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.

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Footnotes

aThe Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them; also in verses 8, 9, 15, 18, 20 and 21.
bOr the grown bulls; the meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.

Cross references

gSee Ge 14:7; See 1 Sa 14:48; See 2 Sa 1:8
hver 9, 19; See Ge 14:23; Jos 6:17; 1 Sa 22:19; 27:9; 28:18; Est 3:13; 9:5
iSee Ge 15:19; Nu 24:22; Jdg 1:16; 1 Sa 30:29
jSee 1 Sa 14:48
kSee Ge 16:7
l Ex 17:8–16; See Nu 24:7
mSee Jos 8:23
nSee ver 3