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Key: khaki:verbs.
Note: Automatic aligning of the OET-RV to the LV is done by some temporary software, hence the OET-RV alignments are incomplete (and may occasionally be wrong).
BrLXXΚαὶ ἦλθε Σαοὺλ ἕως τῶν πόλεων ʼΑμαλὴκ, καὶ ἐνήδρευσεν ἐν τῷ χειμάῤῥῳ. (Kai aʸlthe Saʼoul heōs tōn poleōn ʼAmalaʸk, kai enaʸdreusen en tōi ⱪeimaɽɽōi. )
BrTrAnd Saul came to the cities of Amalec, and laid wait in the [fn]valley.
ULTThen Saul came as far as the city of Amalek and he lie in ambush in the wadi.
USTThen Saul went with his army to a town where some of the Amalek people group lived. The army prepared to attack them suddenly by hiding in the valley.
BSBSaul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley.
OEBWhen Saul came to the city of Amalek, he lay in wait in the valley.
WEBBESaul came to the city of Amalek, and set an ambush in the valley.
NETSaul proceeded to the city of Amalek, where he set an ambush in the wadi.
LSVAnd Saul comes to a city of Amalek, and lays wait in a valley;
FBVSaul advanced on the town of Amalek and set up an ambush in the valley.
T4TThen Saul went with his army to a town where some of the Amalek people-group lived. His army prepared to attack them suddenly by hiding in the valley.
LEBThen Saul came up to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the wadi.[fn]
15:5A valley that is usually dry but contains a stream during the rainy season
BBEAnd Saul came to the town of Amalek, and took up his position in the valley secretly.
BshpsAnd Saul came vnto a citie of Amalek, and set watch in the brooke. (And Saul came unto a city of Amalek, and set watch in the brooke.)
GnvaAnd Saul came to a citie of Amalek, and set watch at the riuer. (And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and set watch at the river. )
CvdlAnd whan Saul came to the cite of the Amalechites, he set an hynder watch by the ryuer, (And when Saul came to the cite of the Amalechites, he set an hynder watch by the river,)
WycAnd whanne Saul cam to the citee of Amalech, he made redi buyschementis in the stronde. (And when Saul came to the city of Amalech, he made ready buyschementis in the stronde.)
LuthUnd da Saul kam zu der Amalekiter Stadt, machte er einen Hinterhalt am Bach (And there Saul came to the/of_the Amalekiter city, made he a Hinterhalt in/at/on_the Bach)
ClVgCumque venisset Saul usque ad civitatem Amalec, tetendit insidias in torrente. (Cumque venisset Saul until to civitatem Amalec, tetendit insidias in torrente. )
God instructed Saul to “completely destroy” the Amalekites, who had ambushed the Israelites after the Exodus (see Exod 17:8-16; Deut 25:17-19). The Hebrew word kharam (“completely destroy”) often means dedicating something or someone completely to the Lord, either by destroying it (1 Sam 15:3; Josh 6:17-18) or by giving it as an offering (see Lev 27:28-29; Josh 6:19).
Complete destruction was called for in cases where those to be destroyed had committed a severe offense against God, such as worshiping false gods (Deut 7:1-6; 13:12-18). In 1 Samuel 15:3, complete destruction is prescribed as God’s judgment on a nation that mistreated his chosen people. Those who curse God’s family are, in turn, cursed (Gen 12:3).
God still judges the godless and impenitent. But in the new covenant, Christians are not called to be agents of such judgment. God calls us to exercise his mercy toward those who wrong us (see Luke 9:51-56). We must completely destroy whatever within ourselves wars against Christ (Rom 8:12-13; Col 3:5). And we must overcome the enemies of Christ by our faith, by the Good News, and by our love (Eph 6:10-20; 1 Jn 2:9-17). God will mete out judgment according to his justice and in his time (Rom 12:19; 2 Thes 1:6-10).
Saul’s war against the Amalekites exemplifies many of the key traits–good and bad–of Saul’s leadership over Israel. Immediately before the story is recounted, the author notes that during Saul’s entire reign he fought valiantly against Israel’s enemies on every side (1 Samuel 14:47-52), and he amassed an army of skilled soldiers. Thus, Saul fulfilled one of the primary reasons the people demanded that Samuel appoint a king over them (1 Samuel 8). Then the author notes that the Lord, through Samuel, directed Saul to attack the Amalekites and utterly destroy them and their belongings as punishment for their cruel attack on the Israelites after they left Egypt to travel to Mount Sinai (Exodus 17; Deuteronomy 25:17-19). So Saul mustered a large number of troops at a place called Telaim and traveled to an otherwise unknown “city of the Amalekites” and lay in lay in wait for them in a valley. Saul also warned the Kenites, the descendants of Moses’ father-in-law Hobab (also called Jethro), to move away from the Amalekites so they would not be killed in the coming battle. It appears that the Kenites had remained on good terms with the Israelites since the time of Hobab/Jethro and accompanied them as they entered the Promised Land, eventually settling among the Amalekites in the Negev near Arad (Judges 1:16). Saul defeated the Amalekites, pursuing them “from Havilah as far as Shur,” according the the Hebrew text. The region of Havilah, however, was several hundred miles from the Negev, making it unlikely to be the place to which Saul pursued them, and this is underscored by the Septuagint’s substitution of “Elath” for “Havilah”. It is possible that the author was using this phrase as a hyperbolic merism to indicate that Saul pursued the Amalekites throughout the entire land in which they lived (see also Genesis 25:18 regarding the Ishmaelites). But since elsewhere in Scripture the Amalekites are said to live in the Negev and in southern Canaan (Genesis 14:7; Numbers 13:29; 14:45; Judges 1:16), another possibility is that the “Havilah” reading is a textual corruption. The Septuagint translators may have preserved the original reading of “Elath,” or they may have been making their best guess as to the intended location. Simply based on the similarity of spelling and the geography of the region (as shown on this map), it is possible that the original reading was “Hachilah,” a hill where David would later have some close encounters with Saul during his time in the wilderness (1 Samuel 23:19; 26:1). In any case, Saul and his men thoroughly defeated the Amalekites, but they failed to completely destroy them (see 1 Samuel 30) and their belongings. Instead they took King Agag alive and kept the best of the spoils. After this Saul traveled to Carmel and set up a monument for himself, and then he continued on to Gilgal. When Samuel arrived in Gilgal, however, he was angry with Saul for failing to devote all of the Amalekites and their goods to destruction, and he told Saul that the Lord regretted having made him king. Samuel then killed King Agag himself at Gilgal and returned to his home in Ramah. Saul returned to his home in Gibeah, but Samuel never spoke with Saul again.
