1 Samuel 15:9

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.