1. Then Samuel addressed all Israel: “I have done as you asked and given you a king.
2. Your king is now your leader. I stand here before you—an old, gray-haired man—and my sons serve you. I have served as your leader from the time I was a boy to this very day.
3. Now testify against me in the presence of the lord and before his anointed one. Whose ox or donkey have I stolen? Have I ever cheated any of you? Have I ever oppressed you? Have I ever taken a bribe and perverted justice? Tell me and I will make right whatever I have done wrong.”
4. “No,” they replied, “you have never cheated or oppressed us, and you have never taken even a single bribe.”
5. “The lord and his anointed one are my witnesses today,” Samuel declared, “that my hands are clean.”“Yes, he is a witness,” they replied.
6. “It was the lord who appointed Moses and Aaron,” Samuel continued. “He brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt.