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The First
Book of Samuel 15
And Samuel said to Saul: The Lord sent me to anoint
thee king over his People Israel: now therefore hearken
thou unto the voice of the Lord:
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I have reckoned up all
that Amalec hath done to Israel: I how he opposed them
in the way when they came up out of Egypt.
Now therefore go, and smite Amalec, and utterly destroy
all that he hath: spare him not, nor covet any thing
that is his: but slay both man and woman, child and
suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
So Saul commanded the people, and numbered them as lambs:
two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand of the
men of Juda.
And when Saul was come to the city of Amalec, he laid
ambushes in the torrent.
And Saul said to the Cinite: Go, depart and get ye down
from Amalec: lest I destroy thee with him. For thou
hast shewn kindness to all the children of Israel, when
they came up out of Egypt. And the Cinite departed from
the midst of Amalec.
And Saul smote Amalec from Hevila, until thou comest
to Sur, which is over against Egypt.
And he took Agag the king of Amalec alive: but all the
common people he slew with the edge of the sword.
And Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of
the flocks of sheep and of the herds, and the garments
and the rams, and all that was beautiful, and would
not destroy them: but every thing that was vile and
good for nothing, that they destroyed.
And the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying:
It repenteth me that I have made Saul king: for he hath
forsaken me, and hath not executed my commandments.
And Samuel was grieved, and he cried unto the Lord all
night.
And when Samuel rose early, to go to Saul in the morning,
it was told Samuel, that Saul was come to Carmel, and
had erected for himself a triumphant arch, and returning
had passed on, and gone down to Galgal. And Samuel came
to Saul, and Saul was offering a holocaust to the Lord
out of the choicest of the spoils which he had brought
from Amalec.
And when Samuel was come to Saul, Saul said to him:
Blessed be thou of the Lord, I have fulfilled the word
of the Lord.
And Samuel said: What meaneth then this bleating of
the flocks, which soundeth in my ears, and the lowing
of the herds, which I hear?
And Saul said: They have brought them from Amalec: for
the people spared the best of the sheep and of the herds
that they might be sacrificed to the Lord thy God, but
the rest we have slain.
And Samuel said to Saul: Suffer me, and I will tell
thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he
said to him: Speak.
And Samuel said: When thou wast a little one in thy
own eyes, wast thou not made the head of the tribes
of Israel? And the Lord anointed thee to be king over
Israel.
And the Lord sent thee on the way, and said: Go, and
kill the sinners of Amalec, and thou shalt fight against
them until thou hast utterly destroyed them.
Why then didst thou not hearken to the voice of the
Lord: but hast turned to the prey, and hast done evil
in the eyes of the Lord.
And Saul said to Samuel: Yea I have hearkened to the
voice of the Lord, and have walked in the way by which
the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of
Amalec, and Amalec I have slain.
But the people took of the spoils sheep and oxen, as
the firstfruits of those things that were slain, to
offer sacrifice to the Lord their God in Galgal.
And Samuel said: Doth the Lord desire holocausts and
victims, and not rather that the voice of the Lord should
be obeyed? For obedience is better than sacrifices:
and to hearken rather than to offer the fat of rams.
Because it is like the sin of witchcraft, to rebel:
and like the crime of idolatry, to refuse to obey. Forasmuch
therefore as thou hast rejected the word of the Lord,
the Lord hath also rejected thee from being king.
And Saul said to Samuel: I have sinned because I have
transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words,
fearing the people, and obeying their voice.
But now bear, I beseech thee, my sin, and return with
me, that I may adore the Lord.
And Samuel said to Saul: I will not return with thee,
because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and
the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.
And Samuel turned about to go away: but he laid hold
upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent.
And Samuel said to him: The Lord hath rent the kingdom
of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to thy
neighbour who is better than thee.
But the triumpher in Israel will riot spare, and will
not be moved to repentance: for he is not a mail that
he should repent.
Then he said: I have sinned: yet honour me now before
the ancients of my people, and before Israel, and return
with me, that I may adore the Lord thy God.
So Samuel turned again after Saul: and Saul adored the
Lord.
And Samuel said: Bring hitherto me Agag the king of
Amalec. And Agag was presented to him very fat, and
trembling. And Agag said: Doth bitter death separate
in this manner?
And Samuel said: As thy sword hath made women childless,
so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel
hewed him in pieces before the Lord in Galgal.
And Samuel departed to Ramatha: but Saul went up to
his house in Gabaa.
And Samuel saw Saul no more till the day of his death:
nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul, because the Lord
repented that he had made him king over Israel.
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