1 Samuel 15:1

Israel Defeats the Amalekites

1 Then Samuel said to Saul, "Yahweh sent me to anoint you as king over his people Israel. So then, {listen to the words} of Yahweh!

1 Samuel 15:1 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 15:1

Samuel also said unto Saul
When and where he said to him what follows, it is not easy to determine, perhaps at Gilgal, where they after met again:

the Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over
Israel;
that is, he gave him orders to anoint him king of Israel, otherwise Saul was in providence sent to Samuel to be anointed, and not Samuel to Saul:

now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord;
for so great a favour, and such high honour he had conferred on him, laid him under great obligation to obey the commands of the Lord; and whereas he had been deficient in one instance before, for which he had been reproved, he suggests, that now he should take care to observe and do, particularly and punctually, what should be enjoined him.

1 Samuel 15:1 In-Context

1 Then Samuel said to Saul, "Yahweh sent me to anoint you as king over his people Israel. So then, {listen to the words} of Yahweh!

2 Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'I have observed what Amalek did to Israel, {how he opposed him} when he went up from Egypt.

3 So then, go and attack Amalek and utterly destroy all that is his! You must not spare him, but kill both man and woman, both child and nursing infant, both ox and sheep, both camel and donkey.'"

4 Saul summoned the army and mustered them at Telaim; two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men of Judah.

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

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "listen to the voice of the words"