Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you as king. Amalek has done much evil to Israel. Go and strike him and spare no one. Kill man and woman, children and nursing babies, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.” Saul assembled two hundred thousand footmen from Israel and ten thousand men of Judah. And Saul set an ambush in the valley. He said to the Kenites, “Depart from among the Amalekites.” Then Saul struck the Amalekites. He captured Agag the king and utterly destroyed Amalek.
But Saul did not do what the Lord had commanded, because he spared Agag and the best sheep and cattle and the fat calves and the lambs. Only for what was not of value, did he follow God’s command and destroy.