1 Samuel 9:18-24

9:18 As Saul approached Samuel in the middle of the gate, he said, “Please tell me where the seer’s house is.”

9:19 Samuel replied to Saul, “I am the seer! Go up in front of me to the high place! Today you will eat with me and in the morning I will send you away. I will tell you everything that you are thinking. ¹  9:20 Don’t be concerned ²  about the donkeys that you lost three days ago, for they have been found. Whom does all Israel desire? Is it not you, and all your father’s family?” ³ 

9:21 Saul replied, “Am I not a Benjaminite, from the smallest of Israel’s tribes, and is not my family clan the smallest of all the tribes of Benjamin? Why do you speak to me in this way?”

9:22 Then Samuel brought ⁴  Saul and his servant into the room and gave them a place at the head of those who had been invited. There were about thirty people present. 9:23 Samuel said to the cook, “Give me the portion of meat that I gave to you – the one I asked you to keep with you.”

9:24 So the cook picked up the leg and brought it and set it in front of Saul. Samuel ⁵  said, “What was kept is now set before you! Eat, for it has been kept for you for this meeting time, from the time I said, ‘I have invited the people.’” So Saul ate with Samuel that day.

[9:19]  ¹ tn Heb “all that is in your heart.”

[9:20]  ¹ tn Heb “do not fix your heart.”

[9:20]  ² tn Heb “and all the house of your father.”

[9:22]  ¹ tn Heb “took and brought.”

[9:24]  ¹ tn Heb “he” (also in v. 25); the referent (Samuel) has been specified in both places in the translation for clarity.