Episode 107: The Amalekite (incomplete) genocide

1 Samuel 15

¹ Samuel said to Saul,

God made you king. Obey him.

² This is what he says:

I remember what Amalek did to Israel.

³ Now go kill the Amalekites. Kill them all: men, women, infants, babies, oxen, sheep, camels, and donkeys.

⁴ So Saul sent 210,000 soldiers to kill the Amalekites.

^7-9 And they killed them all, except for the king (Agag) and some of the more valuable animals.

God rejects Saul as king (for not killing all the Amalekites)

¹⁰ God said to Samuel,

¹¹ I regret making Saul king, since he disobeyed my commandment.

And Samuel cried to God all night.

¹³ The next day when Samuel and Saul met, Saul said,

I did what God commanded me to do.

¹⁴ Samuel replied,

Oh really? Then why do I hear sheep bleating and oxen lowing?

¹⁵ Saul said,

We kept the best sheep and oxen to sacrifice to God.

We killed everything else.

¹⁸ Samuel said,

God commanded you too utterly destroy the Amalekites. Why didn't you obey him?

²³ Because you rejected the word of God, God rejects you as king.

^27-28 As Samuel turned to go away, he tore his skirt, and said to Saul,

God has torn his kingdom from you today and has given it to someone better than you.

Samuel hacks Agag to death before the Lord

³² Then Samuel said, "Bring Agag to me."

Agag said to Samuel, "Surely the bitterness of death has passed."

³³ Samuel said,

As the sword has made women childless, so your mother will be childless.

³³ And Samuel hacked Agag in pieces in front of God.

³⁵ He never saw Saul again.

And God repented that he had made Saul king.