govern my people’ (9:17). Samuel was also given to understand that the donkeys Saul had been looking for had been found. He used this information both to introduce himself to Saul and to tell him that he was indeed a prophet of God. He then took the first step in Saul’s preparation for kingship. Having invited him to the sacrifice and promised a full explanation the next morning, Samuel asked Saul a most portentous, if slightly enigmatic, rhetorical question: ‘And to whom is all the desire of Israel