1. One day Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel. Now listen to his message.
2. The Lord All-Powerful says: ‘When the Israelites came out of Egypt, the Amalekites tried to stop them from going to Canaan. I saw what the Amalekites did.
3. Now go fight against the Amalekites. You must completely destroy the Amalekites and everything that belongs to them. Don’t let anything live; you must kill all the men and women and all of their children and little babies. You must kill all of their cattle and sheep and all of their camels and donkeys.’”
4. Saul gathered the army together at Telaim. There were 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 other men, including the men from Judah.
5. Then Saul went to the city of Amalek and waited in the valley.
6. He said to the Kenites, “Go away! Leave the Amalekites. Then I won’t destroy you with the Amalekites. You showed kindness to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt.” So the Kenites left the Amalekites.
7. Saul defeated the Amalekites. He fought them and chased them all the way from Havilah to Shur, at the border of Egypt.
8. Agag was the king of the Amalekites. Saul captured Agag alive. Saul let Agag live, but he killed all the men in Agag’s army.
9. Saul and the Israelite soldiers felt bad about destroying everything. So they let Agag live. They also kept the fat cattle, the best sheep, and the lambs. They kept everything that was worth keeping. They didn’t want to destroy those things. They destroyed only what was not worth keeping.
10. Then Samuel received this message from the Lord: