¹⁷Samuel called the people together for a religious gathering at Mizpah ¹⁸and said to them, “The Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘I brought you out of Egypt and rescued you from the Egyptians and all the other peoples who were oppressing you. ¹⁹I am your God, the one who rescues you from all your troubles and difficulties, but today you have rejected me and have asked me to give you a king. Very well, then, gather yourselves before the Lord by tribes and by clans.’ ” ²⁰Then Samuel made each tribe come forward, and the Lord picked the tribe of Benjamin. ²¹Then Samuel made the families of the tribe of Benjamin come forward, and the family of Matri was picked out. Then the men of the family of Matri came forward,^y and Saul son of Kish was picked out. They looked for him, but when they could not find him, ²²they asked the Lord, “Is there still someone else?”

The Lord answered, “Saul is over there, hiding behind the supplies.”

²³So they ran and brought Saul out to the people, and they could see that he was a head taller than anyone else. ²⁴Samuel said to the people, “Here is the man the Lord has chosen! There is no one else among us like him.”

All the people shouted, “Long live the king!”

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Footnotes

yOne ancient translation Then the men of the family of Matri came forward; Hebrew does not have these words.