1 Samuel 15:2–9

²Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, ^bhow he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. ³Now go and ^cattack ¹Amalek, and ^dutterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”

⁴So Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men of Judah. ⁵And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and lay in wait in the valley.

⁶Then Saul said to ^ethe Kenites, ^f“Go, depart, get down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For ^gyou showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. ^7hAnd Saul attacked the Amalekites, from ⁱHavilah all the way to ^jShur, which is east of Egypt. ^8kHe also took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and ^lutterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. ⁹But Saul and the people ^mspared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.