Study Desk

But when they got up early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. And the head of Dagon and both palms of his hands were cut off on the threshold; only the torso of Dagon was left.

And they said, "If you are going to send the ark of the God of Israel away, do not send it empty; but you shall certainly return to Him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be revealed to you why His hand does not leave you."

"But watch: if it goes up by the way of its own territory to Beth-shemesh, then He has done this great evil to us. But if not, then we will know that it was not His hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance."

Now Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, and the Philistines advanced to battle Israel. But the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day against the Philistines and confused them, so that they were struck down before Israel.

His sons, however, did not walk in his ways but turned aside after dishonest gain, and they took bribes and perverted justice.

But the matter was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." And Samuel prayed to the LORD.

And the LORD said to Samuel, "Listen to the voice of the people regarding all that they say to you, because they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being King over them.

"Then you will cry out on that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you on that day."

Yet the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, "No, but there shall be a king over us,

So he passed through the hill country of Ephraim and passed through the land of Shalishah, but they did not find them. Then they passed through the land of Shaalim, but they were not there. Then he passed through the land of the Benjaminites, but they did not find them.

But he said to him, "Behold now, there is a man of God in this city, and the man is held in honor; everything that he says definitely comes true. Now let's go there, perhaps he can tell us about our journey on which we have set out."

Then Saul said to his servant, "But look, if we go, what shall we bring the man? For the bread is gone from our sacks and there is no gift to bring to the man of God. What do we have?"

As they were going down to the edge of the city, Samuel said to Saul, "Speak to the servant and have him go on ahead of us and pass by; but you stand here now, so that I may proclaim the word of God to you."

So Saul said to his uncle, "He told us plainly that the donkeys had been found." But he did not tell him about the matter of the kingdom which Samuel had mentioned.

"But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your catastrophes and your distresses; yet you have said, 'No, but put a king over us!' Now then, present yourselves before the LORD by your tribes and by your groups of thousands."

Then he brought the tribe of Benjamin forward by its families, and the Matrite family was selected by lot. And Saul the son of Kish was selected by lot; but when they looked for him, he could not be found.

But certain useless men said, "How can this one save us?" And they despised him and did not bring him a gift. But he kept silent about it.

But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, "I will make it with you on this condition, that I will gouge out the right eye of every one of you, and thereby I will inflict a disgrace on all Israel."

But Saul said, "Not a single person shall be put to death this day, for today the LORD has brought about victory in Israel."

"Now, here is the king walking before you, but as for me, I am old and gray, and my sons are here with you. And I have walked before you since my youth to this day.