1 Samuel 15:4-14

4 Sha'ul summoned the people, and numbered them in Tela'im, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Yehudah.

5 Sha'ul came to the city of `Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.

6 Sha'ul said to the Kinim, Go, depart, get you down from among the `Amaleki, lest I destroy you with them; for you shown kindness to all the children of Yisra'el, when they came up out of Mitzrayim. So the Kinim departed from among the `Amaleki.

7 Sha'ul struck the `Amaleki, from Havilah as you go to Shur, that is before Mitzrayim.

8 He took Agag the king of the `Amaleki alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.

9 But Sha'ul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and wouldn't utterly destroy them: but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.

10 Then came the word of the LORD to Shemu'el, saying,

11 It repents me that I have set up Sha'ul to be king; for he is turned back from following me, and has not performed my mitzvot. Shemu'el was angry; and he cried to the LORD all night.

12 Shemu'el rose early to meet Sha'ul in the morning; and it was told Shemu'el, saying, Sha'ul came to Karmel, and, behold, he set him up a monument, and turned, and passed on, and went down to Gilgal.

13 Shemu'el came to Sha'ul; and Sha'ul said to him, Blessed are you by the LORD: I have performed the mitzvah of the LORD.

14 Shemu'el said, What means then this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?

1 Samuel 15:4-14 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 15

In this chapter are recorded the order Saul had from the Lord to destroy Amalek utterly, 1Sa 15:1-3 the preparation he made to put it in execution, and the success thereof, 1Sa 15:4-9 the offence the Lord took at his not obeying his order thoroughly, with which Samuel was made acquainted, and which grieved him, 1Sa 15:10,11, upon which he went out to meet Saul, and reprove him; and a long discourse upon the subject passed between them, the issue of which was, that by an irrevocable decree he was rejected from being king, 1Sa 15:12-31 and the chapter is concluded with an account of Samuel's hewing in pieces Agag king of Amalek, and of his final departure from Saul, 1Sa 15:32-35.