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1 SAM UEL 11
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replied, “but we couldn’t find them. So we went
to Samuel to ask him where they were.”
15 “Oh? And what did he say?” his uncle
asked.
16 “He told us that the donkeys had already
been found,” Saul replied. But Saul didn’t tell
his uncle what Samuel said about the kingdom.
Saul Is Acclaimed King
17 Later Samuel called all the people of Israel to
meet before the Lord at Mizpah. 18 And he said,
“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has
declared: I brought you from Egypt and rescued
you from the Egyptians and from all of the nations that were oppressing you. 19 But though I
have rescued you from your misery and distress,
you have rejected your God today and have said,
‘No, we want a king instead!’ Now, therefore,
present yourselves before the Lord by tribes
and clans.”
20 So Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel
before the Lord, and the tribe of Benjamin was
chosen by lot. 21 Then he brought each family
of the tribe of Benjamin before the Lord, and
the family of the Matrites was chosen. And finally Saul son of Kish was chosen from among
them. But when they looked for him, he had
disappeared! 22 So they asked the Lord, “Where
is he?”
And the Lord replied, “He is hiding among
the baggage.” 23 So they found him and brought
him out, and he stood head and shoulders
above anyone else.
24 Then Samuel said to all the people, “This is
the man the Lord has chosen as your king. No
one in all Israel is like him!”
And all the people shouted, “Long live the
king!”
25 Then Samuel told the people what the
rights and duties of a king were. He wrote them
down on a scroll and placed it before the Lord.
Then Samuel sent the people home again.
26 When Saul returned to his home at Gibeah,
a group of men whose hearts God had touched
went with him. 27 But there were some scoundrels who complained, “How can this man save
us?” And they scorned him and refused to bring
him gifts. But Saul ignored them.
[Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had been
grievously oppressing the people of Gad and
Reuben who lived east of the Jordan River. He
gouged out the right eye of each of the Israelites living there, and he didn’t allow anyone to come and rescue them. In fact, of all
the Israelites east of the Jordan, there wasn’t
a single one whose right eye Nahash had not
gouged out. But there were 7,000 men who had
10:27 This paragraph, which is not included in the Masoretic
Text, is found in Dead Sea Scroll 4QSama. 11:1 As in Dead
Sea Scroll 4QSama and Greek version; Masoretic Text lacks
About a month later. 11:8 Dead Sea Scrolls and Greek version
read 70,000.
escaped from the Ammonites, and they had
settled in Jabesh-gilead.]*
Saul Defeats the Ammonites
About a month later,* King Nahash of
Ammon led his army against the Israelite
town of Jabesh-gilead. But all the citizens of Jabesh asked for peace. “Make a treaty with us,
and we will be your servants,” they pleaded.
2 “All right,” Nahash said, “but only on one
condition. I will gouge out the right eye of every
one of you as a disgrace to all Israel!”
3 “Give us seven days to send messengers
throughout Israel!” replied the elders of Jabesh.
“If no one comes to save us, we will agree to
your terms.”
4 When the messengers came to Gibeah of
Saul and told the people about their plight,
everyone broke into tears. 5 Saul had been plowing a field with his oxen, and when he returned
to town, he asked, “What’s the matter? Why is
everyone crying?” So they told him about the
message from Jabesh.
6 Then the Spirit of God came powerfully
upon Saul, and he became very angry. 7 He took
two oxen and cut them into pieces and sent the
messengers to carry them throughout Israel
with this message: “This is what will happen
to the oxen of anyone who refuses to follow
Saul and Samuel into battle!” And the Lord
made the people afraid of Saul’s anger, and all
of them came out together as one. 8 When Saul
mobilized them at Bezek, he found that there
were 300,000 men from Israel and 30,000* men
from Judah.
9 So Saul sent the messengers back to Jabeshgilead to say, “We will rescue you by noontime
tomorrow!” There was great joy throughout the
town when that message arrived!
10 The men of Jabesh then told their enemies,
“Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you
can do to us whatever you wish.” 11 But before
dawn the next morning, Saul arrived, having
divided his army into three detachments. He
launched a surprise attack against the Ammonites and slaughtered them the whole morning. The remnant of their army was so badly
scattered that no two of them were left together.
12 Then the people exclaimed to Samuel,
“Now where are those men who said, ‘Why
should Saul rule over us?’ Bring them here, and
we will kill them!”
13 But Saul replied, “No one will be executed
today, for today the Lord has rescued Israel!”
14 Then Samuel said to the people, “Come,
let us all go to Gilgal to renew the kingdom.”
15 So they all went to Gilgal, and in a solemn
ceremony before the Lord they made Saul
king. Then they offered peace offerings to the
Lord, and Saul and all the Israelites were filled
with joy.
11