1 Samuel 15:20-23 NIV

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - 1 Samuel 15:23

sin. Hebrew. chata'. App-44 . witchcraft = divination or necromancy; i.e. dealings with spirits. iniquity . Hebrew. 'aven. App-44 . read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - 1 Samuel 15:22-26

1 Samuel 15:22-26. And Samuel said, Hath the Lord, &c.— The excision of the Amalekites, and the rejection of Saul for omitting to fulfil the commission given to him, have been objected to by free-thinkers. I. With respect to the first, there was God's express order for it: and what can we desire more than an order from heaven? As to God's dealings with nations in the way of vindictive justice, we are not competent judges of every case, because we have not the whole of the matter laid before... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - 1 Samuel 15:1-35

5. Yahweh’s final rejection of Saul ch. 15"In the short pericope 1 Samuel 13:7-15 a obedience was the stone on which Saul stumbled; here it is the rock that crushes him." [Note: Ibid., p. 142.] Chapter 15 records one of the battles Saul fought with the Amalekites, Israel’s enemy to the south (cf. 1 Samuel 14:48). The Amalekites were descendants of Esau (Genesis 36:12; 1 Chronicles 1:36) and, therefore, linked with the Edomites. They were nomads who lived principally in southern Canaan and the... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - 1 Samuel 15:2-35

III. SAMUEL AND SAUL 7:2-15:35This third major part of 1 Samuel contains three subsections: Samuel’s ministry as Israel’s judge (1 Samuel 7:2-17), the kingship given to Saul (chs. 8-12), and the kingship removed from Saul (chs. 13-15). The main point seems to be Israel’s unjustified dissatisfaction with her sovereign God and its awful consequences. In spite of His people’s rejection, the Lord continued to show them mercy and faithfulness. read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Samuel 15:1-35

Saul’s Victory over Amalek. His Disobedience and RejectionAmalek had attacked Israel at Rephidim (Exodus 17:8) and opposed their entrance into Canaan (Numbers 14:45: cp. Deuteronomy 25:7; They are mentioned as allies of the Midianites in Judges 7:12. The Amalekite nomads probably occupied a large tract of the wilderness S. of Judah. This chapter evidently comes from a different source from the preceding, which concludes the history of Saul. It forms the connexion between the history of Saul and... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - 1 Samuel 15:20

(20) Yea, I have obeyed . . .—These and the words which follow are simply a repetition of the king’s former excuse for his act: but they show us what was the state of Saul’s mind: he evidently disbelieved in the power of the Eternal as a heart reader. If he could justify himself before Samuel, that was all he cared for. He asserted his own integrity of purpose and his great zeal for the public sacrifice to God, knowing all the while that low earthly reasons had been the springs of his conduct.... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - 1 Samuel 15:22

(22) Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.—In this answer it would seem that the Spirit of the Lord descended upon Samuel, and that he here gave utterance to one of those rapt expressions which now and again in the course of each of these Hebrew prophets’ lives these famous men were commissioned by the Divine power to give out to their fellows. The words of Samuel here were reproduced, or at least referred to, by other prophets and teachers of the old dispensation; for example, see Psalms... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - 1 Samuel 15:23

(23) For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.—Witchcraft, more literally soothsaying or divination, was a sin constantly held up to reprobation in the Old Testament. It was the greatest of all the dangers to which Israel was exposed, and was in fact a tampering with the idol-worship of the surrounding nations. Impurity, and an utter lack of all the loftier principles of morality which the one true God and His chosen servants would impress on the peoples of the East, characterised the various... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - 1 Samuel 15:1-35

Obedience 1 Samuel 15:10-23 Obedience is a sacrifice better, because more profound than any other sacrifice can be. 'It is much easier,' Matthew Henry remarks, 'to bring a bullock or a lamb to be burnt upon the altar than to bring every high thought into obedience to God, and make the will subject to His will.' Sacrifice is as the presents which Hiram sent to Solomon; but obedience is like the artist whom he sent to remain in Jerusalem and do the finest work of the Temple for obedience is a... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 15:1-35

CHAPTER XXI.THE FINAL REJECTION OF SAUL1 Samuel 15:1-35.HERE we find the second portion of God’s indictment against Saul, and the reason for his final rejection from the office to which he had been raised. There is no real ground for the assertion of some critics that in this book we have two accounts of Saul’s rejection, contradictory one of the other, because a different ground is asserted for it in the one case from that assigned in the other. The first rejection (1 Samuel 13:13-14) was the... read more

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - 1 Samuel 15:23

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - 1 Samuel 15:22-26

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - 1 Samuel 15:1-35

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - 1 Samuel 15:2-35

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Samuel 15:1-35

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - 1 Samuel 15:20

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - 1 Samuel 15:22

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - 1 Samuel 15:23

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - 1 Samuel 15:1-35

Expositor's Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 15:1-35

Group of Brands