Samuel said, As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before Yahweh in Gilgal.
Chapter 15 records one of the battles Saul fought with the Amalekites, Israel’s enemy to the south (cf. 1 Samuel 14:48). The Amalekites were descendants of Esau (Genesis 36:12; 1 Chronicles 1:36) and, therefore, linked with the Edomites. They were nomads who lived principally in southern Canaan and the Sinai Peninsula. This battle evidently happened about 25 years after Saul began reigning, which was 23 years after God rejected Saul’s dynasty following Saul’s disobedience at Gilgal (1 Samuel 13:1-15). [Note: Wood, Israel’s United . . ., p. 138.] Thus Saul apparently served as king about 23 years between God’s rejection of his dynasty (ch. 13) and God’s rejection of him personally (ch. 15).