Bible Verses About Kings

"When he has come to occupy the throne of his kingdom, he is to write a copy of this Torah for himself in a scroll, from the one the cohanim and L'vi'im use.

It is to remain with him, and he is to read in it every day, as long as he lives; so that he will learn to fear ADONAI his God and keep all the words of this Torah and these laws and obey them;

so that he will not think he is better than his kinsmen; and so that he will not turn aside either to the right or to the left from the mitzvah. In this way he will prolong his own reign and that of his children in Isra'el.

So do what they say, but give them a sober warning, telling them what kinds of rulings their king will make."

Sh'mu'el reported everything ADONAI had said to the people asking him for a king.

He said, "Here is the kind of rulings your king will make: he will draft your sons and assign them to take care of his chariots, be his horsemen and be bodyguards running ahead of his chariots.

He will appoint them to serve him as officers in charge of a thousand or of fifty, plowing his fields, gathering his harvest, and making his weapons and the equipment for his chariots.

He will take your daughters and have them be perfume-makers, cooks and bakers.

He will expropriate your fields, vineyards and olive groves - the very best of them! - and hand them over to his servants.

He will take the ten-percent tax of your crops and vineyards and give it to his officers and servants.

He will take your male and female servants, your best young men and your donkeys, and make them work for him.

He will take the ten-percent tax of your flocks, and you will become his servants.

When that happens, you will cry out on account of your king, whom you yourselves chose. But when that happens, ADONAI will not answer you!"

As this was going on, Sha'ul came, following the oxen out of the field. Sha'ul asked, "What's wrong with the people to make them cry like that?"They told him what the men from Yavesh had said.

The Spirit of God fell on Sha'ul when he heard this; blazing furiously with anger,

he seized a pair of oxen and cut them in pieces; then he sent them throughout the territory of Isra'el with messengers saying, "Anyone who doesn't come and follow Sha'ul and Sh'mu'el, this is what will be done to his oxen!"The fear of ADONAI fell on the people, and they came out with united hearts.

Now is wheat harvest time, isn't it? I am going to call on ADONAI to send thunder and rain. Then you will understand and see how wicked from

Sh'mu'elADONAI's viewpoint is the thing you have done in asking for a king."called to ADONAI, and ADONAI sent thunder and rain that day. Then all the people became very much afraid of ADONAI and Sh'mu'el.

All the people said to Sh'mu'el, "Pray to ADONAI your God for your servants, so that we won't die; because to all our other sins now we've added this evil as well, asking for a king over us."

Sh'mu'el answered the people, "Don't be afraid. You have indeed done all this evil; yet now, just don't turn away from following ADONAI; but serve ADONAI with all your heart.

The king sat at his usual place by the wall. Y'honatan stood up, and Avner sat next to Sha'ul, but David's place was empty.

However, Sha'ul didn't say anything that day; because he thought, "Something has happened to him, he is unclean. Yes, that's it, he isn't clean."

The day after Rosh-Hodesh, the second day, David's place was empty; and Sha'ul said to Y'honatan his son, "Why hasn't Yishai's son come to the meal either yesterday or today?"

But David answered Rekhav and Ba'anah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Be'eroti, "As ADONAI lives, who has rescued me from every kind of difficulty,

when someone told me, 'Here, Sha'ul is dead,' thinking to himself that he was bringing good news, I didn't reward him for his news but seized him and killed him in Ziklag.