1 Samuel 15:17–33

¹⁷So Samuel said, ^u“When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel? ¹⁸Now the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are ²consumed.’ ¹⁹Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the ³spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord?”

²⁰And Saul said to Samuel, ^v“But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. ^21wBut the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”

²²So Samuel said:

^x“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,

As in obeying the voice of the Lord?

Behold, ^yto obey is better than sacrifice,

And to heed than the fat of rams.

²³For rebellion is as the sin of ⁴witchcraft,

And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,

^zHe also has rejected you from being king.”

^24aThen Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I ^bfeared the people and obeyed their voice. ²⁵Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord.”

²⁶But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you, ^cfor you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.”

²⁷And as Samuel turned around to go away, ^dSaul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore. ²⁸So Samuel said to him, ^e“The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. ²⁹And also the Strength of Israel ^fwill not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that He should relent.”

³⁰Then he said, “I have sinned; yet ^ghonor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord your God.” ³¹So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord.

³²Then Samuel said, “Bring Agag king of the Amalekites here to me.” So Agag came to him cautiously.

And Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”

³³But Samuel said, ^h“As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.