Agag

The name Agag belongs to a king — or a dynastic title — of the Amalekites. It first surfaces in Balaam's oracle as a measure of greatness Israel's king will exceed, and reappears in the Amalekite campaign of Saul, where Saul's failure to obey the ban costs him the kingdom and Samuel finishes the execution himself.

In Balaam's Oracle

Balaam's third oracle, delivered against Balak's expectation, sets the future king of Israel against an Amalekite measure: "Water will flow from his buckets, And his seed will be in many waters, And his king will be higher than Agag, And his kingdom will be exalted" (Nu 24:7). Agag here functions as a benchmark of royal height — the king of Israel rising above him.

The Amalekite Campaign and Saul's Disobedience

In the war against Amalek, the command Yahweh gives by Samuel is absolute: "Now go and strike Amalek, and completely destroy all that they have, and don't spare them; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey" (1Sa 15:3). Saul's execution of the order is partial. He takes the Amalekite king alive — "And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and completely destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword" (1Sa 15:8) — and the people spare the best of the herds: "But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and the oxen, and the seconds, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not completely destroy them: but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed completely" (1Sa 15:9).

Yahweh's verdict to Samuel is that Saul "has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments" (1Sa 15:11). When Samuel meets Saul, Saul greets him with a claim of obedience (1Sa 15:13), but the bleating sheep give him away (1Sa 15:14). Saul's defense — "they have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God" (1Sa 15:15) — turns Samuel to a direct rebuke.

Even when Saul shifts and admits "I have obeyed the voice [Speech] of Yahweh, and have gone the way which Yahweh sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have completely destroyed the Amalekites" (1Sa 15:20), the contradiction stands: the king is alive and the herds are alive. Samuel's reply is the framing verdict of the chapter: "Does Yahweh have as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in accepting [the Speech of] Yahweh? Look, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of fortune-telling, and stubbornness is as idolatry and talismans. Because you have rejected the word of Yahweh, he has also rejected you from being king" (1Sa 15:22-23). The kingdom is rent: "Yahweh has rent the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and has given it to your fellow man, who is better than you" (1Sa 15:28).

Samuel's Execution of Agag

What Saul has spared, Samuel finishes himself. The scene is brief and grim: "Then Samuel said, Bring⁺ here to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came to him cheerfully. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. And Samuel said, As your sword has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women. And Samuel cut Agag in pieces before Yahweh in Gilgal" (1Sa 15:32-33). Agag's confidence — "the bitterness of death is past" — meets Samuel's measure-for-measure pronouncement, and the execution is carried out at the same Gilgal where Saul had recently set up his trophies.