King James Version
1 Samuel 15
35 verses with commentary
Saul's Incomplete Obedience
Samuel also said unto Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the LORD.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Samuel also said unto Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the LORD.</strong><br><br>Saul's failure demonstrates that partial obedience is disobedience, and religious activity cannot substitute for heart surrender. His pattern of excuses, blame-shifting, and selective compliance while mainta...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(1Samuel 15:1-3) **Samuel also said unto Saul . . .**—The compiler of the history, selecting, no doubt, from ancient state records, chose to illustrate the story of the reign and rejection of Saul by certain memorable incidents as good examples of the king’s general life and conduct. The incidents were also selected to show the rapid development of the power and resources of Israel at this period....
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**13-18. Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside--**The aged priest, as a public magistrate, used, in dispensing justice, to seat himself daily in a spacious recess at the entrance gate of the city. In his intense anxiety to learn the issue of the battle, he took up his usual place as the most convenient for meeting with passers-by. His seat was an official chair, similar to those of the ancient Egypti...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 15
Chapter Outline
Saul sent to destroy Amalek.(1-9)
Saul excuses and commends himself.(10-23)
Saul's imperfect humiliation.(24-31)
Agag put to death, Samuel and Saul part.(32-35)
**Verses 1-9**
The sentence of condemnation against the Amalekites had gone forth long before, Ex 17:14; De 25:19, but they had been spared till they filled up the measure of their sins....
Read full commentary →Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.</strong><br><br>Saul's failure demonstrates that partial obedience is disobedience, and religious activity cannot substitute for heart surrender. His pattern of excuses, blame-shifting, and selective compliance while maintaining outward religious appear...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(2) **That which Amalek did to Israel.**—The Amalekites were a fierce, untameable race of wanderers, who roamed at large through those deserts which lie between Southern Judea and the Egyptian frontier. They were descended from Esau’s grandson, Amalek. Not long after the exodus from Egypt, they attacked and cruelly harassed the almost defenceless rear-guard of Israel in the desert of Rephidim. The...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**13-18. Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside--**The aged priest, as a public magistrate, used, in dispensing justice, to seat himself daily in a spacious recess at the entrance gate of the city. In his intense anxiety to learn the issue of the battle, he took up his usual place as the most convenient for meeting with passers-by. His seat was an official chair, similar to those of the ancient Egypti...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 15
Chapter Outline
Saul sent to destroy Amalek.(1-9)
Saul excuses and commends himself.(10-23)
Saul's imperfect humiliation.(24-31)
Agag put to death, Samuel and Saul part.(32-35)
**Verses 1-9**
The sentence of condemnation against the Amalekites had gone forth long before, Ex 17:14; De 25:19, but they had been spared till they filled up the measure of their sins....
Read full commentary →Now 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.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Now 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.</strong><br><br>Saul's failure demonstrates that partial obedience is disobedience, and religious activity cannot substitute for heart surrender. His pattern of excuses, blame-shifting, and selective compliance while maintaining...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(3) **Smite Amalek, and utterly destroy . . .**—For “utterly destroy” the Hebrew has the far stronger expression, “put under the ban” (*cherem*)*. *Whatever was “put under the ban” in Israel was devoted to God, and whatever was so devoted could not be redeemed, but must be slain. Amalek was to be looked upon as accursed; human beings and cattle must be killed; whatever was capable of being destroy...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**13-18. Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside--**The aged priest, as a public magistrate, used, in dispensing justice, to seat himself daily in a spacious recess at the entrance gate of the city. In his intense anxiety to learn the issue of the battle, he took up his usual place as the most convenient for meeting with passers-by. His seat was an official chair, similar to those of the ancient Egypti...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 15
Chapter Outline
Saul sent to destroy Amalek.(1-9)
Saul excuses and commends himself.(10-23)
Saul's imperfect humiliation.(24-31)
Agag put to death, Samuel and Saul part.(32-35)
**Verses 1-9**
The sentence of condemnation against the Amalekites had gone forth long before, Ex 17:14; De 25:19, but they had been spared till they filled up the measure of their sins....
Read full commentary →And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.</strong><br><br>Saul's failure demonstrates that partial obedience is disobedience, and religious activity cannot substitute for heart surrender. His pattern of excuses, blame-shifting, and selective compliance while maintaining outward religious appearance warns...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(4) **In Telaim.**—Identical with Telem (Joshua 15:24), a place on the south border of Judah, near the region where the Amalekites chiefly dwelt.—*Kimchi *Telaim, however, signifies “lambs;” probably “Beth,” house of, is to be understood. Thus it was no town, but the “place or house of lambs”—some open spot, where, at the proper season, the lambs were collected from the pastures in the wilderness....
