1 Samuel 15

¹ Samuel also said unto Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint thee [to be] king over his people, over Israel: now thereforeBecause he has preferred you to this honour, you are bound to obey him.hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the LORD.

² Thus saith the Lorde of hostes, I remember what Amalek did to Israel, howe they laide waite for the in ye way, as they came vp fro Egypt.

³ Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; butThat this might be an example of God's vengeance against those who deal cruelly with his people.slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

⁴ And Saul assembled ye people, and nombred them in Telaim, two hundreth thousande footemen, and ten thousand men of Iudah.

⁵ And Saul came to a citie of Amalek, and set watch at the riuer.

⁶ And Saul said unto theWhich were the posterity of Jethro, Moses father in law.Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewedFor Jethro came to visit them, and gave them good counsel, (Exo_18:19).kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.

⁷ So Saul smote the Amalekites from Hauilah as thou commest to Shur, that is before Egypt,

⁸ And tooke Agag the King of the Amalekites aliue, and destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.

⁹ But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the better sheepe, and the oxen, and the fat beasts, and the lambes, and all that was good, and they would not destroy them: but euery thing that was vile and nought worth, that they destroyed.

¹⁰ Then came the worde of the Lord vnto Samuel, saying,

¹¹ ItGod in his eternal counsel never changes or repents, as in (1Sa_15:29), though he seems to us to repent when anything goes contrary to his temporal election.repenteth me that I have set up Saul [to be] king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.

¹² And when Samuel arose early to meete Saul in the morning, one tolde Samuel, saying, Saul is gone to Carmel: and beholde, he hath made him there a place, from whence he returned, and departed, and is gone downe to Gilgal.

¹³ And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed [be] thou of the LORD: I have performed theThis is the nature of hypocrites to be impudent against the truth, to condemn others, and justify themselves.commandment of the LORD.

¹⁴ But Samuel saide, What meaneth then the bleating of the sheepe in mine eares, and the lowing of the oxen which I heare?

¹⁵ And Saul answered, They haue brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheepe, and of the oxen to sacrifice them vnto the Lorde thy God, and the remnant haue we destroyed.

¹⁶ Againe Samuel saide to Saul, Let me tell thee what the Lord hath saide to me this night; he said vnto him, Say on.

¹⁷ And Samuel said, When thou [wast]Meaning, of base condition as in (1Sa_9:21).little in thine own sight, [wast] thou not [made] the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?

¹⁸ And the Lord sent thee on a iourney, and saide, Goe, and destroy those sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them, vntill thou destroy them.

¹⁹ Nowe wherefore hast thou not obeyed the voyce of the Lorde, but hast turned to the pray, and hast done wickedly in the sight of the Lord?

²⁰ And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea,He stands most impudently in his own defence both against God and his own conscience.I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

²¹ But the people tooke of the spoyle, sheepe, and oxen, and the chiefest of the things which shoulde haue bene destroyed, to offer vnto the Lord thy God in Gilgal.

²² And Samuel saide, Hath the Lord as great pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as when the voyce of the Lord is obeyed? Beholde, to obey is better then sacrifice, and to hearken is better then the fatte of rammes.

²³ ForGod hates nothing more than the disobedience of his commandment, even though the intent seems good to man.rebellion [is as] the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness [is as] iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from [being] king.

²⁴ Then Saul sayde vnto Samuel, I haue sinned: for I haue transgressed the commaundement of the Lord, and thy wordes, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voyce.

²⁵ Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon myThis was not true repentance, but deceit out of fear for the loss of his kingdom.sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.

²⁶ But Samuel saide vnto Saul, I will not returne with thee: for thou hast cast away the word of the Lorde, and the Lorde hath cast away thee, that thou shalt not be King ouer Israel.

²⁷ And as Samuel turned himselfe to goe away, he caught the lappe of his coate, and it rent.

²⁸ And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to aThat is, to David.neighbour of thine, [that is] better than thou.

²⁹ And also theMeaning God, who maintains and prefers his own.Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he [is] not a man, that he should repent.

³⁰ Then he saide, I haue sinned: but honour mee, I pray thee, before the Elders of my people, and before Israel, and turne againe with mee, that I may worship the Lord thy God.

³¹ So Samuel turned againe, and followed Saul: and Saul worshipped the Lord.

³² Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely theHe expected nothing less than death, or as some write, he passed not for death.bitterness of death is past.

³³ And Samuel sayde, As thy sworde hath made women childlesse, so shall thy mother bee childelesse among other women; Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.

³⁴ Then Samuel went toWhere his house was.Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.

³⁵ And Samuel came no more toThough Saul came where Samuel was, (1Sa_19:22).see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the LORDAs in (1Sa_15:11).repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.