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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>1 Samuel 15 NIV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/1_samuel/15.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/1_samuel/15-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NIV</a> > 1 Samuel 15</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../1_samuel/14.htm" title="1 Samuel 14">◄</a> 1 Samuel 15 <a href="../1_samuel/16.htm" title="1 Samuel 16">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New International Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/niv/esv/1_samuel/15.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="sectionhead">The <span class="name">Lord</span> Rejects Saul as King</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the <span class="name">Lord</span> sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the <span class="name">Lord</span>. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>This is what the <span class="name">Lord</span> Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the LORD, often by totally destroying them; also in verses 8, 9, 15, 18, 20 and 21.">a</a></sup></span> all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ ”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>So Saul summoned the men and mustered them at Telaim—two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand from Judah. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>Saul went to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the ravine. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>Then he said to the Kenites, “Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or the grown bulls; the meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.">b</a></sup></span> and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>Then the word of the <span class="name">Lord</span> came to Samuel: <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>“I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the <span class="name">Lord</span> all that night.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, “Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The <span class="name">Lord</span> bless you! I have carried out the <span class="name">Lord</span>’s instructions.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the <span class="name">Lord</span> your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>“Enough!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the <span class="name">Lord</span> said to me last night.”</p><p class="reg">“Tell me,” Saul replied.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The <span class="name">Lord</span> anointed you king over Israel. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>Why did you not obey the <span class="name">Lord</span>? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the <span class="name">Lord</span>?”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>“But I did obey the <span class="name">Lord</span>,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the <span class="name">Lord</span> assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the <span class="name">Lord</span> your God at Gilgal.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>But Samuel replied:</p><div class="stanza"><p class="line1">“Does the <span class="name">Lord</span> delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices</p><p class="line2">as much as in obeying the <span class="name">Lord</span>?</p><p class="line1">To obey is better than sacrifice,</p><p class="line2">and to heed is better than the fat of rams.</p> <p class="line1"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>For rebellion is like the sin of divination,</p><p class="line2">and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.</p><p class="line1">Because you have rejected the word of the <span class="name">Lord</span>,</p><p class="line2">he has rejected you as king.”</p></div> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the <span class="name">Lord</span>’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span>Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the <span class="name">Lord</span>.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span>But Samuel said to him, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the <span class="name">Lord</span>, and the <span class="name">Lord</span> has rejected you as king over Israel!”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span>As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span>Samuel said to him, “The <span class="name">Lord</span> has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span>He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-30.htm"><b>30</b></a></span>Saul replied, “I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the <span class="name">Lord</span> your God.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-31.htm"><b>31</b></a></span>So Samuel went back with Saul, and Saul worshiped the <span class="name">Lord</span>.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-32.htm"><b>32</b></a></span>Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites.”</p><p class="reg">Agag came to him in chains. <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.">c</a></sup></span> And he thought, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-33.htm"><b>33</b></a></span>But Samuel said,</p><div class="stanza"><p class="line1">“As your sword has made women childless,</p><p class="line2">so will your mother be childless among women.”</p></div><p class="pcontinued">And Samuel put Agag to death before the <span class="name">Lord</span> at Gilgal.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-34.htm"><b>34</b></a></span>Then Samuel left for Ramah, but Saul went up to his home in Gibeah of Saul. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/15-35.htm"><b>35</b></a></span>Until the day Samuel died, he did not go to see Saul again, though Samuel mourned for him. And the <span class="name">Lord</span> regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.</p><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><A name="footnotes"></a><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">3</span> <span class="footnotebot">The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the <span class="name">Lord</span>, often by totally destroying them; also in verses 8, 9, 15, 18, 20 and 21.</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">b</span> <span class="fnverse">9</span> <span class="footnotebot">Or <i>the grown bulls</i>; the meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">c</span> <span class="fnverse">32</span> <span class="footnotebot">The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.</span><br><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><p class="ntext"><a href="http://niv.scripturetext.com/version.htm">New International Version</a> (NIV)</p><p class="ntext2">Holy Bible, New International Version&reg, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by <a href="http://biblica.com">Biblica, Inc.</a>® Used by permission. 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