1 Samuel 15:32

_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._ Agag came ... delicately - pliantly, or cheerfully, since he had gained the favour and protection of the king. х_ MA`ªDANOT_ (H4574), from _ `AADAN_ (H5727), to be soft, pliant, is rendered, by Kimchi, and other Jewish writers, 'decked in royal state.'] Poole ('Annotations'), following them, translates it, 'came in delights' - i:e., in his ornaments; not as an offender expecting the sentence of death, but in that garb and gesture which became his royal state. AND AGAG SAID - or, For Agag said, as the reason why he came so. [The Septuagint has: tremoon, trembling.]...

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 mourns day and night for him. Jerusalem was carnally secure while Christ wept over it. Do we desire to do the whole will of God? Turn to him, not in form and appearance, but with sincerity....

Verse 1 Samuel 15:32. _AGAG CAME UNTO HIM DELICATELY._] The Septuagint have τρεμων, _trembling_; the original, מעדנת _maadannoth, delicacies;_ probably איש _ish_, man, understood; _a man of delights, a_ _pleasure-taker_: the Vulgate, _pinguissimus et tremens_, "very fat and trembling." _SURELY THE BITTERNESS OF DEATH IS PAST._] Almost all the versions render this differently from ours. _Surely death is bitter_, is their general sense; and this seems to be the true meaning....

DELICATELY - This phrase is very obscure. The meaning of the word so rendered is “dainties, delights” Genesis 49:20; Proverbs 29:17; Lamentations 4:5, which hardly gives a tolerable sense here. Some understand it “fawningly, flatteringly,” with a view of appeasing Samuel. (Others alter the reading, and translate “in bonds.”) SURELY THE BITTERNESS ... - Agag hopes that his life will be spared, and so expresses his confident belief that the bitterness of death is over....

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,

THEN SAID SAMUEL, BRING YOU HITHER TO ME AGAG THE KING OF THE AMALEKITES,.... This he said very probably to some of Saul's officers, and in his presence, and before all the people met together for sacrifice: AND AGAG CAME UNTO HIM DELICATELY; fat and plump, as the Vulgate Latin version, and yet trembling, as that and the Septuagint; well dressed, in the garb and habit of a king, and with the air and majesty of one; or with pleasure and joy, as Kimchi, choosing rather to die than to be a captive, and live in such reproach as he did; though R. Isaiah and Ben Gersom give the sense of it, that he came bound in chains, and fetters of iron, according to the use of the word in Job 38:31 AND AGAG SAID, SURELY THE BITTERNESS OF DEATH IS PAST; this he said, either as not expecting to die, that since he had been spared by Saul, the king of the nation, a fierce and warl

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

DELICATELY. in fetters (Job 38:31). Septuagint has "trembling"; Vulgate has "sleek and trembling"....

The execution of Agag. Samuel's departure 32. _delicately_ Rather, CHEERFULLY: not fearing any harm from the aged prophet, as the king had spared his life. But the meaning of the word is very doubtful. The Sept. has "trembling;" the Vulg. a curious double rendering, "sleek and trembling" (_pinguissimus et tremens_). _Surely the bitterness of death is past_ This was what Agag said to himself, expecting to be spared. But the Sept. (from a different reading) gives: "Is death so bitter?" Vulg. "Does bitter death thus sever [me from life]?" (_Siccine separat amara mors?_) representing Agag as afraid....