1 Samuel 13:13-14

13:13 Then Samuel said to Saul, “You have made a foolish choice! You have not obeyed ¹  the commandment that the Lord your God gave ²  you. Had you done that, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever! 13:14 But now your kingdom will not continue! The Lord has sought out ³  for himself a man who is loyal to him ⁴  and the Lord has appointed ⁵  him to be leader over his people, for you have not obeyed what the Lord commanded you.”

1 Samuel 15:17-23

15:17 Samuel said, “Is it not true that when you were insignificant in your own eyes, you became head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord chose ⁶  you as king over Israel. 15:18 The Lord sent you on a campaign ⁷  saying, ‘Go and exterminate those sinful Amalekites! Fight against them until you ⁸  have destroyed them.’ 15:19 Why haven’t you obeyed ⁹  the Lord? Instead you have greedily rushed upon the plunder! You have done what is wrong in the Lord’s estimation.” ¹⁰ 

15:20 Then Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed ¹¹  the Lord! I went on the campaign ¹²  the Lord sent me on. I brought back King Agag of the Amalekites after exterminating the Amalekites. 15:21 But the army took from the plunder some of the sheep and cattle – the best of what was to be slaughtered – to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”

15:22 Then Samuel said,

“Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices

as much as he does in obedience? ¹³ 

Certainly, ¹⁴  obedience ¹⁵  is better than sacrifice;

paying attention is better than ¹⁶  the fat of rams.

15:23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination,

and presumption is like the evil of idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,

he has rejected you as ¹⁷  king.”

[13:13]  ¹ tn Or “kept.”

[13:13]  ² tn Heb “commanded.”

[13:14]  ³ tn This verb form, as well as the one that follows (“appointed”), indicates completed action from the standpoint of the speaker. This does not necessarily mean that the Lord had already conducted his search and made his choice, however. The forms may be used for rhetorical effect to emphasize the certainty of the action. The divine search for a new king is as good as done, emphasizing that the days of Saul’s dynasty are numbered.

[13:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “according to his heart.” The idiomatic expression means to be like-minded with another, as its use in 1 Sam 14:7 indicates.

[13:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “commanded.”

[15:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “anointed.”

[15:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “journey.”

[15:18]  ⁸ tc The translation follows the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Targum in reading the second person singular suffix (“you”) rather than the third person plural suffix of the MT (“they”).

[15:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “listened to the voice of the Lord.”

[15:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you have done what is evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

[15:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “listened to the voice of the Lord.”

[15:20]  ¹² tn Heb “journey.”

[15:22]  ¹³ tn Heb “as [in] listening to the voice of the Lord.”

[15:22]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “look.”

[15:22]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “listening.”

[15:22]  ¹⁶ tn The expression “is better” is understood here by ellipsis (see the immediately preceding statement).

[15:23]  ¹⁷ tn Or “from [being].”