1 Samuel 15:24

_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._ I have sinned ... because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. This was a different reason from the former he had assigned. It was the language of a man driven to extremities; and even had it been true, the principles expounded by Samuel showed that it could have been no extenuation of the offence. The prophet then pronounced the irreversible sentence of the rejection of Saul and his family. Dean Stanley says that 'because he thought sacrifice greater than obedience, the curse descended upon him' ('Lectures on the Jewish Church,' second series, p. 22). Not so. He was judicially cut off for his disobedience of a positive command, which, as a theocratic king, it was his duty to have executed....

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, feeble and cannot effect their purposes; something happens they could not foresee, by which their measures are broken; but with God it is not so. The Strength of Israel will not lie....

Verse 1 Samuel 15:24. _I HAVE SINNED - BECAUSE I FEARED THE PEOPLE_] This was the best excuse he could make for himself; but had he _feared GOD_ _more_, he need have _feared the PEOPLE less_....

I HAVE SINNED - Compare 1 Samuel 15:25, 1 Samuel 15:30. How was it that these repeated confessions were unavailing to obtain forgiveness, when David’s was? (See the marginal reference.) Because Saul only shrank from the punishment of his sin. David shrank in abhorrence from the sin itself Psalms 51:4....

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,

AND SAUL SAID UNTO SAMUEL, I HAVE SINNED,.... This confession of his sin does not appear to be ingenuous, cordial, and sincere, and was made chiefly for the sake of getting the sentence of rejecting him from being king reversed: FOR I HAVE TRANSGRESSED THE COMMANDMENT OF THE LORD, AND THY WORDS; which last seems to be added to collogue with Samuel, and to ingratiate himself with him; and Abarbinel thinks that Saul suspected that Samuel had aggravated the matter of himself, and that he did not really transgress the words of the Lord, but as the words of Samuel; and therefore according to the words of Samuel he had sinned, but not according to the words of the Lord only; BECAUSE I FEARED THE PEOPLE; Doeg the Edomite, who was reckoned as all of them, Jarchi says: this was a mere excuse of Saul's, he stood in no fear of the people, he kept them in awe, and did as he would with them, as a s...

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

TRANSGRESSED. Hebrew. _`abar._ App-44. COMMANDMENT. Hebrew "mouth", put by Fig, _Metonymy_ (of Cause), App-6, for what is spoken by it. WORDS. Some codices, with one early printed edition, read "word"....

The rejection of Saul 24. _I have sinned_ Though a formal confession of his sin is extorted from Saul, he does not humble himself before God in genuine penitence. He still tries to shift the blame on to the people, and his chief anxiety is lest the breach between Samuel and himself should become a public scandal and weaken his authority (1 Samuel 15:30). Contrast David's heart-felt repentance (2 Samuel 12:13; Psalms 51:4)....