1 Samuel 13:13-14

13:13 Then Samuel said to Saul, “You have made a foolish choice! You have not obeyed ¹  the commandment that the Lord your God gave ²  you. Had you done that, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever! 13:14 But now your kingdom will not continue! The Lord has sought out ³  for himself a man who is loyal to him ⁴  and the Lord has appointed ⁵  him to be leader over his people, for you have not obeyed what the Lord commanded you.”

1 Samuel 15:27-29

15:27 When Samuel turned to leave, Saul ⁶  grabbed the edge of his robe and it tore. 15:28 Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to one of your colleagues who is better than you! 15:29 The Preeminent One ⁷  of Israel does not go back on his word ⁸  or change his mind, for he is not a human being who changes his mind.” ⁹ 

[13:13]  ¹ tn Or “kept.”

[13:13]  ² tn Heb “commanded.”

[13:14]  ³ tn This verb form, as well as the one that follows (“appointed”), indicates completed action from the standpoint of the speaker. This does not necessarily mean that the Lord had already conducted his search and made his choice, however. The forms may be used for rhetorical effect to emphasize the certainty of the action. The divine search for a new king is as good as done, emphasizing that the days of Saul’s dynasty are numbered.

[13:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “according to his heart.” The idiomatic expression means to be like-minded with another, as its use in 1 Sam 14:7 indicates.

[13:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “commanded.”

[15:27]  ⁶ tn Heb “he,” but Saul is clearly the referent. A Qumran ms and the LXX include the name “Saul” here.

[15:29]  ⁷ tn Heb “splendor,” used here by metonymy as a title for the Lord.

[15:29]  ⁸ tn Or perhaps “does not lie.”

[15:29]  ⁹ sn This observation marks the preceding statement (v. 28) as an unconditional, unalterable decree. When God makes such a decree he will not alter it or change his mind. This does not mean that God never deviates from his stated intentions or changes his mind. On the contrary, several passages describe him as changing his mind. In fact, his willingness to do so is one of his fundamental divine attributes (see Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2). For a fuller discussion see R. B. Chisholm, Jr., “Does God Change His Mind?” BSac 152 (1995): 387-99.