1 Samuel 15:3

3Now go and strike Amalek and adevote to destruction
That is, set apart ( devote) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction); also verses 8, 9, 15, 18, 20, 21
all that they have. Do not spare them, cbut kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”

1 Samuel 15:9

9 dBut Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves
The meaning of the Hebrew term is uncertain
and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.

1 Samuel 15:13-15

13And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, fBlessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.” 14And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?” 15Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, gfor the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.”

1 Samuel 15:19-23

19Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? hWhy did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?” 20And Saul said to Samuel, i“I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. 21 jBut the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.” 22And Samuel said,

k“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, lto obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
23For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and midolatry.
Because nyou have rejected the word of the Lord,
ohe has also rejected you from being king.”
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