1 Samuel 15:1–33

The Lord Rejects Saul as King

15Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint^f you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. ²This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites^g for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. ³Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally^h destroy^a all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ ”

⁴So Saul summoned the men and mustered them at Telaim—two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand from Judah. ⁵Saul went to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the ravine. ⁶Then he said to the Kenites,ⁱ “Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.

⁷Then Saul attacked the Amalekites^j all the way from Havilah to Shur,^k near the eastern border of Egypt. ⁸He took Agag^l king of the Amalekites alive,^m and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. ⁹But Saul and the army sparedⁿ Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves^b and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.

¹⁰Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: ¹¹“I regret^o that I have made Saul king, because he has turned^p away from me and has not carried out my instructions.”^q Samuel was angry,^r and he cried out to the Lord all that night.

¹²Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, “Saul has gone to Carmel.^s There he has set up a monument^t in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal.”

¹³When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.”

¹⁴But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?”

¹⁵Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.”

¹⁶“Enough!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”

“Tell me,” Saul replied.

¹⁷Samuel said, “Although you were once small^u in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. ¹⁸And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’ ¹⁹Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder^v and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?”

²⁰“But I did obey^w the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. ²¹The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”

²²But Samuel replied:

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

as much as in obeying the Lord?

To obey is better than sacrifice,^x

and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

²³For rebellion is like the sin of divination,^y

and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.

Because you have rejected^z the word of the Lord,

he has rejected you as king.”

²⁴Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned.^a I violated^b the Lord’s command and your instructions. I was afraid^c of the men and so I gave in to them. ²⁵Now I beg you, forgive^d my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord.”

²⁶But Samuel said to him, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected^e the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel!”

²⁷As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe,^f and it tore.^{g 28}Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn^h the kingdomⁱ of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you.^{j 29}He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie^k or change^l his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.”

³⁰Saul replied, “I have sinned.^m But please honorⁿ me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God.” ³¹So Samuel went back with Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord.

³²Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites.”

Agag came to him in chains.^c And he thought, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”

³³But Samuel said,

“As your sword has made women childless,

so will your mother be childless among women.”^o

And Samuel put Agag to death before the Lord at Gilgal.