Afternoon Repost 1 Samuel 15: Saul Spares That Pitted for Destruction
1 Samuel also said to Saul, “The LORD sent me to anoint you king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore, heed the voice of the words of the LORD. 2 Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. 3 Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”
Yahweh had told Abram: "I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you." (Genesis 12:3a) Amalek was a descendant of Abram. He “descended from Esau. Genesis 36:2-4. 1 Chronicles 1:36. Therefore he was related to Israel, and had apostatized from the best of paternal examples in Isaac. Now, this subtle nation, instead of rejoicing at the emancipation of his brother from Egypt, and adoring God in His works, laid in ambush, and smote the aged, the sick, and the weak who were hindmost in the route. Exodus 17:14; 16.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)— “too weak to keep up with the rest. (Deut. 25:18)” (Adam Clarke)
“I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel...” etc.— “the complete extermination of the Amalekites, persons and property, as a righteous judgment of the holy God.. is enjoined on Saul.” (Lange) This was one of the things the Israelites were obliged to do when they came into the land of Canaan, but had left it undone. They were to “blot out the name and memory of Amalek, see Deuteronomy 25:19 ‘and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not’; all were to be devoted to destruction, and nothing remain to be made use of in any way, to any profit and advantage; living creatures were to be put to death, and everything else burnt and destroyed: ‘but slay both men and women, infant and suckling’; neither sex nor age were to be regarded, no mercy and pity shown to any; they had shown none to Israel when weak and feeble, and by the law of retaliation none was to be exercised on them: ‘ox and sheep, camel and ass’; though useful creatures, yet not to be spared.” (John Gill)
“Nothing could justify such an exterminating decree but the absolute authority of God. This was given: all the reasons of it we do not know; but this we know well, ‘The Judge of all the earth doth right.’
This war was not for plunder, for God commanded that all the property as well as all the people should be destroyed.” (Adam Clarke)
4 So Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men of Judah. 5 And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and lay in wait in the valley. 6 Then Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart, get down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
Saul amassed a great army of Israel and Judah. Then he said to the Kenites, “Go, depart, get down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the children of Israel...” etc. “some of your progenitors did so, Exodus 18:12 Numbers 10:31, and for their sakes all of you shall fare the better. You were not guilty of that sin for which Amalek is now to be destroyed.” (Matthew Poole)
The Kenites were inhabitants of Canaan prior to the possession of Israel and had been pitted for destruction but were spared for the aid given by Hobab, son of Reuel, who was their guide in the wilderness (Numbers 10:29-31). Thus the Kenites are no longer listed among the enemies of Israel. They “are not included in the parallel statement from Moses' day (Ex 3:17). The apparent reason for this is a more favorable relationship with Israel by that time. That Israel continued to accord special treatment to the Kenites is clear from 1 Samuel 15:6. When Saul mobilized his army against the Amalekites, he gave a warning before the attack." (Tyndale)
7 And Saul attacked the Amalekites, from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8 He also took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.
Saul smote the Amalekites and utterly destroyed the people, as commanded— “So many as he could well come at; for many made escape, and they were still a nation in David’s days, retaining their old hatred and hostility against God’s Israel, derived to them from Esau their progenitor, and first founder. [1 Chronicles 1:36] See 1 Samuel 27:8; 1 Samuel 30:1.” (Trapp). I wonder of the difference in outcome of the battle, if king Saul and the men of Israel and Judah had not had a lustful eye. “His own view of the proper and expedient course to follow was his rule, not the command of God.” (Jameison-Faussett-Brown) Everything they despised as worthless, they utterly destroyed. “Our judgments, how apt are they to be those of the world at large rather than of God,— in the light of nature rather than of the sanctuary!” (Numerical Bible)
“But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them.” — "If Saul spare Agag, the people will take liberty to spare the best of the spoil... They should have done as they did once at Jericho. [Joshua 6:17] But the dust of covetousness had put out their eyes; neither was it godliness, - as they pretended, - but gain, that made them so to fly upon the spoil. [1 Samuel 15:19]." (John Trapp)
“Observe how the character of the transaction was wholly changed by this circumstance. Instead of wearing the aspect of a solemn retribution on a sinful nation, on a people laden with iniquity, all the more impressive because the ministers of God's vengeance abstained from appropriating a vestige of the property, but consigned the whole, like a plague-stricken mass, too polluted to be touched, to the furnace of destruction - instead of this, it just appeared like an ordinary unprincipled foray, in which the victorious party slew the other, mainly to get them out of the way and enable them without opposition to appropriate their goods.”
(Expositor's Bible Commentary)
Afternoon Repost: 1 Samuel 15: Saul’s Monument
10 Now the word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying, 11 “I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.” And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the LORD all night. 12 So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul went to Carmel, and indeed, he set up a monument for himself; and he has gone on around, passed by, and gone down to Gilgal.” 13 Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the LORD! I have performed the commandment of the LORD.” 14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” 15 And Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.” 16 Then Samuel said to Saul, "Stop! I will tell you what the LORD said to me this night." And he said to him, "Say on."
“This is Saul’s [great] victory and also his [greater] defeat... Saul... conquered Agag, but disobeyed God. And so the glory of his victory is lost in the darkness of his defeat. A man may conquer the greatest of earth’s kings, but his life is a consummate failure if he disobeys the King of kings...” (Charles E. Jefferson) even the Word of Yahweh.
The Word of Yahweh said— “‘I greatly regret,’ — ‘It repenteth me’— ‘that I have set up Saul,’ that is, I placed him on the throne; I intended, if he had been obedient, to have established his kingdom. He has been disobedient; I change my purpose, and the kingdom shall not be established in his family.” (Clarke) As before the flood— “’it repented the LORD that he had made man’ (Genesis 6:6) [and thus He unmade or destroyed unredeemed man]. This... reflects the location of the change, not in God, but in men.” (Coffman) “God's purpose will be finally carried out, but each special instrument, if it prove unworthy, will be laid aside. This change of administration is always described in Scriptural language as God's repentance, possibly because the phrase contains also the idea of the Divine grief over the rebellious sinner.” (The Pulpit Commentary)
“‘And it” also “grieved Samuel” for he had the heart of God. “Many grave thoughts seem to have presented themselves at once to Samuel, and to have disturbed his mind when he reflected on the dishonour which would be inflicted upon the name of God, and the occasion which the rejection and deposition of Saul would furnish to wicked men for blaspheming the invisible King of Israel... ‘And he cried unto the LORD all night.—This was, no doubt, that ‘piercing shrill cry’ peculiar to Samuel.“(C. J. Ellicott) Perhaps he could intercede for the king of Israel. But the next morning no place for repentance was found in the heart of the man.
“So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul went to Carmel,”— “not Mount Carmel, of which Joshua 12:22, but another mountain or town in the tribe of Judah, of which see Joshua 15:55.” (Poole)— “and indeed, he set up a monument for himself”—"And this may be here noted by way of censure, that he set it not to God’s honour, but to himself, i.e. to his own praise; which he minded in the first place.” (Matthew Poole) — a custom which was “universal among all the gentile nations. Joshua 22:10.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) The remnant of Israel set up monuments to Yahweh, their God.
And Saul passed by down to Gilgal— the place where he had once pledged to unconditional obedience to the covenant of God.
“Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, ‘Blessed are you of the LORD!’ a greeting of hypocritical friendliness; ‘I have performed the commandment of the Lord’, a calm assurance intended to throw sand into Samuel's eyes.” (Paul E. Kretzmann) He justified himself in thinking that he had "performed” the “main and substance” of “the command,” “to wit, the extirpation of that wicked people.” (Matthew Poole)
“Self-will and rashness have hitherto been Saul's chief faults. He now seems to add falsehood and hypocrisy." (Biblical Commentary)
“He gives good words, when his deeds were evil.“ (Trapp) “And we behold in Saul, what every man's heart is void of grace, full of excuses and justifying pretences, like the first sinners in Eden, to soften their transgressions.“ (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary)
“‘And Samuel,’ losing no time in unmasking the hypocrisy of Saul, ‘said, What meaneth, then, this bleating of the sheep in mine ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”(Paul E. Kretzmann) “The noise the cattle made, like the rust of the silver, James 5:3, witnessed against him. Many boast of obedience to the command of God; but what means then their indulgence of the flesh, their love of the world, their angry and unkind spirit, and their neglect of holy duties, which witness against them?” (Matthew Henry) They hate not the sin, but rather the sinner in direct violation of the commandments, but also love his mammon.
“And Saul— seeking justification— said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God.” “Was Saul not king? Did he not give the people clear orders as from God that ALL the animals were to be destroyed? It is clearly evident that Saul agreed with the people's desire to spare the sheep and oxen.” (L. M. Grant)— to offer as a thank-offering to the Lord, which was reserved for innocent sacrifices, but these animals served the Amalekites. They were ALL unclean. "The falsehood and hypocrisy of these words lay upon the very surface; for even if the cattle spared were really intended as sacrifices to the Lord, not only the people, but Saul also, would have had their own interests in view, since the flesh of thank-offerings was appropriated to sacrificial meals.” (Keil & Delitzsch)— “and the rest we have utterly destroyed” as commanded.
Being no place for repentance. “Then Samuel said unto Saul, ‘Stay,’ he should desist from lying excuses, ‘and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night.’ And he said unto him, ‘Say on.’” (Paul Kretzmann)
1 Samuel 15: Saul‘s Calling Revoked
17 So Samuel said, “When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the LORD anoint you king over Israel? 18 Now the LORD sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the LORD?”
“When you were little in your own eyes,”— “i.e. modest, humble, and submissive, as 1 Samuel 9:21 10:22;.” (Poole) — “were you not head of the tribes of Israel?” — “not of his own tribe only, which was the least, but of all the tribes." (John Gill) But "now he was grown proud, and stubborn, and impudent, both to commit sin and justify it." (Matthew Poole) "And did not the LORD anoint you king over Israel?" Therefore Saul's business should have been "to rule and govern them, guide and direct them in the right way, and restrain them from that which was evil; and since he was anointed by the Lord, and not by the people, he ought to have obeyed Him, and not regarded the pleasure of them.” (John Gill)
20 And Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.”22 So Samuel said: “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king.”
“And Saul said to Samuel, ‘But I have obeyed...’ etc.” Paul basically says: I went on your mission! “Do you reproach me thus because I have obeyed you? See, there is Agag in proof of our victory; and if the people have spared the cattle, it was with the best of intentions.” (The Pulpit Commentaries) — to sacrifice to Yahweh your God. He blames the people a second time. "But the people took of the plunder... etc."
So Samuel answered saying: “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD?’ “By saying this, Samuel did not reject sacrifices as worthless; he did not say that God took no pleasure in burnt-offerings and slain-offerings, but simply compared sacrifice with obedience to the command of God, and pronounced the latter of greater worth than the former.” (Keil & Delitzsch) Obedience to the commands of God is “the end [purpose] of all religion, of its rites, ceremonies, and sacrifices.” (Adam Clarke)
“Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.”— “It is much easier to bring a bullock or lamb to be burned upon the altar, than to bring every high thought into obedience to God, and to make our will subject to his will.” (Matthew Henry) “In true religion conduct and character come before the external observances of worship, especially those which have no intrinsic spiritual value.” (Arthur Peake) “This… should be considered most carefully by all those whose churchgoing is a matter of mere routine.”(Paul E. Kretzmann)
“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,” “because it dethroneth God, as it were, and setteth up self in his place.” (John Trapp)— “He who sets up his own will against the will of God offends, as he who sets up an idol and a seraphim.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) — “‘and stubbornness’, in refusing to obey God's commands, ’is as iniquity and idolatry’, in which the living God is denied and rejected.” (Paul E Kretzmann)
Saul obeyed in part, but God accepts only total obedience. “There is nothing strange or unreasonable in this. If a human ruler gives a command, he will not be satisfied if the person to whom he gives it obeys it just so far as it suits his convenience or agrees with his fancy and no farther. Anything less than a whole obedience is no obedience in the estimation of a fellow-creature. If a soldier receives an order from his general to execute a certain military movement, he is not expected to consult his own wishes or his own judgment, but he must sink his own will entirely in the will of his superior, and fulfil his command to the very letter.” (Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary)
The charge against Saul is willful disobedience to God's command. Likewise, the Jews as a whole eventually stumbled, "being disobedient to the Word, to which they also were appointed." (1 Peter 2:8) Will you also stumble? “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” (Revelation 14:12)
If a man is not open to biblical reproof, he “is therefore opening the door for Satan, for he is virtually closing the door against God's Word.
This is the very reason for the flood of evil with which the world is filled today, which is all too sadly seen even in the professing church. Then God's sentence against Saul is pronounced with irrevocable solemnity. Because he had rejected the Word of the Lord (not merely that he had misunderstood it), then the Lord had rejected him from reigning as king of Israel.” (L. M. Grantt) If you know a truth of God yet walk not in it, your calling will likewise eventually be revoked. You may do work, but they are not His works. You will be rejected of God.
1 Samuel 15: Saul Lacked Faith in The Strength of Israel
24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. 25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and return with me, that I may worship the LORD.” 26 But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.”
