1 Samuel 15:11 (WEB)

Passage

“It grieves me that I have set up Saul to be king; for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments.” Samuel was angry; and he cried to Yahweh all night.

Nearby Context

1 Samuel 15:9 But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, of the cattle, and of the fat calves, and the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to utterly destroy them; but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.

1 Samuel 15:10 Then Yahweh’s word came to Samuel, saying,

1 Samuel 15:11 “It grieves me that I have set up Saul to be king; for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments.” Samuel was angry; and he cried to Yahweh all night.

1 Samuel 15:12 Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning; and Samuel was told, saying, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself, and turned, and passed on, and went down to Gilgal.”

1 Samuel 15:13 Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, “You are blessed by Yahweh! I have performed the commandment of Yahweh.”

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "grieves", "saul", "king", "turned", "back", "following", "performed", and "commandments". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "grieves" and "saul", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 10's "Then Yahweh s word came to Samuel..." into verse 12's "Samuel rose early to meet Saul in...", so "grieves" 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 "grieves" and "saul" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.