But the people wanted to be like the nations around them. So the elders came to Samuel and said, "Make us a king to judge us like all the nations."
Samuel was a prophet of the Lord, and had been the judge of Israel for many years. Their demand for a king displeased him, for he felt that the people had rejected him.
But the Lord told Samuel to do as they asked, "for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me." And the Lord chose Saul, of the tribe of Benjamin, to be king.
At the command of the Lord, Samuel anointed Saul as king. A little later he called the people together and presented their new-made king to them. And they shouted, "God save the king!"
But Saul soon became proud, and many times refused to obey the Lord. Then the Lord rejected Saul and chose David, a young shepherd boy, to be king when Saul should die. And Samuel anointed David to be king in the place of Saul.
David and Saul at the Cave.
When Saul heard of this he was very angry, and tried many times to kill David. Saul wanted his son Jonathan to be king when he died. How foolish it was for Saul to try to kill David, when God had said he should be king over Israel!
So David fled from Saul, and for many years lived among strangers, and in the dens and caves of the mountains. But Saul hunted him so many times that David had to change his hiding place very often.
One time Saul lay down to sleep in the very cave where David was hidden, not knowing he was there. Some of the men who were with David wanted him to kill Saul, but he would not do it. He only crept up to the king and cut off a piece of the robe which he wore.