18. and sent you on a mission, saying: Go and put the sinful Amalekites under a ban of destruction. Fight against them until you have exterminated them.
19. Why then have you disobeyed the Lord? You have pounced on the spoil, thus doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight.”
20. Saul explained to Samuel: “I did indeed obey the Lord and fulfill the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought back Agag, the king of Amalek, and, carrying out the ban, I have destroyed the Amalekites.
21. But from the spoil the army took sheep and oxen, the best of what had been banned, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
22. But Samuel said:“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrificesas much as in obedience to the Lord’s command?Obedience is better than sacrifice,to listen, better than the fat of rams.
23. For a sin of divination is rebellion,and arrogance, the crime of idolatry.Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,the Lord in turn has rejected you as king.”
24. Saul admitted to Samuel: “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the command of the Lord and your instructions. I feared the people and obeyed them.
25. Now forgive my sin, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord.”
26. But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you, because you rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you as king of Israel.”
27. As Samuel turned to go, Saul seized a loose end of his garment, and it tore off.
28. So Samuel said to him: “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.
29. The Glory of Israel neither deceives nor repents, for he is not a mortal who repents.”
30. But Saul answered: “I have sinned, yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel. Return with me that I may worship the Lord your God.”
31. And so Samuel returned with him, and Saul worshiped the Lord.