1 Samuel 15:18-24

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.”

15:24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have disobeyed what the Lord commanded 12  and what you said as well. 13  For I was afraid of the army, and I followed their wishes. 14 

1 Samuel 15:1

Saul Is Rejected as King

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. 15 

1 Samuel 10:13-14

10:13 When Saul 16  had finished prophesying, he went to the high place.

10:14 Saul’s uncle asked him and his servant, “Where did you go?” Saul 17  replied, “To look for the donkeys. But when we realized they were lost, 18  we went to Samuel.”

Romans 3:9

The Condemnation of the World

3:9 What then? Are we better off? Certainly not, for we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin,

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].”

12 tn Heb “the mouth of the Lord.”

13 tn Heb “and your words.”

14 tn Heb “and I listened to their voice.”

15 tn Heb “to the voice of the words of the Lord” (so KJV).

16 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

17 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

18 tn Heb “And we saw that they were not.”