1 Samuel 15:9

_BUT SAUL AND THE PEOPLE SPARED AGAG, AND THE BEST OF THE SHEEP, AND OF THE OXEN, AND OF THE FATLINGS, AND THE LAMBS, AND ALL THAT WAS GOOD, AND WOULD NOT UTTERLY DESTROY THEM: BUT EVERY THING THAT WAS VILE AND REFUSE, THAT THEY DESTROYED UTTERLY._ And of the fatlings, х_ WªHAMISHNIYM_ (H4932)]. This plural substantive (cf. 2 Samuel 6:13), which in the singular denotes second rank, second place, is used apparently in this passage to indicate cattle of a second quality; perhaps lambs of the second birth - i:e., autumnal lambs, and therefore weaker sad less valuable (Gesenius). Bochart ('Hierozoicon') thinks that it means full-grown cattle. [The Septuagint has: toon edesmatoon, cattle fit for food]. Our translators have evidently followed the Septuagint By this willful and partial obedience to a positive command, complying wi

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...

THE FATLINGS - The present Hebrew text cannot be so rendered. It can only mean “the second best” (compare the margin), i. e., sheep of the age to cut or shed the two teeth, sheep in their prime. But it is probable that the reading is corrupt, and that “fat or dainty bits” is the true reading....

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 AND ALL THE PEOPLE SPARED AGAG,.... Perhaps Saul made the motion to spare him, and the people agreed to it; it may be, out of respect to him as a king; or because of the comeliness of his person, the height of his stature, and the largeness of his body, as Josephus y notes; or to carry him in triumph in a public show, see 1 Samuel 15:12 AND THE BEST OF THE SHEEP, AND OF THE OXEN, AND OF THE FATLINGS; or "of the second sort", as in the margin, the second best; or rather which shed their two long teeth, as sheep at two years old did when reckoned at their full strength, and fittest for sacrifice z: AND THE LAMBS, AND ALL THAT WAS GOOD, AND WOULD NOT UTTERLY DESTROY THEM; as they were commanded, but kept them for their own private use and advantage, and this not only the best and fattest of the flocks and herds, but of their household goods:

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

AND. Note the Figure of speech _Polysyndeton_ (App-6) in this verse. EVERY THING THAT _ WAS_ VILE. all the stock that was worthless....

_spared Agag_ Perhaps to grace his triumph and to be an evidence of his victory (Judges 1:7): perhaps from a feeling of sympathy with a fellow king (1 Kings 20:32). _and the best of the sheep_, &c. In direct violation of the Divine command. It was to be a sacred war from which the people were to take no gain of spoil, in token that it was undertaken in the execution of a Divine vengeance and not for their own profit. _fatlings_ See note on p. 246....

_Saul's Incomplete Obedience. 1 Samuel 15:7-9_ 7 And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah _until_ thou comest to Shur, that _is_ over against Egypt, 8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all _that was_ good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing _that was_ vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly. _6._ Where are Havilah and Shur? 1 1 Samuel 5:7 Shur was in Negeb, the land lying south of Beer-sheba. Generally speaking it is territory to the west of the south end of the Dead Sea. Havilah was on the edge of the Negeb. Another region