Bible Strands
1 Samuel 15:9
Saul and his troops spared Agag, along with the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs, and the best of everything else. They were unwilling to devote them to destruction, but they devoted to destruction all that was despised and worthless.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrative recounts Saul and his troops acting immediately after capturing King Agag alive and executing the remainder of the Amalekite forces. This moment occurs at the precise point of executing the divine command to devote the Amalekite spoils to destruction.
The words — The verb וַיַּחְמֹל (va.yachmol) literally means "he had compassion" or "spared," applied to Saul's choice to preserve Agag and the prime livestock. The phrase מֵיטַב הַצֹּאן (meitav hatzo'n) translates to "the best of the sheep," marking the deliberate preservation of valuable resources over the worthless.
The thread — This selective preservation is reiterated in 1 Samuel 15:15, where Saul reports that the troops spared the best animals for sacrifice, and it directly prompts the rebuke in 1 Samuel 15:19 for prioritizing plunder over the command to devote everything to destruction.
Why it lands — The text establishes that preserving the valuable while destroying only the despised constitutes direct disobedience to a total command. It requires the reader to acknowledge that partial compliance fails to meet the standard of complete obedience.
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
But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 15:15 Saul answered, “The troops brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but the rest we devoted to destruction.”
- 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 Samuel 15:19 So why did you not obey the LORD? Why did you rush upon the plunder and do evil in the sight of the LORD?”
- Joshua 7:21 When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”
- 2 Samuel 6:13 When those carrying the ark of the LORD had advanced six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf.