1 Samuel 15
15
The Lord Is Sad That He Made Saul King
1Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you as king over his people Israel. So listen now to a message from him. 2The Lord who rules over all says, ‘I will punish the Amalekites because of what they did to Israel. As the Israelites came up from Egypt, the Amalekites attacked them. 3Now go. Attack the Amalekites. Completely destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare the Amalekites. Put the men and women to death. Put the children and babies to death. Also kill the cattle, sheep, camels and donkeys.’ ”
4So Saul brought his men together at Telaim. The total number was 200,000 soldiers on foot from Israel and 10,000 from Judah. 5Saul went to the city of Amalek. Then Saul had some of his men hide and wait in the valley. 6Then Saul said to the Kenites, “You were kind to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt. Get away from the Amalekites. Then I won’t have to destroy you along with them.” So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.
7Saul attacked the Amalekites. He struck them down all the way from Havilah to Shur. Shur was near the eastern border of Egypt. 8Saul captured Agag, the king of the Amalekites. But he and his men totally destroyed with their swords all Agag’s people. 9So Saul and the army spared Agag. They spared the best of the sheep and cattle. They spared the fat calves and lambs. They spared everything that was valuable. They weren’t willing to completely destroy any of those things. But they totally destroyed everything that was worthless and weak.
10Then the Lord gave Samuel a message. He said, 11“I am very sad I have made Saul king. He has turned away from me. He has not done what I directed him to do.” When Samuel heard that, he was angry. He cried out to the Lord during that whole night.
12Early the next morning Samuel got up. He went to see Saul. But Samuel was told, “Saul went to Carmel. There he set up a monument in his own honor. Now he has gone on down to Gilgal.”
13When Samuel got there, Saul said, “May the Lord bless you. I’ve done what he directed me to do.”
14But Samuel said, “Then why do I hear the baaing of sheep? Why do I hear the mooing of cattle?”
15Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites. They spared the best of the sheep and cattle. They did it to sacrifice them to the Lord your God. But we totally destroyed everything else.”
16“That’s enough!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”
“Tell me,” Saul replied.
17Samuel said, “There was a time when you didn’t think you were important. But you became the leader of the tribes of Israel. The Lord anointed you to be king over Israel. 18He sent you to do something for him. He said, ‘Go and completely destroy the Amalekites. Go and destroy those evil people. Fight against them until you have wiped them out.’ 19Why didn’t you obey the Lord? Why did you keep for yourselves what you had taken from your enemies? Why did you do what is evil in the sight of the Lord?”
20“But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went to do what he sent me to do. I completely destroyed the Amalekites. I brought back Agag, their king. 21The soldiers took sheep and cattle from what had been taken from our enemies. They took the best of what had been set apart to God. They wanted to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”
22But Samuel replied,
“What pleases the Lord more?
Burnt offerings and sacrifices, or obeying the Lord?
It is better to obey than to offer a sacrifice.
It is better to do what he says than to offer the fat of rams.
23Refusing to obey the Lord is as sinful as using evil magic.
Being proud is as evil as worshiping statues of gods.
You have refused to do what the Lord told you to do.
So he has refused to have you as king.”
24Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I’ve broken the Lord’s command. I haven’t done what you directed me to do. I was afraid of the men. So I did what they said I should do. 25Now I beg you, forgive my sin. Come back into town with me so I can worship the Lord.”
26But Samuel said to him, “I won’t go back with you. You have refused to do what the Lord told you to do. So he has refused to have you as king over Israel!”
27Samuel turned to leave. But Saul grabbed the hem of his robe, and it tore. 28Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel away from you today. He has given it to one of your neighbors. He has given it to someone better than you. 29The God who is the Glory of Israel does not lie. He doesn’t change his mind. That’s because he isn’t a mere human being. If he were, he might change his mind.”
30Saul replied, “I have sinned. But please honor me in front of the elders of my people and in front of Israel. Come back with me so I can worship the Lord your God.” 31So Samuel went back with Saul. And Saul worshiped the Lord.
32Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag, the king of the Amalekites.”
Agag was in chains when he came to Samuel. Agag thought, “The time for me to be put to death must have passed by now.”
33But Samuel said,
“Your sword has killed the children of other women.
So the child of your mother will be killed.”
Samuel put Agag to death at Gilgal in front of the Lord.
34Then Samuel left to go to Ramah. But Saul went up to his home in Gibeah of Saul. 35Until the day Samuel died, he didn’t go to see Saul again. Samuel was filled with sorrow because of Saul. And the Lord was very sad he had made Saul king over Israel.
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1 Samuel 15: NIrV
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Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV®
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1 Samuel 15
15
Disobedience of Saul. 1Samuel said to Saul: “It was I the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel. Now, therefore, listen to the message of the Lord.#Jos 3:9; 2 Kgs 20:16; Is 28:14. 2Thus says the Lord of hosts: I will punish what Amalek did to the Israelites when he barred their way as they came up from Egypt.#Ex 17:8–10, 16; Dt 25:17–19. 3Go, now, attack Amalek, and put under the ban#Put under the ban: this terminology mandates that all traces of the Amalekites (people, cities, animals, etc.) be exterminated. No plunder could be seized for personal use. In the light of Dt 20:16–18, this injunction would eliminate any tendency toward syncretism. The focus of this chapter is that Saul fails to execute this order. everything he has. Do not spare him; kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.”#1 Sm 27:8; 30:17; Ex 17:16; Nm 24:20; Jos 6:17.
4Saul alerted the army, and at Telaim reviewed two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men of Judah.#The numbers here are not realistic; compare 14:2. 5Saul went to the city of Amalek and set up an ambush in the wadi. 6#Nm 24:21. He warned the Kenites: “Leave Amalek, turn aside and come down so I will not have to destroy you with them, for you were loyal to the Israelites when they came up from Egypt.”#The Kenites honored the terms of an alliance with Israel. After the Kenites left, 7Saul routed Amalek from Havilah to the approaches of Shur, on the frontier of Egypt.#1 Sm 27:8. 8He took Agag, king of Amalek, alive, but the rest of the people he destroyed by the sword, putting them under the ban. 9He and his troops spared Agag and the best of the fat sheep and oxen, and the lambs. They refused to put under the ban anything that was worthwhile, destroying only what was worthless and of no account.
Samuel Rebukes Saul. 10Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: 11I regret having made Saul king, for he has turned from me and has not kept my command. At this Samuel grew angry and cried out to the Lord all night.#1 Sm 15:35; Gn 6:6–7. 12Early in the morning he went to meet Saul, but was informed that Saul had gone to Carmel, where he set up a monument in his own honor, and that on his return he had gone down to Gilgal. 13When Samuel came to him, Saul greeted him: “The Lord bless you! I have kept the command of the Lord.” 14But Samuel asked, “What, then, is this bleating of sheep that comes to my ears, the lowing of oxen that I hear?” 15Saul replied: “They were brought from Amalek. The people spared the best sheep and oxen to sacrifice to the Lord, your God; but the rest we destroyed, putting them under the ban.” 16Samuel said to Saul: “Stop! Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” “Speak!” he replied. 17Samuel then said: “Though little in your own eyes, are you not chief of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king of Israel#1 Sm 9:21. 18and sent you on a mission, saying: Go and put the sinful Amalekites under a ban of destruction. Fight against them until you have exterminated them.#1 Sm 28:18. 19Why then have you disobeyed the Lord? You have pounced on the spoil, thus doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight.”#1 Sm 14:32. 20Saul explained to Samuel: “I did indeed obey the Lord and fulfill the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought back Agag, the king of Amalek, and, carrying out the ban, I have destroyed the Amalekites. 21But from the spoil the army took sheep and oxen, the best of what had been banned, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”#Lv 27:28. 22#Prv 21:3; Hos 6:6; Am 5:21–25; Zec 10:2; Mt 9:13; 12:7; Heb 10:9. But Samuel said:
“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obedience to the Lord’s command?
Obedience is better than sacrifice,
to listen, better than the fat of rams.#Samuel’s reprimand echoes that of the prophets. Cultic practice is meaningless, even hypocritical, unless accompanied by an attentiveness to God’s will.
23For a sin of divination is rebellion,
and arrogance, the crime of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
the Lord in turn has rejected you as king.”#Dt 18:10.
Rejection of Saul. 24Saul admitted to Samuel: “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the command of the Lord and your instructions. I feared the people and obeyed them.#1 Sm 26:21. 25Now forgive my sin, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord.” 26But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you, because you rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you as king of Israel.”#1 Kgs 11:11, 30–31. 27As Samuel turned to go, Saul seized a loose end of his garment, and it tore off.#1 Sm 24:6; 1 Kgs 11:29–31. 28So Samuel said to him: “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.#1 Sm 28:17; 2 Sm 7:15–16. 29The Glory of Israel neither deceives nor repents,#Nor repents: the apparent contradiction between this verse and vv. 11, 35 leads some scholars to consider it a gloss (cf. Nm 23:19). However, this phrase can be understood to underscore the definitive character of Samuel’s declaration that Saul has lost the kingship. for he is not a mortal who repents.”#Nm 23:19. 30But Saul answered: “I have sinned, yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel. Return with me that I may worship the Lord your God.” 31And so Samuel returned with him, and Saul worshiped the Lord.
Samuel Executes Agag. 32Afterward Samuel commanded, “Bring Agag, king of Amalek, to me.” Agag came to him struggling and saying, “So it is bitter death!” 33And Samuel said,
“As your sword has made women childless,
so shall your mother be childless among women.”
Then he cut Agag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.#Ex 21:23; Jgs 8:21. 34Samuel departed for Ramah, while Saul went up to his home in Gibeah of Saul. 35Never again, as long as he lived, did Samuel see Saul. Yet he grieved over Saul, because the Lord repented that he had made him king of Israel.#1 Sm 28:15.
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