1 Samuel 15:16

16 And Samuel said to Saul, Suffer thou me (Allow me), and I shall show to thee what things the Lord hath spoken to me in this night. And Saul said to Samuel, Speak thou.

1 Samuel 15:16 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 15:16

Then Samuel said unto Saul, stay
Stop a little, do not be in haste to be gone, as he might seem to be, fearing a reproof, and that something would be said to him not very agreeable; or "suffer" ^F3 me, that is, to speak, give me leave to say a few words; for Saul being a king, Samuel treats him as such, and asks audience of him, or leave of him to deliver what he had to say to him:

and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night;
and since it was not anything from himself, but from the Lord, he had to say, he might expect the rather to be heard, and especially since it was what had lately, even that very night, been told him:

and he said unto him, say on;
he gave him leave, perhaps hoping he should hear something said in his praise, commending him for what he had done in destroying the nation of Amalek, see ( Luke 7:40 ) . There is a double reading of this clause, the Cetib or textural reading is, "and they said unto him"; meaning Saul, and the elders with him; the Keri, or marginal reading is, which we follow, "and he said unto him"; meaning Saul, as Kimchi notes.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F3 (Prh) "permitte", Pagninus, Montanus; "sine me", V. L. so Abarbinel.

1 Samuel 15:16 In-Context

14 And Samuel said, And what is this voice of flocks (But what is this sound of the flocks), that soundeth in mine ears, and of (the) great beasts, which I hear?

15 And Saul said, They brought those from Amalek (They were taken from the Amalekites); for the people spared the best sheep and (the best) great beasts, that those should be offered to thy Lord God; and we killed the tother beasts.

16 And Samuel said to Saul, Suffer thou me (Allow me), and I shall show to thee what things the Lord hath spoken to me in this night. And Saul said to Samuel, Speak thou.

17 And Samuel said, Whether not, when thou were little in thine own eyes, thou were made head in the lineages of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee into king on Israel; (And Samuel said, Was it not, when thou were small, or insignificant, in thy own eyes, thou were made the head of all the tribes of Israel, and did not the Lord anoint thee king upon Israel?)

18 and the Lord sent thee into the way, and said, Go thou, and slay the sinners of Amalek, and thou shalt fight against them till to the slaying of them. (and the Lord sent thee on the way, and said, Go thou, and kill those sinners, the Amalekites, and thou shalt fight against them until they all be slaughtered.)