And when the king had passed by, he cried to the king, and said, Thy servant went out to fight anon, and when one man had fled, a man brought him to me, and said, Keep thou this man; and if he escapeth, thy life shall be for his life, either thou shalt pay a talent of silver.
Soothly while I was troubled, and turned me hither and thither, suddenly he appeared not. And the king of Israel said to him, This is thy doom that thou [thyself] hast deemed.
The which said to the king, The Lord saith these things, For thou deliveredest from thine hand a man worthy of death, thy life shall be for his life, and thy people for his people.
the man of God was wroth against him, and said, If thou haddest smitten five times, either six times, either seven times, thou shouldest have smitten Syria unto the ending; now forsooth thou shalt smite it three times.
soothly do not ye stand, but pursue ye the enemies, and slay ye all the last of fleers; and suffer ye not them to enter into the strongholds of their cities, the which enemies your Lord God hath betaken in your hands.
Curse ye the land of Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye the dwellers of him, for they came not to the help of the Lord, into the help of the strongest of him.
Now therefore go thou, and slay Amalek, and destroy thou all his things; spare thou not him, nor covet thou anything of his things; but slay thou from man unto woman, and little child, and sucking, ox, and sheep, and camel, and ass.
And Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best flocks of sheep, and of great beasts, and clothes, and rams, and all things that were fair; and they would not destroy those [or them]; but whatever thing was vile, and reprovable, they destroyed that thing.