But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and they were not willing to devote them to destruction; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.
1 Samuel 15:7 So Saul struck the Amalekites, from Havilah as you go to Shur, which is east of Egypt.
1 Samuel 15:8 And he seized Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction 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, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and they were not willing to devote them to destruction; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.
1 Samuel 15:10 Then the word of Yahweh came to Samuel, saying,
1 Samuel 15:11 “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not established My words.” And Samuel became angry and cried out to Yahweh all night.
The verse centers on "sheep", "saul", "people", "spared", "agag", "best", "oxen", and "fatlings". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "sheep" and "saul", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 8's "And he seized Agag the king of..." into verse 10's "Then the word of Yahweh came to...", so "sheep" and "saul" 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 "saul" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.