If something is clearly scriptural- proclaimed by the law and the prophets, there is no need for human consultation, but Saul listened to the voice of the multitude. Now he said, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of Yahweh”— not I have sinned against Yahweh— “and your words.” — “It seems, too, as if it were Samuel whom he feared more than Jehovah; for he speaks of ‘thy words’, and asks Samuel to pardon his sin, and to grant him the favour of his public presence with him at the sacrifice which was about to be celebrated in honour of their triumph..” (The Pulpit Commentary) This was not faith based repentance. “It was merely lip repentance arising from his fear of losing the kingdom.” (Keil & Delitzsch)— “‘Because I feared the people’ (1 Sam. 15:24). Saul was still blaming the people. In his view, `His Majesty' had done nothing wrong, only the people had sinned. Saul's response to God's prophet's confronting him with his sin should be contrasted with that of David when Nathan confronted him with his sin.” (Burton Coffman)— “I have sinned against the LORD.” (2 Sam. 12:7) “O LORD, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes; Make Your way straight before me.” (Psa. 5:8) Also compare it to Jonathan’s response to God’s righteous judgment: "So now I must die!"- (1 Sam. 14:42).
“Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and return with me, that I may worship Yahweh," “by offering sacrifice, either in thankfulness for the victory obtained, or to atone for his sin, and seek pardon for it, or both; this he thought would be a motive and inducement to Samuel to go along with him.” (John Gill) “Thus sinners under the gospel are mightily well pleased, if they can carry on an outward appearance with men: little considering how to make peace with Him that readeth the heart.” (Hawkers Comm.) We are to worship together until the end-time when the Lord Jesus will return in glory and separate the wheat from the chaff.
But Samuel said to Saul, "I will not return with you" -for Yahweh is not with you- "for you have rejected the word of Yahweh, and Yahweh has rejected you from being king over Israel." “which is repeated from 1 Samuel 15:23 for the confirmation of it, and to let Saul know that his pretended confession and repentance had made no alteration in the decree and sentence of God respecting the kingdom.” (John Gill)
King Saul was concerned more with public appearance. “He would fashionably serve that God, whom yet he careth not to reconcile by sound repentance.” (John Trapp) “He did not really acknowledge his guilt, but wanted the good will of Samuel again, lest he be publicly rejected and ousted from his position of king, a disgrace which he felt would be all the harder to bear since he had already been told that the position of king would not be hereditary in his family, 1Samuel 13:14.” (The Popular Commentary by Paul E. Kretzmann)
27 And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore. 28 So Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. 29 And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that He should relent.”
“And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore.” “... Saul was frantic and determined, if possible, to reverse the situation [by his own might], by grabbing hold of Samuel's garment to detain him. The garment was torn.” (Burton Coffman)
So Samuel said to him, “Yahweh has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today…”—“The prophet at once looks upon the garment torn by the passionate vehemence of the king, as an omen for the future, and uses the rent vesture as a symbol, to show Saul that thus had the Lord on that day rent the kingdom from him.” (C. J. Ellicott)—
“and has given it to a neighbor of yours,”— “another Israelite; for the word neighbour is used both ways; or rather, one of the neighbouring tribe, even Judah, whose inheritance did not only join to that of Benjamin, but was partly mixed with it.” (Poole)— “who is better than you”, even David— a little shepherd boy, yet a man after God’s own heart.
“And also the Strength of Israel ”— “Hebrew, ‘He that gives a victory to Israel,’ a further rebuke of his pride in rearing the Carmel trophy, and an intimation that no loss would be sustained in Israel by his rejection.” (Jameison-Faussett-Brown)— “will not lie nor relent for He is not a man, that He should relent.” This was his great sin. He did not attribute the victory to Yahweh. You must come through faith, via repentance, and then sacrifice. “God is ever the ‘Changeless One of Israel.’ ‘The counsel of the Lord stands for ever’ (Psa. 33:11). ‘I am Jehovah; I change not’ (Mal. 3:6).” (C. J. Ellicott) Enter ye through the Door of Jesus, through His blood, by repentance and applying of His blood through baptism. (Acts 2:38) “Saul was so concerned with appearance. Men are fickle and alter their minds, feeble and cannot effect their purposes; something happens they could not foresee, by which their measures are broken; but with God it is not so. 'The Strength of Israel will not lie.'” (Matthew Henry)
Yeshua- Yah is Savior- answered, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6)
1 Samuel 15 Two Judgments; Two Deaths— Physical and Spiritual
30 Then he said, “I have sinned; yet honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may worship the LORD your God.” 31 So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul worshiped the LORD. 32 Then Samuel said, “Bring Agag king of the Amalekites here to me.” So Agag came to him cautiously. And Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” 33 But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal. 34 Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house at Gibeah of Saul. 35 And Samuel went no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul, and the LORD regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.