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**13-18. Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside--**The aged priest, as a public magistrate, used, in dispensing justice, to seat himself daily in a spacious recess at the entrance gate of the city. In his intense anxiety to learn the issue of the battle, he took up his usual place as the most convenient for meeting with passers-by. His seat was an official chair, similar to those of the ancient Egypti...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 15
Chapter Outline
Saul sent to destroy Amalek.(1-9)
Saul excuses and commends himself.(10-23)
Saul's imperfect humiliation.(24-31)
Agag put to death, Samuel and Saul part.(32-35)
**Verses 1-9**
The sentence of condemnation against the Amalekites had gone forth long before, Ex 17:14; De 25:19, but they had been spared till they filled up the measure of their sins....
Read full commentary →And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley. laid: or, fought
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.</strong><br><br>Saul's failure demonstrates that partial obedience is disobedience, and religious activity cannot substitute for heart surrender. His pattern of excuses, blame-shifting, and selective compliance while maintaining outward religious appearance warns against external religion without internal transformation. The p...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(5) **A city of Amalek.**—Better rendered, *The city of Amalek*: no doubt, their principal place of arms.
**And laid wait in the valley.**—Better, in a torrent bed, then dry (Arabic, “Wady”). There is a strange tradition in the Talmud that Saul’s mind misgave him when he came to this “torrent bed;” thus he called to mind the command of Deuteronomy 21:4 to slay an heifer at a torrent in expiation o...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**13-18. Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside--**The aged priest, as a public magistrate, used, in dispensing justice, to seat himself daily in a spacious recess at the entrance gate of the city. In his intense anxiety to learn the issue of the battle, he took up his usual place as the most convenient for meeting with passers-by. His seat was an official chair, similar to those of the ancient Egypti...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 15
Chapter Outline
Saul sent to destroy Amalek.(1-9)
Saul excuses and commends himself.(10-23)
Saul's imperfect humiliation.(24-31)
Agag put to death, Samuel and Saul part.(32-35)
**Verses 1-9**
The sentence of condemnation against the Amalekites had gone forth long before, Ex 17:14; De 25:19, but they had been spared till they filled up the measure of their sins....
Read full commentary →And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.</strong><br><br>Saul's failure demonstrates that partial obedience is disobedience, and religious activity cannot substitute for heart surren...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(6) **And Saul said unto the Kenites.**—The Kenites, like the Amalekites, were a nomad race of Arabs, but seem to have been ever friendly to the Israelites. This kindly feeling sprang up soon after the departure from Egypt, and was, no doubt, in the first instance owing to the fact of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses, belonging to this people.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**13-18. Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside--**The aged priest, as a public magistrate, used, in dispensing justice, to seat himself daily in a spacious recess at the entrance gate of the city. In his intense anxiety to learn the issue of the battle, he took up his usual place as the most convenient for meeting with passers-by. His seat was an official chair, similar to those of the ancient Egypti...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 15
Chapter Outline
Saul sent to destroy Amalek.(1-9)
Saul excuses and commends himself.(10-23)
Saul's imperfect humiliation.(24-31)
Agag put to death, Samuel and Saul part.(32-35)
**Verses 1-9**
The sentence of condemnation against the Amalekites had gone forth long before, Ex 17:14; De 25:19, but they had been spared till they filled up the measure of their sins....
Read full commentary →And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt.</strong><br><br>Saul's failure demonstrates that partial obedience is disobedience, and religious activity cannot substitute for heart surrender. His pattern of excuses, blame-shifting, and selective compliance while maintaining outward religious appearance warns against external religion with...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7) **From Havilah until thou comest to Shur.**—The Havilah here alluded to cannot be now identified. Shur, which signifies “wall,” probably refers to the wall which crossed the north-east frontier of Egypt, extending from Pelusium, past Migdol, to Hevo. Ebers suggests that this wall gave to Egypt the name of “Mizraini,” the enclosed, or fortified.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 15
Chapter Outline
Saul sent to destroy Amalek.(1-9)
Saul excuses and commends himself.(10-23)
Saul's imperfect humiliation.(24-31)
Agag put to death, Samuel and Saul part.(32-35)
**Verses 1-9**
The sentence of condemnation against the Amalekites had gone forth long before, Ex 17:14; De 25:19, but they had been spared till they filled up the measure of their sins....
Read full commentary →And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.</strong><br><br>Saul's failure demonstrates that partial obedience is disobedience, and religious activity cannot substitute for heart surrender. His pattern of excuses, blame-shifting, and selective compliance while maintaining outward religious appearance warns against exte...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 15
Chapter Outline
Saul sent to destroy Amalek.(1-9)
Saul excuses and commends himself.(10-23)
Saul's imperfect humiliation.(24-31)
Agag put to death, Samuel and Saul part.(32-35)
**Verses 1-9**
The sentence of condemnation against the Amalekites had gone forth long before, Ex 17:14; De 25:19, but they had been spared till they filled up the measure of their sins....
