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1 Samuel 15:9

in 1 Samuel 15

Saul and his troops spared Agag, along with the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs, and the best of everything else. They were unwilling to destroy them, but they devoted to destruction all that was despised and worthless.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

But Saul 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 would not utterly destroy them: but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.

KJV

But Saul 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 would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.

This verse in 1 Samuel 15

Commentary

2 notes on this verse
The fatlings - The present Hebrew text cannot be so rendered. It can only mean “the second best” (compare the margin), i. e., sheep of the age to cut or shed the two teeth, sheep in their prime. But it is probable that the reading is corrupt, and that “fat or dainty bits” is the true reading.

This site's exposition

from Havilah until thou comest

on 1 Samuel 15:7-9

Saul carries the campaign the length of Amalek's territory, from Havilah to Shur on the border of Egypt, and takes Agag alive. Verse 9 states the failure plainly: Saul and the people spared the king and the best of the flocks and herds, keeping back exactly what verse 3 had named for destruction, and destroyed only what was already worthless. Barnes reads the sparing of Agag as a king's calculation, a captive kept to be paraded, and the text itself gives no motive beyond an appetite for what was good.

The words behind it

24 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • וַיַּחְמֹל֩and he had compassion

    vaiyachmolH255041 times

  • שָׁא֨וּלSaul

    shaulH7586402 times

  • וְהָעָ֜םand the people

    vehaamH59711873 times

  • עַל־on

    ʾal-H59215755 times

  • אֲגָ֗גAgag

    ʾagagH908 times

  • וְעַל־and on

    veal-H59215755 times

  • מֵיטַ֣ב[the] best of

    meitavH4315

  • הַצֹּאן֩the sheep

    hatzonH6629274 times

  • וְהַבָּקָ֨רand the cattle

    vehabakarH1241183 times

  • וְהַמִּשְׁנִ֤יםand the second

    vehamishnimH493235 times

  • וְעַל־and on

    veal-H59215755 times

  • הַכָּרִים֙the lambs

    hakarimH3733

  • וְעַל־and on

    veal-H59215755 times

  • כָּל־all

    kol-H36055413 times

  • הַטּ֔וֹבthe good

    hatovH2896538 times

  • וְלֹ֥אand not

    velo'H38085168 times

  • אָב֖וּthey were willing

    ʾavuH1454 times

  • הַחֲרִימָ֑םto totally destroy them

    hacharimamH276352 times

  • וְכָל־and all

    vekholH36055413 times

  • הַמְּלָאכָ֛הthe property

    hamelakhahH4399

  • נְמִבְזָ֥הdespised

    nemivzahH5240

  • וְנָמֵ֖סand worthless

    venamesH4549

  • אֹתָ֥הּ<obj.> it

    ʾotahH85310935 times

  • הֶחֱרִֽימוּ׃ פthey totally destroyed

    hecherimuH276352 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Joshua 7:21

    When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in…

    it leads to

    • James 1:15

      Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

    • 1 John 2:15–16

      Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

    • Luke 12:15

      And He said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourselves against every form of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

    • Psalms 119:37

      Turn my eyes away from worthless things; revive me with Your word.

  • Through

    1 Samuel 15:3

    Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and…

    it leads to

    • Numbers 24:20

      Then Balaam saw Amalek and lifted up an oracle, saying: “Amalek was first among the nations, but his end is destruction.”

    • Deuteronomy 20:16–18

      However, in the cities of the nations that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not leave alive anything that breathes.

  • Through

    2 Samuel 6:13

    When those carrying the ark of the LORD had advanced six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf.

    it leads to

    • 1 Chronicles 15:15

      And the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles, as Moses had commanded in accordance with the word of the LORD.

    • 1 Kings 8:5

      There, before the ark, King Solomon and the whole congregation of Israel who had assembled with him sacrificed so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.

Where this verse is studied

About 1 Samuel

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament.