1 Samuel 15:18-23

15:18 The Lord sent you on a campaign ¹  saying, ‘Go and exterminate those sinful Amalekites! Fight against them until you ²  have destroyed them.’ 15:19 Why haven’t you obeyed ³  the Lord? Instead you have greedily rushed upon the plunder! You have done what is wrong in the Lord’s estimation.” ⁴ 

15:20 Then Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed ⁵  the Lord! I went on the campaign ⁶  the Lord sent me on. I brought back King Agag of the Amalekites after exterminating the Amalekites. 15:21 But the army took from the plunder some of the sheep and cattle – the best of what was to be slaughtered – to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”

15:22 Then Samuel said,

“Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices

as much as he does in obedience? ⁷ 

Certainly, ⁸  obedience ⁹  is better than sacrifice;

paying attention is better than ¹⁰  the fat of rams.

15:23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination,

and presumption is like the evil of idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,

he has rejected you as ¹¹  king.”

¹ tn Heb “journey.”

² tc The translation follows the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Targum in reading the second person singular suffix (“you”) rather than the third person plural suffix of the MT (“they”).

³ tn Heb “listened to the voice of the Lord.”

⁴ tn Heb “you have done what is evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

⁵ tn Heb “listened to the voice of the Lord.”

⁶ tn Heb “journey.”

⁷ tn Heb “as [in] listening to the voice of the Lord.”

⁸ tn Heb “look.”

⁹ tn Heb “listening.”

¹⁰ tn The expression “is better” is understood here by ellipsis (see the immediately preceding statement).

¹¹ tn Or “from [being].”