"Wait, then," said Samuel, "and hear what I would say to you. Many years ago God brought your fathers out of Israel and gave this land to them for a possession.
"Often your fathers rebelled against God; and as often he sent punishment upon them that they might turn back to him. Sisera and the Philistines and the Moabites God sent to fight against the Israelites; but whenever they repented and turned back, then He forgave them. Many good captains He sent them,—Gideon, Jepthah and Samson.
"And now you have asked for a king, and God has given you one. And so long as the king and his people are true to the one God, so long shall His blessing be upon you."
And so ended that time in the history of the children of Israel when they were content to be ruled over by Judges chosen by God; and of these Judges, Samuel was the last.
Transcriber's Notes
Various punctuation errors were corrected.
Multiple spellings of the names of people and places were left unaltered.
The table of contents was added by the transcriber.