And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned
This confession of his sin does not appear to be ingenuous,
cordial, and sincere, and was made chiefly for the sake of
getting the sentence of rejecting him from being king reversed:
for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and
thy words;
which last seems to be added to collogue with Samuel, and to
ingratiate himself with him; and Abarbinel thinks that Saul
suspected that Samuel had aggravated the matter of himself, and
that he did not really transgress the words of the Lord, but as
the words of Samuel; and therefore according to the words of
Samuel he had sinned, but not according to the words of the Lord
only;
because I feared the people;
Doeg the Edomite, who was reckoned as all of them, Jarchi says:
this was a mere excuse of Saul's, he stood in no fear of the
people, he kept them in awe, and did as he would with them, as a
sovereign prince:
and obeyed their voice;
in sparing the best of the cattle; so be pretended, when it was
his own will, and the effect of his covetousness.