1 Samuel 15
15
Saul Rejected as King
1Samuel told Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you as king over His people Israel. # 1Sm 9:16 Now, listen to the words of the Lord. 2This is what the Lord of Hosts says: ‘I witnessed # LXX reads I will avenge what the Amalekites did to the Israelites when they opposed them along the way as they were coming out of Egypt. # Ex 17:8-16; Nm 24:20; Dt 25:17-19 3Now go and attack the Amalekites and completely destroy everything they have. # Nm 24:20; Dt 20:16-18 Do not spare them. Kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ ” # Jos 6:17-21; 1Sm 22:19
4Then Saul summoned the troops and counted them at Telaim: 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men from Judah. 5Saul came to the city of Amalek and set up an ambush in the wadi. 6He warned the Kenites, # Jdg 1:16; 4:11 “Since you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came out of Egypt, # Ex 18:9-10; Nm 10:29-32 go on and leave! Get away from the Amalekites, or I’ll sweep you away with them.” So the Kenites withdrew from the Amalekites.
7Then Saul struck down the Amalekites # 1Sm 14:48 from Havilah # Gn 16:7; 25:17-18 all the way to Shur, # Ex 15:22; 1Sm 27:8 which is next to Egypt. 8He captured Agag # Nm 24:7; Est 3:1 king of Amalek alive, but he completely destroyed all the rest of the people with the sword. # 1Sm 27:8; 30:1; 2Sm 8:12 9Saul and the troops spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, cattle, and choice animals, # Lit and the second as well as the young rams and the best of everything else. They were not willing to destroy them, but they did destroy all the worthless and unwanted things.
10Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel, 11“I regret that I made Saul king, # Gn 6:6-7; Ex 32:14; 2Sm 24:16 for he has turned away from following Me and has not carried out My instructions.” # 1Kg 9:6-7 So Samuel became angry and cried out to the Lord all night. # Ex 32:11-13; Lk 6:12
12Early in the morning Samuel got up to confront Saul, but it was reported to Samuel, “Saul went to Carmel # Jos 15:55; 1Sm 25:2 where he set up a monument for himself. Then he turned around and went down to Gilgal.” # 1Sm 13:13-14 13When Samuel came to him, Saul said, “May the Lord bless you. # Gn 14:19; 2Sm 2:5 I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.”
14Samuel replied, “Then what is this sound of sheep # Lit sheep in my ears and cattle I hear? ”
15Saul answered, “The troops brought them from the Amalekites and spared the best sheep and cattle in order to offer a sacrifice to the Lord your God, # Gn 3:12-13 but the rest we destroyed.” # Ex 32:21-24
16“Stop! ” exclaimed Samuel. “Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”
“Tell me,” he replied.
17Samuel continued, “Although you once considered yourself unimportant, # 1Sm 9:21 have you not become the leader of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel 18and then sent you on a mission and said: ‘Go and completely destroy the sinful Amalekites. Fight against them until you have annihilated them.’ 19So why didn’t you obey the Lord? Why did you rush on the plunder # 1Sm 14:32 and do what was evil in the Lord’s sight? ”
20“But I did obey the Lord! ” Saul answered. # Lit answered Samuel “I went on the mission the Lord gave me: I brought back Agag, king of Amalek, and I completely destroyed the Amalekites. 21The troops took sheep and cattle from the plunder — the best of what was set apart for destruction — to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal.” # Ex 32:22-23
22Then Samuel said:
Does the Lord # Ps 40:6-8; 51:16-17; Is 1:11-15; Mc 6:6-8 take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the Lord?
Look: to obey is better than sacrifice,
to pay attention is better than the fat of rams. # Heb 10:5-7
23For rebellion is like the sin of divination, # Dt 18:10
and defiance is like wickedness # Gn 31:19,34 and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
He has rejected you as king. # 1Sm 8:7
24Saul answered Samuel, “I have sinned. # Nm 22:34; 2Sm 12:13; Ps 51:3-4 I have transgressed the Lord’s command # Pr 29:25; Is 51:12-13 and your words. Because I was afraid of the people, I obeyed them. 25Now therefore, please forgive my sin # Ex 10:17 and return with me so I can worship the Lord.”
26Samuel replied to Saul, “I will not return with you. Because you rejected the word of the Lord, # 1Sm 13:14; 16:1 the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.” 27When Samuel turned to go, Saul grabbed the hem of his robe, and it tore. 28Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingship of Israel away from you today # 1Sm 28:17-18 and has given it to your neighbor who is better than you. # 1Kg 11:30-36 29Furthermore, the Eternal One of Israel # 1Ch 29:11; Ps 18:1-2 does not lie or change His mind, for He is not man who changes his mind.” # Nm 23:19; Ezk 24:14
30Saul said, “I have sinned. Please honor me # Jn 12:43 now before the elders of my people and before Israel. Come back with me so I can bow in worship to the Lord your God.” # Is 29:13 31Then Samuel went back, following Saul, and Saul bowed down to the Lord.
32Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of Amalek.”
Agag came to him trembling, # Hb obscure for he thought, “Certainly the bitterness of death has come.” # LXX reads Is death bitter in this way? # Lit turned
33Samuel declared:
As your sword has made women childless,
so your mother will be childless among women. # Gn 9:6; Jdg 1:7; Mt 7:2
Then he hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord at Gilgal.
34Samuel went to Ramah, # 1Sm 7:17 and Saul went up to his home in Gibeah # 1Sm 11:4 of Saul. 35Even to the day of his death, Samuel never again visited Saul. # 1Sm 19:24 Samuel mourned for Saul, # 1Sm 16:1 and the Lord regretted He had made Saul king over Israel.
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1 Samuel 15: HCSB
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1 Samuel 15
15
1 Samuel said to Saul, “The LORD sent me to anoint you to be king over his people, over Israel. Now therefore listen to the voice of the LORD’s words. 2The LORD of Armies says, ‘I remember what Amalek did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way when he came up out of Egypt. 3Now go and strike Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and don’t spare them; but kill both man and woman, infant and nursing baby, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”
4 Saul summoned the people, and counted them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen and ten thousand men of Judah. 5Saul came to the city of Amalek, and set an ambush in the valley. 6Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart, go down from amongst the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from amongst the Amalekites.
7 Saul struck the Amalekites, from Havilah as you go to Shur, which is before Egypt. 8He took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 9But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, of the cattle, of the fat calves, of the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to utterly destroy them; but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
10 Then the LORD’s word came to Samuel, saying, 11“It grieves me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments.” Samuel was angry; and he cried to the LORD all night.
12 Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning; and Samuel was told, saying, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself, turned, passed on, and went down to Gilgal.”
13 Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, “You are blessed by the LORD! I have performed the commandment of the LORD.”
14 Samuel said, “Then what does this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the cattle which I hear mean?”
15 Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the cattle, to sacrifice to the LORD your God. We have utterly destroyed the rest.”
16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stay, and I will tell you what the LORD said to me last night.”
He said to him, “Say on.”
17 Samuel said, “Though you were little in your own sight, weren’t you made the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel; 18and the LORD sent you on a journey, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19Why then didn’t you obey the LORD’s voice, but took the plunder, and did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight?”
20 Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the LORD’s voice, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21But the people took of the plunder, sheep and cattle, the best of the devoted things, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.”
22 Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the LORD’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. 23For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim.#15:23 teraphim were household idols that may have been associated with inheritance rights to the household property. Because you have rejected the LORD’s word, he has also rejected you from being king.”
24 Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. 25Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.”
26 Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you; for you have rejected the LORD’s word, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.” 27As Samuel turned around to go away, Saul grabbed the skirt of his robe, and it tore. 28Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbour of yours who is better than you. 29Also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent.”
30 Then he said, “I have sinned; yet please honour me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and come back with me, that I may worship the LORD your God.”
31 So Samuel went back with Saul; and Saul worshipped the LORD. 32Then Samuel said, “Bring Agag the king of the Amalekites here to me!”
Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”
33 Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so your mother will be childless amongst women!” Then Samuel cut Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.
34 Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul. 35Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death, but Samuel mourned for Saul. The LORD grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel.
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