15:1And Samuel said to Saul: "The Lord sent me to anoint you as king over his people Israel: now therefore listen to the voice of the Lord. 15:2These things says the Lord of hosts: I have reckoned up whatever Amalek did to Israel: how he opposed him on the way when he was going up from Egypt. 15:3Now therefore go, and strike Amalek, and destroy all that is his: do not spare him, and do not covet anything of his goods, but kill from man even to woman, and little child and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." 15:4So Saul gave orders to the people, and counted them like lambs: two hundred thousand foot-soldiers, and ten thousand men of Judah.
15:5And when Saul had come as far as the city of Amalek, he laid an ambush in the torrent-valley. 15:6And Saul said to the Kenite: "Go away, withdraw, and go down from Amalek, lest perhaps I wrap you up with him: for you showed mercy to all the sons of Israel, when they were going up from Egypt." 15:6And the Kenite withdrew from the midst of Amalek. 15:7And Saul struck Amalek from Havilah until you come to Shur, which is opposite Egypt. 15:8And he seized Agag, the king of Amalek, alive: but all the common folk he killed with the mouth of the sword. 15:9And Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best flocks of sheep and herds, and garments and rams, and all things which were fine, and they were not willing to destroy them: but whatever was cheap and worthless, this they destroyed.
15:10And the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying: "It repents me that I have appointed Saul king: because he has forsaken me, and has not fulfilled my words in deed." 15:11And Samuel was saddened, and cried out to the Lord the whole night. 15:12And when Samuel had risen by night to go to Saul in the morning, it was announced to Samuel that Saul had come into Carmel, and had set up for himself a triumphal arch, and returning had passed on, and had gone down into Gilgal. 15:12So Samuel came to Saul, and Saul was offering a burnt-offering to the Lord from the first of the plunder which he had brought from Amalek.
15:13And when Samuel had come to Saul, Saul said to him: "Blessed are you by the Lord: I have fulfilled the word of the Lord." 15:14And Samuel said: "And what is this voice of the flocks, which resounds in my ears, and of the herds, which I hear?" 15:15And Saul said: "They have brought them from Amalek: for the people spared the better sheep and herds so that they might be sacrificed to the Lord your God, but the rest we have killed." 15:16And Samuel said to Saul: "Let me be, and I will tell you what the Lord has spoken to me in the night." 15:16And he said to him: "Speak."
15:17And Samuel said: "When you were little in your own eyes, were you not made head among the tribes of Israel? 15:17And the Lord anointed you as king over Israel, and the Lord sent you on a way, and said: Go, and kill the sinners of Amalek, and you shall fight against them until their destruction? 15:19Why then have you not listened to the voice of the Lord: but you have turned to the plunder, and have done evil in the eyes of the Lord?" 15:20And Saul said to Samuel: "On the contrary, I have listened to the voice of the Lord, and walked on the way by which the Lord sent me, and I have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and Amalek I have killed.
15:21But the people took from the plunder sheep and oxen, the first-fruits of those things which have been slain, to sacrifice to the Lord their God in Gilgal." 15:22And Samuel said: "Does the Lord want burnt-offerings and victims, and not rather that the voice of the Lord be obeyed? 15:22For obedience is better than victims, and to listen more than to offer the fat of rams. 15:23Since to resist is like the sin of divination: and to be unwilling to submit is like the crime of idolatry. 15:23Therefore, because you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you from being king." 15:24And Saul said to Samuel: "I have sinned, because I have transgressed the word of the Lord and your words, fearing the people, and obeying their voice.
15:25But now bear, I beg, my sin, and return with me, so that I may worship the Lord." 15:26And Samuel said to Saul: "I will not return with you, because you have cast away the word of the Lord, and the Lord has cast you away from being king over Israel." 15:27And Samuel turned to go away: but he seized the edge of his cloak, which was also torn. 15:28And Samuel said to him: "The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has handed it over to your neighbour, better than you. 15:29Moreover the triumphant one in Israel will not spare, and will not be bent by repentance: for he is not a man that he should repent."
15:30But he said: "I have sinned: but now honour me before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God." 15:31So Samuel, returning, followed Saul: and Saul worshipped the Lord. 15:32And Samuel said: "Bring to me Agag, the king of Amalek." 15:32And Agag was brought to him, very fat and trembling. 15:32And Agag said: "Is it thus that bitter death separates?" 15:33And Samuel said: "Just as your sword has made women childless, so childless among women will your mother be." 15:33And Samuel cut him into pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. 15:34And Samuel went off to Ramah: but Saul went up into his house in Gibeah.
15:35And Samuel did not see Saul any more until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul, since it repented the Lord that he had appointed him king over Israel.