Leadership Transitions in the Bible

1Samuel said to all Israel, Behold, I have listened to your voice in all that you said to me, and have made a king over you.

2Now, behold, the king walks before you; and I am old and gray-headed; and, behold, my sons are with you: and I have walked before you from my youth to this day.

3Here I am: witness against me before Yahweh, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose donkey have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I taken a ransom to blind my eyes therewith? and I will restore it you.

4They said, You have not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither have you taken anything of any man`s hand.

5He said to them, Yahweh is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand. They said, He is witness.

13Samuel said to Saul, You have done foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of Yahweh your God, which he commanded you: for now would Yahweh have established your kingdom on Israel forever.

14But now your kingdom shall not continue: Yahweh has sought him a man after his own heart, and Yahweh has appointed him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept that which Yahweh commanded you.

15Samuel arose, and got him up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. Saul numbered the people who were present with him, about six hundred men.

27There came a man of God to Eli, and said to him, Thus says Yahweh, Did I reveal myself to the house of your father, when they were in Egypt [in bondage] to Pharaoh`s house?

28and did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? and did I give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire?

29Why kick you at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in [my] habitation, and honor your sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel my people?

30Therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, I said indeed that your house, and the house of your father, should walk before me forever: but now Yahweh says, Be it far from me; for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.

31Behold, the days come, that I will cut off your arm, and the arm of your father`s house, that there shall not be an old man in your house.

32You shall see the affliction of [my] habitation, in all the wealth which [God] shall give Israel; and there shall not be an old man in your house forever.

33The man of yours, [whom] I shall not cut off from my altar, [shall be] to consume your eyes, and to grieve your heart; and all the increase of your house shall die in the flower of their age.

34This shall be the sign to you, that shall come on your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall die both of them.

35I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in my heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before my anointed forever.

36It shall happen, that everyone who is left in your house shall come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and shall say, Please put me into one of the priests` offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread.

19Samuel grew, and Yahweh was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.

20All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of Yahweh.

21Yahweh appeared again in Shiloh; for Yahweh revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of Yahweh.

15Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.

16He went from year to year in circuit to Bethel and Gilgal, and Mizpah; and he judged Israel in all those places.

17His return was to Ramah, for there was his house; and there he judged Israel: and he built there an altar to Yahweh.

4Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel to Ramah;

5and they said to him, Behold, you are old, and your sons don`t walk in your ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.

6But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. Samuel prayed to Yahweh.

7Yahweh said to Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people in all that they tell you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them.

8even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah.

16The children of the captivity did so. Ezra the priest, [with] certain heads of fathers` [houses], after their fathers` houses, and all of them by their names, were set apart; and they sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.

2who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:

2Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brothers, and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.

2Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem; and with them were the prophets of God, helping them.

1Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,

6this Ezra went up from Babylon: and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which Yahweh, the God of Israel, had given; and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of Yahweh his God on him.

15I gathered them together to the river that runs to Ahava; and there we encamped three days: and I viewed the people, and the priests, and found there none of the sons of Levi.

31Then I brought up the princes of Judah on the wall, and appointed two great companies who gave thanks and went in procession; [whereof one went] on the right hand on the wall toward the dung gate:

32and after them went Hoshaiah, and half of the princes of Judah,

33and Azariah, Ezra, and Meshullam,

34Judah, and Benjamin, and Shemaiah, and Jeremiah,

35and certain of the priests` sons with trumpets: Zechariah the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Micaiah, the son of Zaccur, the son of Asaph;

36and his brothers, Shemaiah, and Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, and Judah, Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God; and Ezra the scribe was before them.

37By the spring gate, and straight before them, they went up by the stairs of the city of David, at the ascent of the wall, above the house of David, even to the water gate eastward.

38The other company of those who gave thanks went to meet them, and I after them, with the half of the people, on the wall, above the tower of the furnaces, even to the broad wall,

39and above the gate of Ephraim, and by the old gate, and by the fish gate, and the tower of Hananel, and the tower of Hammeah, even to the sheep gate: and they stood still in the gate of the guard.

7and I came to Jerusalem, and understood the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God.

8It grieved me sore: therefore I cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber.

9Then I commanded, and they cleansed the chambers: and there brought I again the vessels of the house of God, with the meal-offerings and the frankincense.

11So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.

12I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God put into my heart to do for Jerusalem; neither was there any animal with me, except the animal that I rode on.

13I went out by night by the valley gate, even toward the jackal`s well, and to the dung gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates of it were consumed with fire.

14Then I went on to the spring gate and to the king`s pool: but there was no place for the animal that was under me to pass.

15Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall; and I turned back, and entered by the valley gate, and so returned.

16The rulers didn`t know where I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest who did the work.

17Then said I to them, You see the evil case that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and the gates of it are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.

18I told them of the hand of my God which was good on me, as also of the king`s words that he had spoken to me. They said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good [work].

5I said to the king, If it please the king, and if your servant have found favor in your sight, that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers` tombs, that I may build it.

6The king said to me (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall your journey be? and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.

7Moreover I said to the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah;

8and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king`s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the castle which appertains to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. The king granted me, according to the good hand of my God on me.

13Therefore set I in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in the open places, I set [there] the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows.

14I looked, and rose up, and said to the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Don`t be you afraid of them: remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.

19I said to the nobles, and to the rulers and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated on the wall, one far from another:

20in whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, resort you there to us; our God will fight for us.

6I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.

7Then I consulted with myself, and contended with the nobles and the rulers, and said to them, You exact usury, everyone of his brother. I held a great assembly against them.

1Now it happened, when the wall was built, and I had set up the doors, and the porters and the singers and the Levites were appointed,

2that I gave my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the governor of the castle, charge over Jerusalem; for he was a faithful man, and feared God above many.

3I said to them, Don`t let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun be hot; and while they stand [on guard], let them shut the doors, and bar you them: and appoint watches of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, everyone in his watch, and everyone [to be] over against his house.

5My God put into my heart to gather together the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, that they might be reckoned by genealogy. I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up at the first, and I found written therein: