In 1 Samuel 28, King Saul, facing defeat by the Philistines, turns to a necromancer for guidance after God does not respond to him. This decision highlights his despair and disobedience, leading to a confrontation with the deceased prophet Samuel, who prophesies Saul's death and the loss of his kingdom. The passage serves as a cautionary tale about the consequences of turning away from God and the dangers of seeking unholy assistance.

1. 1 SAMUEL 28 COMMUNTARY
EDITED BYN GLENN PEASE
Saul and the Witch of Endor
1 In those days the Philistines gathered their
forces to fight against Israel. Achish said to David,
"You must understand that you and your men
will accompany me in the army."
PETT, "Introduction
A Spiritually Bankrupt Saul Seeks To Demonic Sources For Assistance Because
Nothing Else Is Left To Him (1 Samuel 28:3-25).
Having briefly summed up the situation from the Philistine point of view, the writer
now switches to Saul’s situation as the king who had learned that his country was
about to be invaded by an army much more powerful than his own. He had become
aware of the large scale mustering of a massive Philistine army (1 Samuel 28:1),
something clearly much different from a border raid, and the question was, what
was he to do? But when he turned to the sources from which he expected to obtain
answers to his questions he received no response. YHWH was not answering him.
That was why in desperation he determined to turn to forbidden sources. If God
would not answer him he would try to contact Samuel through a necromancer.
This was one great difference between Saul and David. In such a situation David
would have flung himself down before YHWH in tears, pleading to be shown where
he had gone wrong, and repenting deeply. In the face of YHWH’s silence Saul
rather preferred to turn to necromancers. He was lacking depth of soul.
We note that in this extreme situation it was to Samuel, the mentor of his youth, that
he determined to turn, even though Samuel had been the instrument of his rejection.
He apparently saw Samuel as a kind of back door to God. Samuel would no doubt
know what was best for him to do. But Samuel was dead, and thus to contact him
would involve him in the forbidden area of necromancy (necromancers purportedly
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2. contact the dead through familiar spirits).
The description of what follows inevitably leaves us with unanswered questions,
simply because it is dealing with matters beyond our knowledge, for the thing that
surprises us is that it appears that he was in fact actually able to contact Samuel. It
should, however, be noted that the medium was equally as surprised as he was. She
had not expected to see Samuel. She had expected her own ‘familiar spirit’. So what
happened appears to have been outside her experience as well as his. It would seem
probable therefore that God had in this case determined to act uniquely in order to
again pronounce judgment on Saul and exalt David, a judgment which resulted
from Saul’s earlier gross disobedience, a disobedience in respect of which he had
never truly repented. And it was in fact God’s previous sentence on that
disobedience that had preyed on his mind and had made a major contribution
towards his illness, even though part of it probably resulted from traumas in his
childhood. Now he was to be reminded of that disobedience again. It is a dreadful
warning to us all that if we do not truly repent from our past sins and seek God’s
forgiveness while we can, we too may end up in a state of hopelessness in which we
are simply reminded of our past sins, and with our hearts hardened.
We should also note that it did not bring Saul what he was really seeking. What it
brought home to him was not how to fight and win his battles, but rather the
certainty of his forthcoming defeat and death. It was information that he would
have been better without. Had it been left to the necromancer, of course, he would
probably have received a comforting message. But in his case YHWH intervened. It
reminds us that even at its best necromancy can only offer false comfort, for it never
results in genuinely true benefit, even though initially it might appear to do so. It
causes us to rest on false hopes.
CLARKE, "The Philistines gathered their armies together - Sir Isaac Newton
conjectures that the Philistines had got a great increase to their armies by vast
numbers of men which Amasis had driven out of Egypt. This, with Samuel’s death,
and David’s disgrace, were no inconsiderable motives to a new war, front which the
Philistines had now every thing to hope.
Thou shalt go out with me to battle - This he said, being deceived by what David
had told him.
GILL, "And it came to pass in those days,.... That David was in the country of the
Philistines:
that the Philistines gathered their armies together: out of their five principalities or
lordships:
for warfare to fight with Israel; with whom they were continually at war, and
though sometimes there was a cessation of arms, yet never any settled peace; and the
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3. Philistines took every opportunity and advantage against them, as they now did;
when David was among them, and so had nothing to fear from him, but rather
expected his assistance; and Samuel was dead, and Saul in a frenzy:
and Achish said unto David: who seems to have been at the head of the combined
armies of the Philistines:
know thou assuredly that thou shall go with me to battle, thou and thy men; against
Israel; which was a trying thing to David, and whereby he was like to be drawn into
a dilemma; either to fight against his country, which he could not do
conscientiously; or be guilty of ingratitude to Achish, and incur his displeasure, and
be liable to be turned out of his country, or treated in a worse manner, even he and
his men, to be seized on and cut to pieces by the forces of the Philistines, should he
refuse.
HENRY, "Here is, I. The design of the Philistines against Israel. They resolved to
fight them, 1Sa_28:1. If the Israelites had not forsaken God, there would have been
no Philistines remaining to molest them; if Saul had not forsaken him, they would
by this time have been put out of all danger by them. The Philistines took an
opportunity to make this attempt when they had David among them, whom they
feared more than Saul and all his forces.
JAMISON, "1Sa_28:1-6. Achish’s confidence in David.
The Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel —
The death of Samuel, the general dissatisfaction with Saul, and the absence of
David, instigated the cupidity of those restless enemies of Israel.
Achish said to David, Know thou assuredly, that thou shalt go out with me to
battle — This was evidently to try him. Achish, however, seems to have thought he
had gained the confidence of David and had a claim on his services.
K&D, "“In those days,” i.e., whilst David was living in the land of the Philistines,
it came to pass that the Philistines gathered their armies together for a campaign
against Israel. And Achish sent word to David that he was to go with him in his
army along with his men; and David answered (1Sa_28:2), “Thereby (on this
occasion) thou shalt learn what thy servant will do.” This reply was ambiguous. The
words “what thy servant will do” contained no distinct promise of faithful assistance
in the war with the Israelites, as the expression “thy servant” is only the ordinary
periphrasis for “I” in conversation with a superior. And there is just as little ground
for inferring from 1Sa_29:8 that David was disposed to help the Philistines against
Saul and the Israelites; for, as Calovius has observed, even there he gives no such
promise, but “merely asks for information, that he may discover the king's
intentions and feelings concerning him: he simply protests that he has done nothing
to prevent his placing confidence in him, or to cause him to shut him out of the
battle.” Judging from his previous acts, it would necessarily have been against his
conscience to fight against his own people. Nevertheless, in the situation in which he
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4. was placed he did not venture to give a distinct refusal to the summons of the king.
He therefore gave an ambiguous answer, in the hope that God would show him a
way out of this conflict between his inmost conviction and his duty to obey the
Philistian king. He had no doubt prayed earnestly for this in his heart. And the
faithful God helped His servant: first of all by the fact that Achish accepted his
indefinite declaration as a promise of unconditional fidelity, as his answer “so (‫ן‬ֵ‫ָכ‬‫ל‬,
itaque, i.e., that being the case, if thy conduct answers to thy promise) “I will make
thee the keeper of my head” (i.e., of my person) implies; and still more fully by the
fact that the princes of the Philistines overturned the decision of their king (1Sa_
29:3.).
PULPIT, "1Sa_28:1
In those days. I.e. while David was dwelling at Ziklag. The Philistines gathered their
armies together. This was, as Josephus has observed, a war upon a much larger
scale than any that had been carried on since the defeat of the Philistines in the
valley of Elah; for we find that the invasion was made from the north, and the
decisive battle fought not in the usual field of operations, but in the territory of the
tribe of Issachar, in the neighbourhood of Jezreel. We are not indeed to suppose
from this that the Philistines had conquered all the central districts of the land, and,
driving Saul before them, at last brought him to bay, and slew him in the north; for
though Ishbosheth was compelled to withdraw to Mahanaim, a city on the eastern
side of the Jordan, yet Abner is said to have made him king there not only over the
trans-Jordanic tribes, but also "over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over
Benjamin" (2Sa_2:9). It may be said, however, that these were but titular claims;
but the philistine conquests, as described in 1Sa_31:7, if not confined to the valley of
Esdraelon, as in 1Ch_10:7, were nevertheless all of them to the north of Mount
Gilboa, thus leaving Ephraim, Benjamin, and Judah untouched. Nor do we find the
Philistines encamped between David at Hebron and Ishbosheth at Mahanaim, or
interfering in their contests; and it is only when David was made king over the
whole of Israel that they again assembled their forces to dispute the empire with
him, and twice suffered defeat (2Sa_5:20, 2Sa_5:25). More probably, therefore, they
marched northward through their own territory, raising the whole of the military
population as they went, and then, turning eastward, broke into the Israelite
territory by the valley of Jezreel. It was probably the rapid decline of Saul’s power
which encouraged the Philistines to attempt once again to place their yoke upon the
neck of Israel; and Saul, conscious that God’s blessing had departed from him, in
pitiable agony sought for unholy aid, but finally, with his sons, made a last brave
defence, and died a soldier’s death. Achish said unto David. As a vassal David was
bound to accompany his lord to the acid; and Achish, supposing that David had of
his own accord made war upon Judah, probably assumed that the invitation was
one which he himself desired. To battle. Hebrew, "in the army."
BI, "The Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel.
Night preceding battle
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5. As the flash of lightning reveals the hidden scenery around, so the reception of
momentous news suddenly reveals character. Two such events we trace—the news
of the terrible defeat brought to Saul, and the news of Saul’s death brought to
David. Leading his people to meet the Philistines, at whose number he is astonished
and affrighted, we come upon Saul as his army is encamped on the slopes of Gilboa.
We notice:—
I. Divine direction sought (1Sa_28:6). In all former difficulties Saul had sought
Samuel. The prophet’s voice was hushed. Few estimate faithful advisers at their
value. Saul had no Samuel now. He knew not God. His desolateness is indescribable.
