¹ And Samuel said to all Israel, You see that I have given ear to everything you said to me, and have made a king over you.

² And now, see, the king is before you: and I am old and grey-headed, and my sons are with you: I have been living before your eyes from my early days till now.

³ Here I am: give witness against me before the Lord and before the man on whom he has put the holy oil: whose ox or ass have I taken? to whom have I been untrue? who has been crushed down by me? from whose hand have I taken a price for the blinding of my eyes? I will give it all back to you.

⁴ And they said, You have never been untrue to us or cruel to us; you have taken nothing from any man.

⁵ Then he said, The Lord is witness against you, and the man on whom he has put the holy oil is witness this day that you have seen no wrong in me. And they said, He is witness.

⁶ And Samuel said to the people, The Lord is witness, who gave authority to Moses and Aaron, and who took your fathers up out of the land of Egypt.

⁷ Keep your places now, while I take up the argument with you before the Lord, and give you the story of the righteousness of the Lord, which he has made clear by his acts to you and to your fathers.

⁸ When Jacob and his sons had come into Egypt, and were crushed by the Egyptians, the prayers of your fathers came up to the Lord, and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who took your fathers out of Egypt, and he put them into this place.

⁹ But they were false to the Lord their God, and he gave them up into the hands of Sisera, captain of the army of Jabin, king of Hazor, and into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the king of Moab, who made war against them.

¹⁰ Then crying out to the Lord, they said, We have done evil, because we have been turned away from the Lord, worshipping the Baals and the Astartes: but now, make us safe from those who are against us and we will be your servants.

¹¹ So the Lord sent Jerubbaal and Barak and Jephthah and Samuel and took you out of the power of those who were fighting against you on every side, and made you safe.

¹² And when you saw that Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, was coming against you, you said to me, No more of this; we will have a king for our ruler: when the Lord your God was your king.

¹³ Here, then, is the king marked out by you: the Lord has put a king over you.

¹⁴ If in the fear of the Lord you are his servants, hearing his voice and not going against the orders of the Lord, but being true to the Lord your God, you and the king ruling over you, then all will be well:

¹⁵ But if you do not give ear to the voice of the Lord, but go against his orders, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and against your king for your destruction, as it was against your fathers.

¹⁶ Now keep where you are and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes.

¹⁷ Is it not now the time of the grain cutting? My cry will go up to the Lord and he will send thunder and rain: so that you may see and be conscious of your great sin which you have done in the eyes of the Lord in desiring a king for yourselves.

¹⁸ So Samuel made prayer to the Lord; and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people were in fear of the Lord and of Samuel.

¹⁹ And all the people said to Samuel, Make prayer for us to the Lord your God so that death may not overtake us: for in addition to all our sins we have done this evil, in desiring a king.

²⁰ Then Samuel said to the people, Have no fear: truly you have done evil, but do not be turned away from the Lord; be his servants with all your heart;

²¹ And do not go from the right way turning to those false gods in which there is no profit and no salvation, for they are false.

²² For the Lord will not give his people up, because of the honour of his name; for it was the Lord's pleasure to make of you a people for himself.

²³ And as for me, never will I go against the orders of the Lord by giving up my prayers for you: but I will go on teaching you the good and right way.

²⁴ Only go in the fear of the Lord, and be his true servants with all your heart, keeping in mind what great things he has done for you.

²⁵ But if you still do evil, destruction will overtake you and your king.

¹ In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.

² Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and he didn't do that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh his God, like David his father.

³ But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yes, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations, whom Yahweh cast out from before the children of Israel.

⁴ He sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

⁵ Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.

⁶ At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drove the Jews from Elath; and the Syrians came to Elath, and lived there, to this day.

⁷ So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria, saying, "I am your servant and your son. Come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who rise up against me."

⁸ Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of Yahweh, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.

⁹ The king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried [the people of] it captive to Kir, and killed Rezin.

¹⁰ King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria, and saw the altar that was at Damascus; and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and its pattern, according to all its workmanship.

¹¹ Urijah the priest built an altar: according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so did Urijah the priest make it against the coming of king Ahaz from Damascus.

¹² When the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king drew near to the altar, and offered thereon.

¹³ He burnt his burnt offering and his meal offering, and poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings, on the altar.

¹⁴ The bronze altar, which was before Yahweh, he brought from the forefront of the house, from between his altar and the house of Yahweh, and put it on the north side of his altar.

¹⁵ King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, "On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meal offering, and the king's burnt offering, and his meal offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meal offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice; but the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by."

¹⁶ Urijah the priest did so, according to all that king Ahaz commanded.

¹⁷ King Ahaz cut off the panels of the bases, and removed the basin from off them, and took down the sea from off the bronze oxen that were under it, and put it on a pavement of stone.

¹⁸ The covered way for the Sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king's entry outside, turned he to the house of Yahweh, because of the king of Assyria.

¹⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²⁰ Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.