1 Samuel
15
- Sauel said to Saul, "I am the one the
LORD sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the
message from the LORD.
- This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'I
will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them
as they came up from Egypt.
- Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally
destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men
and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.'"
- So Saul summoned the men and mustered them
at Telaim -- two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men from
Judah.
- Saul went to the city of Amalek and set
an ambush in the ravine.
- Then he said to the Kenites, "Go away,
leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you
showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt."
So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.
- Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the
way from Havilah to Shur, to the east of Egypt.
- He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive,
and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword.
- But Saul and the army spared Agag and the
best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs -- everything that
was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything
that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.
- Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel:
- "I am grieved that I have made Saul
king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions."
Samuel was troubled, and he cried out to the LORD all that night.
- Early in the morning Samuel got up and went
to meet Saul, but he was told, "Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has
set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal."
- When Samuel reached him, Saul said, "The
LORD bless you! I have carried out the LORD'S instructions."
- But Samuel said, "What then is this
bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear ?"
- Saul answered, "The soldiers brought
them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to
sacrifice to the LORD your God, but we totally destroyed the rest."
- "Stop!" Samuel said to Saul. "Let
me tell you what the LORD said to me last night." "Tell me,"
Saul replied.
- Samuel said, "Although you were once
small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel?
The LORD anointed you king over Israel.
- And he sent you on a mission, saying, 'Go
and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them
until you have wiped them out.'
- Why did you not obey the LORD? Why did you
pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the LORD ?"
- "But I did obey the LORD," Saul
said. "I went on the mission the LORD assigned me. I completely destroyed
the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king.
- The soldiers took sheep and cattle from
the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them
to the LORD your God at Gilgal."
- But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD
delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice
of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than
the fat of rams.
- For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word
of the LORD, he has rejected you as king."
- Then Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned.
I violated the LORD'S command and your instructions. I was afraid of the people
and so I gave in to them.
- Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back
with me, so that I may worship the LORD."
- But Samuel said to him, "I will not
go back with you. You have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has
rejected you as king over Israel !"
- As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold
of the hem of his robe, and it tore.
- Samuel said to him, "The LORD has torn
the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors
-- to one better than you.
- He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie
or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind."
- Saul replied, "I have sinned. But please
honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with
me, so that I may worship the LORD your God."
- So Samuel went back with Saul, and Saul
worshiped the LORD.
- Then Samuel said, "Bring me Agag king
of the Amalekites." Agag came to him confidently, thinking, "Surely
the bitterness of death is past."
- But Samuel said, "As your sword has
made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women."
And Samuel put Agag to death before the LORD at Gilgal.
- Then Samuel left for Ramah, but Saul went
up to his home in Gibeah of Saul.
- Until the day Samuel died, he did not go
to see Saul again, though Samuel mourned for him. And the LORD was grieved
that he had made Saul king over Israel.
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