His own hand had closed the avenues along which the angel of mercy had been wont
to come. Yet, as Cowper says, “In agony nature is no atheist;” so this desolate and
moody man kneels to God! Self-will, pride, resentment lurk in his petition (1Sa_
28:15). He has no wish to know God’s will, only how he may be successful!
Complaints against God’s dealings—there is no prayer in such words! Is it ever any
use coming thus to seek God’s help? Merely for our own selfish ends, asking the
Divine One to become partner in our self-seeking purposes! Come, let us hold our
prayers up to the light! Not everyone that saith, “Lord, Lord,” will enter into the
Kingdom. Unable to bear the silence, Saul exhibits the—
II. Desperate defiance of disobedience. In those days when his vision was clear and
his heart open to Divine teaching he abhorred this sin. Driven by fear, jealousy, and
pride, refusing to humble himself before God, he sends his servant to find “one that
hath a familiar spirit” (1Sa_28:7). Superstition takes the place of obedient faith. The
four theories concerning this scene may thus be summarised—
(1) that Samuel actually appeared by the Divine will;
(2) that Saul was then granted a vision by Divine power, in which he saw, as
in a dream, the prophet;
(3) that which attributes it to Satanic agency; and the last, that it was an
imposture conceived and carried out by Abner and his mother. The narrative
itself seems clearly to establish the fact of Samuel’s appearance. Samuel’s
reply is a refusal! In solemn words Samuel reminds Saul of the removal of
God’s favour: “The Lord is on the side of thy neighbour” (1Sa_28:16). The
Lord keepeth His word, and hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand (1Sa_
28:17). “Death and disaster are thy portion” (1Sa_28:18-19). Could a greater
proof be given of God’s refusal to hear.
III. Disobedience ends in disaster. Did not our fathers fall in the wilderness through
unbelief? Is that not why so many fail to enter the life of joy?
1. Disobedience produced direst misery. In the path of disobedience we become
targets for the archers of Satan.
2. Disobedience culminated in suicide. The inhabitants of hell are surely suicides.
“O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself. Ye would not come unto Me, that ye
might have life.” (H. E. Stone.)
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6. GUZIK, " (1Sa_28:1-2) David takes sides with the Philistines against Israel.
Now it happened in those days that the Philistines gathered their armies together
for war, to fight with Israel. And Achish said to David, “You assuredly know
that you will go out with me to battle, you and your men.” And David said to
Achish, “Surely you know what your servant can do.” And Achish said to David,
“Therefore I will make you one of my chief guardians forever.”
a. Achish said to David, “You assuredly know that you will go out with me to
battle, you and your men.” David had lied to Achish, telling him that he
raided the people of Israel. But now, David is forced to live the lie he gave to
Achish.
b. David said to Achish, “Surely you know what your servant can do.” Here,
David seems completely surrendered to the ungodly Achish. He will fight for
the Philistines, against Israel! We might wish that David was really operating
as a “double agent,” and he planned to turn on the Philistines in the midst of
battle. But the text gives us no reason for such an optimistic perspective.
David has come to a very low place!
c. Remember the roots of David’s condition: this was a genuine crisis of faith,
when he started trusting more in what he said in his heart (1Sa_27:1) than in
what the LORD God said to him. David believed the lie that he was safer
with the world than he was with God.
i. To some degree, most every Christian has been where David is at in this
back sliding state. We can understand what David is doing; but it is still
wrong, and very dangerous.
d. Is this the man after God’s own heart? Yes. Being a man or a woman after
God’s own heart doesn’t mean that you never sin. It means that when you do
sin, you come to see it and move on. The Bible is honest enough to show is
that even its heroes did not go just from one level of glory to the next. But
this account of David was given for our instruction, so that we might avoid
some of the traps he fell into.
i. “I undertake no defence of this conduct of David; it is all bad, all
defenceless; God vindicates him not . . . it is false to say that, because
these things are recorded, therefore they are approved.” (Clarke)
ii. “But it pleased God to leave David to himself in this, as well as in other
particulars, that those might be sensible demonstrations of the infirmities
of the best men; and of the necessity of God’s grace, and daily direction
and assistance; and of the freeness and riches of God’s mercy, in passing
by such great offences. (Poole)
iii. Wonderfully, God did not bless David where he was at. But neither
did God take away David’s calling or destiny to be the next king of Israel.
God gave to David some of the mercy David showed to Saul.
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7. BENSON, "1 Samuel 28:1. The Philistines gathered their armies together — Sir
Isaac Newton judges that they were recruited about this time by vast numbers of
men driven out of Egypt by Amasis. This probably was one reason why they
resolved on a new war with Israel, to which, however, Samuel’s death and David’s
disgrace were doubtless additional motives. Achish said to David, Thou shalt go out
with me to battle — Achish formed this resolution in consequence of his knowledge
of David’s merit, and the thorough confidence he had in his fidelity.
COFFMAN, "Verse 1
SAUL SOUGHT GUIDANCE FROM THE WITCH OF ENDOR; DAVID WAS
CALLED TO GO TO WAR AGAINST ISRAEL
"In those days the Philistines gathered their forces for war, to fight against Israel.
