6. Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for you showed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
7. Saul struck the Amalekites, from Havilah as you go to Shur, that is before Egypt.
8. 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, of the cattle, and of the fat calves, and the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to utterly destroy them; but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
10. Then the Lord’s word came to Samuel, saying,
11. “It grieves me that I have set up Saul to be king; for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments.” Samuel was angry; and he cried to the Lord all night.
12. Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning; and Samuel was told, saying, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself, and turned, and passed on, and went down to Gilgal.”
13. Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, “You are blessed by the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord.”
14. Samuel said, “Then what does this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the cattle which I hear mean?”
15. Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the cattle, to sacrifice to the Lord your God. We have utterly destroyed the rest.”
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.