He captured Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and completely 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.
- KJV And 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.
- 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 30:1When David and his men had come to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid on the South, and on Ziklag, and had struck Ziklag, and burned it with fire,
- Num 24:7Water shall flow from his buckets. His seed shall be in many waters. His king shall be higher than Agag. His kingdom shall be exalted.
- Esth 3:1After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes who were with him.
- 1 Kgs 20:30But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand men who were left. Ben Hadad fled, and came into the city, into an inner room.
- 1 Kgs 20:34–42Ben Hadad said to him, “The cities which my father took from your father I will restore. You shall make streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria.” “I”, said Ahab, “will let you go with this covenant.” So he made a covenant with him, and let him go.
- 1 Sam 15:3Now go and strike Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and don’t spare them; but kill both man and woman, infant and nursing baby, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”
- Josh 11:12Joshua captured all the cities of those kings, with their kings, and he struck them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed them; as Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded.
- Josh 10:39He took it, with its king and all its cities. They struck them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed all the souls who were in it. He left no one remaining. As he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir, and to its king; as he had done also to Libnah, and to its king.
- 1 Sam 27:8–9David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites; for those were the inhabitants of the land, who were of old, on the way to Shur, even to 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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