Léctio libri primi Samuélis (15,16-23)
In diébus illis: ait Sámuel ad Saul: “Sine me, et indicábo tibi, quæ locútus sit Dóminus ad me nocte.” Dixítque ei: “Lóquere.” Et ait Sámuel: “Nónne, cum párvulus esses in óculis tuis, caput in tríbubus Israel factus es? Unxítque te Dóminus regem super Israel et misit te Dóminus in viam et ait: “Váde et intérfice peccatóres Ámalec et pugnábis contra eos usque ad interneciónem eórum.” Quare ergo non audísti vocem Dómini, sed versus ad prædam es et fecísti malum in óculis Dómini?” Et ait Saul ad Samúelem: “Immo audívi vocem Dómini et ambulávi in via, per quam misit me Dóminus; et addúxi Agag regem Ámalec et Ámalec interféci. Tulit autem pópulus de præda oves et boves, primítias eórum, quæ cæsa sunt, ut ímmolet Dómino Deo tuo in Gálgalis.” Et ait Sámuel: “Númquid vult Dóminus holocáusta aut víctimas et non pótius ut obœdiátur voci Dómini? Mélior est enim obœdiéntia quam víctimæ, et auscultáre magis quam offérre ádipem aríetum. Vere peccátum hariolándi est repugnáre, et scelus idololátriæ nolle acquiéscere: pro eo ergo quod abiecísti sermónem Dómini, abiécit te, ne sis rex.”
In those days: Samuel said to Saul: Suffer me, and I will shew thee what our Lord hath spoken to me this night. And he said to him: Speak. And Samuel said: When thou wast a little one in thine own eyes, was thou not made chief in the tribes of Israel? And our Lord anointed thee to be king over Israel, and our Lord sent thee on the way, and said: Go, and kill the sinners of Amalec, and thou shalt fight against them until the utter destruction of them. Why therefore hast thou not heard the voice of our Lord: but art turned to the prey, & hast done evil in the eyes of our Lord? And Saul said to Samuel: Yea I have heard the voice of our Lord, & have walked in the way by which our Lord sent me, & have brought Agag the king of Amalec, & Amalec I have slain. But the people took of the prey sheep and oxen, the principal of those things which were slain, to immolate to our Lord their God in Galgal. And Samuel said: why? Will our Lord have holocausts and victims, and not rather that the voice of our Lord be obeyed? For Better is Obedience Than Victims: and to harken rather than to offer the fat of rams. Because it is as it were the sin of enchantment, to resist, & as it were the wickedness of idolatry, to refuse to obey. For as much therefore as thou hast rejected the word of our Lord, our Lord hath rejected thee, that thou shalt not be king.
