1 Samuel 15:10-26

New King James Version

Saul Rejected as King

¹⁰Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, ¹¹^(A)“I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has ^(B)turned back from following Me, ^(C)and has not performed My commandments.” And it ^(D)grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the Lord all night. ¹²So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul went to ^(E)Carmel, and indeed, he set up a monument for himself; and he has gone on around, passed by, and gone down to Gilgal.” ¹³Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, ^(F)“Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord.”

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

¹⁵And Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; ^(G)for 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.”

¹⁶Then 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.”

¹⁷So Samuel said, ^(H)“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? ¹⁸Now the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are ^[a]consumed.’ ¹⁹Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the ^[b]spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord?”

²⁰And Saul said to Samuel, ^(I)“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^(J)But 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.”

²²So Samuel said:

^(K)“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
As in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, ^(L)to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed than the fat of rams.
²³For rebellion is as the sin of ^[c]witchcraft,
And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
^(M)He also has rejected you from being king.”

²⁴^(N)Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I ^(O)feared the people and obeyed their voice. ²⁵Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord.”

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

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