Then Saul summoned the troops and counted them at Telaim: two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men from Judah. Saul came to the city of Amalek and set up an ambush in the wadi. He warned the Kenites,(A) “Since you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came out of Egypt,(B) go on and leave! Get away from the Amalekites, or I’ll sweep you away with them.” So the Kenites withdrew from the Amalekites.

Then Saul struck down the Amalekites(C) from Havilah(D) all the way to Shur,(E) which is next to Egypt. He captured King Agag(F) of Amalek alive, but he completely destroyed all the rest of the people with the sword.(G) Saul and the troops spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, goats, cattle, and choice animals,[a] as well as the young rams and the best of everything else. They were not willing to destroy them, but they did destroy all the worthless and unwanted things.

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Footnotes

  1. 15:9 Lit and the second ones

So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand men on foot, and ten thousand men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. Then Saul said to (A)the Kenites, “Go, depart; go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. (B)For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. (C)And Saul defeated the Amalekites from (D)Havilah as far as (E)Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive (F)and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. (G)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.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Samuel 15:9 The meaning of the Hebrew term is uncertain