1 Samuel 15
Saul is told to destroy everything Amalekite. He spares the king and the best livestock. Samuel arrives in the morning and hears the sheep.
Summary
Chapter 15 is the second and final disqualification of Saul. Samuel gives him a command framed as a command from the Lord: attack Amalek, destroy everything under the herem ban. The Kenites, who had shown kindness to Israel during the Exodus, are warned to leave before the attack. Saul defeats the Amalekites from Havilah to Shur but spares Agag the Amalekite king and the best of the livestock — fat cattle, sheep, lambs, and everything that was good. He destroys only what is despised and worthless. The Lord tells Samuel that night that he regrets making Saul king, because Saul has turned back from following him. Samuel is angry; he cries out to the Lord all night.
The confrontation in the morning is one of the most precisely written scenes in the book. Samuel goes to find Saul; Saul has gone to Carmel, set up a monument for himself, and turned and gone down to Gilgal. When Samuel arrives, Saul greets him with a declaration of success: I have carried out the command of the Lord. Samuel's reply cuts through it: what then is this bleating of sheep in my ears, this lowing of cattle? Saul's explanation — the army kept the best animals to sacrifice to the Lord your God — shifts the blame and dresses disobedience as piety. Samuel's verdict is irreversible: to obey is better than sacrifice; to listen than the fat of rams. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you from being king. Saul confesses that he feared the people and obeyed their voice — the confession is also an excuse. Samuel refuses to return with him, turns to go, and Saul seizes his robe; it tears. Samuel says the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from him this day. He then executes Agag himself, hewing him in pieces before the Lord at Gilgal, and returns to Ramah, never seeing Saul again.
- 1 Samuel 1Chapter 1 opens at the sanctuary at Shiloh, where Elkanah of Ephraim brings his household each year to worship.
- 1 Samuel 2Chapter 2 opens with the Song of Hannah, one of the most influential poems in the Hebrew Bible — my heart exults in the Lord, the mighty brought low, the hungry fed, the barren bearing seven.
- 1 Samuel 3Chapter 3 is one of the most carefully paced call narratives in the Hebrew Bible.
- 1 Samuel 4Chapter 4 is the disaster that the previous chapters have been building toward.
- 1 Samuel 5Chapter 5 is the ark narrative in Philistine territory, told with something close to sardonic comedy.
- 1 Samuel 6Chapter 6 is the ark's return to Israel, engineered by Philistine priests who want to know whether their afflictions are the Lord's doing or mere coincidence.
- 1 Samuel 7Chapter 7 is the closing movement of the Samuel-as-judge arc.
- 1 Samuel 8Chapter 8 is the pivot of the entire book.
- 1 Samuel 9Chapter 9 introduces Saul, and the introduction is built on irony.
- 1 Samuel 10Chapter 10 is Saul's anointing and public selection.
- 1 Samuel 11Chapter 11 is Saul's first military action and the only chapter of his reign where he functions without any reservation or failure.
- 1 Samuel 12Chapter 12 is Samuel's formal farewell as Israel's judge, a speech that occupies the whole chapter.
- 1 Samuel 13Chapter 13 begins the decline.
- 1 Samuel 14Chapter 14 is a chapter of action and its costs.
- 1 Samuel 15Chapter 15 is the final disqualification.
- 1 Samuel 16Chapter 16 is the introduction of David and one of the most carefully constructed scenes of divine election in the Hebrew Bible.
- 1 Samuel 17Chapter 17 is the book's most famous chapter.
- 1 Samuel 18Chapter 18 is where the book's two great relationships crystallize.
- 1 Samuel 19Chapter 19 is the escalation from hostility to overt murderous intent.
- 1 Samuel 20Chapter 20 is the central scene of the David-Jonathan friendship and one of the great parting scenes in ancient literature.
- 1 Samuel 21Chapter 21 is a chapter of disguise and desperation.
- 1 Samuel 22Chapter 22 is one of the darkest chapters in the book.
- 1 Samuel 23Chapter 23 is a chapter of pursuit and one extraordinary meeting.
- 1 Samuel 24Chapter 24 is the first of two episodes in which David has Saul's life in his hands and refuses to take it.
- 1 Samuel 25Chapter 25 opens with Samuel's death — mourned by all Israel — and then turns to a story of David's near loss of self-control and the woman who stops it.
- 1 Samuel 26Chapter 26 is the second episode in which David refuses to kill Saul and, like chapter 24, it is structured to make the refusal as emphatic as possible.
- 1 Samuel 27Chapter 27 is the chapter of David's double game among the Philistines.
- 1 Samuel 28Chapter 28 is one of the strangest and most debated passages in the Hebrew Bible.
- 1 Samuel 29Chapter 29 is the resolution of a problem the narrative has been building toward: David, marching with Achish and the Philistine forces to fight against Israel.
- 1 Samuel 30Chapter 30 is the crisis of David's time among the Philistines.
- 1 Samuel 31Chapter 31 is the last chapter of 1 Samuel and the end of Saul's story.