And Achish said to David, "Understand that you and your men are to go out with
me in the army." David said to Achish, "Very well, you shall know what your
servant can do." And Achish said to David, "Very well, I will make you my
bodyguard for life."
"Philistines gathered their forces ... to fight against Israel" (1 Samuel 28:1). This
was far more than an ordinary mobilization for war, because, "On this occasion
they sent to all their confederates that they would go along with them to the war."[1]
"Understand that you and your men are to go out with me in the army" (1 Samuel
28:1). This order from the king of Gath was addressed to David, whose duplicity
and deception finally caught up with him; and he found himself in the position of
being ordered to go to war against Israel. It was the providential help of God
himself, and that only, which got David out of the dilemma that confronted him.
We cannot presume to justify David's actions during those years he was with
Achish; but, "He was living in highly perilous circumstances; the Bible gives the
record but pronounces no judgment."[2]
"Very well, you shall know what your servant can do" (1 Samuel 28:2). This was
David's reply to the king's order; but, "This reply was ambiguous. There was no
promise that David would assist in the war against Israel ... Judging from his
previous actions, it would have been against his conscience to fight against his own
people."[3] It was a special providence that caused Achish to accept David's words
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8. here as a pledge of loyalty to the Philistine king. The second special providence was
in the fact that the contemporaries of Achish overruled his order for David to
accompany them (1 Samuel 29:3-5).
ELLICOTT, " (1) The Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare.—This
was evidently, as Jose-phus remarks, a great effort on the part of the Philistines. It
was no ordinary raid or border incursion, such as seems to have been so frequent all
through the reign of Saul. Since their defeat in the Valley of Elah, which followed
the single combat between Goliath and David, no such Philistine army had been
gathered together. We are struck at once with the presence of the enemy in the heart
of the land, no longer choosing the well-known and often-contested “Marches,” or
border districts. The Philistines are now strong enough to strike a blow at the centre
of the kingdom, and to challenge a battle on the plain of Jezreel. or Esdraelon, north
of Ephraim and Issachar. They probably marched along the sea-border of Canaan,
collecting their forces as they advanced from each of their well-known military
centres, and then, turning eastward, invaded the land by the Valley of Jezreel, or
Esdraelon. They marched still eastward, and took up a strong position on the slopes
of one of the groups of mountains that enclosed the broad plain of Jezreel toward
the east, near the town of Shunem. King Saul, quickly assembling the fighting men
of Israel, marched in pursuit, and coming up with them in the Esdraelon plain, took
up his position opposite the Philistines—only a few miles parting the two hosts—on
the slopes of another group of mountains, known as Mount Gilboa, lying to the
south of the Philistine frontier. (There is a map of the Plain of Esdraelon in
Stanley’s Jewish Church, vol. ii., Lecture 21, illustrative of this closing scene in
Saul’s career, well worth consulting.)
And Achish said.—David soon found into what a grievous error he had fallen by
taking refuge with the hereditary foes of his people. Want of faith and patience had
urged him to take this unhappy step. The sixteen months he had spent in Phihstia
had been certainly successful, inasmuch as they had strengthened his position as a
“free lance” captain, but nothing more. They had been stained by bloodshed and
cruelty. His life, too, was a life of duplicity and falsehood. The results of his
unhappy course of action were soon manifest. His nation sustained a crushing and
most humiliating defeat, which he narrowly escaped being obliged to witness, if not
to contribute to. His own general recognition as king was put off for nearly seven
years, during which period a civil war hindered the development of national
prosperity; besides which, during this time of internal divisions the seeds were too
surely laid of the future disastrous separation of Judah and the south from the
northern tribes—a division which eventually took place in his grandson’s time,
when his strong arm and Solomon’s wisdom and power were things of the past.
The summons of Achish to his great military vassal was perfectly natural: indeed,
Achish had no reason to suspect that such a campaign as the one the Philistines were
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9. about to undertake against King Saul would be in any way distasteful to the
wronged and insulted David. Not improbably the presence of David and his trained
force—including, as the wily Philistine well knew, some of the bravest souls in
Israel—encouraged Achish and the other Philistine lords to this great and, as it
turned out, supreme effort against Israel. The King of Gath and his colleagues in
Philistia saw that, in the divided state of Israel, their chances of success were very
great, and it is highly probable that they looked forward to establishing their friend
and follower David on the throne of Saul as a Philistine vassal king.
