Bible Strands
1 Samuel 15:8
He captured Agag king of Amalek alive, but devoted all the others to destruction with the sword.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Saul acts as Israel’s king after striking the Amalekites from Havilah to Shur. He now reports taking their ruler and executing the remainder.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַיִּתְפֹּשׂ (va-yitpos) means “he seized,” joined with חָי (chai, “alive”) to indicate Agag was taken intact. The word כָּל (kol, “all”) stresses that every other person was devoted to destruction.
The thread — This capture establishes Agag’s line, which later produces Haman the Agagite in Esther 3:1. The Amalekite threat reappears in 1 Samuel 30:1, while Numbers 24:7 contrasts Agag’s reign with a future greater king.
Why it lands — The text records that only Agag was spared while the rest were killed. This factual detail precedes the interpretive conclusion that preserving a living captive compromises the command to destroy.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 30:1 On the third day David and his men arrived in Ziklag, and the Amalekites had raided the Negev, attacked Ziklag, and burned it down.
- Numbers 24:7 Water will flow from his buckets, and his seed will have abundant water. His king will be greater than Agag, and his kingdom will be exalted.
- Esther 3:1 After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him to a position above all the princes who were with him.
- Joshua 10:39 And they captured Debir, its king, and all its villages. They put them to the sword and devoted to destruction everyone in the city, leaving no survivors. Joshua did to Debir and its king as he had done to Hebron and as he had done to Libnah and its king.
- Joshua 11:12 Joshua captured all these kings and their cities and put them to the sword. He devoted them to destruction, as Moses the LORD’s servant had commanded.
- 1 Samuel 15:3 Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”
- 1 Kings 20:30 The rest of them fled into the city of Aphek, where the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand of the remaining men. Ben-hadad also fled to the city and hid in an inner room.
- 1 Kings 20:34 Ben-hadad said to him, “I will restore the cities my father took from your father; you may set up your own marketplaces in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.” “By this treaty I release you,” Ahab replied. So he made a treaty with him and sent him away.
- 1 Samuel 27:8 Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. (From ancient times these people had inhabited the land extending to Shur and Egypt.)