Philistines, defeated and disgraced, to their fertile lowlands (1 Sam. xiv. 24–46). CHAPTER V. _SAUL AND THE AMALEKITES. DAVID AND GOLIATH._ 1 SAM. XV.–XVII. B.C. 1079–1063. THIS signal victory materially confirmed Saul’s supremacy. Acting no longer merely on the defensive, he now directed expeditions against Moab, Ammon, Edom, and even the king of Zobah, a region east of Cœle-Syria and extending towards the Euphrates. While in the full tide of his success he received a visit from Samuel, who on the strength of a Divine command, entrusted him with a commission, which he was to execute to the very letter. The treacherous hostility of the powerful tribe of Amalek, when they fell upon the exhausted rear of the Israelites at their departure from Egypt, had not been forgotten by God (Ex. xvii. 8, 14; Num. xxiv. 20). Since then they had on more than one occasion evinced the same hostility[243]. They were now devoted to utter destruction. _Go and smite Amalek_, ran the Divine commission; _utterly destroy all that they have; spare them not; slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass_ (1 Sam. xv. 2, 3). Thereupon Saul mustered a force of 210,000 at Telaim in southern Judah, and after warning the Kenites to betake themselves to a place of safety, he attacked the Amalekites and smote them from Havilah to Shur. All the people he utterly destroyed, but, in direct violation of the express instructions he had received, spared all the best of the spoil and Agag the Amalekite king. Returning from this expedition he set up a _place_, or, probably, a _monument_ of his victory, at Carmel in the mountainous country of Judah, and thence repaired to Gilgal. A Divine intimation had already made known to Samuel how imperfectly the king had executed his commission, and with a heavy heart he went forth to meet him. With a haste which betrayed the misgivings of his conscience, Saul no sooner saw the Prophet than he boasted of his execution of the Divine mandate. But Samuel was not thus to be deceived. _The bleating of the sheep and the lowing of oxen_ on all sides revealed but too clearly the lax interpretation which Saul had chosen to put upon his instructions, and he only increased his condemnation by trying to throw the blame of his own shortcomings upon the people, who, he declared, _had spared the best of the spoil to sacrifice to Jehovah_. The Prophet sternly reminded him that Jehovah had far more delight in obedience to His commands than in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, and for the second time intimated that the continuance of his dynasty was forfeited; he had _rejected the Word of the Lord, and the Lord had rejected him from being king_ (1 Sam. xv. 12–23).