NHEB(i)
16 Then Samuel said to Saul, "Stay, and I will tell you what the LORD has said to me last night." He said to him, "Say on."
17 Samuel said, "Though you were little in your own sight, weren't you made the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel;
18 and the LORD sent you on a journey, and said to you, 'Go, and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until you have destroyed them.'
19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD, but took the spoils, and did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD?"
20 Saul said to Samuel, "But I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and cattle, the chief of the devoted things, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal."
22 Samuel said, "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Look, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king."