1 Samuel 15:3 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Samuel 15:3
Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
to strike (lightly or severely · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
Amalek
עֲמָלֵ֗ק'a.ma.Lek
H6002
Amalek · proper noun, a place name
destroy
וְהַֽחֲרַמְתֶּם֙ve.ha.cha.ram.Tem
H2763
to seclude · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
spare
תַחְמֹ֖לtach.Mol
H2550
to commiserate · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
slay
וְהֵמַתָּ֞הve.he.ma.Tah
H4191
to die (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
man
מֵאִ֣ישׁme.'Ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
woman
אִשָּׁ֗ה'i.Shah
H802
a woman · noun, common feminine singular absolute
infant
מֵֽעֹלֵל֙me.'o.Lel
H5768
a suckling · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
suckling
יוֹנֵ֔קyo.Nek
H3243
to suck · noun, common masculine singular absolute
ox
מִשּׁ֣וֹרmi.Shor
H7794
a bullock (as a traveller) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
sheep
שֶׂ֔הSeh
H7716
a member of a flock · noun, common both genders singular absolute
camel
מִגָּמָ֖לmi.ga.Mal
H1581
a camel · preposition + noun, common both genders singular absolute
ass
חֲמֽוֹרcha.Mor
H2543
a male ass (from its dun red) · noun, common both genders singular absolute
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 24:20 And when he looked on Amalek, he took up his parable, and said, Amalek was the first of the nations; but his latter end shall be that he per…
Deuteronomy 20:16-18 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
Numbers 31:17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.
1 Samuel 22:19 And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen, and asses, and…
Isaiah 14:21-22 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the…
Leviticus 27:28-29 Notwithstanding no devoted thing, that a man shall devote unto the LORD of all that he hath, both of man and beast, and of the field of his…
Joshua 6:17-21 And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with…
Genesis 3:17-18 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 15:1-9
Here, I. Samuel, in God's name, solemnly requires Saul to be obedient to the command of God, and plainly intimates that he was now about to put him upon a trial, in one particular instance, whether he would be obedient or no, Sa1 15:1. And the making of this so expressly the trial of his obedience did very much aggravate his disobedience. 1. He reminds him of what God had done for him: "The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be a king. God gave thee thy power, and therefore he expects thou shouldst use thy power for him. He put honour upon thee, and now thou must study how to do him honour. He made thee king over Israel, and now thou must plead Israel's cause and avenge their quarrels. Thou art…
Amalek--the powerful tribe which inhabited the country immediately to the eastward of the northern Cushites. Their territory extended over the whole of the eastern portion of the desert of Sinai to Rephidim--the earliest opponent (Deu 25:18; Exo 17:8-16) --the hereditary and restless enemy of Israel (Num 14:45; Jdg 3:13; Jdg 6:3), and who had not repented (Sa1 14:48) of their bitter and sleepless hatred during the five hundred years that had elapsed since their doom was pronounced. Being a people of nomadic habits, they were as plundering and dangerous as the Bedouin Arabs, particularly to the southern tribes. The national interest required, and God, as KING OF ISRAEL, decreed that this publ…
Slay both man and woman - Nothing could justify such an exterminating decree but the absolute authority of God. This was given: all the reasons of it we do not know; but this we know well, The Judge of all the earth doth right. This war was not for plunder, for God commanded that all the property as well as all the people should be destroyed.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 15:3
Now go and smite Amalek,.... This was one of the three things the Israelites were obliged to do when they came into the land of Canaan, as Kimchi observes; one was, to appoint a king over them, another, to build the house of the sanctuary, and the third, to blot out the name and memory of Amalek, see Deuteronomy 25:19 and this work was reserved for Saul, their first king:
and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; all were to be devoted to destruction, and nothing remain to be made use of in any way, to any profit and advantage; living creatures were to be put to death, and everything else burnt and destroyed:
but slay both men and women, infant and suckling; neither sex n…
The Church Fathers
Do not spare them, but kill, etc. From man to woman, from the perfected work of sin to carnal thought, namely the filthy mother and nurse of wicked offspring. The infant and the suckling, the very beginnings and purpose of nefarious action, which a recent evil thought desires to nourish even worse; understand, the ox, the sheep, the camel, and the donkey, symbolize dullness of folly, laziness of sloth, the baseness of pride, and the wantonness of luxury.
