¹⁰ Accursed is the one who is slack in doing the work of the Lord, and accursed is the one who keeps back the sword from bloodshed.^(A)

⁴² Then he said to him, “Thus says the Lord: Because you have let the man go whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall be for his life and your people for his people.”^(A)

³ Now go and attack Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”^(A)

⁹ Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the cattle and of the fatted calves,^[a] and the lambs, and all that was valuable and would not utterly destroy them; all that was despised and worthless they utterly destroyed.^(A)

¹⁹ Then the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down Aram until you had made an end of it, but now you will strike down Aram only three times.”^(A)

¹⁴ Moses became angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war. ¹⁵ Moses said to them, “Have you allowed all the women to live? ¹⁶ These women here, on Balaam’s advice, made the Israelites act treacherously against the Lord in the affair of Peor, so that the plague came among the congregation of the Lord.^{(A) 17} Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man by sleeping with him.^{(B) 18} But all the young girls who have not known a man by sleeping with him, keep alive for yourselves.

¹³ When Samuel came to Saul, Saul said to him, “May you be blessed by the Lord; I have carried out the command of the Lord.”^{(A) 14} But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears and the lowing of cattle that I hear?” ¹⁵ Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and the cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but the rest we have utterly destroyed.”^{(B) 16} Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” He replied, “Speak.”

¹⁷ Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel.^{(C) 18} And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’^{(D) 19} Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?”^{(E) 20} Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.^{(F) 21} But from the spoil the people took sheep and cattle, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”^{(G) 22} And Samuel said,