COKE, "1 Samuel 28:1-2. It came to pass in those days— The Philistines, recruited
about this time, as Sir Isaac Newton judges, by vast numbers of men driven out of
Egypt by Amasis, resolve upon a new war with Israel; nor were Samuel's death, and
David's disgrace, as we may well judge, inconsiderable motives to it. Achish, who
appears to have been commander in chief of the combined army of the Philistines,
knew David's merit, and had a thorough confidence in his fidelity; and therefore he
resolved to take him with him to the war. Accordingly, he moved the matter to
David, and David made him a doubtful answer. Surely thou shalt know what thy
servant can do: upon which Achish replies, therefore will I make thee keeper of
mine head for ever: that is, in the present military style, he promised to make him
captain of his life-guard, and we find by the sequel that he did so; whence, it seems,
that Achish understood his answer in the affirmative. But did David promise that he
would join in battle against his own people? No such thing. David made no
compliance or promise of this kind, but answered ambiguously.—He was
undoubtedly in circumstances of great difficulty. But who reduced him to these
difficulties? Who forced him to seek refuge among the Philistines? It was Saul, by
his causeless, cruel, and unrelenting persecutions; Saul, therefore, was in a great
measure answerable for all the evil consequences of it. But must not David have
fought against his king and country, or else have fallen off to the Israelites, and
ungratefully employed his arms against the Philistines, and Achish his protector? I
am not sure that he was reduced to the necessity of doing either. David knew himself
destined by Providence to the throne of Israel, and therefore could never have
joined Achish to complete their destruction, which must have cut off every possible
prospect of his succeeding to the crown. The particular favours that he had received
from Achish, laid him under no obligation whatsoever to assist the Philistines in
general against his own countrymen. He might have shewed his gratitude to Achish,
by affording him protection in his turn, securing his person, and those of many of
his people, had the Israelites been victorious over the combined armies. Being often
under the divine impulse, he might have made this reply in obedience to the divine
inspiration; without being acquainted with that concatenation of events which was
foreseen by the Deity, who foreknew that it would be a means of extricating him out
of his present difficulties, without exposing him to any in future. As David was
frequently inspired with a knowledge of futurity, he might possibly have foreseen
that event which freed him from the dilemma into which this promise might, in its
utmost latitude, have drawn him; and then it could not have been looked upon by
himself as an obligation to take up arms against his king and country, because he
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10. foreknew that he never should be put to that trial.
REFLECTIONS.—We have here,
1. The distress to which David is reduced in this war between the Philistines and
Israel. Achish, as he justly might, insists on David's going with him to battle. David
dared not refuse, though he, no doubt, resolved not to fight against God's people:
he, therefore, gives an ambiguous answer, which Achish interprets of his fidelity
and valour, and promises to make him captain of his guards for life if he should
acquit himself well. Hereupon the Philistines march, and David with them, into the
heart of Canaan, and encamp at Shunem, without opposition.
2. Saul, with his forces collected at Gilboa, appears greatly terrified at his danger;
and now, no doubt, heartily wishes for David back again, whose presence in the
opposite army gives such weight to his foes. The remembrance of his past guilt adds
terrors to his present danger, while the sense of his present danger awakens his
conscience to a deeper sensibility of his past wickedness. To accumulate his miseries,
he receives no answer from God; he is vouchsafed no divine vision in a dream; has
no Urim to consult, since the priest is fled with it to David; nor prophet to advise or
direct him. At last, he is resolved to have recourse to the devil for advice; but his
own former edicts against sorcerers make it difficult to find one, as he had, in
pretended zeal for God, or at Samuel's instigation, put to death all such abominable
workers of iniquity throughout the land of Israel. Note; (1.) They who refuse to seek
God while he may be found, will cry in vain when he refuses to answer. (2.) The
troubles of the wicked are doubly aggravated by the terrors of an evil conscience.
(3.) To the very sins against which men professed once to be most zealous, they will
readily abandon themselves, when they have thrown off the cloke of religion.
HAWKER, "We are hastening to the close of the reign and life of Saul. The
Philistines are preparing for a battle fatal to Saul. He is dispirited and dismayed;
and instead of looking to the Lord, he betakes himself to familiar spirits; the sad
consequence which follows, and the alarms of Saul, are rehearsed in the close of this
chapter.
1 Samuel 28:1
(1) ¶ And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered their armies
together for warfare, to fight with Israel. And Achish said unto David, Know thou
assuredly, that thou shalt go out with me to battle, thou and thy men.
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11. See Reader, in this preparation of the Philistines for battle against Israel, the sad
effects of Israel departing from the Lord. The Lord had promised when he settled
his people in their kingdom, to drive out all nations from before them, and that
there should not be a man to stand before them. But, when Israel deserted the Lord,
the Lord raised up enemies to Israel, as his instruments to correct them. See Joshua
1:3-5. But Reader! when you have duly pondered this subject, as it concerns Israel
of old, look at it again, as it concerns Israel now. Are not our unsubdued
corruptions, our unhumbled lusts, and the remains of inbred sin in our mortal
bodies, like those Philistines waging war with the soul? Did you and I live wholly to
Jesus, would those enemies dare rise up against us? How important is that
exhortation of Peter, when he said, Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and
pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. 1 Peter 2:11.
2 David said, "Then you will see for yourself
what your servant can do."
Achish replied, "Very well, I will make you my
bodyguard for life."
BARNES, "Thou shalt know ... - David dissembled (compare also 1Sa_29:8),
hoping, no doubt, that something would happen to prevent his fighting against his
king and country.
Keeper of mine head - Captain of his bodyguard.
CLARKE, "Surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do - This was another
equivocal answer; and could only be understood by his succeeding conduct. It might
imply what he could do in favor of the Philistines against Israel; or in favor of Israel
against the Philistines. Achish understood it in the former sense; and therefore he
said to David, I will make thee keeper of my head for ever; i.e., Thou shalt be
captain of my life-guards.
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12. GILL, "And David said to Achish, surely thou shalt know what thy servant can
do,.... By which he would have Achish understand, and so he did, that he would
exert himself in favour of the Philistines, and against Israel, and do great and brave
things, of which Achish would be, made sensible, through his heroic courage and
valour; though he meant rather what he could and should do for Israel against the
Philistines, if he had an opportunity: but it seems best of all to consider David as
quite undetermined, and at a loss what to do, hoping that God in his providence
would extricate him out of this difficulty, and direct him what he should do, which
then Achish would know; and accordingly he was delivered out of it:
and Achish said to David: putting confidence in him on account of his answer, and
believing he was hearty in engaging in the war with the Philistines against Israel:
therefore will I make thee keeper of mine head for ever; the captain of his
bodyguard, which post he should hold for life; or he proposed to put him into this
post, that he might be with him, near his person, and under his eye, that he might
observe how he behaved himself; which may show some suspicion of him.
HENRY, "The expectation Achish had of assistance from David in this war, and
the encouragement David gave him to expect it: “Thou shalt go with me to battle,”
says Achish. “If I protect thee, I may demand service from thee;” and he will think
himself happy if he may have such a man as David on his side, who prospered
whithersoever he went. David gave him an ambiguous answer: “We will see what
will be done; it will be time enough to talk of that hereafter; but surely thou shalt
know what thy servant can do” (1Sa_28:2), that is, “I will consider in what post I may
be best able to serve thee, if thou wilt but give me leave to choose it.” Thus he keeps
himself free from a promise to serve him and yet keeps up his expectation of it; for
Achish took it in no other sense than as an engagement to assist him, and promised
him, thereupon, that he would make him captain of the guards, protector, or prime-
minister of state.
JAMISON, "Surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do — This answer,
while it seemed to express an apparent cheerfulness in agreeing to the proposal,
contained a studied ambiguity - a wary and politic generality.
Therefore will I make thee keeper of mine head for ever — or, “my life”; that is,
“captain of my bodyguard,” an office of great trust and high honor.
PULPIT, "1Sa_28:2
Surely thou shalt know. Hebrew, "Therefore thou shalt know," i.e. if the case be so,
thou shalt know, etc. The rendering of the A.V. makes David repeat the words of
Achish, which literally are, "knowing thou shalt know," the Hebrew way of making
a strong affirmation. David’s reply is really ambiguous, but is understood by Achish
as a boastful assent, and he thereupon promises, Therefore will I make thee keeper
12

13. of mine head, i.e. captain of my bodyguard, forever. Therefore is exactly the same
word as that used by David, and has just the same meaning, namely, "If the case be
so, if thou provest thy valour, then I, etc.
BENSON, "1 Samuel 28:2. David said, Surely thou shalt know what thy servant can
do — He answered ambiguously, as he did before. Achish said, Therefore will I
make thee keeper of my head — That is, he promised to make him captain of his
life-guard, which, we find by the sequel, he accordingly did. Achish evidently
understood David as promising that he would do his best to serve him. Delaney
thinks that David gave Achish a doubtful answer, because he would not resolve
upon so extraordinary a step without consulting God, either by his priest or his
prophet. And that, as he proceeded so far as to attend Achish to Aphek, the place
appointed for the assembling of the Philistine forces, there is no reason to doubt that
he went thither with honest intentions toward his protector, and that he did it by the
divine permission.
ELLICOTT, " (2) And David said to Achish.—Sorely perplexed, David temporises.
He dares not refuse; and yet, the idea of commanding a Philistine division in a war
with Israel was to him a terrible alternative.
And Achish said to David, Therefore will I make thee keeper of mine head for
ever.—The King of Gath, like so many others with whom the winning son of Jesse
came in contact in his career, seems to have been completely won by his loveable,
generous character, and would not see any ambiguity in David’s reply, but at once
offers him in the coming campaign a most distinguished appointment in the army of
Gath—the command of the body-guard: for this is what Ewald understands the
offer of King Achish to signify.
But, as we shall see, the blind confidence of the king was not fully shared in by the
Philistine chieftains; jealousy of the distinguished stranger captain opened their eyes
to David’s real feelings. (See 1 Samuel 29:3; 1 Samuel 29:11.) It is also quite
conceivable, too, that whispers respecting David s expeditions during the past year
were current in some Philistine quarters. The eyes of the king, thought these more
far-seeing nobles, were blinded by his partiality for his military vassal. (See Note on
1 Samuel 29:3.)
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14. 3 Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had
mourned for him and buried him in his own town
of Ramah. Saul had expelled the mediums and
spiritists from the land.
BARNES, "It does not appear when Saul had suppressed witchcraft; it was
probably in the early part of his reign.
Familiar spirits ... wizards - i. e. ventriloquists ... wise or cunning men. See Lev_
19:31 note.
CLARKE, "Samuel was dead - And there was no longer a public accredited
prophet to consult.
Those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards - See the note on Lev_19:31, and
Exo_22:18.
