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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Samuel 15:1 - 15:1
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The account of the war against the Amalekites is a very condensed one, and is restricted to a description of the conduct of Saul on that occasion. Without mentioning either the time or the immediate occasion of the war, the narrative commences with the command of God which Samuel solemnly communicated to Saul, to go and exterminate that people. Samuel commenced with the words, “Jehovah sent me to anoint thee to be king over His people, over Israel,” in order to show to Saul the obligation which rested upon him to receive his commission as coming from God, and to proceed at once to fulfil it. The allusion to the anointing points back not to 1Sa 11:15, but to 1Sa 10:1.
1Sa 15:2
“Thus saith the Lord of Zebaoth, I have looked upon what Amalek did to Israel, that it placed itself in his way when he came up out of Egypt” (Exo 17:8). Samuel merely mentions this first outbreak of hostility on the part of Amalek towards the people of Israel, because in this the same disposition was already manifested which now made the people ripe for the judgment of extermination (vid., Exo 17:14). The hostility which they had now displayed, according to 1Sa 15:33, there was no necessity for the prophet to mention particularly, since it was well known to Saul and all Israel. When God looks upon a sin, directs His glance towards it, He must punish it according to His own holiness. This פָּקַדְתִּי points at the very outset to the punishment about to be proclaimed.
1Sa 15:3
Saul is to smite and ban everything belonging to it without reserve, i.e., to put to death both man and beast. The last clause וגו :Hebrew}ht@fmah'w; is only an explanation and exemplification of וגו וְהַחֲרַמְתֶּם. “From man to woman,” etc., i.e., men and women, children and sucklings, etc.