1 Samuel 15:16–24

¹⁶Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on. ¹⁷And Samuel said, ^uWhen thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel? ¹⁸And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until ^†they be consumed. ¹⁹Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst ^wfly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? ²⁰And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, ^xI have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. ^21yBut the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of ^dthe things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. ²²And Samuel said,

^zHath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,

As in obeying the voice of the Lord?

Behold, ^ato obey is better than sacrifice,

And to hearken than the fat of rams.

²³For rebellion is as the sin of ^†witchcraft,

And stubbornness is as iniquity and ^bidolatry.

Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord,

^cHe hath also rejected thee from being king.

²⁴And Saul said unto Samuel, ^dI have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words: because I ^efeared the people, and obeyed their voice.