Saul Musters at Telaim and Strikes the Amalekites

1 Samuel 15 records the campaign that broke Saul's kingship. The prophet Samuel delivered the divine command in unmistakable terms: "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not." The Amalekites were under cherem (devoted-to-destruction) judgment for their unprovoked attack on Israel's rear guard during the Exodus generations earlier (Exodus 17:8-16, Deuteronomy 25:17-19). Saul gathered Israel and Judah at the Negev mustering ground of Telaim — "two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah" (1 Samuel 15:4) — and marched into the Amalekite territory south of Judah.

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