Zitat zu Schemuel I 15:19

Saul’s repentance when he sinned in reference to Amalek lacked these three requirements, and therefore even though he confessed his sin before Samuel twice, saying: “I have sinned,” his repentance was not accepted. At first he denied the sin, not knowing that he had committed one. When Samuel said to him: “Wherefore then didst thou not hearken to the voice of the Lord …? he replied: “Yea, I have hearkened to the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me …” And when Samuel said to him that this obstinacy was a greater sin than his disobedience in the first place, which was the sin proper: “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbournness is as idolatry and teraphim,”—i. e.: rebellion, which was the main sin of Saul, is like the sin of witchcraft, which is an ordinary negative commandment, whereas stubbornness, viz. his insisting that he had not sinned, is like idolatry and teraphim, which is more serious than witchcraft to which his main sin is compared—when Samuel said these things to him, Saul was led to admit that he had sinned, and said, “I have sinned,” but he excused himself for his sin by words of falsehood, when he said: “Because I feared the people …” Therefore Samuel refused to return with him when he asked him: “And return with me, that I may worship the Lord,” and replied: “I will not return with thee; for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord … And as Samuel turned about to go away …” This was because the acknowledgement of his sin was not genuine, since he excused himself with words of falsehood. Later on, when Saul admitted that he had sinned, and said simply, “I have sinned,” Samuel consented to return with him. But since Saul showed that his repentance was for the sake of receiving honor, as he said: “Honour me now, I pray thee …,” and not for the love of God, his repentance was not accepted, and Samuel was told at once to anoint David as king.