Read full commentary →But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly. fatlings: or, second sort
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.</strong><br><br>Saul's failure demonstrates that partial obedience is disobedience, and religious activity cannot substitute for heart surrender....
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(9) **And he took Agag . . . alive.**—Agag seems to have been for the sovereigns of Amalek the official title, like Pharaoh in the case of the kings of Egypt, and Abimelech among certain of the Philistine peoples. The meaning of the term Agag is unknown.
**Utterly destroyed all the people.**—That is to say, Ir-Amalek was sacked, and the nation generally broken up; but many, no doubt, escaped into ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 15
Chapter Outline
Saul sent to destroy Amalek.(1-9)
Saul excuses and commends himself.(10-23)
Saul's imperfect humiliation.(24-31)
Agag put to death, Samuel and Saul part.(32-35)
**Verses 1-9**
The sentence of condemnation against the Amalekites had gone forth long before, Ex 17:14; De 25:19, but they had been spared till they filled up the measure of their sins....
Read full commentary →Samuel Rebukes Saul
Then came the word of the LORD unto Samuel, saying,
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Then came the word of the LORD unto Samuel, saying,</strong><br><br>The divine word 'came unto Samuel' - not to Saul - underscoring the broken communication between God and king. Samuel receives revelation that will reject the king he anointed. The phrase 'Then came the word of the LORD' introduces solemn prophetic formula typically preceding judgment oracles. God speaks about Saul to His ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(10) **Then came the word . . . **—Very likely in a dream.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-23**
Repentance in God is not a change of mind, as it is in us, but a change of method. The change was in Saul; "He is turned back from following me." Hereby he made God his enemy. Samuel spent a whole night in pleading for Saul. The rejection of sinners is the grief of believers: God delights not in their death, nor should we. Saul boasts to Samuel of his obedience. Thus sinners t...
Read full commentary →It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.</strong><br><br>God's statement 'It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king' uses the Hebrew <em>nacham</em>, expressing grief and sorrow rather than admission of mistake. Divine 'repentance...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(11) **It repenteth me . . . **—“God does not feel the pain of remorse (says St. Augustine in Psalms 131), nor is He ever deceived, so as to desire to correct anything in which He has erred. But as a man desires to make a change when he repents, so when God is said in Scripture to repent, we may expect a change from Him. He changed Saul’s kingdom when it is said He repented of making him king.”—*B...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-23**
Repentance in God is not a change of mind, as it is in us, but a change of method. The change was in Saul; "He is turned back from following me." Hereby he made God his enemy. Samuel spent a whole night in pleading for Saul. The rejection of sinners is the grief of believers: God delights not in their death, nor should we. Saul boasts to Samuel of his obedience. Thus sinners t...
Read full commentary →And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal.</strong><br><br>Samuel rises early to meet Saul but learns the king 'is gone to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place.' The Hebrew <em>yad</em> ('place' or literally 'hand') probably refe...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(12) **And when Samuel rose early . . .**—After the revelations of that sad night, the prophet rose, and at once went to seek the guilty king. He was told Saul was come to Carmel, identical with Kurmul in Judah, to the south-east of Hebron; there the victorious monarch had erected a monument of his victory, literally, *a hand. *In 2Samuel 18:18, Absalom’s Pillar is styled Absalom’s Hand (*yad*)*, ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 5
1Sa 5:1, 2. The Philistines Bring the Ark into the House of Dagon.
**1. Ashdod--**or Azotus, one of the five Philistine satrapies, and a place of great strength. It was an inland town, thirty-four miles north of Gaza, now called Esdud.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-23**
Repentance in God is not a change of mind, as it is in us, but a change of method. The change was in Saul; "He is turned back from following me." Hereby he made God his enemy. Samuel spent a whole night in pleading for Saul. The rejection of sinners is the grief of believers: God delights not in their death, nor should we. Saul boasts to Samuel of his obedience. Thus sinners t...
Read full commentary →And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD.</strong><br><br>Saul's greeting - 'Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD' - reveals either self-deception or deliberate dishonesty. His claim to have 'performed' (<em>heqim</em>) God's command directly contradicts reality. The verb ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(13) **Blessed be thou of the Lord.**—Saul must have been fully conscious that he had failed to carry out the will and command of the Eternal King of Israel. In the late war, undertaken for the definite and solemn purpose of exterminating a wicked and bloodthirsty people, whose continued existence worked terrible evil upon the adjacent countries, he, disregarding the express instructions of the pr...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**2. the house of Dagon--**Stately temples were erected in honor of this idol, which was the principal deity of the Philistines, but whose worship extended over all Syria, as well as Mesopotamia and Chaldea; its name being found among the Assyrian gods on the cuneiform inscriptions [Rawlinson]. It was represented under a monstrous combination of a human head, breast, and arms, joined to the belly ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-23**
Repentance in God is not a change of mind, as it is in us, but a change of method. The change was in Saul; "He is turned back from following me." Hereby he made God his enemy. Samuel spent a whole night in pleading for Saul. The rejection of sinners is the grief of believers: God delights not in their death, nor should we. Saul boasts to Samuel of his obedience. Thus sinners t...
