1 Samuel 15:7

_AND SAUL SMOTE THE AMALEKITES FROM HAVILAH UNTIL THOU COMEST TO SHUR, THAT IS OVER AGAINST EGYPT._ Saul smote the Amalekites - pursuing them over the whole territory they frequented. His own view of the proper and expedient course to follow was his rule, not the command of God....

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 15:7. _FROM HAVILAH - TO SHUR_] From Pelusium in Egypt, unto the Red Sea.-_Josephus_. But Havilah lay eastward from the Red Sea; the Amalekites lay between this and the way to Egypt towards Shur....

The district here described would stretch from Havilah on the extreme east to Shur, either near Suez, or further north on the coast road from Gaza to Egypt....

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 SMOTE THE AMALEKITES,.... Engaging in battle with them, he overcame them, and beat them, and slew great numbers of them: FROM HAVILAH UNTIL THOU COMEST TO SHUR, THAT IS OVER AGAINST EGYPT; having routed them in the valley, or in whatsoever place the battle was fought, he pursued them from one end of their country to the other; from Havilah, which lay to the northeast, to Shur, which lay to the southwest, and destroyed all that came in his way between those two points, see Genesis 25:18....

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

FROM. Supply Figure of speech _Ellipsis_ (App-6) thus: "[that dwell] from Havilah, "&c....

_from Havilah until thou comest to Shur_ The region occupied by the Ishmaelites is described in the same terms in Genesis 25:18. _Havilah_is supposed to be a district of Arabia, but its position cannot be fixed with any certainty. _Shur_is repeatedly mentioned in connexion with the route from Palestine to Egypt, and appears to be the part of the Arabian desert bordering on Egypt. See Genesis 16:7; Genesis 20:1; Exodus 15:22; 1 Samuel 27:8. _Shur_means _wall_, and the name may have been derived from the wall which anciently defended the nort