I Samuel 6-10

I Samuel 6

¹Now the ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines for seven months.

²And the Philistines sent for the priests and those who were wise in secret arts, and said to them, What are we to do with the ark of the Lord? How are we to send it away to its place?

³And they said, If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it without an offering, but send him a sin-offering with it: then you will have peace again, and it will be clear to you why the weight of his hand has not been lifted from you.

⁴Then they said, What sin-offering are we to send to him? And they said, Five gold images of the growths caused by your disease and five gold mice, one for every lord of the Philistines: for the same disease came on you and on your lords.

⁵So make images of the growths caused by your disease and of the mice which are damaging your land; and give glory to the God of Israel: it may be that the weight of his hand will be lifted from you and from your gods and from your land.

⁶Why do you make your hearts hard, like the hearts of Pharaoh and the Egyptians? When he had made sport of them, did they not let the people go, and they went away?

⁷So now, take and make ready a new cart, and two cows which have never come under the yoke, and have the cows yoked to the cart, and take their young ones away from them:

⁸And put the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the gold images which you are sending as a sin-offering in a chest by its side; and send it away so that it may go.

⁹If it goes by the land of Israel to Beth-shemesh, then this great evil is his work; but if not, then we may be certain that the evil was not his doing, but was the working of chance.

¹⁰And the men did so; they took two cows, yoking them to the cart and shutting up their young ones in their living-place:

¹¹And they put the ark of the Lord on the cart and the chest with the gold images.

¹²And the cows took the straight way, by the road to Beth-shemesh; they went by the highway, not turning to the right or to the left, and the sound of their voices was clear on the road; and the lords of the Philistines went after them as far as the edge of Beth-shemesh.

¹³And the people of Beth-shemesh were cutting their grain in the valley, and lifting up their eyes they saw the ark and were full of joy when they saw it.

¹⁴And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite, and came to a stop there by a great stone: and cutting up the wood of the cart they made a burned offering of the cows to the Lord.

¹⁵Then the Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the chest in which were the gold images, and put them on the great stone: and the men of Beth-shemesh made burned offerings and gave worship that day before the Lord.

¹⁶And the five lords of the Philistines, having seen it, went back to Ekron the same day.

¹⁷Now these are the gold images which the Philistines sent as a sin-offering to the Lord; one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron;

¹⁸And the gold mice, one for every town of the Philistines, the property of the five lords, walled towns as well as country places: and the great stone where they put the ark of the Lord is still in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite to this day.

¹⁹But the Lord sent destruction on seventy men of the people of Beth-shemesh for looking into the ark of the Lord; and great was the sorrow of the people for the destruction which the Lord had sent on them.

²⁰And the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to keep his place before the Lord, this holy God? and to whom may he go from us?

²¹And they sent men to the people living in Kiriath-jearim, saying, The Philistines have sent back the ark of the Lord; come and take it up to your country.

I Samuel 7

¹So the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took the ark of the Lord to the house of Abinadab in Gibeah, and they made his son Eleazar holy and put the ark in his care.

²And the ark was in Kiriath-jearim for a long time, as much as twenty years: and all Israel was searching after the Lord with weeping.

³Then Samuel said to all Israel, If with all your hearts you would come back to the Lord, then put away all the strange gods and the Astartes from among you, and let your hearts be turned to the Lord, and be servants to him only: and he will make you safe from the hands of the Philistines.

⁴So the children of Israel gave up the worship of Baal and Astarte, and became worshippers of the Lord only.

⁵Then Samuel said, Let all Israel come to Mizpah and I will make prayer to the Lord for you.

⁶So they came together to Mizpah, and got water, draining it out before the Lord, and they took no food that day, and they said, We have done evil against the Lord. And Samuel was judge of the children of Israel in Mizpah.

⁷Now when the Philistines had news that the children of Israel had come together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And the children of Israel, hearing of it, were full of fear.

⁸And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Go on crying to the Lord our God for us to make us safe from the hands of the Philistines.

⁹And Samuel took a young lamb, offering all of it as a burned offering to the Lord; and Samuel made prayers to the Lord for Israel and the Lord gave him an answer.

¹⁰And while Samuel was offering the burned offering, the Philistines came near for the attack on Israel; but at the thunder of the Lord's voice that day the Philistines were overcome with fear, and they gave way before Israel.

¹¹And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and went after the Philistines, attacking them till they came under Beth-car.

¹²Then Samuel took a stone and put it up between Mizpah and Jeshanah, naming it Eben-ezer, and saying, Up to now the Lord has been our help.

¹³So the Philistines were overcome, and did not come into the country of Israel again: and all the days of Samuel the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines.

¹⁴And the towns which the Philistines had taken were given back to Israel, from Ekron to Gath, and all the country round them Israel made free from the power of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.

¹⁵And Samuel was judge of Israel all the days of his life.

