Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Remember the Amalekites? They were the first people to attack Israel when they were in the wilderness way back in Exodus 17.

And in Duteronomy 25, God commanded Israel to blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.

The Israelites were supposed to completely wipe them out and kill all living things.

But that still hasn't happened.

So maybe now that Israel has a king they can pull it off?

Samuel charges Saul with the task. Saul and his army win the battle, but he takes the king alive, as well as a lot of animals.

And even though he claims total victory

we'll see later on in chapter 30

that there are still several hundred people alive among the Amalekites.

So Saul's obedience is far from thorough here.

He opts for selective obedience instead of complete obedience, which serves as further evidence

that he's unsuitable as Israel's king.

God speaks to Samuel about Saul's kingship,

and a lot of translations use the word regret here,

saying God regretted making Saul king.

But then later in verse 29, we see that God can't regret things, so which is it?

The word used can also be translated as to be grieved, so it's possible to read it as,

God was grieved over the fact that he made Saul King.

God is not saying he made the wrong choice.

He said all along how this choice would go for Israel,

and now he's showing that it went exactly as he said and he's grieved

...