1 Samuel 15:4

SAUL PARTIALLY EXECUTES GOD'S ORDER

"So Saul summoned the people, and numbered them, two hundred thousand men on foot, and ten thousand men of Judah at Telaim. And Saul came to the city of Amalek, and lay in wait in the valley. And Saul said to the Kenites, "Go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt." So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul defeated the Amalekites, from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatlings, and of the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them; all that was despised and worthless they utterly destroyed."

"Saul numbered the people ... at Telaim" (1 Samuel 15:4). This appears to be the same place as Telem (Joshua 15:24) in the land of Judah in southern Israel. That part of Israel was closest to the territory of the Amalekites.

"And Saul said to the Kenites ... `Go down from among the Amalekites'" (1 Samuel 15:6). "The Kenites were of the family and kindred of Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, a people that dwelt in tents, which made it easy for them to remove to other lands."[9] Also, a more recent consideration for Israel was in the action of Jael the wife of Heber in her destruction of Sisera. "Famous among the Kenites was Jael, whose husband Heber had migrated to north Palestine (Judges 4:11; 5:24)."[10]

"And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive" (1 Samuel 15:8). Young noted that, "The name Agag is found elsewhere only in Numbers 24:7; and it may possibly have been an hereditary title like Pharaoh)."[11] We must reject this opinion regarding an `hereditary ritle'; because, when Haman plotted to kill all the Jews on earth, he was identified as "an Agagite," indicating that he was a descendant of the king mentioned here (Esther 3:1). This also shows that Saul did not destroy "all the people" as he said he did. Many no doubt escaped, for the Bible reveals that a remnant of them was still able to wage war in the times of Hezekiah (1 Chronicles 4:43).

"And he (Saul) took Agag alive ... and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword" (1 Samuel 15:8). "All the people" in this passage is hyperbole, as when someone says, "We gave a party and everyone came."

We cannot leave this without stressing the fact that God knew what He was doing when He ordered the destruction of the Amalekites. It was one of them, Haman, a descendant of King Agag, who in the times of Esther plotted the destruction of all the Jews on earth, a plot which required the intervention of God Himself to frustrate it.