Discovery Box1 Samuel 15:18-22 
Context15:18 The Lord sent you on a campaign 1 saying, ‘Go and exterminate those sinful Amalekites! Fight against them until you 2 have destroyed them.’ 15:19 Why haven’t you obeyed 3 the Lord? Instead you have greedily rushed upon the plunder! You have done what is wrong in the Lord’s estimation.” 4
15:20 Then Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed 5 the Lord! I went on the campaign 6 the Lord sent me on. I brought back King Agag of the Amalekites after exterminating the Amalekites. 15:21 But the army took from the plunder some of the sheep and cattle – the best of what was to be slaughtered – to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
15:22 Then Samuel said,
“Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as he does in obedience? 7
Certainly, 8 obedience 9 is better than sacrifice;
paying attention is better than 10 the fat of rams.
1 tn Heb “journey.”
2 tc The translation follows the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Targum in reading the second person singular suffix (“you”) rather than the third person plural suffix of the MT (“they”).
3 tn Heb “listened to the voice of the
4 tn Heb “you have done what is evil in the eyes of the
5 tn Heb “listened to the voice of the
6 tn Heb “journey.”
7 tn Heb “as [in] listening to the voice of the
8 tn Heb “look.”
9 tn Heb “listening.”
10 tn The expression “is better” is understood here by ellipsis (see the immediately preceding statement).
