1 Samuel 15:6

6 He sent a warning to the Kenites, a people whose ancestors had been kind to the Israelites when they came from Egypt: "Go away and leave the Amalekites, so that I won't kill you along with them." So the Kenites left.

1 Samuel 15:6 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 15:6

And Saul said unto the Kenites
Who were of the posterity of Jethro the father-in-law of Moses, or related to him; why Josephus

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FOOTNOTES:

F24 calls them the nation of the Sicimites, who dwelt in the midst of the land of Midian, I know not:

go, depart, get ye down from among the Amalekites;
for though some of these people came with Israel into the land of Canaan, and were first at Jericho, and then came into the wilderness of Judah, ( Judges 1:16 ) and were in other tribes also; yet as they removed from place to place, and from country to country, for the convenience of their flocks and herds, they dwelling in tents, might come into the country of Amalek and pitch there, and as they chose to dwell in rocks, and the caverns of them, to be near their flocks and herds in the valleys, they are called upon to get down from thence, see ( Numbers 24:21 )

lest I destroy you with them;
they dwelling among the Amalekites, might perish with them; and especially as the Amalekites, upon their being routed, would naturally flee to the rocks, hills, and mountains, where these people had their tents, they would be in the greater danger of being destroyed with them, unless they removed:

for ye showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up
out of Egypt;
as Jethro, by the advice he gave to Moses to appoint proper officers in Israel, and Hobab, by being eyes to the people, in conducting them through the wilderness, and accompanying them to the land of Canaan:

so the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites;
took the advice of Saul, and removed and pitched their tents, elsewhere.

F24 Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 6. c. 7.) sect. 3.

1 Samuel 15:6 In-Context

4 Saul called his forces together and inspected them at Telem: there were 200,000 soldiers from Israel and 10,000 from Judah.

5 Then he and his men went to the city of Amalek and waited in ambush in a dry riverbed.

6 He sent a warning to the Kenites, a people whose ancestors had been kind to the Israelites when they came from Egypt: "Go away and leave the Amalekites, so that I won't kill you along with them." So the Kenites left.

7 Saul defeated the Amalekites, fighting all the way from Havilah to Shur, east of Egypt;

8 he captured King Agag of Amalek alive and killed all the people.