16. Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stay, and I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”He said to him, “Say on.”
17. Samuel said, “Though you were little in your own sight, weren’t you made the head of the tribes of Israel? the Lord anointed you king over Israel;
18. and the Lord sent you on a journey, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’
19. Why then didn’t you obey the Lord’s voice, but took the plunder, and did that which was evil in the Lord’s sight?”
20. Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the Lord’s voice, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
21. But the people took of the plunder, sheep and cattle, the chief of the devoted things, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
22. Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the Lord’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
23. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because you have rejected the Lord’s word, he has also rejected you from being king.”
24. Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and your words, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.
25. Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord.”
26. Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you; for you have rejected the Lord’s word, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.”
27. As Samuel turned around to go away, Saul grabbed the skirt of his robe, and it tore.