| 8:1: It happened, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. |
| 8:2: Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abijah: they were judges in Beersheba. |
| 8:3: His sons didn't walk in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted justice. |
| 8:4: Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel to Ramah; |
| 8:5: and they said to him, Behold, you are old, and your sons don't walk in your ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. |
| 8:6: But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. Samuel prayed to Yahweh. |
| 8:7: Yahweh said to Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people in all that they tell you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them. |
| 8:8: According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, in that they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also to you. |
| 8:9: Now therefore listen to their voice: however you shall protest solemnly to them, and shall show them the manner of the king who shall reign over them. |
| 8:10: Samuel told all the words of Yahweh to the people who asked of him a king. |
| 8:11: He said, This will be the manner of the king who shall reign over you: he will take your sons, and appoint them to him, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and they shall run before his chariots; |
| 8:12: and he will appoint them to him for captains of thousands, and captains of fifties; and [he will set some] to plow his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots. |
| 8:13: He will take your daughters to be perfumers, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. |
| 8:14: He will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive groves, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. |
| 8:15: He will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. |
| 8:16: He will take your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and your best young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work. |
| 8:17: He will take the tenth of your flocks: and you shall be his servants. |
| 8:18: You shall cry out in that day because of your king whom you shall have chosen you; and Yahweh will not answer you in that day. |
| 8:19: But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; and they said, No: but we will have a king over us, |
| 8:20: that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles. |
| 8:21: Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of Yahweh. |
| 8:22: Yahweh said to Samuel, Listen to their voice, and make them a king. Samuel said to the men of Israel, Go you every man to his city. |
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