1 Samuel 15:7 (ASV)

Passage

And Saul smote the Amalekites, from Havilah as thou goest to Shur, that is before Egypt.

Nearby Context

1 Samuel 15:5 And Saul came to the city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.

1 Samuel 15:6 And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for ye showed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.

1 Samuel 15:7 And Saul smote the Amalekites, from Havilah as thou goest to Shur, that is before Egypt.

1 Samuel 15:8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.

1 Samuel 15:9 But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "saul", "smote", "amalekites", "havilah", "thou", "goest", "shur", and "before". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "saul" and "smote", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 6's "And Saul said unto the Kenites Go..." into verse 8's "And he took Agag the king of...", so "saul" and "smote" belong inside that flow. In 1 Samuel context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "saul" and "smote" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.