kjv@1Samuel:15:1@ Samuel also said unto Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the LORD.
kjv@1Samuel:15:2@ Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
kjv@1Samuel:15:3@ Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
kjv@1Samuel:15:4@ And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.
kjv@1Samuel:15:5@ And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.
kjv@1Samuel:15:6@ And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
kjv@1Samuel:15:7@ And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt.
kjv@1Samuel:15:8@ And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
kjv@1Samuel:15:9@ But Saul 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 would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
kjv@1Samuel:15:10@ Then came the word of the LORD unto Samuel, saying,
kjv@1Samuel:15:11@ It 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.
kjv@1Samuel:15:12@ And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal.
kjv@1Samuel:15:13@ And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD.
kjv@1Samuel:15:14@ And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?
kjv@1Samuel:15:15@ And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
kjv@1Samuel:15:16@ Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on.
kjv@1Samuel:15:17@ And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?
kjv@1Samuel:15:18@ And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.
kjv@1Samuel:15:19@ Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?
kjv@1Samuel:15:20@ And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, 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.
kjv@1Samuel:15:21@ But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.
kjv@1Samuel:15:22@ And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
kjv@1Samuel:15:23@ For 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.
kjv@1Samuel:15:24@ And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.
kjv@1Samuel:15:25@ Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.
kjv@1Samuel:15:26@ And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.
kjv@1Samuel:15:27@ And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent.
kjv@1Samuel:15:28@ And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou.
kjv@1Samuel:15:29@ And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.
kjv@1Samuel:15:30@ Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God.
kjv@1Samuel:15:31@ So Samuel turned again after Saul; and Saul worshipped the LORD.
kjv@1Samuel:15:32@ Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past.
kjv@1Samuel:15:33@ And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.
kjv@1Samuel:15:34@ Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.
kjv@1Samuel:15:35@ And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the LORD repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.
Repented God? When there is an apparent contradiction (see: kjv@1Samuel:15:29) the Spirit is not hiding the truth of the matter from us, He is beckoning us to consider how that the two things might be mutually and emphatically true at the same time. These are underlined highlights meant to foster a deeper searching/understanding. If we trust that there is an spiritual answer from the start, diligence will eventually prove to be much more fruitful than if we let it slip by.
Doing what is right is not simply performing the action, it is also in performing it in the right manner. Saul did obtain what he saw to be the objective; defeat the Amalekites. God's objective was further into proving the obedience of Israel; Saul being chief.
Old Testament accounts such as these are hard for modern audiences to fathom. Our image of God's nature and God's intentions are much more docile. We must remember that God is establishing a key peace in His argument; the depiction of man's sinful nature and His case for a incarnate/redemptive Christ. What is spirit is spirit, what is flesh is flesh, and the two minds are at complete enmity with each other. Spiritual God is having to use fleshly matters to convince the fleshy mind of the accuracy of a hated spiritual message; not only for the Israel of that time but, also us who are reading this now as well.
The awkwardness of these difficult passages may also arise from the fact that modern readers are trying the Bible from a self help viewpoint. One then must ask how does this difficult portrayal of God's nature help me? We thereby exclude the grander contexts of what God had to get us to a point where He could help us, what He had to stick to, what He had to insist upon, what He had to battle through to get us to a point of realizing our truly reprobate sinful nature. Difficulty here does not reveal so much about difficulty with God as it reveals difficulty with us.
2012 - pBiblx2 Field Wise Bible System Version 2.0.9d - GPL3
