1 Samuel 15:1-21 ▼

1 Samuel also saide vnto Saul: The Lord sent me to anoynt thee, to be king ouer his people, ouer Israel: Now therfore hearken thou vnto the voyce of the wordes of the Lorde.

2 Thus saith the Lorde of hoastes: I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how they layed waite for them in the waye as they came vp from Egypt.

3 Nowe therfore go, and smyte Amalek, and destroye ye all that pertaineth vnto them, and haue no compassion on them, slay both man & woman, infant and suckling, oxe and sheepe, camel and asse.

4 And Saul gathered the people together, and numbred them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footemen, and ten thousand men of Iuda.

5 And Saul came vnto a citie of Amalek, and set watch in the brooke.

6 And Saul saide vnto the Kenites: Go, & depart, & get you downe from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed mercie to all the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt. And so the Kenites departed from among ye Amalekites.

7 And Saul smote the Amalekites, from Heuila, as thou commest to Sur, that lyeth before Egypt.

8 And toke Agag the king of the Amalekites alyue, and vtterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sworde.

9 But Saul and the people spared Agag, the better sheepe, and the fatter oxen, and the lambes, and all that was good, & would not destroy them: But al that was foule & naught worth, that they destroyed vtterlie.

10 Then came the word of the Lord vnto Samuel, saying:

11 It repenteth me that I haue made Saul king: For he is turned from me, & hath not perfourmed my commaundementes. And Samuel was euill apayed, & cryed vnto the Lord all night.

12 And whe Samuel rose early to meete Saul in the morning, it was tolde Samuel that Saul was come to Carmel, and beholde, he hath made him there a place, and is returned, and departed and gone downe to Gilgal.

13 And Samuel came to Saul, & Saul said vnto him, Blessed be thou in the Lorde: I haue fulfilled the comaundement of the Lord.

14 Samuel sayde: What meaneth then the bleating of the sheepe in mine eares and the lowing of the oxen which I heare?

15 Saul aunswered, They haue brought them from the Amalekites: For the people spared the best of the sheepe, and of the oxen, to sacrifice them vnto the Lorde thy God, and the remnaunt haue we destroyed vtterlie.

16 Samuel said to Saul: Let me tell thee what the Lorde hath saide to me this night. And he sayd vnto him: saye on.

17 Samuel said: When thou wast litle in thyne owne sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lorde annoynted thee kyng ouer Israel?

18 And the Lorde sent thee on a iourney, and said: Go, and vtterly destroy those sinners the Amalekites, & fight against them vntyll thou destroy them.

19 And wherfore hast thou not hearkened vnto the voyce of the Lorde? but hast turned to the praye, and hast done that which is wicked in the syght of the Lorde?

20 And Saul sayde vnto Samuel: Yea, I haue hearkened vnto the voyce of the Lorde, and haue gone the way which the Lord sent me vnto, & haue brought Agag the kyng of Amalek, and haue destroyed the Amalekites.

21 But the people toke of ye spoyle, sheepe, oxen, and the chiefest of the thynges whiche shoulde haue ben destroyed, to offer vnto the Lord thy God in Gilgal.