1 Samuel 15:1–15

*Samuel also said unto Saul, aThe Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord. 2 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, bhow he claid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. 3 Now go and smite Amalek, and dutterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay eboth man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. 4 And Saul fgathered the people together, and numbered them in gTelaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah. 5 And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and ||laid wait in the valley. 6 And Saul said unto hthe Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for iye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. 7 And jSaul smote the Amalekites from kHavilah until thou comest to lShur, that is over against Egypt. 8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed mall the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people nspared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and ||of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.

10 Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying, 11 oIt repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is pturned back from following me, qand hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the Lord all night. 12 And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to rCarmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal. 13 And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, sBlessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord. 14 And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? 15 And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: tfor the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.