1 Samuel 15:16 (WEB)

Passage

Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stay, and I will tell you what Yahweh said to me last night.” He said to him, “Say on.”

Nearby Context

1 Samuel 15:14 Samuel said, “Then what does this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the cattle which I hear mean?”

1 Samuel 15:15 Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the cattle, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God. We have utterly destroyed the rest.”

1 Samuel 15:16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stay, and I will tell you what Yahweh said to me last night.” He said to him, “Say on.”

1 Samuel 15:17 Samuel said, “Though you were little in your own sight, weren’t you made the head of the tribes of Israel? Yahweh anointed you king over Israel;

1 Samuel 15:18 and Yahweh sent you on a journey, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "samuel", "said", "saul", "stay", "tell", "yahweh", and "last". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "samuel" and "said", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 15's "Saul said They have brought them from..." into verse 17's "Samuel said Though you were little in...", so "samuel" and "said" 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 "samuel" and "said" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.