1 Samuel 12:2

the king walketh before you Goes in and out in your presence in the exercise of his regal authority.

and I am old and gray-headed; and, behold my sons are with you Samuel refers to the two reasons alleged by the elders in ch. 1 Samuel 8:5 for asking a king, (a) his own age, (b) the misgovernment of his sons. He mentions the first expressly, but with the natural reluctance of a father to dwell upon his sons" misconduct, only hints at the second. The Hebrew conjunction "and" here as often introduces the reason, and may be translated by "for" or "seeing that."

from my childhood "From my youth," as the word is rendered everywhere else in the E. V. Samuel's public life may be said to have commenced when God first spoke to him in Shiloh (1 Samuel 3:11), so that they had had full opportunity of knowing him from the first.