And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
Parallel translations
- WEB He took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
- BSB He captured Agag king of Amalek alive, but devoted all the others to destruction with the sword.
- NKJV He also took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
- NASB He captured Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and completely destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
- NLT He captured Agag, the Amalekite king, but completely destroyed everyone else.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Saul destroys the Amalekite people but takes their king Agag alive. The sparing of Agag is the first crack in his obedience.
Overview
Saul carries out the bulk of the command yet keeps Agag, the very king he was to destroy, alive. This single exception, alongside the spared livestock, becomes the basis of his condemnation. It illustrates how partial obedience that retains a favored exception is, in God's eyes, disobedience.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- 1 Sam 30:1And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;
- Num 24:7He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted.
- Esth 3:1After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him.
- 1 Kgs 20:30But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and there a wall fell upon twenty and seven thousand of the men that were left. And Benhadad fled, and came into the city, into an inner chamber.
- 1 Kgs 20:34–42And Ben-hadad said unto him, The cities, which my father took from thy father, I will restore; and thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria. Then said Ahab, I will send thee away with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him, and sent him away.
- 1 Sam 15:3Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
- Josh 11:12And all the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did Joshua take, and smote them with the edge of the sword, and he utterly destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the LORD commanded.
- Josh 10:39And he took it, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof; and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining: as he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir, and to the king thereof; as he had done also to Libnah, and to her king.
- 1 Sam 27:8–9And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites: for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt.
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Christ at the center
The rise of the anointed king after Israel's failed first choice points to the true Anointed One (Messiah means 'anointed'), the shepherd-king after God's own heart from Bethlehem.
How 1 Samuel 15:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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