Saul becomes king
1There was a man from the Benjamin tribe. His name was Kish. He was the son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Bekorath, son of Aphiah. He was an important man in the Benjamin tribe. 2Kish had a son. His name was Saul and he was a good-looking young man, better than all the Israelites and bigger than the others. He was a head taller.
3Some of Kish's donkeys were lost and he said to his son Saul: ‘Take one of the servants with you and go and look for the donkeys.’ 4Saul and the servant went past the Ephraim Mountains and the land of Shalisha, but they did not find the donkeys. Then they passed Shaalim and the land of Benjamin, but the donkeys were not there. 5When they came to the land of Zuph, Saul said to the servant: ‘Let's go back because my father will forget about the donkeys and he will start to worry about us.’
6But Saul's servant said: ‘No, wait, there is a man of God in this town. People respect him a lot because everything he says happens as he said it would. Let's go to him. Maybe he can tell us where we must look for the donkeys.’
7Saul said to the servant: ‘But if we go to him, what can we give him? We do not have any food in our bags. We have no gift to take to the man of God. What do we have?’ 8The servant answered: ‘Look, I have a quarter_shekel of silver with me. I will give it to the man so that he can tell us where we must look.’
9When the people of Israel went to the man of God to ask him something, they always said: ‘Let us go to the seer.’ In those days they said the prophets were seers. 10Saul said to the servant: ‘That is good. Let's go.’
They went to the town where the man of God was. 11While they were going up the hill to the town, they met girls who had gone out to get water, and they asked the girls: ‘Is the seer here?’ 12The girls said: ‘Yes, he is here. He came to the town because people must sacrifice at the altar on the hill today. But you must hurry. 13When you go into the town you will find him before he goes up to the altar on the hill to eat with the people. The people will not eat until he comes because he must first thank the Lord for the offering, and then the guests will eat. If you go now, you will find him there.’
14Saul and the servant went and when they came into the town, they saw Samuel. He was going up to the altar on the hill.
15The day before Saul came, the Lord had said to Samuel: 16‘At this time tomorrow I will send a man to you. He is from the land of Benjamin. You must anoint him to be the king of my people of Israel. He will save my people from the Philistines because I saw how they suffered. I heard how they cried and asked Me to help them.’
17When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said to Samuel: ‘This is the man that I told you about. He is the one who will rule over my people.’
18Samuel was at the gate and Saul went to him. Saul asked him: ‘Please tell me where the house of the seer is.’ 19Samuel said to Saul: ‘I am the seer. You must walk in front of me to the altar. You must eat with me and tomorrow morning you can go. I will tell you everything that you want to know. 20Do not worry about the donkeys that you lost 3 days ago. They have found the donkeys. All the Israelites are waiting for you and your family to help them.’
21Saul said to Samuel: ‘I am from the Benjamin tribe, the smallest of all the tribes of Israel. And my family is the smallest and not important at all. Why do you say these things to me?’
22Samuel took Saul and his servant with him to the hall. There were about 30 people who had come to eat. Samuel said Saul and his servant must sit at the most important places 23and Samuel said to the cook: ‘Bring the meat that I gave you and said you must keep in a special place.’ 24The cook then took the roasted leg and he put it down in front of Saul. Samuel said to Saul: ‘Eat this meat that we put down in front of you. It is special meat that we kept for you to eat with these guests whom we have invited.’
Saul ate with Samuel that day. 25Then they went from the altar on the hill down to the town. Samuel spoke to Saul on the roof of his house. 26The next day they were up early. When the sun came up, Samuel called Saul onto the roof and he said: ‘Get up. I want to send you on your way.’ Saul went outside with Samuel.
27They walked together and when they were almost going out of the town, Samuel said to Saul: ‘Tell your servant he must keep on walking. But you must stay here so I can tell you what God has said.’
