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.”