1 Samuel 15:14 (DBY)

Passage

And Samuel said, What [means] then this bleating of sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of oxen which I hear?

Nearby Context

1 Samuel 15:12 And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set him up a monument, and has turned about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal.

1 Samuel 15:13 And Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, Blessed art thou of Jehovah: I have fulfilled the word of Jehovah.

1 Samuel 15:14 And Samuel said, What [means] then this bleating of sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of oxen which I hear?

1 Samuel 15:15 And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites, because the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice to Jehovah thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.

1 Samuel 15:16 And Samuel said to Saul, Stay, that I may tell thee what Jehovah has said to me this night. And he said to him, Say on.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "sheep", "samuel", "said", "means", "bleating", "mine", "ears", and "lowing". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "sheep" and "samuel", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 13's "And Samuel came to Saul and Saul..." into verse 15's "And Saul said They have brought them...", so "sheep" and "samuel" 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 "sheep" and "samuel" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.