11. When all the people who had known Saul saw him prophesying with the prophets, they said to each other, "What’s happened to Kish’s son? Is Saul also one of the prophets?"
12. One of the locals then asked, "And who is their leader?" So it became a proverb: "Is Saul also one of the prophets?"
13. When the prophetic frenzy was over, Saul went home.
14. Saul’s uncle said to him and to his young servant, "Where did you go?""To look for the donkeys," Saul replied, "but when we couldn’t find anything, we went to Samuel."
15. "Please tell me what Samuel told you," Saul’s uncle said.
16. "He reassured us that the donkeys had been found," Saul answered. But Saul didn’t tell his uncle what Samuel had said about the kingship.
17. Samuel summoned the people to the Lord at Mizpah.
18. Then he told the Israelites: "This is what the Lord God of Israel says: I brought Israel up out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the Egyptians’ power and from the power of all the kingdoms that oppressed you.
19. But today you’ve rejected your God who saved you from all your troubles and difficulties by saying, ‘No! Appoint a king over us!’ So now assemble yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and clans."
20. Then Samuel brought all the Israelite tribes forward, and the tribe of Benjamin was selected.
21. Next Samuel brought the tribe of Benjamin forward by its families, and the family of Matri was selected. Samuel then brought the family of Matri forward, person by person, and Saul, Kish’s son, was selected. But when they looked for him, he wasn’t to be found.
22. So they asked another question of the Lord: "Has the man come here yet?"The Lord said, "Yes, he’s hiding among the supplies."
23. They ran and retrieved Saul from there, and when he stood up in the middle of the people, he was head and shoulders taller than anyone else.
24. "Can you see the one the Lord has chosen?" Samuel asked all the people. "He has no equal among the people."Then the people shouted, "Long live the king!"
25. Samuel then explained to the people how the monarchy should operate and wrote it in a scroll and placed it in the Lord’s presence. Then Samuel sent every person back to their homes.
26. Saul also went back to his home in Gibeah. Along with him went courageous men whose hearts God had touched.