1 Samuel 15:35

Came no more to see Saul] As a prophet he had no longer any message for the rejected king, although as a man he mourned for the failure of a career that had once seemed so promising.

The execution of Agag seems to us mere butchery; but, to both Samuel and Saul, Agag, like the rest of Amalek, had been put under the 'ban,' and hence his death, even in cold blood, was a religious necessity. According to the ideas of the time, Saul had had no right to give any 'quarter.' Nor is it right to judge the ancient Hebrews by what are happily our higher standards of conduct.