1 Kings 10

¹And Samuel took a little vessel of oil, and poured upon his head, and kissed him, and said: Behold, our Lord hath anointed thee upon his inheritance to be Prince, and thou shalt deliver his people out of the hands of their enemies, that are round about them. And this shall be a sign unto thee, that God hath anointed thee to be Prince.

²When thou shalt be departed from me this day, thou shalt find two men beside the sepulchre of Rachel in the borders of Benjamin, in the South, and they shall say to thee: The asses are found, which thou didst go to see: and thy father letting go the asses, is careful for you, and saith: What shall I do concerning my son?

³And when thou shalt depart thence, and pass farther, and shalt come to the oak Thabor, three men going up to God into Bethel shall find thee there, one carrying three kids, and another three manchets of bread, and another carrying a flagon of wine.

⁴And when they have saluted thee, they will give thee two loaves, and thou shalt take them of their hand.

⁵After these things thou shalt come into the hill of God, where the garrison of the Philisthiims is: and when thou shalt be entered there into the city, thou shalt meet there a flock of Prophets coming down from the excelse, and before them psaltery and timbrel, and shalm, and harp, and themselves prophesying.

⁶And the Spirit of our Lord shall seize upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be changed into another man.

⁷Therefore when all these signs shall chance to thee, do whatsoever thy hand shall find, because our Lord is with thee.

⁸And thou shalt go down before me into Galgala (for I will come down to thee) that thou mayest offer oblation, and immolate pacific victims: seven days shalt thou expect, till I come to thee, & I will shew thee what thou must do.

⁹Therefore when he had turned away his shoulder to depart from Samuel, God changed unto him another heart, and all these things came in that day.

¹⁰And they came to the foresaid hill, and behold a troop of Prophets meeting him: & the Spirit of our Lord seized upon him, and he prophesied in the midst of them.

¹¹And all that had known him yesterday and the day before, seeing that he was with the prophets, & did prophesy, said to each other: What thing hath happened to the son of Cis? What is Saul also among the Prophets?

¹²And one answered another, saying: And who is their father? Therefore it was turned into a proverb: What is Saul also among the Prophets?

¹³And he ceased to prophesy, and came to the excelse.

¹⁴And Saul's uncle said to him, and to his servant: Whither went you? Who answered: To seek the asses: which when we had not found we came to Samuel.

¹⁵And his uncle said to him: Tell me what Samuel said to thee.

¹⁶And Saul said to his uncle: He told us that the asses were found. But concerning the word of the Kingdom which Samuel had spoken to him, he told him not.

¹⁷And Samuel called together the people of our Lord in Maspha:

¹⁸And said to the children of Israel: Thus saith our Lord the God of Israel: I brought Israel out of Ægypt, and delivered you from the hand of the Ægyptians, and from the hand of all the kings which afflicted you.

¹⁹But you this day have rejected your God, who only hath saved you out of all your evils and tribulations: and you have said: Not so: but appoint a king over us. Now therefore stand before our Lord by your tribes, and by your families.

²⁰And Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel, and the lot fell on the tribe of Benjamin.

²¹And he brought the tribe of Benjamin and the kindreds thereof, & it fell upon the kindred of Metri, and it came unto Saul the son of Cis. They therefore sought him, and he was not found.

²²And after these things they consulted our Lord whether he would come thither. And our Lord answered: Behold he is hid at home.

²³They ran therefore and took him from thence: and he stood in the midst of the people, and he was higher than all the people from the shoulder and upward.

²⁴And Samuel said to all the people: Certes you see whom our Lord hath chosen, that there is not the like to him in all the people. And all the people cried, and said: God save the king.

²⁵And Samuel spake to the people the law of the Kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before our Lord: and Samuel dismissed all the people, every one into his own house.

²⁶But Saul also departed into his house into Gabaa: & there went with him part of the army, they whose hearts God had touched.

²⁷But the children of Belial said: What, shall this fellow be able to save us? And they despised him, & brought him not presents: but he dissembled as though he heard not.