Laws Concerning Israel’s Kings

14 “When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ^w‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’

5 and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now ⁱappoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”

The Lord Grants Israel’s Request

19 But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, 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.”

21 Then ^dthey asked for a king, and ^eGod gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.