¹⁶From year to year he went in turn to Beth-el and Gilgal and Mizpah, judging Israel in all those places.

¹⁷And his base was at Ramah, where his house was; there he was judge of Israel and there he made an altar to the Lord.

I Samuel 8

¹Now when Samuel was old, he made his sons judges over Israel.

²The name of his first son was Joel and the name of his second Abijah: they were judges in Beer-sheba.

³And his sons did not go in his ways, but moved by the love of money took rewards, and were not upright in judging.

⁴Then all the responsible men of Israel got together and went to Samuel at Ramah,

⁵And said to him, See now, you are old, and your sons do not go in your ways: give us a king now to be our judge, so that we may be like the other nations.

⁶But Samuel was not pleased when they said to him, Give us a king to be our judge. And Samuel made prayer to the Lord.

⁷And the Lord said to Samuel, Give ear to the voice of the people and what they say to you: they have not been turned away from you, but they have been turned away from me, not desiring me to be king over them.

⁸As they have done from the first, from the day when I took them out of Egypt till this day, turning away from me and worshipping other gods, so now they are acting in the same way to you.

⁹Give ear now to their voice: but make a serious protest to them, and give them a picture of the sort of king who will be their ruler.

¹⁰And Samuel said all these words of the Lord to the people who were desiring a king.

¹¹And he said, This is the sort of king who will be your ruler: he will take your sons and make them his servants, his horsemen, and drivers of his war-carriages, and they will go running before his war-carriages;

¹²And he will make them captains of thousands and of fifties; some he will put to work ploughing and cutting his grain and making his instruments of war and building his war-carriages.

¹³Your daughters he will take to be makers of perfumes and cooks and bread-makers.

¹⁴He will take your fields and your vine-gardens and your olive-gardens, all the best of them, and give them to his servants.

¹⁵He will take a tenth of your seed and of the fruit of your vines and give it to his servants.

¹⁶He will take your men-servants and your servant-girls, and the best of your oxen and your asses and put them to his work.

¹⁷He will take a tenth of your sheep: and you will be his servants.

¹⁸Then you will be crying out because of your king whom you have taken for yourselves; but the Lord will not give you an answer in that day.

¹⁹But the people gave no attention to the voice of Samuel; and they said, No, but we will have a king over us,

²⁰So that we may be like the other nations, and so that our king may be our judge and go out before us to war.

²¹Then Samuel, after hearing all the people had to say, went and gave an account of it to the Lord.

²²And the Lord said to Samuel, Give ear to their voice and make a king for them. Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, Let every man go back to his town.

I Samuel 9

¹Now there was a man of Benjamin named Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a man of wealth.

²He had a son named Saul, a specially good-looking young man; there was no one better-looking among the children of Israel: he was taller by a head than any other of the people.

³Now the asses of Saul's father Kish had gone wandering away. And Kish said to his son Saul, Take one of the servants with you, and get up and go in search of the asses.

⁴So they went through the hill-country of Ephraim and through the land of Shalishah, but they saw no sign of them: then they went through the land of Shaalim, but they were not there: and they went through the land of the Benjamites, but they did not come across them.

⁵And when they had come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to the servant who was with him, Come, let us go back, or my father may give up caring about the asses and be troubled about us.

⁶But the servant said to him, See now, in this town there is a man of God, who is highly honoured, and everything he says comes true: let us go there now; it may be that he will give us directions about our journey.

⁷Then Saul said to his servant, But if we go, what are we to take the man? all our bread is gone, and we have no offering to take to the man of God: what are we to do?

⁸But the servant said in answer, I have here a fourth part of a shekel of silver: I will give that to the man of God, and he will give us directions about our way.

⁹(In the past in Israel, when a man went to get directions from God, he said, Come let us go to the Seer, for he who now is named Prophet was in those days given the name of Seer.)

¹⁰Then Saul said to his servant, You have said well; come, let us go. So they went to the town where the man of God was.

¹¹And when they were on the way up to the town, they saw some young girls going out to get water and said to them, Is the seer here?

¹²And they said, He is; in fact he is before you: go quickly now, for he has come into the town today, for the people are making an offering in the high place today:

¹³When you come into the town you will see him straight away, before he goes up to the high place for the feast: the people are waiting for his blessing before starting the feast, and after that the guests will take part in it. So go up now and you will see him.

¹⁴So they went up to the town, and when they came inside the town, Samuel came face to face with them on his way to the high place.

¹⁵Now the day before Saul came, the word of God had come to Samuel, saying,

¹⁶Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and on him you are to put the holy oil, making him ruler over my people Israel, and he will make my people safe from the hands of the Philistines: for I have seen the sorrow of my people, whose cry has come up to me.

¹⁷And when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said to him, This is the man of whom I gave you word! he it is who is to have authority over my people.

¹⁸Then Saul came up to Samuel in the doorway of the town and said, Give me directions, if you will be so good, to the house of the seer.