GILL, "Now Samuel was dead,.... Had been so for some time; which is mentioned
before, 1Sa_25:1; and here repeated, partly to observe the reason of the Philistines
renewing the war, and partly to account for the conduct of Saul, in seeking to a
witch to raise Samuel, and for the sake of that story:
and all Israel lamented him; as they had great reason to do; See Gill on 1Sa_25:1;
and buried him in Ramah, even his own city; there being two Ramahs, as Kimchi
observes, it is added, "in his own city", to show that he was buried in that Ramah
which was his native place, and where his constant residence was; though, as he
says, it may mean that he was buried within the city, and not without it; but the
Targum gives a different sense,"and they buried him in Ramah, and mourned for
him every man in his city:"
and Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards,
out of the land: out of the land of Israel; had by an edict banished them, or had
given orders that neither witches nor wizards should abide in the land; but should
be taken up, and prosecuted according to the law of God; which he had done either
at the instigation of Samuel; or, as some think, from a conceit that the evil spirit he
had been troubled with was owing to them; or to make some appearance of a zeal
for religion, and the honour and glory of God: this is observed to show the
inconstancy of Saul, and his folly in applying after this to a person of such a
14

15. character, and to account for the fears of the woman when applied to, and
afterwards when she was engaged, when she found it was by Saul; see 1Sa_28:7.
JAMISON, "Now Samuel is dead, etc. — This event is here alluded to as
affording an explanation of the secret and improper methods by which Saul sought
information and direction in the present crisis of his affairs. Overwhelmed in
perplexity and fear, he yet found the common and legitimate channels of
communication with Heaven shut against him. And so, under the impulse of that
dark, distempered, superstitious spirit which had overmastered him, he resolved, in
desperation, to seek the aid of one of those fortune telling impostors whom, in
accordance with the divine command (Lev_19:31; Lev_20:6, Lev_20:27; Deu_
18:11), he had set himself formerly to exterminate from his kingdom.
K&D, "Saul with the witch at Endor. - The invasion of Israel by the Philistines,
which brought David into so difficult a situation, drove king Saul to despair, so that
in utter helplessness he had recourse to ungodly means of inquiring into the future,
which he himself had formerly prohibited, and to his horror had to hear the
sentence of his own death. This account is introduced with the remark in 1Sa_28:3
that Samuel was dead and had been buried at Ramah (cf. 1Sa_25:1; ‫ו‬ֹ‫יר‬ ִ‫ﬠ‬ ְ‫,וּב‬ with an
explanatory vav, and indeed in his own city), and that Saul had expelled “those that
had familiar spirits and the wizards out of the land” (on the terms employed, oboth
and yiddonim, see at Lev_19:31). He had done this in accordance with the law in
Lev_19:31; Lev_20:27, and Deu_18:10.
PULPIT, "SAUL AND THE WITCH OF ENDOR (1Sa_28:3-25).
1Sa_28:3
Samuel was dead. A repetition of 1Sa_25:1, inserted to explain Saul’s conduct, as is
the other fact, that Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, etc. We are not
told when Saul did this; but at the commencement of his reign, when he brought the
ark to Nob, he was probably earnest generally in his observance of the precepts of
the Mosaic law. Familiar spirits. Hebrew, oboth, the plural of ob, a leathern bottle. It
is generally taken to refer to the distended belly of the conjurer, into which the
summoned spirit of the dead was supposed to enter, and thence speak; for which
reason the Septuagint renders the word" ventriloquist," and is followed by most
modern commentators. Wizards. Hebrew, "knowing ones," from the verb to know;
just as wizard comes from the old verb to wiss. With ignorant people unusual
knowledge is always looked upon with suspicion; but these supposed magicians
professed a knowledge to which they bad no claim.
ELLICOTT, " (3) Now Samuel was dead.—A statement here repeated to introduce
the strange, sad story which follows. The LXX., followed by the Vulg. and Syriac
Versions, omitted it, not understanding the reason for its repetition.
15

16. And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the
land.—This statement is also inserted explanatory of what follows. In other words,
the compiler says: “Now Samuel, whom Saul was so anxious to see, was dead and
buried, and the possessors of familiar spirits, whose aid Saul was about to invoke to
carry out his purpose, had long since been put out, by his own order, from the
land.” “Those that had familiar spirits”—those that had at their command ôboth,
rendered “familiar spirits,” the plural form of ôb, a word which has never been
explained with any certainty. Scholars think they can connect it with ôb, to be
hollow, and ôb is then “the hollow thing,” or “bag;” and so it came to signify, “one
who speaks in a hollow voice.” It hence appears to mean the distended belly of the
ventriloquist, a word by which the LXX. always render ôb. It thus is used to
designate the male or female ventriloquist, as in 1 Samuel 27:3; 1 Samuel 27:9, and
Deuteronomy 18:11, &c., and also the spirit which was supposed to speak from the
belly of the ventriloquist; in this sense it is so used in 1 Samuel 27:8-9, and Isaiah
29:4. This is the explanation given by Erdmann in Lange, and the Bishop of Bath
and Wells in the Speaker’s Commentary.
