1 Samuel 15

CAB^{(i) 1} And Samuel said to Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint you king over Israel. And now hear the voice of the Lord. ² Thus said the Lord of hosts, Now will I take vengeance for what Amalek did to Israel, when he met him in the way as he came up out of Egypt. ³ And now go, and you shall strike Amalek and Hierim and all that belongs to him, and you shall not save anything of his alive, but you shall utterly destroy him. And you shall devote him and all his to destruction, and you shall spare nothing belonging to him; and you shall slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, calf and sheep, camel and donkey. ⁴ And Saul summoned the people, and he numbered them in Gilgal, four hundred thousand regular troops, and Judah thirty thousand regular troops. ⁵ And Saul came to the cities of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley. ⁶ And Saul said to the Kenite, Go, and depart out of the midst of the Amalekites, lest I put you with them; for you dealt mercifully with the children of Israel when they went up out of Egypt. So the Kenite departed from the midst of Amalek. ⁷ And Saul struck Amalek from Havilah to Shur, fronting Egypt. ⁸ And he took Agag the king of Amalek alive, and he killed all the people and Hierim with the edge of the sword. ⁹ And Saul and all the people saved Agag alive, and the best of the flocks, and of the herds, and of the fruits, of the vineyards, and of all the good things; and they would not destroy them. But every worthless and despised thing they destroyed. ¹⁰ And the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, ¹¹ I greatly regret that I have made Saul to be king; for he has turned back from following Me, and has not kept My word. And Samuel was grieved, and cried to the Lord all night. ¹² And Samuel rose early and went to meet Israel in the morning, and it was told Saul, saying, Samuel has come to Carmel, and he has raised up help for himself. And he turned his chariot, and came down to Gilgal to Saul. And behold, he was offering up a whole burnt offering to the Lord, the chief of the spoils which he brought out of Amalek. ¹³ And Samuel came to Saul. And Saul said to him, Blessed are you of the Lord; I have performed all that the Lord said. ¹⁴ And Samuel said, What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears, and the sound of the oxen which I hear? ¹⁵ And Saul said, I have brought them out of Amalek, that which the people preserved, even the best of the sheep, and of the cattle, that it might be sacrificed to the Lord your God, and the rest I have utterly destroyed. ¹⁶ And Samuel said to Saul, Stay, and I will tell you what the Lord has said to me this night. And he said to him, Speak on. ¹⁷ And Samuel said to Saul, Are you not little in His eyes, though a leader of one of the tribes of Israel? And yet the Lord anointed you to be king over Israel. ¹⁸ And the Lord sent you on a journey, and said to you, Go, and utterly destroy: you shall slay the sinners against Me, even the Amalekites; and you shall war against them until you have consumed them. ¹⁹ And why did you not listen to the voice of the Lord, but instead swoop down upon the spoils, and do that which was evil in the sight of the Lord? ²⁰ And Saul said to Samuel, Because I listened to the voice of the people. Yet I went the way by which the Lord sent me, and I brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I destroyed Amalek. ²¹ But the people took of the spoils, the best flocks and herds out of that which was destroyed, to sacrifice before the Lord our God in Gilgal. ²² And Samuel said, Does the Lord take as great pleasure in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in hearing the words of the Lord? Behold, obedience is better than a good sacrifice, and hearkening than the fat of rams. ²³ For sin is as divination; idols bring on pain and grief. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord also shall reject you from being king over Israel. ²⁴ And Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned, in that I have transgressed the word of the Lord and your direction; for I feared the people, and I listened to their voice. ²⁵ And now remove my sin, I pray, and turn back with me, and I will worship the Lord your God. ²⁶ And Samuel said to Saul, I will not turn back with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord will reject you from being king over Israel. ²⁷ And Samuel turned his face to depart, and Saul caught hold of the edge of his robe, and tore it. ²⁸ And Samuel said to him, The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from out of your hand this day, and will give it to your neighbor, who is better than you. ²⁹ And Israel shall be divided in two: and God will not turn nor repent, for He is not as a man to repent. ³⁰ And Saul said, I have sinned; yet honor me, I pray, before the elders of Israel, and before my people; and turn back with me, and I will worship the Lord your God. ³¹ So Samuel turned back after Saul, and he worshipped the Lord. ³² And Samuel said, Bring me Agag the king of Amalek. And Agag came to him trembling; and Agag said, Is death thus bitter? ³³ And Samuel said to Agag, As your sword has bereaved women of their children, so shall your mother be made childless among women. And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. ³⁴ And Samuel departed to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house at Gibeah. ³⁵ And Samuel did not see Saul again till the day of his death, for Samuel mourned after Saul, and the Lord regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.