“Then he said, “I have sinned; yet honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may worship Yahweh your God.” “If Saul had been really penitent, he would pray to have been humble rather than to be honoured.” (St. Gregory, quoted by Wordsworth) “So Samuel turned back after Saul,” according to his request, and “Saul worshiped Yahweh.”
Samuel went “not to worship along with him; but first, that the people might have no ground, on pretense of Saul‘s rejection, to withdraw their allegiance from him.” (Jameison-Faussett-Brown) He was still their desired king and it would be sinful for them not to obey him.
Samuel attended worship with Saul that day “‘for the purpose of preserving the outward order until a new king should take his place’ (O. v. Gerlach) but also to carry out the ban upon Agag, whom Saul had spared.” (Keil & Delitzsch Commentary) “Then Samuel said,
‘Bring Agag king of the Amalekites here to me.’ “
“So Agag came to him cautiously.” — “‘delicately”- Strong says the Hebrew word ‘delicately’ ( מַעֲדָן) (H 4574) used as an adverb means, ‘cheerfully.’” (Everett's Study Notes) “He came not like an offender, expecting the sentence of death, but in that garb and gesture which became his quality.” (Poole) And Agag said, ‘Surely the bitterness of death is past.’” (32) “The wicked when nearest misery, are oft in greatest security: as here Agag.” (John Trapp) He must have expected the king and prophet to be one in purpose. “I who have escaped death from the hands of a warlike prince in the fury of battle, shall certainly never suffer death from an old prophet in time of peace.” (Matthew Poole)
“But Samuel said, ‘As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.’” “Samuel passed the sentence, being a judge, of blood for blood.” (Sutcliffe) “The law specified that devoted things could neither be sold nor redeemed, but must be put to death (Leviticus 27:28,29); and Samuel honored God's commandment,’ (John T. Willis) by this execution of Agag…” (Coffman Commentary)
“And Samuel hewed— as Numbers 25:7,8; 1 Kings 18:40; Isaiah 34:6; Jeremiah 48:10” (Treasury of Bible Knowledge)— "Agag in pieces...“ “Samuel thus executed the חרם chērem 1 Samuel 15:3 which Saul had violated…” (Albert Barnes) “with his own hands likely, as Phinehas stabbed Zimri, and Elias slew the Baalites, not out of a desire of revenge, but a zeal for justice.” (John Trapp)— “before Yahweh in Gilgal.”
And Saul had grieved the Spirit of God and He left him.
“‘Then Samuel went to Ramah,’ to his home; ‘and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.’” (The Popular Commentary by Paul E. Kretzmann) “‘And Samuel came no more to see Saul ‘- They had now nothing in common. Their views and principles were widely dissimilar. They sought not the same ends, and they used very different means.” (The Biblical Illustrator) “The Hebrew is, ‘saw him no more,’ i.e., did not visit him.” (Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary) “In 1 Samuel 19:23 Saul comes to Samuel at Naioth;” (Peake) but Samuel never went to Saul again. “It means he came no more to him from the Lord. Saul was rejected in the Lord's will, and his servant had, therefore, no more message for him.” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary)
“Nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul,” “i.e. as for one dead.” (E.W. Bullinger) Likewise, “Jerusalem was carnally secure while Christ wept over it.” (Mathew Henry) Samuel had promised to never cease to pray for Saul (1 Samuel 12:23) but we do not here read of him keeping that covenant. God had left him. He was the people’s king but not Yahweh’s. “Although Samuel had loved Saul, yet, since the latter had now been rejected as king, he could do nothing to effect a change of heart in him. A feigned repentance is the climax of hypocrisy and only tends to confirm the Lord's sentence of rejection.” (The Popular Commentary)
“The last phrase, ‘the LORD repented Him that He had made Saul king over Israel, does not infer that God had made a mistake in doing so, but rather His regret because of Saul's proving himself unfit for this position… His regret was because He felt deeply the sorrow of the consequences… Thank God that He has wisdom, power and grace to bring in afterwards what will far transcend the tragic failure of man and provide infinitely greater blessing in exchange!” (L. M. Grant)