the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Hebrew Names Version
1 Samuel 15
1 Shemu'el said to Sha'ul, the LORD sent me to anoint you to be king over his people, over Yisra'el: now therefore listen you to the voice of the words of the LORD. 2 Thus says the LORD of Hosts, I have marked that which `Amalek did to Yisra'el, how he set himself against him in the way, when he came up out of Mitzrayim. 3 Now go and strike `Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and don't spare them; but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. 4 Sha'ul summoned the people, and numbered them in Tela'im, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Yehudah. 5 Sha'ul came to the city of `Amalek, and laid wait in the valley. 6 Sha'ul said to the Kinim, Go, depart, get you down from among the `Amaleki, lest I destroy you with them; for you shown kindness to all the children of Yisra'el, when they came up out of Mitzrayim. So the Kinim departed from among the `Amaleki. 7 Sha'ul struck the `Amaleki, from Havilah as you go to Shur, that is before Mitzrayim. 8 He took Agag the king of the `Amaleki alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Sha'ul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and wouldn't utterly destroy them: but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
10 Then came the word of the LORD to Shemu'el, saying, 11 It repents me that I have set up Sha'ul to be king; for he is turned back from following me, and has not performed my mitzvot. Shemu'el was angry; and he cried to the LORD all night. 12 Shemu'el rose early to meet Sha'ul in the morning; and it was told Shemu'el, saying, Sha'ul came to Karmel, and, behold, he set him up a monument, and turned, and passed on, and went down to Gilgal. 13 Shemu'el came to Sha'ul; and Sha'ul said to him, Blessed are you by the LORD: I have performed the mitzvah of the LORD. 14 Shemu'el said, What means then this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? 15 Sha'ul said, They have brought them from the `Amaleki: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed. 16 Then Shemu'el said to Sha'ul, Stay, and I will tell you what the LORD has said to me this night. He said to him, Say on. 17 Shemu'el said, "Though you were little in your own sight, weren't you made the head of the tribes of Yisra'el? the LORD anointed you king over Yisra'el; 18 and the LORD sent you on a journey, and said, 'Go, and utterly destroy the sinners the `Amaleki, and fight against them until they are consumed.' 19 Why then didn't you obey the voice of the LORD, but flew on the spoil, and did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD?" 20 Sha'ul said to Shemu'el, Yes, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of `Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the `Amaleki. 21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the devoted things, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal. 22 Shemu'el said, Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and terafim. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.
24 Sha'ul said to Shemu'el, I have sinned; for I have transgressed the mitzvah of the LORD, and your words, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. 25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD. 26 Shemu'el said to Sha'ul, I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Yisra'el. 27 As Shemu'el turned about to go away, [Sha'ul] laid hold on the skirt of his robe, and it tore. 28 Shemu'el said to him, the LORD has torn the kingdom of Yisra'el from you this day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. 29 Also the Strength of Yisra'el will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent. 30 Then he said, I have sinned: yet honor me now, Please, before the Zakenim of my people, and before Yisra'el, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD your God. 31 So Shemu'el turned again after Sha'ul; and Sha'ul worshiped the LORD.
32 Then said Shemu'el, Bring you here to me Agag the king of the `Amaleki. Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. 33 Shemu'el said, As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. Shemu'el hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal. 34 Then Shemu'el went to Ramah; and Sha'ul went up to his house to Gevah of Sha'ul. 35 Shemu'el came no more to see Sha'ul until the day of his death; for Shemu'el mourned for Sha'ul: and the LORD repented that he had made Sha'ul king over Yisra'el.
