1 Samuel 15:20-35

15:20 Then Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed ¹  the Lord! I went on the campaign ²  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? ³ 

Certainly, ⁴  obedience ⁵  is better than sacrifice;

paying attention is better than ⁶  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 ⁷  king.”

15:24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have disobeyed what the Lord commanded ⁸  and what you said as well. ⁹  For I was afraid of the army, and I followed their wishes. ¹⁰  15:25 Now please forgive my sin! Go back with me so I can worship ¹¹  the Lord.”

15:26 Samuel said to Saul, “I will not go back with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel!”

15:27 When Samuel turned to leave, Saul ¹²  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 ¹³  of Israel does not go back on his word ¹⁴  or change his mind, for he is not a human being who changes his mind.” ¹⁵  15:30 Saul ¹⁶  again replied, “I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel. Go back with me so I may worship the Lord your God.” 15:31 So Samuel followed Saul back, and Saul worshiped the Lord.

Samuel Puts Agag to Death

15:32 Then Samuel said, “Bring me King Agag of the Amalekites.” So Agag came to him trembling, ¹⁷  thinking to himself, ¹⁸  “Surely death is bitter!” ¹⁹  15:33 Samuel said, “Just as your sword left women childless, so your mother will be the most bereaved among women!” Then Samuel hacked Agag to pieces there in Gilgal before the Lord.

15:34 Then Samuel went to Ramah, while Saul went up to his home in Gibeah of Saul. 15:35 Until the day he ²⁰  died Samuel did not see Saul again. Samuel did, however, mourn for Saul, but the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.

[15:20]  ¹ tn Heb “listened to the voice of the Lord.”

[15:20]  ² tn Heb “journey.”

[15:22]  ³ tn Heb “as [in] listening to the voice of the Lord.”

[15:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “look.”

[15:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “listening.”

[15:22]  ⁶ tn The expression “is better” is understood here by ellipsis (see the immediately preceding statement).

[15:23]  ⁷ tn Or “from [being].”

[15:24]  ⁸ tn Heb “the mouth of the Lord.”

[15:24]  ⁹ tn Heb “and your words.”

[15:24]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and I listened to their voice.”

[15:25]  ¹¹ tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result.

[15:27]  ¹² tn Heb “he,” but Saul is clearly the referent. A Qumran ms and the LXX include the name “Saul” here.

[15:29]  ¹³ tn Heb “splendor,” used here by metonymy as a title for the Lord.

[15:29]  ¹⁴ tn Or perhaps “does not lie.”

[15:29]  ¹⁵ 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.

[15:30]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:32]  ¹⁷ tn The MT reading מַעֲדַנֹּת (ma’adannot, literally, “bonds,” used here adverbially, “in bonds”) is difficult. The word is found only here and in Job 38:31. Part of the problem lies in determining the root of the word. Some scholars have taken it to be from the root ענד (’nd, “to bind around”), but this assumes a metathesis of two of the letters of the root. Others take it from the root עדן (’dn) with the meaning “voluptuously,” but this does not seem to fit the context. It seems better to understand the word to be from the root מעד (m’d, “to totter” or “shake”). In that case it describes the fear that Agag experienced in realizing the mortal danger that he faced as he approached Samuel. This is the way that the LXX translators understood the word, rendering it by the Greek participle τρέμον (tremon, “trembling”).

[15:32]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and Agag said.”

[15:32]  ¹⁹ tc The text is difficult here. With the LXX, two Old Latin mss, and the Syriac Peshitta it is probably preferable to delete סָר (sar, “is past”) of the MT; it looks suspiciously like a dittograph of the following word מַר (mar, “bitter”). This further affects the interpretation of Agag’s comment. In the MT he comes to Samuel confidently assured that the danger is over (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV “Surely the bitterness of death is past,” along with NLT, CEV). However, it seems more likely that Agag realized that his fortunes had suddenly taken a turn for the worse and that the clemency he had enjoyed from Saul would not be his lot from Samuel. The present translation thus understands Agag to approach not confidently but in the stark realization that his death is imminent (“Surely death is bitter!”). Cf. NAB “So it is bitter death!”; NRSV “Surely this is the bitterness of death”; TEV “What a bitter thing it is to die!”

[15:35]  ²⁰ tn That is, Samuel.