1 Samuel 15:32-33 New English Translation

Samuel Puts Agag to Death

³²Then Samuel said, “Bring me King Agag of the Amalekites.” So Agag came to him trembling,^[a] thinking to himself,^[b] “Surely death is bitter!”^[c] ³³Samuel said, “Just as your sword left women childless, so your mother will be the most bereaved^[d] among women.” Then Samuel hacked Agag to pieces there in Gilgal before the Lord.

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Footnotes

1 Samuel 15:32 tn The MT reading מַעֲדַנֹּת (maʿadannot, literally, “bonds,” used here adverbially, “in bonds”) is difficult. The word is found only here and in Job 38:31. Part of the problem lies in determining the root of the word. Some scholars have taken it to be from the root עָנַד (ʿanad, “to bind around”), but this assumes a metathesis of two of the letters of the root. Others take it from the root עָדַן (ʿadan) with the meaning “voluptuously,” but this does not seem to fit the context. It seems better to understand the word to be from the root מעד (maʿad, “to totter” or “shake”). In that case it describes the fear that Agag experienced in realizing the mortal danger that he faced as he approached Samuel. This is the way that the LXX translators understood the word, rendering it by the Greek participle τρέμον (tremon, “trembling”).
1 Samuel 15:32 tn Heb “and Agag said.”
1 Samuel 15:32 tc The text is difficult here. With the LXX, two Old Latin mss, and the Syriac Peshitta it is probably preferable to delete סָר (sar, “is past”) of the MT; it looks suspiciously like a dittograph of the following word מַר (mar, “bitter”). This further affects the interpretation of Agag’s comment. In the MT he comes to Samuel confidently assured that the danger is over (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV “Surely the bitterness of death is past,” along with NLT, CEV). However, it seems more likely that Agag realized that his fortunes had suddenly taken a turn for the worse and that the clemency he had enjoyed from Saul would not be his lot from Samuel. The present translation thus understands Agag to approach not confidently but in the stark realization that his death is imminent (“Surely death is bitter!”). Cf. NAB “So it is bitter death!”; NRSV “Surely this is the bitterness of death”; TEV “What a bitter thing it is to die!”
1 Samuel 15:33 tn Heb “bereaved more than [other] women.” The verb שָׁכָל (shakal) is a stative verb in the Qal stem meaning “to be bereaved” (HALOT 1492), that is, to be deprived of a loved one (a child) by death. Stative verbs are typically modified by מִן (min) with its comparative sense. A passive verb can also behave this way; compare Judges 5:24 where Jael is “most blessed of women.” While any woman’s loss of a child is tragic, perhaps from a social perspective because of his high position as king, his mother’s loss is construed as greater.

New English Translation (NET)