16. "Stop!" Samuel said to Saul. "Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night." "Tell me," Saul replied.
17. Samuel said, "There was a time when you didn't think you were important. But you became the leader of the tribes of Israel. The Lord anointed you to be king over Israel.
18. He sent you to do something for him. He said, 'Go and set the Amalekites apart. Set those sinful people apart to me in a special way to be destroyed. Fight against them until you have wiped them out.'
19. "Why didn't you obey the Lord? Why did you grab what you had taken from your enemies? Why did you do what is evil in the sight of the Lord?"
20. "But I did obey the Lord," Saul said. "I went to do what he sent me to do. I totally destroyed the Amalekites. I brought back Agag, their king.
21. "The soldiers took sheep and cattle from what had been taken from our enemies. They took the best of what had been set apart to God. They wanted to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal."