Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.
1 Samuel 15:3 ESV

"Devote to destruction" isn't a sacrifice, but it is a command to engage in holy war. No mercy, no exceptions.

This also isn't necessarily a punishment any more than amputating a limb is punishing the limb. Sometimes God disposes one part of his personal property in order to save another part. Every orchard keeper, forester, rancher, and oncologist does the same.