1 Samuel 15:16–24

¹⁶Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night.” And he said to him, “Speak.”

¹⁷And Samuel said, ^s“Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. ¹⁸And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ ¹⁹Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? ^tWhy did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?” ²⁰And Saul said to Samuel, ^u“I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. ^21vBut the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.” ²²And Samuel said,

^w“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,

as in obeying the voice of the Lord?

Behold, ^xto obey is better than sacrifice,

and to listen than the fat of rams.

²³For rebellion is as the sin of divination,

and presumption is as iniquity and ^yidolatry.

Because ^zyou have rejected the word of the Lord,

^ahe has also rejected you from being king.”

²⁴Saul said to Samuel, ^b“I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.