanders of thousands or hundreds?

¹This is the list of the Israelites—the heads of families, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and their officers who served the king in every matter concerning the divisions on rotating military duty each month throughout the year. There were 24,000 men in each division:

²Jashobeam son of Zabdiel was in charge of the first division, which was assigned the first month. There were 24,000 men in his division.

¹⁸The prince must not take any of the inheritance of the people by evicting them from their property. He is to provide an inheritance for his sons from his own property, so that none of My people will be displaced from his property.’”

⁷But his wife Jezebel said to him, “Do you not reign over Israel? Get up, eat some food, and be cheerful, for I will get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

⁷Then Saul said to his servants, “Listen, men of Benjamin! Is the son of Jesse giving all of you fields and vineyards and making you commanders of thousands or hundreds?

¹⁹Tell him that this is what the Lord says: ‘Have you not murdered a man and seized his land?’ Then tell him that this is also what the Lord says: ‘In the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, there also the dogs will lick up your blood—yes, yours!’”

⁷The chief official gave them new names: To Daniel he gave the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.

⁸But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or wine. So he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself.

⁷And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, will be taken away to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

³⁶Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

³Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his court officials, to bring in some Israelites from the royal family and the nobility—

¹⁸Now at the end of the time specified by the king, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar.

⁴Then they will cry out to the Lord, but He will not answer them. At that time He will hide His face from them because of the evil they have done.

²⁵because you neglected all my counsel, and wanted none of my correction,

²⁶in turn I will mock your calamity; I will sneer when terror strikes you,

¹⁵When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.

²¹They will roam the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged; and looking upward, they will curse their king and their God.

¹³Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too shall cry out and receive no answer.

²⁵After the master of the house gets up and shuts the door, you will stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ But he will reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’

¹⁶“As for the word you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you!

³¹So My people come to you as usual, sit before you, and hear your words; but they do not put them into practice. Although they express love with their mouths, their hearts pursue dishonest gain.

⁴So I will choose their punishment and I will bring terror upon them, because I called and no one answered, I spoke and no one listened. But they did evil in My sight and chose that in which I did not delight.”

¹³And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and because I have spoken to you again and again but you would not listen, and I have called to you but you would not answer,

¹¹But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me.

⁵“Look,” they said, “you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king to judge us like all the other nations.”

¹⁶For how then can it be known that Your people and I have found favor in Your sight, unless You go with us? How else will we be distinguished from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

³⁵but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs.

²⁴But I have told you that you will inherit their land, since I will give it to you as an inheritance—a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God, who has set you apart from the peoples.

²⁵You are therefore to distinguish between clean and unclean animals and birds. Do not become contaminated by any animal or bird, or by anything that crawls on the ground; I have set these apart as unclean for you.

⁶For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth.

¹⁹If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.

¹¹So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their leader and commander. And Jephthah repeated all his terms in the presence of the Lord at Mizpah.

⁷And the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king.

¹¹So in My anger I gave you a king, and in My wrath I took him away.