1 Samuel 15:8–33

^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.

Saul Rejected as King

¹⁰Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, ¹¹ⁿ“I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has ^oturned back from following Me, ^pand has not performed My commandments.” And it ^qgrieved Samuel, and he cried out to the Lord all night. ¹²So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul went to ^rCarmel, and indeed, he set up a monument for himself; and he has gone on around, passed by, and gone down to Gilgal.” ¹³Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, ^s“Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord.”

¹⁴But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”

¹⁵And Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; ^tfor the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.”

¹⁶Then Samuel said to Saul, “Be quiet! And I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”

And he said to him, “Speak on.”

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.