1 Samuel 15:3-11

English Standard Version

³ Now go and strike Amalek and ^(A)devote to destruction^[a] all that they have. Do not spare them, ^(B)but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”

⁴ So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand men on foot, and ten thousand men of Judah. ⁵ And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. ⁶ Then Saul said to ^(C)the Kenites, “Go, depart; go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. ^(D)For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. ^7 (E)And Saul defeated the Amalekites from ^(F)Havilah as far as ^(G)Shur, which is east of Egypt. ⁸ And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive ^(H)and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. ^9 (I)But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves^[b] and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.

¹⁰ The word of the Lord came to Samuel: ^11 (J)“I regret^[c] that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and ^(K)has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the Lord all night.