1 Samuel 15:6

_AND SAUL SAID UNTO THE KENITES, GO, DEPART, GET YOU DOWN FROM AMONG THE AMALEKITES, LEST I DESTROY YOU WITH THEM: FOR YE SHEWED KINDNESS TO ALL THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, WHEN THEY CAME UP OUT OF EGYPT. SO THE KENITES DEPARTED FROM AMONG THE AMALEKITES._ And Saul said unto the Kenites Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites. Their encampment about 'Arad was in a mountainous country, and on an elevated part of that country (Robinson's 'Biblical Researches,' 2:, pp. 202, 467-468, 618; Stanley, 'Sinai and Palestine,' pp. 160-161, 289, 294; 'Negeb,' pp. 10, 76). "Kenites" (see the note at Judges 1:16). In consequence, probably, of the unsettled state of Judah, they seem to have returned to their old desert tracts, and occupied the region around 'Arad (Judges 1:16). Though now intermingl

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...

Verse 1 Samuel 15:6. _SAID UNTO THE KENITES_] The Kenites were an ancient people. Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, was a Kenite. Hobab his son (if the same person be not meant) was guide to the Hebrews through the wilderness. They had a portion of the promised land, near to the city Arad. See Judges 1:16; and for more particulars concerning them and the Amalekites, see the notes on Numbers 26:20-4....

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 THE KENITES,.... Who were of the posterity of Jethro the father-in-law of Moses, or related to him; why Josephus x calls them the nation of the Sicimites, who dwelt in the midst of the land of Midian, I know not: GO, DEPART, GET YE DOWN FROM AMONG THE AMALEKITES; for though some of these people came with Israel into the land of Canaan, and were first at Jericho, and then came into the wilderness of Judah, Judges 1:16 and were in other tribes also; yet as they removed from place to place, and from country to country, for the convenience of their flocks and herds, they dwelling in tents, might come into the country of Amalek and pitch there, and as they chose to dwell in rocks, and the caverns of them, to be near their flocks and herds in the valleys, they are called upon to get down from thence, 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

_the Kenites_ This tribe, as may be inferred from the fact that Jethro, Moses" father-in-law, the priest of Midian (Exodus 3:1), is called a Kenite in Judges 1:16, was an offshoot from the Midianites. The services done to Israel by Jethro and his son Hobab (Exodus 18; Numbers 10:29-32) led to a firm alliance. The Kenites accompanied the Israelites on their march as far as Jericho (Judges 1:16), and then went and dwelt among the Amalekites in the desert to the south of Judah. They are mentioned again in...

The Lord's Rejection of Saul, 1 Samuel 15:1-35. _Saul Sent Against the Amalekites._ 1 Samuel 15:1-6 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. 2 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember _that_ which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid _wait_ for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. 3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. 4 And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah. 5 And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid w

SAUL'S VICTORY OVER AMALEK. HIS DISOBEDIENCE AND REJECTION Amalek had attacked Israel at Rephidim (Exodus 17:8) and opposed their entrance into Canaan (Numbers 14:45 : cp. Deuteronomy 25:7; They are mentioned as allies of the Midianites in Judges 7:12. The Amalekite nomads probably occupied a large tract of the wilderness S. of Judah. This chapter evidently comes from a different source from the preceding, which concludes the history of Saul. It forms the connexion between the history of Saul and that of David. We have no means of determining to what part of Saul's reign it belongs....