Their king, Agag, he took alive (on the name, see at Numbers 24:7), but all the people he banned with the edge of the sword, i.e., he had them put to death without quarter. "All," i.e., all that fell into the hands of the Israelites. For it follows from the very nature of the case that many escaped, and consequently there is nothing striking in the fact that Amalekites are mentioned again at a later period (1 Samuel 27:8; 1 Samuel 30:1; 2 Samuel 8:12). The last remnant was destroyed by the Simeonites upon the mountains of Seir in the reign of Hezekiah (1 Chronicles 4:43). Only, king Agag did Saul and the people (of Israel) spare, also "the best of the sheep and oxen, and the animals of the second birth, and the lambs and everything good; these they would not ban." משׁנים, according to D. Kimchi and R. Tanch. , are לבטן שׁניים, i.e., animalia secundo partu edita, which were considered superior to the others (vid., Roediger in Ges. Thes. p. 1451); and כּרים, pasture lambs, i.e., fat lambs. There is no necessity, therefore, for the conjecture of Ewald and Thenius, משׁמנּים, fattened, and כּרמים, vineyards; nor for the far-fetched explanation given by Bochart, viz., camels with two humps and camel-saddles, to say nothing of the fact that camel-saddles and vineyards are altogether out of place here. In "all that was good" the things already mentioned singly are all included. המּלאכה, the property; here it is applied to cattle, as in Genesis 33:14. נמבזה equals נבזה, despised, undervalued. The form of the word is not contracted from a noun מבזה and the participle נבזה (Ges. Lehrgeb. p. 463), but seems to be a participle Niph. formed from a noun מבזה. But as such a form is contrary to all analogy, Ewald and Olshausen regard the reading as corrupt. נמס (from מסס): flowing away; used with reference to diseased cattle, or such as have perished. The reason for sparing the best cattle is very apparent, namely selfishness. But it is not so easy to determine why Agag should have been spared by Saul. It is by no means probable that he wished thereby to do honour to the royal dignity. O. v. Gerlach's supposition, that vanity or the desire to make a display with a royal slave was the actual reason, is a much more probable one.

1 Samuel 15:14 Parallel Commentaries

What meaneth

Psalm 36:2 For he flatters himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.

Psalm 50:16-21 But to the wicked God said, What have you to do to declare my statutes, or that you should take my covenant in your mouth...

Jeremiah 2:18,19,22,23,34-37 And now what have you to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what have you to do in the way of Assyria...

Malachi 3:13-15 Your words have been stout against me, said the LORD. Yet you say, What have we spoken so much against you...

Luke 19:22 And he said to him, Out of your own mouth will I judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an austere man...

Romans 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law said, it said to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped...

1 Corinthians 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness...