1 Samuel 15:1-35
15 And Samuel said to Saul “I was the one whom Jehovah sent to anoint you king over his people Israel: now obey Jehovah’s words.
2 Says Jehovah of Armies, ‘I have taken up what the ʽAmalekites did to Israel, that they beset them on the way when they were coming up out of Egypt.
3 Now go and attack the ʽAmalekites and destroy without quarter all that belongs to them; have no mercy on them; put to death man and woman, child at play and baby at the breast, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”
4 * And Saul summoned the people and mustered them at Telam, ten thousand infantry;
5 and Saul came to the capital of ʽAmalek and lay in ambush in the arroyo.
6 * And Saul said to the Cainites “Go and move out from among the ʽAmalekites, that I may not sweep you away with them, you who befriended all the sons of Israel when they were coming up out of Egypt”; and the Cainites moved out from among the ʽAmalekites.
7 And Saul made havoc of the ʽAmalekites from Havilah till you come to Shur, east of Egypt,
8 and captured Agag, the king of the ʽAmalekites, alive, and massacred all the people without quarter.
9 * But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fatlings and the he-lambs, and everything good, and would not destroy them; but all insignificant and undesirable articles they destroyed as deodand.
10 And Jehovah’s word came to Samuel,
11 “I am sorry I made Saul king; for he has turned back from following me, and has not acted on my words.” And Samuel was shocked, and cried to Jehovah all night.
12 * But the first thing in the morning Samuel started to meet Saul; and Samuel was told “Saul came to Carmel and went down to the Gilgal, and is erecting himself a monument”; and he turned and went across and down to the Gilgal to Saul, and found him offering a burnt-offering to Jehovah, the prime of the booty he had brought from the ʽAmalekites.
13 And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him “Jehovah bless you; I have acted on Jehovah’s words.”
14 And Samuel said “Then what is this bleating that my ears are full of, and this mooing I hear?”
15 And Saul said “They brought them from the ʽAmalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and cattle for sacrificing to your God Jehovah; and the rest we destroyed.”
16 And Samuel said “Wait and let me tell you what Jehovah said to me last night.” And he said “Say it.”
17 And Samuel said “If you do seem small to yourself, are you not head of the tribes of Israel? And Jehovah anointed you king over Israel,
18 and Jehovah sent you on an errand and said ‘Go and destroy the ʽAmalekite sinners without quarter, and fight them till you have exterminated them’:
19 why did you not obey Jehovah, but pounced on the booty and did what displeased Jehovah?”
20 And Saul said to Samuel “I did obey Jehovah, and went on the errand Jehovah sent me on, and brought Agag the king of the ʽAmalekites, and destroyed the ʽAmalekites without quarter;
21 but the people took out of the booty sheep and cattle, the prime of the deodand to sacrifice to your God Jehovah at the Gilgal.”
22 And Samuel said “Does Jehovah take as much pleasure in burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in obedience to Jehovah’s words? Obedience is better than sacrifice, and listening than rams’ fat.
23 For disobedience is the sin of soothsaying, and pushing is fetish and teraphim. Because you have rejected Jehovah’s word, he has rejected you as king.”
24 And Saul said to Samuel “I did wrong, in that I have violated Jehovah’s charge and your words, because I was afraid of the people and obeyed them.
25 But now pardon my sin and come back with me and let me do reverence to Jehovah.”
26 But Samuel said to Saul “I will not come back with you, because you have rejected Jehovah’s word and Jehovah has rejected you from being king over Israel”;
27 and Samuel turned to go. And Saul took hold of the flap of his robe, and it tore;
28 and Samuel said to him “Jehovah has torn the kingship of Israel off from you and given it to your better.
29 And the Continuance of Israel will not break his word nor change his mind; for he is not man, to change his mind.”
30 And he said “I did wrong. Now pay honor to me before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and come back with me and let me do reverence to your God Jehovah.”
31 And Samuel followed Saul back, and Saul did reverence to Jehovah.
32 And Samuel said “Bring Agag the king of the Amalekites to me”; and Agag came to him tottering, and said “Death is bitter, bitter, after all.”
33 And Samuel said “As your sword has bereaved women of their children, so shall your mother be the most bereaved of women”; and Samuel cut Agag to pieces before Jehovah at the Gilgal.
34 And Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his home at Gibeath-Saul.
35 And Samuel never again saw Saul till the day of his death, because Samuel mourned over Saul and Jehovah repented of having made Saul king over Israel.
Footnotes
^ 15:4 Var. two hundred thousand
^ 15:6 Var. move down out
^ 15:9 Susp.; codd. cattle and seconds, and the he-lambs
^ 15:12 Susp.; codd. om. and went down to the Gilgal; var. omits from to Saul, and to the end of the verse
