1 Samuel 15 · a question people ask
Saul said "I have sinned" twice. Why didn't that change what Samuel said?
Saul says it first in 15:24: "I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice." He asks, "please pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD" (15:25). Samuel answers, "I will not return with you; for you have rejected the LORD’s word, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel" (15:26). Saul says it again: "I have sinned; yet please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and come back with me, that I may worship the LORD your God" (15:30). "So Samuel went back with Saul; and Saul worshiped the LORD" (15:31). The chapter doesn't say what was in Saul's heart, and Christians read his words in two main ways. Both agree that the kingdom was not given back (15:28), and that Samuel did go back with him (15:31).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Sorry, with his standing in view
Those who read it this way point to what comes with each confession. The first gives the people as the reason: "because I feared the people and obeyed their voice" (15:24), as Saul had said before, "the people spared the best of the sheep and of the cattle" (15:15). The second asks for honor: "yet please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel" (15:30). They set it beside "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. O God, you will not despise a broken and contrite heart" (Psalm 51:17).
1 Samuel 15:24 · 1 Samuel 15:15 · 1 Samuel 15:30 · Psalm 51:17
A real confession, and a sentence that stands
Those who read it this way take "I have sinned" (15:24) at its word: Saul names what he did, "I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD" (15:24), and in the end "Saul worshiped the LORD" (15:31). They set it beside David, who said, "I have sinned against the LORD", and was told, "The LORD also has put away your sin. You will not die" (2 Samuel 12:13), and yet heard in the next verse what would still follow (2 Samuel 12:14). Read this way, what 15:28-29 says will stand is the loss of the kingdom.
1 Samuel 15:24 · 1 Samuel 15:31 · 2 Samuel 12:13-14 · 1 Samuel 15:28-29
The verses
“Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.” Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you; for you have rejected the LORD’s word, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.””
“Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you.”
“Then he said, “I have sinned; yet please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and come back with me, that I may worship the LORD your God.” So Samuel went back with Saul; and Saul worshiped the LORD.”