¹⁸ When all of this comes about, you will cry out because of your king whom you chose for yourselves, but the Lord won’t answer you at that time.”

¹⁹ The people refused to listen to Samuel.^[a] Instead, they insisted, “No! Let a king rule over us instead! ²⁰ We, too, will be like all the nations! Our king will govern us and go out before us to fight our battles.”