1 Samuel 15:5
in 1 Samuel 15Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And Saul came to the city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.
KJV
And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.
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This verse in 1 Samuel 15
Commentary
6 notes on this verseSaul came to a city of Amalek - I believe the original should be translated, and Saul came to the city Amalek; their capital being called by the name of their tribe.
This site's exposition
numbered them in Telaim
on 1 Samuel 15:4-6
Saul musters two hundred thousand footmen and ten thousand of Judah at Telaim, then carries out a careful evacuation of the Kenites before the attack lands. The Kenites are spared by name because they showed kindness to Israel in the exodus generation, the same kindness clause the history books use of Rahab and later of Ruth. Saul can distinguish, and act on the distinction, when mercy is the question; the chapter's failure is that he distinguishes the very same way where the command left no room for it.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
And when Saul had come to the city of Amalek, etc. The city of Amalek represents the densely packed array of temptations against the faithful, which now rages at us, stirred up either by demons, humans, or by our own desires. Certainly, near this city …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistCommentary on 1 Kings, Book 6, Chapter 1 · Written before 604.
proposed
What is this torrent, if not that of which it is said through the Psalmist: "He shall drink of the torrent in the way" (Psalm 109:7)? For a torrent designates the course of our mortality. Saul therefore sets an ambush in the torrent, when a preacher of the Church inserts the consideration of our mortality into the eternal rewards.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
), that he might provoke them to give him battle. He gave friendly advice to the Kenites to separate themselves from the Amalekites among whom they dwelt, while this execution was in doing,
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
And Saul came to a city of Amalek,....
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיָּבֹ֥א | vaiyavo' | and he came | H935 → | 2568 times |
| שָׁא֖וּל | shaul | Saul | H7586 → | 402 times |
| עַד־ | ʾad- | to | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| עִ֣יר | ʾir | [the] city of | H5892 → | 1090 times |
| עֲמָלֵ֑ק | ʾamalek | Amalek | H6002 → | 39 times |
| וַיָּ֖רֶב | vaiyarev | and he lay in wait | H693 → | 41 times |
| בַּנָּֽחַל׃ | banachal | in the wadi | H5158 → | 141 times |
וַיָּבֹ֥אand he came
vaiyavo'H935 →2568 times
שָׁא֖וּלSaul
shaulH7586 →402 times
עַד־to
ʾad-H5704 →1261 times
עִ֣יר[the] city of
ʾirH5892 →1090 times
עֲמָלֵ֑קAmalek
ʾamalekH6002 →39 times
וַיָּ֖רֶבand he lay in wait
vaiyarevH693 →41 times
בַּנָּֽחַל׃in the wadi
banachalH5158 →141 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
About 1 Samuel
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Bede, Commentary on Samuel; Gregory the Dialogist, Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 6, Chapter 1; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.