15:1 Then Samuel said to Saul, “I was the one the Lord sent to anoint you as king over his people Israel. Now listen to what the Lord says. 1 15:2 Here is what the Lord of hosts says: ‘I carefully observed how the Amalekites opposed 2 Israel along the way when Israel 3 came up from Egypt. 15:3 So go now and strike down the Amalekites. Destroy everything that they have. Don’t spare 4 them. Put them to death – man, woman, child, infant, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey alike.’”
15:4 So Saul assembled 5 the army 6 and mustered them at Telaim. There were 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men of Judah. 15:5 Saul proceeded to the city 7 of Amalek, where he set an ambush 8 in the wadi. 9 15:6 Saul said to the Kenites, “Go on and leave! Go down from among the Amalekites! Otherwise I will sweep you away 10 with them! After all, you were kind to all the Israelites when they came up from Egypt.” So the Kenites withdrew from among the Amalekites.
1 tn Heb “to the voice of the words of the
2 tn Heb “what Amalek did to Israel, how he placed against him.”
3 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Israel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
4 tn Or perhaps “don’t take pity on” (cf. CEV).
5 tn Heb “caused the people to hear.”
6 tn Heb “people.”
7 tc The LXX has the plural here, “cities.”
8 tc The translation follows the LXX and Vulgate which assume a reading וַיָּאָרֶב (vayya’arev, “and he set an ambush,” from the root ארב [’rv] with quiescence of alef) rather than the MT, which has וַיָּרֶב (vayyareb, “and he contended,” from the root ריב [ryv]).
9 tn That is, “the dry stream bed.”
10 tc The translation follows the Syriac Peshitta and Vulgate which assume a reading אֶסִפְךָ (’esfÿka, “I sweep you away,” from the root ספה [sfh]) rather than the MT אֹסִפְךָ (’osifÿka, “I am gathering you,” from the root אסף[’sf]).