1 Samuel 15:17-30

New King James Version

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 are ^[a]consumed.’ ¹⁹ Why 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?”

²⁰ And Saul said to Samuel, ^(B)“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 (C)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.”

²² So Samuel said:

^24 (G)Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I ^(H)feared 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, ^(I)for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.”

²⁷ And as Samuel turned around to go away, ^(J)Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore. ²⁸ So Samuel said to him, ^(K)“The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. ²⁹ And also the Strength of Israel ^(L)will not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that He should relent.”

³⁰ Then he said, “I have sinned; yet ^(M)honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord your God.”