Saul said to the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for you shown kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
Saul had formerly been genuinely humble. He had realistically evaluated himself before his anointing (1 Samuel 14:17; cf. 1 Samuel 9:21). Yet when he became king he viewed himself as the ultimate authority in Israel, a view common among ancient Near Eastern monarchs. This attitude led him to disobey the Law of God. God had sent Saul on a mission (1 Samuel 14:18; cf. Matthew 28:19-20), which involved the total extermination of the Amalekites. The Hebrew word translated "sinners" means habitually wicked people (cf. Psalms 1:1; Psalms 1:5), like the Canaanites.