Chapter
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Verse
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35

1 Samuel 15:8
ESV And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword.
NIV He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword.
NASB He captured Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and completely destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
CSB He captured King Agag of Amalek alive, but he completely destroyed all the rest of the people with the sword.
NLT He captured Agag, the Amalekite king, but completely destroyed everyone else.
KJV And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
NKJV He also took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.

What does 1 Samuel 15:8 mean?

Saul once again (1 Samuel 13:8–14) directly disobeys the command of the Lord God of Israel. Through the prophet Samuel, the Lord had given Saul explicit instructions. He was to "devote to destruction all that [the Amalekites] have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey" (1 Samuel 15:3). Saul and his army execute nearly all the Amalekite people (1 Samuel 30:1; 1 Chronicles 4:43), but Saul spares the life of Agag the king (1 Samuel 15:9). The Israelites also keep the best of the livestock.

It's unknown why Saul thought it was permissible to spare the king. Commentators speculate that perhaps it was a custom for kings to preserve other kings when defeating them in battle. The name, Agag, may have been a title in the same way that "Pharaoh" was a title for the king among the Egyptians.
Expand
Expand
Expand
What is the Gospel?
Download the app:
BibleRef.com is part of Got Questions Ministries

For answers to your Bible questions, please visit