Discovery Box1 Samuel 15:3-8 
Context15:3 So go now and strike down the Amalekites. Destroy everything that they have. Don’t spare 1 them. Put them to death – man, woman, child, infant, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey alike.’”
15:4 So Saul assembled 2 the army 3 and mustered them at Telaim. There were 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men of Judah. 15:5 Saul proceeded to the city 4 of Amalek, where he set an ambush 5 in the wadi. 6 15:6 Saul said to the Kenites, “Go on and leave! Go down from among the Amalekites! Otherwise I will sweep you away 7 with them! After all, you were kind to all the Israelites when they came up from Egypt.” So the Kenites withdrew from among the Amalekites.
15:7 Then Saul struck down the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to 8 Shur, which is next to Egypt. 15:8 He captured King Agag of the Amalekites alive, but he executed all Agag’s people 9 with the sword.
1 tn Or perhaps “don’t take pity on” (cf. CEV).
2 tn Heb “caused the people to hear.”
3 tn Heb “people.”
4 tc The LXX has the plural here, “cities.”
5 tc The translation follows the LXX and Vulgate which assume a reading וַיָּאָרֶב (vayya’arev, “and he set an ambush,” from the root ארב [’rv] with quiescence of alef) rather than the MT, which has וַיָּרֶב (vayyareb, “and he contended,” from the root ריב [ryv]).
6 tn That is, “the dry stream bed.”
7 tc The translation follows the Syriac Peshitta and Vulgate which assume a reading אֶסִפְךָ (’esfÿka, “I sweep you away,” from the root ספה [sfh]) rather than the MT אֹסִפְךָ (’osifÿka, “I am gathering you,” from the root אסף[’sf]).
8 tn Heb “[as] you enter.”
9 tn Heb “all the people.” For clarity “Agag’s” has been supplied in the translation.