Read full commentary →And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?</strong><br><br>Samuel's devastating question - 'What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?' - lets reality expose self-deception. The spared animals testify against Saul's claim of obedience. Samuel does not argue the...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(14) **What meaneth then this bleating? . . .**—“Saul is convicted of falsehood by the voices of the animals which he has spared, contrary to God’s command. Samuel’s mode of citing them against him by the question, ‘What meaneth these voices?’ has an air of holy humour and cutting irony.”—*Lange.*
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**3-4. they of Ashdod arose early--**They were filled with consternation when they found the object of their stupid veneration prostrate before the symbol of the divine presence. Though set up, it fell again, and lay in a state of complete mutilation; its head and arms, severed from the trunk, were lying in distant and separate places, as if violently cast off, and only the fishy part remained. Th...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-23**
Repentance in God is not a change of mind, as it is in us, but a change of method. The change was in Saul; "He is turned back from following me." Hereby he made God his enemy. Samuel spent a whole night in pleading for Saul. The rejection of sinners is the grief of believers: God delights not in their death, nor should we. Saul boasts to Samuel of his obedience. Thus sinners t...
Read full commentary →And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.</strong><br><br>Saul's excuse introduces blame-shifting: 'They have brought them from the Amalekites.' He distances himself from the decision by attributing it to 'the people.' His claim that they...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(15) **The people spared the best of the sheep . . .**—At once the king understood the drift of his old friend’s words; still more, perhaps, the stern, sorrowful look of reproach which accompanied them, “Yes, I understand your meaning. This bleating and lowing certainly does come from the captured flocks and herds of Amalek, but this reservation, which you condemn, was insisted upon by the people;...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**3-4. they of Ashdod arose early--**They were filled with consternation when they found the object of their stupid veneration prostrate before the symbol of the divine presence. Though set up, it fell again, and lay in a state of complete mutilation; its head and arms, severed from the trunk, were lying in distant and separate places, as if violently cast off, and only the fishy part remained. Th...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-23**
Repentance in God is not a change of mind, as it is in us, but a change of method. The change was in Saul; "He is turned back from following me." Hereby he made God his enemy. Samuel spent a whole night in pleading for Saul. The rejection of sinners is the grief of believers: God delights not in their death, nor should we. Saul boasts to Samuel of his obedience. Thus sinners t...
Read full commentary →Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on.</strong><br><br>Samuel's interruption - 'Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD hath said to me this night' - announces prophetic revelation superseding royal excuse. The word 'Stay' (<em>raphah</em>, 'sink down' or 'let alone') commands Saul to stop his self-jus...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(16) **Stay, and I will tell thee . . .**—The king was probably turning away, desirous of closing an interview which to him was full of bitterness, when he was arrested
by the solemn words, and probably by the commanding gesture, of his old friend and counsellor, who now addressed him with the majesty and power of an accredited servant of the Most High.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**5. Therefore neither the priests ... nor any ... tread on the threshold of Dagon--**A superstitious ceremony crept in, and in the providence of God was continued, by which the Philistines contributed to publish this proof of the helplessness of their god.
**unto this day--**The usage continued in practice at the time when this history was written--probably in the later years of Samuel's life.
...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-23**
Repentance in God is not a change of mind, as it is in us, but a change of method. The change was in Saul; "He is turned back from following me." Hereby he made God his enemy. Samuel spent a whole night in pleading for Saul. The rejection of sinners is the grief of believers: God delights not in their death, nor should we. Saul boasts to Samuel of his obedience. Thus sinners t...
Read full commentary →And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?</strong><br><br>Samuel's rhetorical question - 'When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel?' - recalls Saul's earlier humility (9:21; 10:22). Being 'little in thine own sight' (<em>qat...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(17) **When thou wast little in thine own sight.**—Kimchi’s rendering of the Hebrew here is singular: “Though thou seemest to thyself too little and weak to curb the people, yet wast thou the head, and shouldest have done thy duty;” but this, as Lange observes, would imply that Samuel had *accepted *Saul’s excuse that it was the people’s will to reserve the choicest spoil. The prophet’s words, how...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**6. the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod--**The presumption of the Ashdodites was punished by a severe judgment that overtook them in the form of a pestilence.
**smote them with emerods--**bleeding piles, hemorrhoids (Psa 78:66), in a very aggravated form. As the heathens generally regarded diseases affecting the secret parts of the body as punishments from the gods for trespasses...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-23**
Repentance in God is not a change of mind, as it is in us, but a change of method. The change was in Saul; "He is turned back from following me." Hereby he made God his enemy. Samuel spent a whole night in pleading for Saul. The rejection of sinners is the grief of believers: God delights not in their death, nor should we. Saul boasts to Samuel of his obedience. Thus sinners t...
Read full commentary →And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. they: Heb. they consume them
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.</strong><br><br>Samuel recounts the mission: 'the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.' Three elements emphasize completeness: 'utterly destroy' (<...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(18) **The sinners the Amalekites.**—This briefly rehearses the charge of the Most High, which Saul had deliberately disobeyed. It is noticeable that the Amalekites are expressly called “sinners,” thus indicating the reason of the Divine wrath against them. The men of Sodom (Genesis 13:13) were styled “sinners before the Lord.”
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**7. the ark of God shall not abide with us--**It was removed successively to several of the large towns of the country, but the same pestilence broke out in every place and raged so fiercely and fatally that the authorities were forced to send the ark back into the land of Israel [1Sa 5:8-10].
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-23**
Repentance in God is not a change of mind, as it is in us, but a change of method. The change was in Saul; "He is turned back from following me." Hereby he made God his enemy. Samuel spent a whole night in pleading for Saul. The rejection of sinners is the grief of believers: God delights not in their death, nor should we. Saul boasts to Samuel of his obedience. Thus sinners t...
Read full commentary →Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?</strong><br><br>Samuel's accusation intensifies: 'Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil?' The verb 'fly' (<em>ya'at</em>) pictures ravenous greed - the same word used for the people's desperate eating in 14:32. Sam...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(19) **Didst fly upon the spoil.**—The expression used evidently includes the idea of greedy eagerness, as though Samuel detected a spirit of grasping covetousness at the bottom of this disobedient act of Saul’s.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-23**
Repentance in God is not a change of mind, as it is in us, but a change of method. The change was in Saul; "He is turned back from following me." Hereby he made God his enemy. Samuel spent a whole night in pleading for Saul. The rejection of sinners is the grief of believers: God delights not in their death, nor should we. Saul boasts to Samuel of his obedience. Thus sinners t...
Read full commentary →And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.</strong><br><br>Saul's defense reveals deepening self-deception: 'Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD.' He insists on his obedience despite Samuel's confrontation. His evidence: 'have gon...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(20) **Yea, I have obeyed . . .**—These and the words which follow are simply a repetition of the king’s former excuse for his act: but they show us what was the state of Saul’s mind: he evidently disbelieved in the power of the Eternal as a heart reader. If he could justify himself before Samuel, that was all he cared for. He asserted his own integrity of purpose and his great zeal for the public...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-23**
Repentance in God is not a change of mind, as it is in us, but a change of method. The change was in Saul; "He is turned back from following me." Hereby he made God his enemy. Samuel spent a whole night in pleading for Saul. The rejection of sinners is the grief of believers: God delights not in their death, nor should we. Saul boasts to Samuel of his obedience. Thus sinners t...
Read full commentary →But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.</strong><br><br>Saul continues to blame 'the people' for taking 'sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed.' He adds religious justification: 'to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.' T...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-23**
Repentance in God is not a change of mind, as it is in us, but a change of method. The change was in Saul; "He is turned back from following me." Hereby he made God his enemy. Samuel spent a whole night in pleading for Saul. The rejection of sinners is the grief of believers: God delights not in their death, nor should we. Saul boasts to Samuel of his obedience. Thus sinners t...
Read full commentary →And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.</strong><br><br>Samuel's response contains one of Scripture's most important theological declarations: 'Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(22) **Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.**—In this answer it would seem that the Spirit of the Lord descended upon Samuel, and that he here gave utterance to one of those rapt expressions which now and again in the course of each of these Hebrew prophets’ lives these famous men were commissioned by the Divine power to give out to their fellows. The words of Samuel here were reproduced, or ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**11. they sent--**that is, the magistrates of Ekron.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-23**
Repentance in God is not a change of mind, as it is in us, but a change of method. The change was in Saul; "He is turned back from following me." Hereby he made God his enemy. Samuel spent a whole night in pleading for Saul. The rejection of sinners is the grief of believers: God delights not in their death, nor should we. Saul boasts to Samuel of his obedience. Thus sinners t...
Read full commentary →For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king. witchcraft: Heb. divination
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.</strong><br><br>Samuel deepens the theological analysis: 'For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.' The Hebrew <em>meri</em> ('rebellion') and <em>patsar</em> ('s...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(23) **For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.**—Witchcraft, more literally *soothsaying *or *divination, *was a sin constantly held up to reprobation in the Old Testament. It was the greatest of all the dangers to which Israel was exposed, and was in fact a tampering with the idol-worship of the surrounding nations. Impurity, and an utter lack of all the loftier principles of morality which th...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**12. the cry of the city went up to heaven--**The disease is attended with acute pain, and it is far from being a rare phenomenon in the Philistian plain [Van De Velde].
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 10-23**
Repentance in God is not a change of mind, as it is in us, but a change of method. The change was in Saul; "He is turned back from following me." Hereby he made God his enemy. Samuel spent a whole night in pleading for Saul. The rejection of sinners is the grief of believers: God delights not in their death, nor should we. Saul boasts to Samuel of his obedience. Thus sinners t...
Read full commentary →And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.</strong><br><br>Saul's confession - 'I have sinned' - finally acknowledges failure, yet his explanation undermines it: 'because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.' He admits sin while blaming the people's influence. The...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(24) **I have sinned.**—The grave condemnation of the prophet appalled the king. The grounds of the Divine rejection evidently sank deep into Saul’s heart. Such a thought as that, in the eyes of the Invisible and Eternal, he ranked with the idolators and heathen sinners around, was, even for one sunk so low as Saul, terrible.
**Because I feared the people.**—He, with stammering lips, while depreca...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 24-31**
There were several signs of hypocrisy in Saul's repentance. 1. He besought Samuel only, and seemed most anxious to stand right in his opinion, and to gain his favour. 2. He excuses his fault, even when confessing it; that is never the way of a true penitent. 3. All his care was to save his credit, and preserve his interest in the people. Men are fickle and alter their minds, f...
Read full commentary →Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.</strong><br><br>Saul's request - 'pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD' - seeks restored relationship with Samuel rather than genuine repentance toward God. His focus on worshipping 'with' Samuel suggests concern for public appearance. The Hebrew <em>nasa</em> ('par...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(25) **Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin.**—But, after all, the sorrow of Saul was rather for the immediate earthly consequence which he feared might follow the Divine rejection. He foresaw his power in Israel would sensibly decrease, so he intreats the great prophet not to desert him.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 6
1Sa 6:1-9. The Philistines Counsel How to Send Back the Ark.
**1. the ark ... was in the country of the Philistines seven months--**Notwithstanding the calamities which its presence had brought on the country and the people, the Philistine lords were unwilling to relinquish such a prize, and tried every means to retain it with peace and safety, but in vain.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 24-31**
There were several signs of hypocrisy in Saul's repentance. 1. He besought Samuel only, and seemed most anxious to stand right in his opinion, and to gain his favour. 2. He excuses his fault, even when confessing it; that is never the way of a true penitent. 3. All his care was to save his credit, and preserve his interest in the people. Men are fickle and alter their minds, f...
Read full commentary →And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.</strong><br><br>Samuel's refusal - 'I will not return with thee' - withdraws prophetic support from Saul's reign. The prophet restates the verdict: 'thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from bei...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(26) **I will not return with thee.**—Samuel too clearly sees what are the true springs of Saul’s repentance, and refuses at first. It was only, as C. a Lapide forcibly urges, a fear on the part of the king, of losing the kingdom and of incurring public disgrace. The prophet for reply again repeats the terrible Divine sentence of rejection.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**2-3. the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners--**The designed restoration of the ark was not, it seems, universally approved of, and many doubts were expressed whether the prevailing pestilence was really a judgment of Heaven. The priests and diviners united all parties by recommending a course which would enable them easily to discriminate the true character of the calamities, an...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 24-31**
There were several signs of hypocrisy in Saul's repentance. 1. He besought Samuel only, and seemed most anxious to stand right in his opinion, and to gain his favour. 2. He excuses his fault, even when confessing it; that is never the way of a true penitent. 3. All his care was to save his credit, and preserve his interest in the people. Men are fickle and alter their minds, f...
Read full commentary →And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent.</strong><br><br>As Samuel turns to leave, Saul 'laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent.' This desperate physical gesture produces a powerful prophetic symbol. Saul grasps for what he is losing - Samuel's support, divine favor, the kingdom itself. The torn garment becomes an object le...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(27) **He laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle.**—The king’s passionate action indicates a restless, unquiet mind. Not content with intreating words, Saul, perhaps even with some violence, lays hold of the old man as he turns away, to detain him. What Saul laid hold of and tore was not the “mantle” (Authorised Version), but the hem, or outer border, of the “meil,” the ordinary tunic which the up...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**2-3. the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners--**The designed restoration of the ark was not, it seems, universally approved of, and many doubts were expressed whether the prevailing pestilence was really a judgment of Heaven. The priests and diviners united all parties by recommending a course which would enable them easily to discriminate the true character of the calamities, an...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 24-31**
There were several signs of hypocrisy in Saul's repentance. 1. He besought Samuel only, and seemed most anxious to stand right in his opinion, and to gain his favour. 2. He excuses his fault, even when confessing it; that is never the way of a true penitent. 3. All his care was to save his credit, and preserve his interest in the people. Men are fickle and alter their minds, f...
