that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles."

"who may go out before them and go in before them, who may lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the LORD may not be like sheep which have no shepherd."

Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel.

and said to him, "Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations."

Now also when [I am] old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me, Until I declare Your strength to [this] generation, Your power to everyone [who] is to come.

" Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, And all the remnant of the house of Israel, Who have been upheld [by Me] from birth, Who have been carried from the womb:

Even to [your] old age, I [am] He, And [even] to gray hairs I will carry [you!] I have made, and I will bear; Even I will carry, and will deliver [you.]

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.

knowing that shortly I [must] put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.

Now Eli was very old; and he heard everything his sons did to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

'Why do you kick at My sacrifice and My offering which I have commanded [in My] dwelling place, and honor your sons more than Me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel My people?'

"For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them.

Then Eli called Samuel and said, "Samuel, my son!" And he answered, "Here I am."

But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.

So Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.

And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel [had been] established as a prophet of the LORD.