The Daily Audio Bible

The Israelites ask for a king

8 When Samuel was old, he made his sons judges for the Israelites.^{[a] 2} The name of his firstborn son was Joel. The name of his second son was Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba town. ³ But Samuel's sons did not live in a good way, as Samuel had done. They took money from people in ways that were not honest. They accepted bribes so that they did not judge in a fair way.

⁴ So all of Israel's leaders went together to meet Samuel at Ramah. ⁵ They said to him, ‘You are old. Your sons do not live in the way that you have done. All the other nations have kings to lead them. So choose a king to rule over us, like they have.’

⁶ When Israel's leaders said, ‘Choose a king who will lead us,’ Samuel was not happy. So he prayed to the Lord. ⁷ The Lord said to Samuel, ‘Listen to everything that the people are saying to you. I myself should be their king. So it is not you that they refuse to accept. It is me that they do not accept to be their king. ⁸ They are doing what they have always done. Since I brought them out of Egypt they have continued to turn away from me. They have chosen to serve other gods. Now they are turning against you in the same way. ⁹ So do what they are asking you to do. But warn them about what will happen. Tell them how their kings will rule over them.’

¹⁰ Samuel spoke to the people who had asked him to give them a king. He told them everything that the Lord had said to him. ¹¹ Samuel said to them, ‘This is how the king will rule over you: He will take your sons to be his soldiers. They will ride his horses and they will drive his chariots. They will have to run in front of his own chariot. ¹² The king will choose some of your sons to be officers in his army. Some will be leaders of 1,000 soldiers. Others will be leaders of 50 soldiers. Some of your sons will have to plough the king's fields. They will have to cut his crops at harvest time. They will have to make weapons for the king to fight wars. They will have to fix his chariots. ¹³ The king will take your daughters to serve him. They will have to make perfume for him. They will also have to cook and bake bread for him. ¹⁴ The king will take your best fields, vines and olive trees away from you. He will give all these to his own officers. ¹⁵ He will take a tenth part of all your seeds and grapes. He will give them to his officers and servants. ¹⁶ He will take your male and female servants for himself. He will take your best cows and your donkeys. He will use them for his own work. ¹⁷ He will take a tenth of all your sheep and your goats. You yourselves will become his servants too. ¹⁸ Then you will complain loudly to the Lord about your king that you have chosen to lead you. But the Lord will not answer you when you do that.’

¹⁹ But the people would not listen to Samuel. They said, ‘No! We want a king to rule us. ²⁰ We want to be like all the other nations! We want a king to rule us. He will be our leader when we go to fight our enemies.’

²¹ Samuel listened to everything that the people said. Then he told the Lord about it all. ²² The Lord said to Samuel, ‘You must do what they want. You must give a king to them.’

Then Samuel told Israel's people, ‘Return to your own towns, each of you.’

Saul looks for his father's donkeys

9 Kish was an important man from the tribe of Benjamin. He was the son of Abiel. Abiel was the son of Zeror. Zeror was the son of Becorath. Becorath was the son of Aphiah. Aphiah was a descendant of Benjamin. ² Kish had a son whose name was Saul. Saul was a handsome young man. No other Israelite was more handsome than he was. When Saul stood with other people, you could see his head above everyone else.

³ Some of Kish's donkeys had run away. Kish said to Saul, ‘Go and look for my donkeys. Take one of the servants with you.’ ⁴ So Saul and the servant travelled through the hill country of Ephraim. They went across Shalisha region. But they did not find the donkeys there. Then they went to Shaalim region. The donkeys were not there either. They travelled through all the tribe of Benjamin's land. They still did not find the donkeys anywhere.

⁵ They reached the land of Zuph's clan. Saul said to his servant, ‘We must return home now. We have been away for a long time. My father will start to think that we have become lost. He will not be thinking about the donkeys any more.’

⁶ The servant replied, ‘There is a servant of God who lives in this town. Everything that he says will happen really happens. So people respect him very much. We should go to meet him. Perhaps he will tell us which way we should go from here.’

⁷ Saul said to his servant, ‘That is good, but what will we give to him? We have eaten all the food that we brought with us in our bags. What else do we have? We must give him something.’

⁸ The servant answered, ‘I still have one small silver coin. I will give that to the servant of God. Then he will tell us which way we should go.’ ⁹ (That was the custom in Israel. If someone needed to hear a message from God, he would say, ‘We should go and talk with the seer.’^[b] The man that we now call a prophet was called a ‘seer’ at that time.)

¹⁰ Saul said to his servant, ‘That is a good idea. We should go now and see him.’ So they went to the town where the servant of God lived.

¹¹ They went up the hill to the town. Some young women came out of the town to get some water at a well. Saul and his servant asked them, ‘Is the seer here?’

¹² They said, ‘Yes, he is here. Go straight along this road. You must hurry. The seer came to the town today because the people will offer a sacrifice. He will go with them to the altar on the hill. ¹³ When you go into the town, you will find him before he goes up there. The people will not start to eat until he comes. First, he must bless the sacrifice. Then he will eat with the people who are there. Go up into the town now and you will find him.’

