1 Samuel 15:16–24

¹⁶Then Samuel said to Saul, “Wait, and let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” And he said to him, “Speak!”

¹⁷Samuel said, “Is it not true, ^athough you were little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed you king over Israel,

¹⁸and the Lord sent you on a ¹mission, and said, ‘^aGo and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are exterminated.’

¹⁹“Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, ^abut rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord?”

²⁰Then Saul said to Samuel, “^aI did obey the voice of the Lord, and went on the ¹mission on which the Lord sent me, and have brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

²¹“But ^athe people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”

²²Samuel said,

“^aHas the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

As in obeying the voice of the Lord?

Behold, ^bto obey is better than sacrifice,

And to heed than the fat of rams.

²³“For rebellion is as the sin of ^adivination,

And insubordination is as ^biniquity and idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,

^cHe has also rejected you from being king.”

²⁴Then Saul said to Samuel, “^aI have sinned; ^bI have indeed transgressed the ¹command of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and listened to their voice.