^10 (A)“Cursed is he who does ^(B)the work of the Lord with slackness, and cursed is he who keeps back his sword from bloodshed.

⁴² And he said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction,^[a] therefore ^(A)your life shall be for his life, and your people for his people.’”

³ Now go and strike Amalek and ^(A)devote to destruction^[a] all that they have. Do not spare them, ^(B)but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”

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

^9 (A)But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves^[a] and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.

¹⁴ And Moses was angry with ^(A)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 ^(B)let all the women live? ¹⁶ Behold, ^(C)these, ^(D)on Balaam's advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of ^(E)Peor, and so ^(F)the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. ¹⁷ Now therefore, ^(G)kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. ¹⁸ But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him ^(H)keep alive for yourselves.