Read full commentary →And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou.</strong><br><br>Samuel interprets the torn garment: 'The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou.' Three elements constitute this prophetic oracle: the...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(28) **The Lord hath rent the kingdom.**—The prophet at once looks upon the garment torn by the passionate vehemence of the king, as an omen for the future, and uses the rent vesture as a symbol, to show Saul that thus had the Lord on that day rent the kingdom from him.
**A neighbour of thine.**—It had not yet been revealed to the seer who was to replace the rebellious king, so he simply refers to...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**4. Five golden emerods--**Votive or thank offerings were commonly made by the heathen in prayer for, or gratitude after, deliverance from lingering or dangerous disorders, in the form of metallic (generally silver) models or images of the diseased parts of the body. This is common still in Roman Catholic countries, as well as in the temples of the Hindus and other modern heathen.
**five golden...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 24-31**
There were several signs of hypocrisy in Saul's repentance. 1. He besought Samuel only, and seemed most anxious to stand right in his opinion, and to gain his favour. 2. He excuses his fault, even when confessing it; that is never the way of a true penitent. 3. All his care was to save his credit, and preserve his interest in the people. Men are fickle and alter their minds, f...
Read full commentary →And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent. Strength: or, Eternity, or, Victory
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.</strong><br><br>Samuel's declaration - 'the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent' - provides crucial theological clarification. After verse 11's statement that God 'repented,' Samuel affirms God does not repent like humans. The title 'Streng...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(29) **The Strength of Israel will not lie.**—This title of the Eternal, here rendered “the Strength of Israel,” would be better rendered *the Changeless One of Israel. *The Hebrew word is first found in this passage. In later Hebrew, as in 1Chronicles 29:2, it is rendered “glory,” from the Aramaean usage of speech (Keil). Some, less accurately, would translate it here “The Victory,” or “the Trium...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**5. give glory unto the God of Israel--**By these propitiatory presents, the Philistines would acknowledge His power and make reparation for the injury done to His ark.
**lighten his hand ... from off your gods--**Elohim for god.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 24-31**
There were several signs of hypocrisy in Saul's repentance. 1. He besought Samuel only, and seemed most anxious to stand right in his opinion, and to gain his favour. 2. He excuses his fault, even when confessing it; that is never the way of a true penitent. 3. All his care was to save his credit, and preserve his interest in the people. Men are fickle and alter their minds, f...
Read full commentary →Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God.</strong><br><br>Saul's second 'I have sinned' immediately follows request for honor: 'honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people.' This confession is more concerned with public respect than divine relati...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(30) **Yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders.**—It was a strange penitence, after all, this sorrow of Saul for his great sin. He was, no doubt, terribly in earnest and in great fear; but his earnestness was based upon a desire to maintain his power and royal state, and his fear sprang from a well-grounded apprehension that if he lost the countenance of Samuel the seer, the revered and ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**6. Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts?--**The memory of the appalling judgments that had been inflicted on Egypt was not yet obliterated. Whether preserved in written records, or in floating tradition, they were still fresh in the minds of men, and being extensively spread, were doubtless the means of diffusing the knowledge and fear of th...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 24-31**
There were several signs of hypocrisy in Saul's repentance. 1. He besought Samuel only, and seemed most anxious to stand right in his opinion, and to gain his favour. 2. He excuses his fault, even when confessing it; that is never the way of a true penitent. 3. All his care was to save his credit, and preserve his interest in the people. Men are fickle and alter their minds, f...
Read full commentary →So Samuel turned again after Saul; and Saul worshipped the LORD.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>So Samuel turned again after Saul; and Saul worshipped the LORD.</strong><br><br>Samuel's reversal - 'So Samuel turned again after Saul' - surprises after his firm refusal in verse 26. The text provides no explanation, though his return enables the execution of Agag that follows. Perhaps Samuel responds to Saul's plea for public dignity, or perhaps completing the <em>charam</em> requires h...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(31) **So Samuel turned again after Saul.**—The prophet, after the repeated and pressing request of the king, consents publicly to worship the Lord in his company. There is little doubt but that the principal motive which induced Samuel on this occasion not to withdraw himself from the public thanksgiving was a desire to prevent any disaffection towards the monarchy. His known disapproval of Saul’...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**7. make a new cart--**Their object in making a new one for the purpose seems to have been not only for cleanliness and neatness, but from an impression that there would have been an impropriety in using one that had been applied to meaner or more common services. It appears to have been a covered wagon (see on 2Sa 6:3).
