1 Samuel 15:1

_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._ The Lord sent me to anoint thee ... now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the ... Lord. Several years had been passed in unsuccessful military operations against troublesome neighbours; and during these Saul had been left to act in great measure at his own discretion as an independent prince. Now a new test is proposed of his possessing the character of a theocratic monarch in Israel; and in announcing the duty required of him, Samuel brought before him his official station as the Lord's vicegerent, and the special obligation under which he was laid to act in that capacity. He had formerly done wrong, for which a severe rebuke and threatening were administered to him (1 Samuel 13:13). Now an opp

1-9 The sentence of condemnation against the Amalekites had gone forth long before, Exodus 17:14; Deuteronomy 25:19, but they had been spared till they filled up the measure of their sins. We are sure that the righteous Lord does no injustice to any. The remembering the kindness of the ancestors of the Kenites, in favour to them, at the time God was punishing the injuries done by the ancestors of the Amalekites, tended to clear the righteousness of God in this dispensation. It is dangerous to be found in the company of God's enemies, and it is our duty and interest to come out from among them, lest we share in their sins and plagues, Revelation 18:4. As the commandment had been express, and a test of Saul's obedienc...

CHAPTER XV _Samuel sends Saul to destroy the Amalekites, and all their_ _substance_, 1-3. _Saul collects an immense army and comes against their city_, 4, 5. _He desires the Kenites to remove from among the Amalekites_, 6. _He smites the Amalekites, and takes their king, Agag, prisoner,_ _and saves the best of the spoil_, 7-9. _The Lord is displeased, and sends Samuel to reprove him_, 10, 11. _The conversation between Samuel and Saul, in which the latter_ _endeavours to justify his conduct_, 12-23....

The absence of all chronology or note of time is remarkable....

FINAL REJECTION OF SAUL (1 Samuel 15:1.) EXPOSITION DIVINE COMMAND TO PUNISH THE AMALEKITES, AND ITS EXECUTION BY SAUL (1 Samuel 15:1). 1 SAMUEL 15:1 SAMUEL ALSO SAID. Better literally, "And Samuel said." There is no note of time, but probably a considerable interval elapsed before this second trial of Saul was made. God does not finally reject a man until, after repeated opportunities for repentance,

SAMUEL ALSO SAID UNTO SAUL,.... When and where he said to him what follows, it is not easy to determine, perhaps at Gilgal, where they after met again: THE LORD SENT ME TO ANOINT THEE TO BE KING OVER HIS PEOPLE, OVER ISRAEL; that is, he gave him orders to anoint him king of Israel, otherwise Saul was in providence sent to Samuel to be anointed, and not Samuel to Saul: NOW THEREFORE HEARKEN THOU UNTO THE VOICE OF THE WORDS OF THE LORD; for so great a favour, and such high honour he had conferred on him, laid him under great obligation to obey the commands of the Lord; and whereas he had been deficient in one instance before, for which he had been reproved, he suggests, that now he should take care to observe and do, particularly and punctually, what should be enjoined him....

8. WAR WITH AMALEK: SAUL'S DISOBEDIENCE AND REJECTION CHAPTER 15 _ 1. The commission to destroy Amalek (1 Samuel 15:1)_ 2. Saul's disobedience and rejection (1 Samuel 15:10) 3. Saul's confession (1 Samuel 15:24) 4. The doom of Agag (1 Samuel 15:32) From verse 48 in the previous chapter we learn that Saul smote the Amalekites. Samuel is sent by Jehovah with a new message to Saul telling him to smite Amalek again and to destroy utterly all that they have. It involves another task for Saul. He had been fully established as king and is therefore called upon to discharge his respo

XV. THE WAR AGAINST AMALEK; SAUL'S DISOBEDIENCE AND DEPOSITION (E). - A section of a secondary narrative; according to the scheme adopted here, the last section of this document was 1 Samuel 3:3 to 1 Samuel 4:1. 1 SAMUEL 15:1. Samuel bids Saul attack Amalek and subject it to the _herem_ (pp. 99, 114), or sacred ban, by which all living creatures were put to death in honour of Yahweh. (_Cf._ the cases of Jericho and Achan, Joshua 6 f.) Saul called a general levy to a rendezvous in the south of Judah the numbers are probably exaggerated and advanced against the city of Amalek, possibly a tribal sanctuary which served as the headquarters of this nomad tribe; and lay in ambush in a neighbouring valley. The

THE LORD. Hebrew. _Jehovah_. App-4....

1 Samuel 15:1-9. Saul's commission to destroy Amalek 1. _Samuel also said_ AND SAMUEL SAID. How long after the repulse of the Philistines this happened, we are not told. Some years at least must be allowed for the evident development of that wilfulness which was Saul's ruin. _The Lord sent me_ ME DID JEHOVAH SEND. The pronoun stands emphatically at the head of the sentence. The prophet appeals to his former commission to anoint Saul as accrediting him to be God's messenger on the present occasion. "The note of special warning" with which he prefaces the command indicates that he felt that "the discipline of Saul's life was gathering itself up into a special trial," and that this would be "a crisis in that life-history, with which by God's own hand his own had been so strangely intertwined." Wilberforce's _Heroes of Hebrew History_, p. 219....