Saul Spares King Agag

15 Samuel also said to Saul, ^(A)“The Lord sent me to anoint you king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore, heed the voice of the words of the Lord. ² Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, ^(B)how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. ³ Now go and ^(C)attack^[a] Amalek, and ^(D)utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”

⁴ So Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men of Judah. ⁵ And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and lay in wait in the valley.

⁶ Then Saul said to ^(E)the Kenites, ^(F)“Go, depart, get down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For ^(G)you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. ^7 (H)And Saul attacked the Amalekites, from ^(I)Havilah all the way to ^(J)Shur, which is east of Egypt. ^8 (K)He also took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and ^(L)utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. ⁹ But Saul and the people ^(M)spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.

Saul Rejected as King

¹⁰ Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, ^11 (N)“I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has ^(O)turned back from following Me, ^(P)and has not performed My commandments.” And it ^(Q)grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the Lord all night.

Trusting in Lying Words^(A)

7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, ^2 (B)“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord!’ ” ³ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(C)“Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. ^4 (D)Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.’

⁵ “For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly ^(E)execute ^[a]judgment between a man and his neighbor, ⁶ if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, ^(F)or walk after other gods to your hurt, ^7 (G)then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in ^(H)the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

⁸ “Behold, you trust in ^(I)lying words that cannot profit. ^9 (J)Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and ^(K)walk after other gods whom you do not know, ^10 (L)and then come and stand before Me in this house ^(M)which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’? ¹¹ Has ^(N)this house, which is called by My name, become a ^(O)den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the Lord.

¹² “But go now to ^(P)My place which was in Shiloh, ^(Q)where I set My name at the first, and see ^(R)what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. ¹³ And now, because you have done all these works,” says the Lord, “and I spoke to you, ^(S)rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I ^(T)called you, but you did not answer, ¹⁴ therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to ^(U)Shiloh. ¹⁵ And I will cast you out of My sight, ^(V)as I have cast out all your brethren—^(W)the whole posterity of Ephraim.

Collection for the Judean Saints

¹⁶ But thanks be to God who ^[a]puts the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus.

⁵ Therefore I thought it necessary to ^[a]exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time, and prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously promised, that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a ^[b]grudging obligation.