Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken…
Ezekiel 24:14 I the LORD have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; accordi…
Titus 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
2 Timothy 2:13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he can not deny himself.
Hebrews 6:18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay…
Psalms 95:11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
Joel 3:16 The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be th…
2 Corinthians 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 15:24-31
Saul is at length brought to put himself into the dress of the penitent; but it is too evident that he only acts the part of a penitent, and is not one indeed. Observe,
I. How poorly he expressed his repentance. It was with much ado that he was made sensible of his fault, and not till he was threatened with being deposed. This touched him in a tender part. Then he began to relent, and not till then. When Samuel told him he was rejected from being king, then he said, I have sinned, Sa1 15:24. His confession was not free nor ingenuous, but extorted by the rack, and forced from him. We observe here several bad signs of the hypocrisy of his repentance, and that it came short even of Ahab's. 1. H…
the Strength of Israel will not lie--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.
Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 15:29
The Strength of Israel will not lie - What God has purposed he will bring to pass, for he has all power in the heavens and in the earth; and he will not repent - change his purpose - concerning thee.
We may say it was some extenuation of Saul's fault that the people insisted on preserving the best of the prey; for who could resist the demands of a victorious mob? But his crime was in consenting; had he not, the crime would have been theirs alone.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 15:29
And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent,.... Neither of the evil which he had threatened to Saul in taking away the kingdom from him; nor of the good which he had promised to David in giving it to him; nor of his purpose and promise to Israel to protect and defend them, save and deliver them from the Philistines, and continue them a nation and kingdom: and for the confirmation of all this, this title or character of the Lord is given, "the Strength of Israel"; hence he cannot lie, which is the effect of weakness; nor repent or change his mind, as men do, when something unforeseen arises, which hinders the execution of their first design, and which through weakness they cannot…
The Church Fathers
32. For who is to be understood by the name of this triumphant one, except the Creator of the human race? For whoever overcomes hidden adversaries conquers by His power, who bestows upon him the grace of overcoming temptation. What does it mean that the triumphant one is said not to spare, when Samuel is being entreated? Because when preachers grow angry at sinning subjects, when they strike the proud or the dissolute with divine judgment, they do not act by the impulse of their own fury, but carry out the decision of the divine will. As if he were clearly saying: I indeed pronounced not my own sentence, but His, whose decree, once issued, cannot be revoked. Therefore He does not spare, and is not moved by repentance—but toward those who can neither cease from their sins nor repent of the sins they love. And adding the reason, he says: (Verse 29.) "For He is not a man, that He should repent." As if to say: His very being belongs to Him in whom there is no changeableness. By the name of the triumphant one, the perfection of the substitute king can also be designated, who was destined to have the glory of many triumphs and who would not dare to spare anyone against the will of the Creator. Whence also in this very same book it is written of him: "And David struck the whole land, and left alive neither man nor woman" (1 Kings 27:9). Of him also it is said: "For He is not a man, that He should repent." For what is designated in this place by "man," except one subject to carnal passions? As if he were still stinging the proud one, saying: You now repent of your sins when you receive the sentence upon your boldness; but he will not repent who, being a man, is not subject to disobedience and pride. And Saul still confesses with his mouth, saying: (Verse 30.) "I have sinned." But he reveals the quality of that confession...
Furthermore, the triumpher in Israel will not relent, etc. He who, he says, alone—indeed, all of Israel—by his grace made you triumph while fighting against Amalek, he will not spare you either, who are transgressing his word; for the more you received the power to conquer not by your own strength but from heaven, the less excusable you will be shown in preserving the anathema. Because as Moses says: The war against Amalek is the Lord's alone (Exod. XVII); and: I shall erase the memory of Amalek from under heaven (Ibid.). This same sentiment is to be understood in spiritual warfare, where we endanger ourselves the more by sparing our enemies, that is, by indulging in vices, owing to the greater grace of our Author which we daily receive for the remission and forgiveness of sins. We should fear that we ourselves, too complacent in our pursuit of heavenly vision, might deserve to hear along with Saul, Because the triumpher in Israel will not relent; that is, the one who has granted the gift of victory in many cases to incite you to thanksgiving and diligence in living, will also condemn you to severe examination by his court's decree in the end. Some believe that the saying, Furthermore, the triumpher in Israel will not relent, does not refer to the Lord, but to him of whom it was previously said, And he will give it to your neighbor, better than you; which namely means that since David took power of the kingdom, he would not spare either the house of Saul or foreign enemies ordered by the Lord to be slaughtered. This they interpret morally, that our neighbors who are better than us strive to extinguish the vices they notice in us with utmost effort, lest they themselves fall into the same pit of transgression into which they miserably observe others slipping. But what follows, And he will not be swayed by repentance, signifies the eternal and immutable judgment of the Lord that he has threatened. Furthermore, what is added, For he is not a man, that he should repent, clearly indicates that where it is said that God repented, it does not mean a changeable nature in the divine substance, where there is no change or shadow of turning, but a form of speech adapted to humans, tempered by human manner. Therefore, God does not repent of any of his covenants like a man, for his judgment on all things is as fixed as his presence is sure.
Dictionary and topics
Agag — Flame, the usual title of the Amalekite kings, as “Pharaoh” was of the Egyptian. (1.) A king of the Amalekites referred to by Balaam (Num. 24:7). He lived at the time of the Exodus. (2.) Another king…
Garrison — (1.) Heb. matstsab, a station; a place where one stands (1 Sam. 14:12); a military or fortified post (1 Sam. 13:23; 14:1, 4, 6, etc.). (2.) Heb. netsib, a prefect, superintendent; hence a military…
Samuel — Heard of God. The peculiar circumstances connected with his birth are recorded in 1 Sam. 1:20. Hannah, one of the two wives of Elkanah, who came up to Shiloh to worship before the Lord, earnestly…
Saul — Asked for. (1.) A king of Edom (Gen. 36:37, 38); called Shaul in 1 Chr. 1:48. (2.) The son of Kish (probably his only son, and a child of prayer, “asked for”), of the tribe of Benjamin, the first…
Amalekites · General references — General references
Apostasy · .Saul — .Saul
Church And State · .Reproves rulers — .Reproves rulers
Kings · When first established in Israel, not hereditary — When first established in Israel, not hereditary
Repentance · 2:18; — 2:18;
Reproof · .Samuel, of Saul — .Samuel, of Saul
Self-Righteousness · .Saul — .Saul
Strength · A title given to Jehovah — A title given to Jehovah
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
This request Samuel refused, repeating at the same time the sentence of rejection, and turned to depart. "Then Saul laid hold of the lappet of his mantle (i.e., his upper garment), and it tore" (lit. was torn off). That the Niphal ויּקּרע is correct, and is not to be altered into אתהּ ויּקרע, "Saul tore off the lappet," according to the rendering of the lxx, as Thenius supposes, is evident from the explanation which Samuel gave of the occurrence (Sa1 15:28): "Jehovah hath torn the sovereignty of Israel from thee to-day, and given it to thy neighbour, who is better than thou." As Saul was about to hold back the prophet by force, that he might obtain from him a revocation of the divine sentenc…
nor will he change his mind: Samuel spoke prophetically of God’s commitment to make David king and to preserve his dynasty. God had rejected Saul, but he would never reject David (see 2 Sam 7:8-17).
Rashi on 1 Samuel 15:29
But, the Eternal One of Yisroel neither lies. And if you will say, 'I will repent of my sin before Him,' it will no longer avail to take the kingship from the one to whom it was given, for the Holy One, Blessed is He, Who is the Eternal One of Yisroel, will not lie by not giving the good to whom He said to give it.
