1. Then Samuel said to all Israel, “I have carefully listened to everything you said to me and placed a king over you.
2. Now you can see that the king is leading you. As for me, I’m old and gray, and my sons are here with you. I have led you from my youth until today.
3. Here I am. Bring charges against me before the Lord and His anointed: Whose ox or donkey have I taken? Whom have I wronged or mistreated? From whose hand have I taken a bribe to overlook something? I will return it to you.”
4. “You haven’t wronged us, you haven’t mistreated us, and you haven’t taken anything from anyone’s hand,” they responded.
5. He said to them, “The Lord is a witness against you, and His anointed is a witness today that you haven’t found anything in my hand.” “He is a witness,” they said.
6. Then Samuel said to the people, “The Lord, who appointed Moses and Aaron and who brought your ancestors up from the land of Egypt, is a witness.
7. Now present yourselves, so I may confront you before the Lord about all the righteous acts He has done for you and your ancestors.
8. “When Jacob went to Egypt, your ancestors cried out to the Lord, and He sent them Moses and Aaron, who led your ancestors out of Egypt and settled them in this place.
9. But they forgot the Lord their God, so He handed them over to Sisera commander of the army of Hazor, to the Philistines, and to the king of Moab. These enemies fought against them.
10. Then they cried out to the Lord and said, ‘We have sinned, for we abandoned the Lord and worshiped the Baals and the Ashtoreths. Now deliver us from the power of our enemies, and we will serve You.’
11. So the Lord sent Jerubbaal, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel. He rescued you from the power of the enemies around you, and you lived securely.
12. But when you saw that Nahash king of the Ammonites was coming against you, you said to me, ‘No, we must have a king rule over us’ — even though the Lord your God is your king.