1 Samuel 15

One day Samuel said to Saul, “It was God who sent me to appoint you as king of the Israelite people. So he expects you to obey this message that he has given me for you.

God, the commander of the heavenly armies, has declared this: ‘I am going to punish the descendants of Amalek for attacking the Israelite people when the Israelites left Egypt.

So now go with your army and attack the Amalekites. Destroy all of the people and all of their possessions. Do not spare any of the people. Kill them all, even if they are women or young children {who cannot fight against you}. Do not spare any of the animals, even if you could use them for carrying things or for plowing or for wool and milk.’” \*

So Saul summoned the Israelite army and gathered them near the city of Telaim. There were 10,000 soldiers from the tribe of Judah and 200,000 soldiers from the other Israelite tribes.

Then Saul led his army to the main city in which the Amalekites lived. The army hid in a valley so that they could attack them suddenly. \*

But first Saul sent a message to the Kenites, who lived in that area. He told them, “Move away right now from where the Amalekites live. You acted kindly toward our Israelite ancestors when they left Egypt, and so we do not want to kill you when we kill them.” When the Kenites heard that, they immediately left the area where the Amalekites lived.

Then Saul’s army slaughtered the Amalekites. They killed everyone who lived in the area between the city of Havilah in the east to the region of Shur in the west. Shur was at the border between Israel and Egypt. \*

Saul’s army killed all of those Amalekites as God had commanded. However, Saul told the soldiers not to kill Agag, the king of the Amalekites.

So Saul and his soldiers spared Agag. They also spared the best animals in the Amalekites’ flocks and herds. They looked for special animals and ones that would taste delicious. They kept animals like that and only destroyed animals that they considered to be worthless. \*

Then God said to Samuel,

“Saul has not done what I told him to do, and that shows that he is no longer obedient to me. As a result, I am sorry that I appointed Saul to be your king.” But when Samuel heard this, he became very upset. He prayed hard to God all that night to try to get him to change his mind. \*

Samuel got started early the next morning so that he could go and speak with Saul. Someone told Samuel, “Saul went to the city of Carmel. He did that to set up a monument in his own honor. Then he left there and went to Gilgal.”

When Samuel {arrived at Gilgal} and approached Saul, Saul said, “May God bless you! I have obeyed what God told me to do.” \*

But Samuel replied, “If that is true, then I should not be hearing sheep bleating or cattle mooing, but I am!”

Saul replied, “The soldiers wanted to save the best sheep and cattle so they could offer them as sacrifices to God, your God. So they took these animals from the Amalekites and brought them here. But we completely destroyed all the other animals that the Amalekites had.”

Samuel said to Saul, “Stop talking! Allow me to tell you what God said to me last night.” Saul replied, “Tell me what he said.” \*

Samuel said, “Previously you did not think that you were important. But God appointed you to be the king of Israel, so now you have become the leader of all the tribes of Israel.

And God sent you to do something for him. He told you, ‘Go and get rid of all those Amalekites who sinned against me. Attack them and kill all of them.’

So you should have done what God told you to do! You should not have greedily taken for yourself what the Amalekites had {instead of destroying it}! You have done something that God considers to be evil.” \*

Saul replied to Samuel, “But I did do what God sent me to do! While it is true that I brought back the Amalekite king Agag, I and my soldiers killed all the other Amalekites!

And my men brought back only the best of the sheep and cattle and other things so that we could sacrifice them to God your God once we got here to Gilgal.” \*

But Samuel replied, “It pleases God more when people do what he tells them to do than when they completely burn animals as sacrifices to him and offer him other kinds of sacrifices. It is much better to obey God than to offer sacrifices to him. It is better to pay attention to what he says {and do it} than to burn the fat of rams as a sacrifice to him. 23 To rebel against God is as sinful as doing sorcery, and stubbornly resisting his correction is as sinful as worshiping idols. You have disobeyed what God told you to do, and as a result, he has decided that you will no longer be king.” \*

Then Saul said to Samuel, “I admit that I have sinned. I disobeyed what you told me God had commanded. I did that because I was afraid of what the soldiers would do to me if I did not give them what they wanted.

But please forgive me for sinning. Come back with me {and sacrifice some of these animals yourself} so that I can worship God.” \*

But Samuel replied, “No, I will not go back with you. You have chosen to disobey what God commanded you to do. So he has decided that you will no longer be the king of Israel.”

Then Samuel turned to leave, Saul tried to stop him by grabbing the edge of his robe, and when he did that, he tore off a piece of it. \*

Samuel said to him, “{You have taken this piece away from my robe, and in the same way,} God has now taken the kingship of Israel away from you. He is going to make another Israelite king instead of you. That other Israelite is a better man than you are.

You can be sure of this because when the glorious God whom the Israelite people worship says something, he means it and he will not change his mind about it. Humans sometimes change their minds, but God does not do that, because he is not a human.” \*

{Then Saul pleaded with Samuel further.} He said, “I admit that I have sinned. But please honor me in front of the Israelite leaders and people by coming with me so that I can worship God your God.”

So Samuel finally agreed to do that. They went together back to where the people were, and Saul worshiped God there. \*

Then Samuel said, “Bring the Amalekite king Agag to me.” So they brought Agag to him. They had tied him up as a prisoner. Agag was thinking, “{Now that Samuel is here,} I am sure that the Israelites are not going to execute me painfully.”

But Samuel said to him, “You have led armies that have killed the sons of many women with their swords. So now your mother will no longer have a son as other women do.” Then Samuel chopped Agag into pieces with his sword. He did that at Gilgal, where the Israelites worshiped God. \*

Then Samuel left there and returned to his home in Ramah, and Saul went to his home in Gibeah.

Samuel never saw Saul again for as long as he lived. He remained very sad that Saul had not been a good king. And God regretted that he had appointed Saul to be the king of Israel. \*