1 Samuel 15:15

And Saul said, &c. Saul tries (a) like Aaron at Sinai (Exodus 32:22), to shift the blame from himself on to others; (b) to palliate the offence by alleging a good motive. But "the king who heeded the voice of his army in such a matter shewed that he was not their leader, but their tool and their slave. The king who pretended to keep the booty for the purpose of offering sacrifice to the Lord his God, was evidently beginning to play the hypocrite; to make the service of God an excuse for acts of selfishness, and so to introduce all that is vilest in king-craft as well as in priest-craft." Maurice, Prophets and Kings, p. 26.