Reading: 1 Samuel 8, Romans 7

¹ And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel.² Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: they were judges in Beersheba.³ And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.⁴ Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah,⁵ And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.⁶ But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD.⁷ And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.⁸ According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee.⁹ Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.¹⁰ And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king.¹¹ And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.¹² And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.¹³ And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.¹⁴ And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.¹⁵ And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.¹⁶ And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.¹⁷ He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.¹⁸ And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day.¹⁹ Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us;²⁰ That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.²¹ And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the LORD.²² And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city.

¹ Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?² For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.³ So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.⁴ Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.⁵ For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.⁶ But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.⁷ What shall we say then? is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.⁸ But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.⁹ For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.¹⁰ And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.¹¹ For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.¹² Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.¹³ Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.¹⁵ For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.¹⁶ If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.¹⁷ Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.¹⁸ For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.¹⁹ For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.²⁰ Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.²¹ I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.²² For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:²³ But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.²⁴ O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?²⁵ I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.