King James Version

1 And Samuel said to Saul, "The Lord has sent me to anoint you as king over His people, over Israel. Now listen to the words of the Lord." 2 Thus says the LORD of hosts, I have noted what Amalek did to Israel, how he set upon him on the way when he was coming up from Egypt. 3 Now go and strike Amalek, and devote to destruction all that belongs to him; do not spare him, but kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. 4 And Saul had the people hear, and he counted them in the two hundreds of thousands and ten thousand men of Judah. 5 And Saul came to the city of Amalek and he lay in wait in the valley. 6 And Saul said to the Kenite, "Go, depart, get away from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt." So the Kenite departed from among the Amalekites. 7 And Saul struck Amalek from Havilah as you go to Shur, which is before Egypt. 8 And he took Agag, the king of Amalek, alive, and he utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 And Saul had compassion on Agag and on the best of the sheep and on the cattle and on the fattened animals and on all that was good, and he did not want to destroy them; but all the despised and weak things, those he completely destroyed. 10 And the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying. 11 I repented that I made Saul king because he turned back from following me and did not perform my words, and it grieved Samuel and he cried out to the Lord all night. 12 And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, and it was told to Samuel, saying, "Saul has come to Carmel, and behold, he is setting up a monument for himself. And he turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal." 13 And Samuel came to Saul and said to him, "Saul, you are blessed by the Lord; I have carried out the word of the Lord." 14 And Samuel said, "What is this sound of the sheep in my ears, and the sound of the cattle that I hear?" 15 And Saul said, "Bring to me the Amalekite, whom the people spared of the best of the sheep and the cattle to offer as a sacrifice to the LORD your God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed." 16 And Samuel said to Saul, "Stop, and I will tell you what the LORD spoke to me tonight." And he said, "Speak." 17 And Samuel said, "Is it not true that you are little in your own eyes? You are the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord has anointed you to be king over Israel." 18 And the Lord sent you on a path and said, "Go and devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and you shall fight against them until you have destroyed them." 19 And why have you not listened to the voice of the Lord and you rushed to the spoil and did the evil in the eyes of the Lord? 20 And Saul said to Samuel, "I have heeded the voice of the LORD and gone the way the LORD sent me, and I have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and Amalek I have utterly destroyed." 21 And the people took from the spoil sheep and cattle, the first of the devoted things, to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal. 22 And Samuel said, "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams." 23 For the sin of divination is rebellion and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king. 24 And Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned, for I have transgressed the command of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and listened to their voice." 25 And now, please bear my sin and return with me, and I will bow down to the LORD. 26 And Samuel said to Saul, "I will not return with you, because you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel." 27 And Samuel turned to go, and he took hold of the hem of his robe, and it was torn. 28 And Samuel said to me, "The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and will give it to your neighbor, who is better than you." 29 And also, the Glory of Israel will not lie, nor will he repent, for he is not a man to repent. 30 And he said, "I have sinned now; please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, and I will bow down to the LORD your God." 31 And Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul bowed down to the Lord. 32 And Samuel said, "Bring to me Agag, king of Amalek." And Agag came to him delicately and said, "Surely the bitterness of death is past." 33 And Samuel said, "As you have made women childless, so shall your mother be childless." And Samuel cut Agag to pieces before the LORD in Gilgal. 34 And Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. 35 And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, for Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.