1. Then Samuel said to all Israel: “I have listened to your voice in all that you said to me, and have made a king over you.
2. And now, see, the king walks before you, but I am old and gray-headed. As for my sons, they are with you. But I have walked before you from my childhood to this day.
3. Behold, here I am. Witness against me before the Lord and before His anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I received any bribe to blind my eyes with? Indeed I will restore it you.”
4. They said, “You have not defrauded us, nor oppressed us. Neither have you taken anything from any man’s hand.”
5. He said to them, “The Lord is witness against you, and His anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.”And they answered, “He is witness.”
6. Samuel said to the people: “It is the Lord that prepared Moses and Aaron, and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt.
7. Now therefore stand still that I may reason with you before the Lord, concerning all the righteous acts of the Lord, which He did for you and your fathers.
8. “When Jacob went into Egypt and your fathers cried out to the Lord, the Lord sent Moses and Aaron who brought forth your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place.
9. “When they forgot the Lord their God, He sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them.
10. They cried to the Lord, and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and the Ashtoreths. But now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve You.’