Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 15:17

"And Samuel said, Though thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel? And Jehovah anointed thee king over Israel;" — 1 Samuel 15:17 (ASV)

When thou wast little in thine own sight. —Kimchi’s rendering of the Hebrew here is singular: “Though you seem to yourself too little and weak to curb the people, yet you were the head, and should have done your duty;” but this, as Lange observes, would imply that Samuel had accepted Saul’s excuse that it was the people’s will to reserve the choicest spoil.

The prophet’s words, however, were simply to remind Saul that the Lord, whose clearly expressed will he had disregarded, had raised him in bygone days from a comparatively humble station to the proud position he was then occupying as chief of Israel. The old counsellor reminds the king that there had been a time when he judged himself unequal to this great work to which his God summoned him; but now, how strange the contrast! Flushed with success, he was trusting alone in his unaided strength, and openly disobeying the Divine commands.