And he warned the Kenites, “Since you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt, go on and get away from the Amalekites. Otherwise I will sweep you away with them.” So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.
Here, I. Samuel, in God's name, solemnly requires Saul to be obedient to the command of God, and plainly intimates that he was now about to put him upon a trial, in one particular instance, whether he would be obedient or no, Sa1 15:1. And the making of this so expressly the trial of his obedience did very much aggravate his disobedience. 1.
Commenting on 1 Samuel 15:1-9
And Saul said unto the Kenites,.... Who were of the posterity of Jethro the father-in-law of Moses, or related to him; why Josephus (x) calls them the nation of the Sicimites, who dwelt in the midst of the land of Midian, I know not: go, depart, get ye down from among the Amalekites; for though some of these people came with Israel into the land...
Kenites--(See on Jdg 1:16). In consequence, probably, of the unsettled state of Judah, they seem to have returned to their old desert tracts. Though now intermingled with the Amalekites, they were not implicated in the offenses of that wicked race; but for the sake of their ancestors, between whom and those of Israel there had been a league of amity, a timely warning was afforded...