1 Samuel 15:1-13 ▼

1 SAMUEL said to Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint you to be king over his people Israel. Now therefore hearken to the voice of the words of the LORD.

2 Thus says the LORD Of hosts, I remember what Amalek did to Israel on their journey when they were coming up out of Egypt.

3 Now go and smite the Amalekites, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both men and women, young people and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and asses.

4 And Saul summoned the people to war, and he numbered them in Telaye, two hundred thousand footmen and ten thousand men of Judah.

5 And Saul came to a city of the Amalekites, and issued a directive in the valley.

6 And Saul said to the Kenites, Turn aside, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.

7 And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is over near Egypt.

8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.

9 But Saul and the people spared King Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatlings and the stall-fed beasts and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them; but everything that was vile and despised in their sight, that they destroyed utterly.

10 Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying,

11 I regret that I have made Saul king; for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he prayed before the LORD all night.

12 And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul has come to Carmel, and, behold, he has set up a dwelling place for himself, and has turned and passed on and gone down to Gilgal.

13 And Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, Blessed be the LORD, who has performed his commandment.