1 Samuel 15:14 - Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

1 Samuel 15:14

12 So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul went to ^aCarmel, and indeed, he set up a monument for himself; and he has gone on around, passed by, and gone down to Gilgal.”

13 Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, ^a“Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord.”

14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”

15 And Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; ^afor the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.”

16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Be quiet! And I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” And he said to him, “Speak on.”

17 So Samuel said, ^a“When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel?

18 Now the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are¹ consumed.’

19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the¹ spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord?”

20 And Saul said to Samuel, ^a“But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

21 ^aBut the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”

22 So Samuel said:
^a“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
As in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, ^bto obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed than the fat of rams.

23 For rebellion is as the sin of¹ witchcraft,
And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
^aHe also has rejected you from being king.”

24 ^aThen Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I ^bfeared the people and obeyed their voice.

25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord.”

26 But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you, ^afor you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.”

Commentaries:

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

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1 Samuel 15:13-23

Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord—Saul was either blinded by a partial and delusive self-love, or he was, in his declaration to Samuel, acting the part of a bold and artful hypocrite. He professed to have fulfilled the divine command, and that the blame of any defects in the execution lay with the people. Samuel saw the real state of the case, and in discharge of the commission he had received before setting out, proceeded to denounce his conduct as characterized by pride, rebellion, and obstinate disobedience. When Saul persisted in declaring that he had obeyed, alleging that the animals, whose bleating was heard, had been reserved for a liberal sacrifice of thanksgiving to God, his shuffling, prevaricating answer called forth a stern rebuke from the prophet. It well deserved it—for the destination of the spoil to the altar was a flimsy pretext—a gross deception, an attempt to conceal the selfishness of the original motive under the cloak of religious zeal and gratitude.

Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 1 Samuel 15:14:

Jeremiah 42:6

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1 Samuel 15:15 >>

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