Telem

Telem (spelled Telaim in 1 Samuel 15:4) was a settlement in the far southern Negev of Judah (Joshua 15:24), strategically positioned near the desert frontier as a staging ground for King Saul's campaign against the Amalekites: "Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah." The campaign was a military success but a spiritual disaster — Saul spared King Agag and the best of the spoil, prompting Samuel's devastating rebuke "to obey is better than sacrifice." The exact site is unidentified; Khirbet Umm es-Salafah is one proposal.