hey must be ready to
do for their King, for a king was often a hard master, and ruled his
people cruelly, taking the best of their fields, and their harvests,
and their flocks for themselves, and the finest of their sons and
daughters to be his servants; but they said,

"We will have a king over us, that we may be like other nations, and
that our king may judge us, and go out before us and fight our battles."

When Samuel told these things to the Lord he said, "Make them a king,"
and Samuel sent the people to their own cities.

Samuel did not choose a king for the people himself, but he waited for
the Lord to send him the man He had chosen, and the Lord said to him as
he went to a city called Zeph, to hold a sacrifice,

"To-morrow about this time I will send thee a man from the land of
Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be captain over my people
Israel."

On the next day as Samuel came out to go up to the hill of sacrifice he
met a tall, noble looking young man, who, with his servant, was looking
for the lost asses of his father, Kish, the Benjaminite. He had come
far, and had heard that Samuel, the seer was in that place, and he
hoped he would tell him where to go for the asses that were lost.

Samuel knew from the Lord that this was the man God had chosen, so he
told him to go up with him to the sacrifice, and the next day he would
let him go.

He told him that he need not be troubled about the asses, for they were
found, but the desire of Israel was set upon him. Saul, for that was
his name, did not understand him until he was invited to feast with
thirty of the chief men, and Samuel had talked with him upon the
house-top. Early the next morning they both rose and went out of the
city, and while Saul sent his servant on before, Samuel anointed Saul
with oil, and kissed him saying, that the Lord had anointed him to be
Captain over his inheritance.

As a sign that the Lord had done it, he told Saul three things that
would happen to him on the way home, and charged him to go to Gilgal,
where he would meet him and sacrifice to the Lord for seven days. As
Saul turned to leave the prophet, God gave him another heart, and all
the signs came to pass that day.

At Mizpah Samuel called all the tribes together, that the man who was
to be their king, might be chosen in their sight, and when Saul, the
son of Kish, the Benjaminite was chosen he could not be found; he had
hidden from the people; but when they bro