1 Samuel 15

¹And Samuel said to Saul, 'The LORD sent me to anoint you as king over his people Israel; now listen to the voice of the words of the LORD.

²Thus says the LORD of hosts: I have taken account of what Amalek did to Israel, how he opposed him on the way when he came up from Egypt.

³Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have; do not spare them, but put to death from man to woman, from infant to nursing child, from ox to sheep, from camel to donkey.'

⁴And Saul summoned the people and mustered them at Telaim: two hundred thousand foot soldiers, and ten thousand men of Judah.

⁵And Saul came to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the wadi.

⁶And Saul said to the Kenites, 'Go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I sweep you away with them; for you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up from Egypt.' So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.

⁷And Saul struck Amalek from Havilah as you enter Shur, which is east of Egypt.

⁸And he captured Agag king of Amalek alive, and he devoted all the people to destruction by the edge of the sword.

⁹But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and the cattle and the fat ones, and the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to devote them to destruction; but everything that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.

¹⁰And the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying:

¹¹I relent that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not carried out my words. And Samuel was incensed, and he cried out to the Lord all the night.

¹²And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told to Samuel, saying, 'Saul has come to Carmel, and behold, he is setting up a monument for himself, and he has turned and passed on and gone down to Gilgal.'

¹³And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, "Blessed are you by the Lord! I have carried out the word of the Lord."

¹⁴And Samuel said, "What then is this sound of the flock in my ears, and the sound of the cattle that I am hearing?"

¹⁵And Saul said, 'From the Amalekites they brought them — that which the people spared from the best of the flock and the cattle — in order to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we devoted to destruction.'

¹⁶And Samuel said to Saul, "Be still, and I will tell you what the Lord spoke to me last night." And he said to him, "Speak."

¹⁷And Samuel said, "Though you were small in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed you king over Israel."

¹⁸And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, 'Go and devote to destruction the sinners, Amalek, and fight against them until you have finished them off.'

¹⁹And why did you not obey the voice of the Lord? You swooped upon the spoil and did what was bad in the eyes of the Lord.

²⁰And Saul said to Samuel, 'I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and gone on the mission that the Lord sent me on, and I brought Agag king of Amalek, and Amalek I devoted to destruction.'

²¹But the people took from the spoil — sheep and cattle, the choicest of the devoted things — to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal.'

²²And Samuel said, "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to give heed than the fat of rams."

²³For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and insolence is like wickedness and teraphim. Because you rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you from being king.

²⁴And Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned, for I have transgressed the command of the Lord and your words, for I feared the people and obeyed their voice."

²⁵And now, please lift up my sin and return with me so that I may bow down to the Lord.'

²⁶And Samuel said to Saul, "I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel."

²⁷And Samuel turned to go, but Saul seized the hem of his robe, and it tore.

²⁸And Samuel said to him, "The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor, who is better than you."

²⁹Moreover, the Glory of Israel will not lie or relent, for he is not a human being that he should relent.

³⁰And Saul said, "I have sinned. Now honor me, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may bow down to the Lord your God."

³¹So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul bowed down to the Lord.

³²And Samuel said, "Bring to me Agag king of Amalek." And Agag came to him trembling. And Agag said, "Surely the bitterness of death is past."

³³And Samuel said, 'As your sword made women childless, so your mother shall be made more childless than other women.' Then Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord at Gilgal.

³⁴And Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house at Gibeah of Saul.

³⁵And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, for Samuel mourned for Saul. And the Lord relented that he had made Saul king over Israel.