1. Then Samuel said to all Israel, “Behold, I have listened to your voice in all you said to me, and have set a king over you.
2. Now here is the king who will go before you, while I am old and gray. Also here are my sons with you. I have gone before you from my youth to this day.
3. Here I am. Witness against me before Adonai and before His anointed. Whose ox have I taken or whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I defrauded or whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I taken a bribe to look the other way? I will restore it to you.”
4. They replied, “You haven’t defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from anyone’s hand.”
5. Then he said to them, “Adonai is then a witness against you, and His anointed is a witness this day that you have not found anything in my hand.” “He is a witness,” they replied.
6. Then Samuel said to the people, “It is Adonai who appointed Moses and Aaron and who brought your fathers up from the land of Egypt.
7. So now, stand still, so that I may plead with you before Adonai concerning all the righteous acts of Adonai, which He did for you and your fathers.
8. When Jacob entered Egypt and your fathers cried out to Adonai, then Adonai sent Moses and Aaron who brought your fathers out of Egypt and settled them in this place.
9. But they forgot Adonai their God, so He gave them over into the hand of Sisera, captain of the army of Hazor, into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, who fought against them.
10. So they cried out to Adonai and said, ‘We have sinned because we have forsaken Adonai and have worshipped the Baalim and the Ashtaroth. But now deliver us from the hand of our enemies and we will worship You.’