**two milch kine--**Such untrained heifers, wanton and vagrant, would purs...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 24-31**
There were several signs of hypocrisy in Saul's repentance. 1. He besought Samuel only, and seemed most anxious to stand right in his opinion, and to gain his favour. 2. He excuses his fault, even when confessing it; that is never the way of a true penitent. 3. All his care was to save his credit, and preserve his interest in the people. Men are fickle and alter their minds, f...
Read full commentary →Samuel Kills Agag
Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past.</strong><br><br>Samuel commands: 'Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites.' Agag comes 'delicately' (<em>ma'adannoth</em>) - the Hebrew suggests either 'cheerfully' (thinking he has escaped death) or 'in fetters' (b...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(32) **Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites.**—But in the public service of thanksgiving there was one stern act of judgment still to be done. The King of the Amalekites had been sentenced to die. Saul had spared him for selfish reasons of his own; we need not discuss here the apparent harshness of the doom. There were, no doubt, amply sufficient reasons for the seemingly hard sen...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**8. take the ark of the Lord, and lay it upon the cart--**This mode of carrying the sacred symbol was forbidden; but the ignorance of the Philistines made the indignity excusable (see on 2Sa 6:6).
**put the jewels ... in a coffer by the side thereof--**The way of securing treasure in the East is still in a chest, chained to the house wall or some solid part of the furniture.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 32-35**
Many think the bitterness of death is past when it is not gone by; they put that evil day far from them, which is very near. Samuel calls Agag to account for his own sins. He followed the example of his ancestors' cruelty, justly therefore is all the righteous blood shed by Amalek required. Saul seems unconcerned at the token of God's displeasure which he lay under, yet Samuel...
Read full commentary →And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.</strong><br><br>Samuel's pronouncement - 'As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women' - applies <em>lex talionis</em> (measure-for-measure justice). Agag's violence against Israelite mothe...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(33) **Samuel hewed Agag in pieces.**—It has been suggested, with some probability, that these words refer to a peculiar form of putting to death, like the quartering in vogue during the Middle Ages.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**9-12. Beth-shemesh--**that is, "house of the sun," now Ain Shems [Robinson], a city of priests in Judah, in the southeast border of Dan, lying in a beautiful and extensive valley. Josephus says they were set a-going near a place where the road divided into two--the one leading back to Ekron, where were their calves, and the other to Beth-shemesh. Their frequent lowings attested their ardent long...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 32-35**
Many think the bitterness of death is past when it is not gone by; they put that evil day far from them, which is very near. Samuel calls Agag to account for his own sins. He followed the example of his ancestors' cruelty, justly therefore is all the righteous blood shed by Amalek required. Saul seems unconcerned at the token of God's displeasure which he lay under, yet Samuel...
Read full commentary →Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.</strong><br><br>The paths separate: 'Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.' Each returns to his own place, their relationship severed. Ramah was Samuel's hometown and prophetic headquarters; Gibeah was Saul's capital. The geographic separation symbolizes the spiritual divide. The ph...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**9-12. Beth-shemesh--**that is, "house of the sun," now Ain Shems [Robinson], a city of priests in Judah, in the southeast border of Dan, lying in a beautiful and extensive valley. Josephus says they were set a-going near a place where the road divided into two--the one leading back to Ekron, where were their calves, and the other to Beth-shemesh. Their frequent lowings attested their ardent long...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 32-35**
Many think the bitterness of death is past when it is not gone by; they put that evil day far from them, which is very near. Samuel calls Agag to account for his own sins. He followed the example of his ancestors' cruelty, justly therefore is all the righteous blood shed by Amalek required. Saul seems unconcerned at the token of God's displeasure which he lay under, yet Samuel...
Read full commentary →And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the LORD repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the LORD repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.</strong><br><br>The chapter concludes with profound grief: 'Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul.' The Hebrew <em>aval</em> ('mourned') describes grief as for the dead....
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(35) **Came no more to see Saul . . .**—Once more the old friends met together *in life *(see 1Samuel 19:24), but the interview on this occasion was not of Samuel’s seeking; nor does it appear then that any communication passed between them. When next the seer and the king *spoke *together, the seer belonged to another and a different world. “After this, Samuel came no more to him, bearing message...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**9-12. Beth-shemesh--**that is, "house of the sun," now Ain Shems [Robinson], a city of priests in Judah, in the southeast border of Dan, lying in a beautiful and extensive valley. Josephus says they were set a-going near a place where the road divided into two--the one leading back to Ekron, where were their calves, and the other to Beth-shemesh. Their frequent lowings attested their ardent long...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 32-35**
Many think the bitterness of death is past when it is not gone by; they put that evil day far from them, which is very near. Samuel calls Agag to account for his own sins. He followed the example of his ancestors' cruelty, justly therefore is all the righteous blood shed by Amalek required. Saul seems unconcerned at the token of God's displeasure which he lay under, yet Samuel...
Read full commentary →