1 Samuel 15:1

Samuel rejects Saul’s kingship

1 Samuel said to Saul, "The LORD sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel. Listen now to the LORD's words!

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 Samuel said to Saul, "The LORD sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel. Listen now to the LORD's words!
2 This is what the LORD of heavenly forces says: I am going to punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel: how they attacked the Israelites as they came up from Egypt.
3 So go! Attack the Amalekites; put everything that belongs to them under the ban. Spare no one. Kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys."
4 Saul called out the troops and counted them at Telaim: two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand more troops from Judah.
5 Then Saul advanced on the Amalekite city and laid an ambush in the valley.
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