¹And Samuel took the flask of oil and poured it on his head, and he kissed him, and he said, “Is it not the case that the Lord has anointed you as leader over his inheritance? ²When you depart from me today, you will find two men at Rachel's tomb, at the border of Benjamin's territory at Zelzah, and they will say to you, ‘The donkeys which you went to look for have been found, and look, your father dropped the matter of the donkeys and became concerned for you, and he said, «What can I do for my son?» ’ ³And you will pass on from there and go further on, and when you arrive at the oak tree of Tabor, there three men will meet you, going up to God in Beth-El, one leading three goat-kids, and one carrying three loaves of bread, and one carrying a skin-bottle of wine. ⁴And they will ask you how you are, and they will give you two loaves of bread, and you will take them from them. ⁵After that you will come to the hill of God where there are garrisons of Philistines, and it will come to pass when you arrive there at the city that you will meet a company of prophets coming down from the raised site, and in front of them will be a lute and a drum and a pipe and a harp, and they will prophesy. ⁶And the spirit of the Lord will come over you, and you will prophesy with them, and you will be turned into another man. ⁷And it will come to pass, when these signs come on you, that you will do whatever presents itself to you, for God is with you. ⁸And you will go down before me to Gilgal, and look, I am coming down to you to make burnt offerings and to offer peace-sacrifices. You will wait for seven days for me to come to you, and I will make known to you what you will do.” ⁹And it came to pass when he turned his back to depart from Samuel that God replaced his heart by a different one, and all these signs came about on that day. ¹⁰And when they came there – to the hill – it so happened that a group of prophets came towards him, and the spirit of God descended on him, and he prophesied among them. ¹¹And it came to pass that everyone who had known him for some time looked and saw that he prophesied with the prophets, and the people said to one another, “What is this that has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?” ¹²And a man from there answered and said, “And who is their father?” Because of that it became a saying: “Is Saul also among the prophets?” ¹³Then he finished prophesying, and he went to the raised site. ¹⁴Then Saul's uncle said to him and to his servant-lad, “Where did you go?” And he said, “To look for the donkeys. And when we saw that they weren't around, we went to Samuel.” ¹⁵And Saul's uncle said, “Please tell me, what did Samuel say to you?” ¹⁶And Saul said to his uncle, “He emphatically told us that the donkeys had been found.” But he did not tell him about the matter of the kingdom which Samuel had spoken about. ¹⁷Meanwhile Samuel called the people together to the Lord in Mizpah. ¹⁸And he said to the sons of Israel, “The Lord God of Israel says this: ‘I brought Israel up from Egypt, and I delivered you from the grip of Egypt and the grip of all the kingdoms which were oppressing you. ¹⁹But you today have rejected your God, who saves you from all your troubles and adversities, and you have said to him, «So appoint a king over us.» And now stand before the Lord according to your tribes and according to your thousands.’ ” ²⁰And Samuel had all the tribes of Israel approach, and the tribe of Benjamin was selected. ²¹Then he had the tribe of Benjamin approach according to its families, and the family of Matri was selected, and Saul the son of Kish was selected. And they looked for him, but he was not found. ²²Then they inquired of the Lord again, “Has the man come here yet?” And the Lord said, “Look, he has hidden among the equipment.” ²³So they ran and took him from there, and he stood among the people, and he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upwards. ²⁴And Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see whom the Lord has chosen? For there is no-one like him among all the people.” And all the people shouted and said, “May the king live.” ²⁵And Samuel told the people the decision on the kingship, and he wrote it in a book and deposited it before the Lord. Then Samuel sent all the people away – each one to his home. ²⁶And Saul went home to Gibeah, and with him went the army whose heart God had motivated so to do. ²⁷But the riff-raff said, “How can this man save us?” And they despised him and did not bring him any offering. But he remained silent.