Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of Yahweh, and Yahweh has rejected you from being king over Israel.
      II. How little he got by these thin shows of repentance. What point did he gain by them? 1. Samuel repeated the sentence passed upon him, so far was he from giving any hopes of the repeal of it, 1 Samuel 15:26; 1 Samuel 15:26, the same with 1 Samuel 15:23; 1 Samuel 15:23. He that covers his sins shall never prosper,Proverbs 28:13. Samuel refused to turn back with him, but turned about to go away,1 Samuel 15:27; 1 Samuel 15:27. As the thing appeared to him upon the first view, he thought it altogether unfit for him so far to countenance one whom God had rejected as to join with him in giving thanks to God for a victory which was made to serve rather Saul's covetousness than God's glory. Yet afterwards he did turn again with him (1 Samuel 15:31; 1 Samuel 15:31), upon further thoughts, and probably by divine direction, either to prevent a mutiny among the people or perhaps not to do honour to Saul (for, though Saul worshipped the Lord, 1 Samuel 15:31; 1 Samuel 15:31, it is not said Samuel presided in that worship), but to do justice on Agag, 1 Samuel 15:32; 1 Samuel 15:32. 2. He illustrated the sentence by a sign, which Saul himself, by his rudeness, gave occasion for. When Samuel was turning from him he tore his clothes to detain him (1 Samuel 15:27; 1 Samuel 15:27), so loth was he to part with the prophet; but Samuel put a construction upon this accident which none but a prophet could do. He made it to signify the rending of the kingdom from him (1 Samuel 15:28; 1 Samuel 15:28), and that, like this, was his own doing. "He hath rent it from thee, and given it to a neighbour better than thou," namely, to David, who afterwards, upon occasion, cut off the skirt of Saul's robe (1 Samuel 24:4), upon which Saul said (1 Samuel 24:20), I know that thou shalt surely be king, perhaps remembering this sign, the tearing of the skirt of Samuel's mantle. 3. He ratified it by a solemn declaration of its being irreversible (1 Samuel 15:29; 1 Samuel 15:29): The Strength of Israel will not lie. The Eternity or Victory of Israel, so some read it; the holy One, so the Arabic; the most noble One, so the Syriac; the triumphant King of Israel, so bishop Patrick. "He is determined to depose thee, and he will not change his purpose. He is not a man that should repent." Men are fickle and alter their minds, feeble and cannot effect their purposes; something happens which they could not foresee, by which their measures are broken. But with God it is not so. God has sometimes repented of the evil which he thought to have done, repentance was hidden from Saul, and therefore hidden from God's eyes.