What does it mean when he says: "Hear the voice of the Lord," unless that those who wish to live chastely must keep subtle watch against the deceits of the spirit of fornication? As if to say: Do not cease to consider with how many snares he prepares to subject the elect to himself. And therefore he did not say: "I have recounted how he resisted Israel," but: "Hear the voice of the Lord. I have recounted how he resisted Israel." As if to say: If you recognize the manner of his snares, you will more easily be able to overcome the enemy. Rightly therefore he added, saying: "Now therefore go, and strike Amalek, and demolish all that is his." As if to say: Because you know how you ought to go: Go, and demolish all that is his, and so destroy him that nothing of him may live any longer. But who could so subject the flesh to himself, who could ever so restrain his own mind, who could so remain in the flesh as to endure no shameful movements from the flesh? Who could so curb thought that no darkness of impurities would reach it through thinking? But if the shameful stirring of motion is not removed from the flesh, nevertheless the strength of that shamefulness is weakened, when there is indeed a simple movement in the flesh, but in that movement there is no itch of lust. This movement is not Amalekite, because it does not entice the mind that it cannot delight. It cannot be removed from the mind that it should in no way see unclean things, but it is led to a wonderful exercise of purity, so that seeing unclean things, it is stained by no taint of pleasure. Whoever therefore so governs the flesh, whoever so rules the mind, governs for this reason, rules for this reason: because he was able to demolish all of Amalek with strength. But now he explains in what follows what all his possessions are, saying: (Verse 3.) "Do not spare him, and do not covet anything of his; but slay from man to woman, both child and nursing infant, and ox and donkey, and sheep and camel." Who is this one who spares Amalek, if not he who retains something of wantonness either in thought, or in speech, or in the flesh? For many do not practice works of shameful conduct, yet do not restrain their tongue from shameful speech. Many avoid luxury through their actions, but do not avoid it through their thoughts. Some do nothing shameful, yet what they flee from in deed they desire in their heart.…
Dictionary and topics
Amalekite — A tribe that dwelt in Arabia Petraea, between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea. They were not the descendants of Amalek, the son of Eliphaz, for they existed in the days of Abraham (Gen. 14:7). They were…
Cattle — Abounded in the Holy Land. To the rearing and management of them the inhabitants chiefly devoted themselves (Deut. 8:13; 12:21; 1 Sam. 11:5; 12:3; Ps. 144:14; Jer. 3:24). They may be classified as,…
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…
Agency · IN EXECUTING — IN EXECUTING
Amalekites · General references — General references
Amalekites, The · Saul: Commissioned to destroy — Saul: Commissioned to destroy
Church And State · .Directs administration — .Directs administration
Judgments · Upon nations - Exemplified: Amalekites — Upon nations - Exemplified: Amalekites
Presumption · .Sparing the Amalekites — .Sparing the Amalekites
The account of the war against the Amalekites is a very condensed one, and is restricted to a description of the conduct of Saul on that occasion. Without mentioning either the time or the immediate occasion of the war, the narrative commences with the command of God which Samuel solemnly communicated to Saul, to go and exterminate that people. Samuel commenced with the words, "Jehovah sent me to anoint thee to be king over His people, over Israel," in order to show to Saul the obligation which rested upon him to receive his commission as coming from God, and to proceed at once to fulfil it. The allusion to the anointing points back not to Sa1 11:15, but to Sa1 10:1.
Sa1 15:2
"Thus saith the…
completely destroy: See “Complete Dedication” Theme Note.
Rashi on 1 Samuel 15:3
Oxen and sheep. They were sorcerers, and they would change themselves to appear as animals.2 Radak suggests another reason for destroying the animals. The Torah specifies that the memory of Amoleik should be erased. Therefore, Shmuel instructed that not even an ox or a sheep should remain about which one might say ‘this animal belonged to Amoleik.’
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
· .The Israelites on the Amalekites
— .The Israelites on the Amalekites
War · Of extermination — Of extermination
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).
