And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
Took Agag ... alive. х 'Agag (H90), evidently a reduplicate variety of the Egyptian Hak, ruler (see the note at Numbers 21:33)]. This was the common title of the Amalekite kings. Saul had no scruples about the apparent cruelty of it, because he made fierce and indiscriminate havoc of the people. But he spared Agag, probably to enjoy the glory of displaying so distinguished a captive. Josephus distinctly asserts ('Antiquities,' b. 6:, ch.
vii., sec. 2) that the beauty and tallness of his body made so fine an appearance, and Saul admired it so much, that he thought him worthy of preservation (cf. 1 Kings 20:32-34), and in like manner the most valuable portions of the booty, as the cattle.