1 Samuel 15:23

_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._ Rebellion is as ... witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Assuming that there were teraphim in Saul's family (1 Samuel 19:13), and that Samuel knew it, these words have a point and significance that must have been deeply felt....

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 think, by justifying themselves, to escape being judged of the Lord. The noise the cattle made, like the rust of the silver, James 5:3, witnessed against him. Many boast of obedience to the command of God; but what means then their indulgence of the flesh, their love of the world, their angry and unkind spirit, and their neglect of holy duties, which witness against them? See of what evil covetousness is the root; and see what is the sinfulness of sin, and notice that in it which above any thing else makes it...

Verse 1 Samuel 15:23. _FOR REBELLION_ IS AS _THE SIN OF WITCHCRAFT, AND_ _STUBBORNNESS_ IS AS _INIQUITY AND IDOLATRY._] This is no translation of those difficult words, כי חטאת קסם מרי ואון ותרפים הפצר _ki_ _chattath kesem meri veaven utheraphim haphtsar_. It appears to me that the three nouns which occur first in the text refer each to the three last in order. Thus, חטאת _chattath_, TRANSGRESSION, refers to און _aven_, INIQUITY, which is the principle whence _transgression_ springs. קסם _kesem_, DIVINATION, refers to תרפים _teraphim_, consecrated images or _telesms_, vulgarly _talismans_, used in incantations. And מרי _meri_, REBELLION, refers evidently to הפצר _haphstar_, STUBBORNNESS, whence rebellion springs. The meaning therefore of this difficult place may be the fol...

The meaning is “Rebellion is as bad as the sin of divination, and stubbornness is as bad as worshipping false gods (iniquity), and teraphim (idolatry).”...

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,

FOR REBELLION IS AS THE SIN OF WITCHCRAFT,.... Or divination e, in whatsoever way it was exercised; for there were various sorts of it among the Heathens, and all condemned by the law of God, Deuteronomy 18:10. Now rebellion against God, or disobeying his commands, though in things otherwise, were they not forbidden by him, lawful to be done, is as heinous a sin as to be guilty of witchcraft, or any kind of divination forbidden by the law of God, and deserves as sore a punishment: AND STUBBORNNESS IS AS INIQUITY AND IDOLATRY: for a man, when he has committed a sin, to persist in it obstinately, or to vindicate himself in it, and insist on his innocence, which was Saul's case, is as hateful to God as any iniquity whatever; yea, as bad as idolatry, or making use of the teraphim, as is the word here; of which see...

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

SIN. Hebrew. _chata'._ App-44. WITCHCRAFT. divination or necromancy; i.e. dealings with spirits. INIQUITY. Hebrew. _'aven._ App-44....

Saul's disobedience and its penalty 11. _It repenteth me_ "God's repentance is the change of His dispensation." In the language of the O. T. God is said to repent when a change in the character and conduct of those with whom He is dealing leads to a corresponding change in His plans and purposes towards them. Thus (_a_) upon man's penitence God repents and withdraws a threatened punishment (Exodus 32:14; 2 Samuel 24:16): (_b_) upon man's faithlessness and disobedience He cancels a promise or revokes a blessing which He had given. The opposite is also true, "God is not a man that he should repent" (1 Samuel 15:29). His repentance is not to be understood as though He who foreknows all things reg