Ver. 1. The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king.] And kings are doubly bound to obey the Lord, -as Queen Elizabeth wrote to Henry IV of France, -first as men; next as men so entrusted and advanced. Now therefore hearken thou.] Now at least, and at length, after thy so foul miscarriages, and God’s heavy menaces thereupon. (1 Samuel 13:8,9) Ut prioris inobedientiae nexus enodes, as Gregory hath it, that thou mayest redeem thine own sorrows, breaking off thy sins by righteousness, if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity, or a healing of thine error. (Daniel 4:27)
Ver. 2. Thus saith the Lord of hosts.] Who judgeth righteously, (Jeremiah 11:20) and is able to save and to destroy. I remember that which Amalek did to Israel.] Though it be four hundred years since, and I may seem to have forgotten it. It is ill angering the Ancient of Days; his forbearance is no quittance. Heb., I have reviewed. How he laid wait for him in the way.] Smiting all the feeble and wearied: and so answering his name Amalek, which signifieth a licking people. Populus Lingens.
Ver. 3. Now go and smite Amalek.] This God had twice threatened; (Exodus 17:14 Deuteronomy 25:17) Ut ostenderet quam ex animo et omnino id vellet fieri. The greater was Saul’s offence, in executing it so slackly. And utterly destroy all that they have.] Oh the severity of God! Oh the venomous nature of sin! How evil and bitter a thing is it! (Jeremiah 2) Aliorum perditio, tua sit cautio. Amalek, for molesting God’s Israel, is thus utterly destroyed. The Kenites, for showing them kindness, are graciously preserved. A. Lapide.
Ver. 4. And numbered them in Telaim.] Called also Telem, a town of Judah. (Joshua 15:24) Not in Gilgala, as Josephus hath it, after the Septuagint. Two hundred thousand footmen.] Not forty thousand only of Israel, and thirty thousand of Judah; as Josephus, but not truly.
Ver. 5. And laid wait in the valley.] Or, Skirmished by the burn or brook: declining the mountains, lest it should have proved prejudicial to the Kenites who dwelt there.
Ver. 6. And Saul said unto the Kenites.] Who were the posterity of Jethro, (Judges 1:16) who, though he went not with Israel, yet some of his children did, and were helpful. They dwelt at this time in the borders of Amalek, but in tents, as did their issue, the Rechabites, -they are therefore warned to move their habitations, lest they should perish with ill neighbours, (Zechariah 9:2) Hamath lying nigh to Damascus, partook of its punishment. See 2 Corinthians 6:17 Re 18:4). Go, depart, get you dawn,] Congeries asyndetos celeritatis index: pack away with all speed. And when the Kenites pack up their fardles [little bundles], it is time to expect judgment, Migremus hinc is a sad foretoken. So the Kenites departed.] This they could soon do, as being Scenites, dwellers in tents.
Ver. 7. And Saul smote the Amalekites.] So many as he could well come at; for many made escape, and they were still a nation in David’s days, retaining their old hatred and hostility against God’s Israel, derived to them from Esau their progenitor, and first founder. (1 Chronicles 1:36) See 1 Samuel 27:8 30:1.
Ver. 8. And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive.] Captans laudem clementiae, that he might be cried up for a clement conqueror: or that he might put him to his ransom, or rather out of a foolish and preposterous pity to his fellowking; as Ahab afterwards dealt by Benhadad. And utterly destroyed all the people.] All that he met with, as those that were devoted to destruction. The Jews at this day think they may kill any idolaters; and they have a saying, Optimus qui inter gentes, dignus est cui caput conteratur tanquam serpenti. The very best man among the Gentiles is as worthy as the old serpent to be knocked on the head. Ob fortanae regiae similitudinem. — Joseph.;
Ver. 9. And the best of the sheep.] If Saul spare Agag, the people will take liberty to spare the best of the spoil, — Regis ad exemplum, &c., the sins of the great command imitation, and do as seldom go without attendants as their persons, -which they ought not to have done, because together with those spoils, the memory also of the nation remained, which God had decreed utterly to blot out. They should have done as they did once at Jericho. (Joshua 6:17) But the dust of covetousness had put out their eyes; neither was it godliness, -as they pretended, -but gain, that made them so to fly upon the spoil. (1 Samuel 15:19)
Ver. 10. Then came the word of the Lord.] That which one saith of our Henry VIII may well be applied to Saul, Habuit ille quidem egregias dotes; sed suos simul patiebatur manes: there were in him great virtues, and no less vices, jumbled together, as it were. And as the chronicler writeth of our Edward II. Never was prince received with greater love and opinion of all than he; or ever any that sooner lost it. So here.