1 Samuel 15:32

SAMUEL EXECUTES GOD'S SENTENCE UPON AGAG

"Then Samuel said, "Bring here to me Agag the king of the Amalekites." And Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, "Surely the bitterness of death is past." And Samuel said, "As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women." And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal."

The chronology here, like that in most of Samuel, is very uncertain; but it appears that this episode occurred immediately after Samuel had returned from worshipping with Saul.

"The law specified that devoted things could neither be sold nor redeemed, but must be put to death (Leviticus 27:28,29); and Samuel honored God's commandment,"[21] by this execution of Agag. We have already noted that some of the other Agagites had in all probability been spared by Saul, since one of them, Haman, later attempted to murder all the Jews on earth (Esther 3:1). Those who seek to second-guess God's order for the execution of Agag are completely refuted by subsequent events.

"Hewed Agag in pieces" (1 Samuel 15:33). "The verb appears only here in the Bible and probably refers to some particular method of execution; and being in the Piel conjugation it would mean not so much that Samuel personally put Agag to death, but that he commanded it to be done."[22] "There is something awful in the majesty of the Prophet rising above and eclipsing that of the king.[23]