¹⁹Then Samuel said to Saul, I am the seer; go up before me to the high place and take food with me today: and in the morning I will let you go, after opening to you all the secrets of your heart.

²⁰As for your asses which have been wandering for three days, give no thought to them, for they have come back. And for whom are all the desired things in Israel? are they not for you and your father's family?

²¹And Saul said, Am I not a man of Benjamin, the smallest of all the tribes of Israel? and my family the least of the families of Benjamin? why then do you say these words to me?

²²Then Samuel took Saul and his servant into the guest room, and made them take the chief place among all the guests who were there, about thirty persons.

²³And Samuel said to the cook, Give me that part which I gave you orders to keep by you.

²⁴And the cook took up the leg with the fat tail on it, and put it before Saul. And Samuel said, This is the part which has been kept for you: take it as your part of the feast; because it has been kept for you till the right time came and till the guests were present. So that day Saul took food with Samuel.

²⁵And when they had come down from the high place into the town, where a bed was made ready for Saul, he went to rest.

²⁶And about dawn Samuel said to Saul on the roof, Get up so that I may send you away. So Saul got up, and he and Samuel went out together.

²⁷And on their way down to the end of the town, Samuel said to Saul, Give your servant orders to go on in front of us, (so he went on,) but you keep here, so that I may give you the word of God.

I Samuel 10

¹Then Samuel took the bottle of oil, and put the oil on his head and gave him a kiss and said, Is not the Lord with the holy oil making you ruler over Israel, his people? and you will have authority over the people of the Lord, and you will make them safe from the hands of their attackers round about them, and this will be the sign for you:

²When you have gone away from me today, you will see two men by the resting-place of Rachel's body, in the land of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say to you, The asses which you went in search of have come back, and now your father, caring no longer for the asses, is troubled about you, saying, What am I to do about my son?

³Then you are to go on from there, and when you come to the oak-tree of Tabor, you will see three men going up to God to Beth-el, one having with him three young goats and another three cakes of bread and another a skin full of wine:

⁴They will say, Peace be with you, and will give you two cakes of bread, which you are to take from them.

⁵After that you will come to Gibeah, the hill of God, where an armed force of the Philistines is stationed: and when you come to the town, you will see a band of prophets coming down from the high place with instruments of music before them; and they will be acting like prophets:

⁶And the spirit of the Lord will come on you with power, and you will be acting like a prophet with them, and will be changed into another man.

⁷And when these signs come to you, see that you take the chance which is offered you; for God is with you.

⁸Then you are to go down before me to Gilgal, where I will come to you, for the offering of burned offerings and peace-offerings: go on waiting there for seven days till I come to you and make clear to you what you have to do.

⁹And it came about, that when he went away from Samuel, God gave him a changed heart: and all those signs took place that day.

¹⁰And when they came to Gibeah, a band of prophets came face to face with him; and the spirit of God came on him with power and he took his place among them as a prophet.

¹¹Now when Saul's old friends saw him among the band of prophets, the people said to one another, What has come to Saul, the son of Kish? Is even Saul among the prophets?

¹²And one of the people of that place said in answer, And who is their father? So it became a common saying, Is even Saul among the prophets?

¹³Then going away from the prophets, he came to the house.

¹⁴And Saul's father's brother said to him and his servant, Where have you been? And he said, Searching for the asses: and when we saw no sign of them, we came to Samuel.

¹⁵Then he said, And what did Samuel say to you?

¹⁶And Saul, answering him, said, He gave us word that the asses had come back. But he said nothing to him of Samuel's words about the kingdom.

¹⁷Then Samuel sent for the people to come together before the Lord at Mizpah;

¹⁸And he said to the children of Israel, The Lord, the God of Israel, has said, I took Israel out of Egypt, and made you free from the hands of the Egyptians and from all the kingdoms which kept you down:

¹⁹But today you are turned away from your God, who himself has been your saviour from all your troubles and sorrows; and you have said to him, Put a king over us. So now, take your places before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands.

²⁰So Samuel made all the tribes of Israel come near, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken.

²¹Then he made the tribe of Benjamin come near by families, and the family of the Matrites was taken: and from them, Saul, the son of Kish, was taken: but when they went in search of him he was nowhere to be seen.

²²So they put another question to the Lord, Is the man present here? And the answer of the Lord was, He is keeping himself from view among the goods.

²³So they went quickly and made him come out; and when he took his place among the people, he was taller by a head than any of the people.

²⁴And Samuel said to all the people, Do you see the man of the Lord's selection, how there is no other like him among all the people? And all the people with loud cries said, Long life to the king!

²⁵Then Samuel gave the people the laws of the kingdom, writing them in a book which he put in a safe place before the Lord. And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house.

²⁶And Saul went to Gibeah, to his house; and with him went the men of war whose hearts had been touched by God.

²⁷But certain good-for-nothing persons said, How is this man to be our saviour? And having no respect for him, they gave him no offering.