Saul meets Samuel

¹⁴ Saul and his servant went up towards the town. When they arrived there, Samuel came towards them. He was going up to the altar on the hill. ¹⁵ The day before Saul arrived, the Lord had already spoken to Samuel. He had said, ¹⁶ ‘Tomorrow I will send a man to you who comes from the land of Benjamin. He will arrive at about this time of day. Anoint him to be the ruler over my people, Israel. He will save my people from the power of the Philistines. My people have called out to me for help. Now I have decided to help them.’

¹⁷ When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said to him, ‘Here is the man that I told you about. He will rule over my people.’

¹⁸ Saul met Samuel at the gate of the town. Saul said to him, ‘Please tell me where the seer's house is.’

¹⁹ Samuel said to him, ‘I am the seer! Go in front of me now to the altar on the hill. You and your servant will eat a meal with me there. Tomorrow morning I will send you back to your home. Before that, I will tell you what you want to know. ²⁰ Someone has already found the donkeys that you lost three days ago. Do not think any more about them. The only thing that the Israelite people want now is you! They want you and all your father's family.’

²¹ Saul answered, ‘I belong to the tribe of Benjamin. It is the smallest tribe in the nation of Israel. And my family belongs to the smallest clan in that tribe. So why do you speak like this to me?’

²² Then Samuel took Saul and his servant into the room where they would eat the meal. He made them sit in the most important seats in front of all the other people. About 30 people had come to eat the meal. ²³ Samuel said to the cook, ‘Please bring me the special piece of meat that I gave to you. I told you to keep that piece separate.’

²⁴ So the cook brought the leg of meat and he put it down in front of Saul. Samuel said to Saul, ‘I kept this special piece of meat for you to eat. Eat it now. I kept it separate for this time when we would eat together. I chose it for you when I asked the people to come and eat this special meal.’

So Saul ate the meal with Samuel that day.

²⁵ They came down from the hill and they went into the town. Samuel took Saul onto the roof of his house and they talked together.^{[c] 26} They got up at dawn the next day. Saul had been sleeping on the roof. Samuel shouted up to him, ‘Get up and prepare to leave. I will send you on your journey.’

Saul got ready to leave to go home. Saul and Samuel went out into the street together. ²⁷ They walked to the edge of the town. Samuel said to Saul, ‘Tell your servant to go on in front of us.’ So he did that.

Then Samuel said, ‘Stay here for a moment. I need to tell you God's message.’

The crowd looks for Jesus

²² The crowd of people had stayed on the other side of the lake. The next day, they saw that the only boat had gone. They knew that Jesus' disciples had taken it. They also knew that Jesus had not gone with his disciples. ²³ Other boats from Tiberias then arrived near to the place where all the people were. They had eaten the bread there after the Lord Jesus had thanked God for it. ²⁴ The crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were still there. So they got into the boats and they went to Capernaum. They went there to look for Jesus.

Jesus is the bread that gives us life with God

²⁵ The people found Jesus on the other side of the lake. They asked him, ‘Teacher, when did you arrive here?’ ²⁶ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you this: You saw me do miracles that show God's power. But you are not looking for me because of that. No, you are looking for me because you ate the loaves. I gave you all the food that you needed. ²⁷ Do not work only for that kind of food. It soon becomes spoiled. Instead, work to get the food that continues for ever. That kind of food gives you life with God. The Son of Man will give this food to you. God, the Father, has given the Son authority to do this.’

²⁸ Then the people asked him, ‘How can we do the work that God wants us to do?’ ²⁹ Jesus answered, ‘You should believe in the one that God has sent to you. That is the work that God wants you to do.’ ³⁰ So then the people asked him, ‘What miracle will you do? Do one that shows that God has sent you. If we see that, we will believe in you. What will you do? ³¹ Our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness. We know that it says in the Bible, “God gave bread to them from heaven for them to eat.” ’^[a]

³² Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you this: It was not Moses who gave bread to you from heaven. No. It is my Father who gives to you the true bread from heaven. ³³ God's bread is the one who comes down from heaven. He is the one who gives life to people in the world.’ ³⁴ So they said to him, ‘Sir, please give this bread to us now and always.’

³⁵ Then Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread that gives life to people. Anyone who comes to me will never be hungry. Anyone who believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ You have seen me, but still you do not believe in me. I have told you that before. ³⁷ Everyone that the Father gives to me will come to me. When anyone comes to me, I will never send that person away. ³⁸ I have not come down from heaven to do what I myself choose to do. No, my Father has sent me. I have come to do what he wants me to do. ³⁹ He has sent me. He does not want me to lose any of the people that he has given to me. Not even one of them. He wants me to raise all of them up to life on the last day. ⁴⁰ These are the people who will have life for ever with God: everyone who sees the Son and believes in him. I will raise them all up on the last day. That is what my Father wants.’

⁴¹ Jesus had said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ When he said this, the Jewish leaders there did not like it. So they started to say bad things about Jesus. ⁴² They said, ‘This is Jesus, the son of Joseph. We know his father and his mother. He should not say that he came down from heaven.’