Chapter Fifteen

Destruction of the Amalekites. Final rupture between King Saul and the prophet Samuel.

1 Samuel 15:2. Thus says the Lord of hosts: I have noted what Amalek did to Israel, how he opposed him on the way when he came up from Egypt; See Exod 17:8-16. The Amalekites – nomads of the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, between Idumea and Egypt.

1 Samuel 15:3. Now go and strike Amalek [and Jeroboam] and utterly destroy all that he has; [do not spare anything from them, but destroy and devote to destruction everything that he has;] and do not have pity on him, but put to death from man to woman, from child to nursing infant, from ox to sheep, from camel to donkey. “And Jeroboam” (1 Sam 15:8). It is supposed that Jeroboam was one of the leaders of the Amalekites, distinguished in some way among their other chiefs.

1 Samuel 15:4. And Saul summoned the people and counted them in Telaim: two hundred thousand men on foot and ten thousand men of Judah. Telaim – in the south of Canaan, near the boundary of Judah.

1 Samuel 15:6. And Saul said to the Kenites: go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt. And the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. The Kenites – one of the tribes among the Amalekites (cf. Exod 2:15-21; Num 10:29-33; Judg 1:16), friendly toward the Hebrews.

1 Samuel 15:7. And Saul defeated Amalek from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt; The exact location of Havilah is unknown. Shur – a part of the Arabian wilderness adjacent to Egypt (Gen 16:7;Exod 15:22).

1 Samuel 15:9. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and the cattle and the fatted animals and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them; all that was despised and weak they destroyed utterly. Another violation by Saul of the will of the Lord’s prophet (cf. 1 Sam 13:8-14. See note to 1 Sam 8:6).

1 Samuel 15:10. Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying: 1 Samuel 15:11. “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from me and has not carried out my instructions.” And Samuel was grieved, and he cried out to the Lord all that night. Cf. 1 Sam 13:8-14. “And Samuel was grieved, and he cried out to the Lord all that night”, asking him for guidance as to how he should now deal with Saul.

1 Samuel 15:12. And Samuel rose early in the morning and went to meet Saul. And it was told Samuel that Saul had gone to Carmel and had set up a monument for himself, [and then turned and gone down] to Gilgal. The Carmel mentioned here – a city of the tribe of Judah, located south of Hebron. “Set up a monument” (some kind of pillar with an inscription) – to mark and perpetuate the victory obtained. Probably, Agag was also spared (1 Sam 15:9) not for Agag’s sake, but in order to increase the splendor of the victor’s triumph with his presence.

1 Samuel 15:13. When Samuel came to Saul, Saul said to him: blessed be you by the Lord; I have kept the word of the Lord. “When Samuel came”: to offer a sacrifice. Cf. 1 Sam 10:8. See note to 1 Sam 7:9. “I have kept the word of the Lord”; see 1 Sam 15:1-3.

1 Samuel 15:15. And Saul said: they have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the cattle in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed. Verse 9 leads us to suppose that Saul and his army kept the best of the possessions of the Amalekites far from religious considerations.

1 Samuel 15:17. And Samuel said: though you are small in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed you king over Israel? 1 Samuel 15:18. And the Lord sent you on a mission, saying: “go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until you have consumed them. 1 Samuel 15:19. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but pounced on the spoil and did what is evil in the sight of the Lord? There is noted Saul’s ingratitude. Having been raised from insignificance (verse 17) to the height of the royal throne, Saul did not display proper obedience to the will of him who raised him up.

1 Samuel 15:21. And the people took from the spoil, sheep and cattle, the best of what was devoted, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal. See note to 1 Sam 15:15.

1 Samuel 15:22. And Samuel said: does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams; 1 Samuel 15:23. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and stubbornness is like idolatry; because you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you from being king [over Israel]. See 1 Sam 15:1-3.

1 Samuel 15:24. And Saul said to Samuel: I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your word; but I was afraid of the people and obeyed their voice; 1 Samuel 15:25. Now therefore, I beg you, pardon my sin and return with me, that I may worship the Lord [your God]. 1 Samuel 15:26. And Samuel said to Saul: I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. 1 Samuel 15:27. And as Samuel turned to go away, Saul caught hold of the edge of his robe, and it tore. 1 Samuel 15:28. And Samuel said to him: the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, one better than you; 1 Samuel 15:29. And also the Glory of Israel does not lie and does not repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent. 1 Samuel 15:30. And Saul said: I have sinned; yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord your God. 1 Samuel 15:31. So Samuel turned back after Saul; and Saul worshiped the Lord. Saul was aware that he had sinned by violating God’s will, but he did not feel this sin, did not experience the inward, purifying remorse. Outwardly, Saul’s ambitious soul was troubled not so much by the thought that God might abandon him, as by the thought that the angry prophet would leave him right then and by his departure would diminish his prestige before the princes and people. Sparing not Saul but the honor of the Hebrew king, Samuel stayed and performed the appointed sacrifice.

1 Samuel 15:32. Then Samuel said: bring Agag, the king of the Amalekites, to me. And Agag came to him trembling, and said: surely the bitterness of death has passed? 1 Samuel 15:33. And Samuel said: as your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. Cf. 1 Sam 15:3.

1 Samuel 15:35. And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death; but Samuel mourned for Saul, because the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. “Because the Lord regretted” that he had made Saul king (cf. 1 Sam 15:10-11): an anthropomorphic expression, indicating that the first king of the Hebrews did not use the means that God had given him to be a zealous instrument of God’s will for his own benefit and for the benefit of the people entrusted to him.