2 The name of his oldest son was Joel; the name of the second was Abijah. They served as judges in Beer-sheba.
3 But Samuel’s sons didn’t follow in his footsteps. They tried to turn a profit, they accepted bribes, and they perverted justice.
4 So all the Israelite elders got together and went to Samuel at Ramah.
5 They said to him, "Listen. You are old now, and your sons don’t follow in your footsteps. So appoint us a king to judge us like all the other nations have."
6 It seemed very bad to Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us," so he prayed to the Lord.
7 The Lord answered Samuel, "Comply with the people’s request—everything they ask of you—because they haven’t rejected you. No, they’ve rejected me as king over them.
8 They are doing to you only what they’ve been doing to me from the day I brought them out of Egypt to this very minute, abandoning me and worshipping other gods.