The wizards.—Literally, the wise people. These are ever connected with the ôboth,
“those that had familiar spirits.” The name seems to have been given in irony to
these dealers in occult and forbidden arts. The Mosaic command respecting these
people was clear and decisive: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch.(or wizard) to live”
(Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 20:27). Saul, in his early zeal, we read, had actively put in
force these edicts of Moses, which apparently, in the lax state of things which had
long prevailed in Israel, had been suffered to lie in abeyance.
COFFMAN, "SAUL'S DECISION TO CONSULT THE WITCH OF ENDOR
"Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in
Ramah, his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the wizards out of the
land. The Philistines assembled, and came and encamped at Shunem; and Saul
gathered all Israel, and they encamped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the army of the
Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired
of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by
prophets. Then Saul said to his servants, "Seek out for me a woman who is a
medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her." And his servants said to him,
"Behold, there is a medium at Endor."
"Samuel had died ... Saul had put the mediums and wizards out of the land" (1
Samuel 28:3). This information was prerequisite to the understanding of what is
16

17. next related. Saul's putting the wizards and mediums out of the land had evidently
occurred in the early years of his reign when he was sincerely trying to do the will of
God.
"Wizards and mediums" (1 Samuel 28:3). "From Isaiah 8:19; 19:3, it may be
inferred that the oracles procured from such sources were uttered in a squealing
voice, by means of ventriloquism."[4] "The Hebrew word for `mediums' here is
[~'oboth], which is the plural of [~'ob], meaning `leather bottles.' It is generally
taken to refer to the distended belly of the conjurer, into which the summoned spirit
of the dead was supposed to enter, and thence speak."[5]
It is impossible to imagine anything any more fraudulent, any more evil, or any
more founded absolutely upon falsehood than the profession of such followers of the
devil as the mediums and wizards; one of the best known of those persons was the
notorious Witch of Endor who is featured in this chapter.
Note the following from Deuteronomy: "There shall not be found among you any
one who practices divination, a soothsayer, an augur, a sorcerer, a charmer, a
medium, a wizard, or a necromancer ... Whoever does such things is an abomination
to the Lord." (Deuteronomy 18:10-12).
"When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid" (1 Samuel 28:5). Saul's
crisis of fear was aggravated by the new strategy of the Philistines, who, instead of
fighting Israel in the hill country, on this occasion marched into the plain of Jezreel
where their chariots of iron would give them an advantage. "This maneuver
threatened to cut off Saul from the support of the northern tribes"[6]
"The Philistines at Shunem ...Israel at Gilboa" (1 Samuel 28:4). It was at Gilboa
that Saul greatly trembled. "This was the spring by which Gideon and his men
camped. It was called the `Spring of Trembling' (Judges 7:1, KJV). Saul here
camped beside the same spring, and `trembled greatly.'"[7] "The two armies here
confronted each other near the eastern end of the plain of Esdraelon."[8]
"The Lord did not answer him ... by dreams ... by Urim ... or by prophets." "How
strange that the man who hated and persecuted the prophets Samuel and David
expected to be answered by prophets, and that he who had slain eighty-five priests
with all of their wives and children, including even the High Priest, expected to be
answered by the Urim, and that he who had sinned away the Spirit of God expected
17

18. to be answered by heavenly dreams! God is not mocked![9]
"Behold, there is a medium at Endor" (1 Samuel 28:7). "Endor is the modern
Khirbet es-Safsafe about four miles south of Mount Tabor ... Psalms 83:10 indicates
that Barak and Deborah defeated Jabin and Sisera in this area."[10] The fact that
Saul had said to his servants, "Find me a woman who is a medium" indicates that
the great majority of such persons were indeed women, even as it is today with
fortune-tellers, palm-readers, crystal-ball gazers, etc.
GUZIK, "SAUL AND THE MEDIUM OF ENDOR
The first two verses of 1Sa_28:1-25 connect with the previous chapter, so they are
examined in the commentary on 1Sa_27:1-12.
A. Saul’s distressing situation
1. (1Sa_28:3-5) Saul’s fear at the attack from the Philistines.
Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented for him and buried him in
Ramah, in his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the spiritists out of
the land. Then the Philistines gathered together, and came and encamped at
Shunem. So Saul gathered all Israel together, and they encamped at Gilboa.
When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled
greatly.
a. Samuel had died: Samuel’s death was originally reported in 1Sa_25:1.
Here, the fact is mentioned again to emphasize the spiritual vacuum left by
Samuel’s departure.
b. Saul had put the mediums and the spiritists out of the land: To his credit,
Saul obeyed the commands in the Mosaic Law to cast out those who
practiced occultic arts. God commanded that mediums and spiritists (those
who either can or claim to contact the dead and spirit beings) have no place
among His people in passages such as Lev_19:31, Lev_20:6; Lev_20:27 and
in Deu_18:9-14. Saul did this in his earlier days, when he was still influenced
by Samuel’s leadership.
i. Things such as tarot cards, palm readers, horoscopes and Ouija Boards
are modern attempts to practice forms of spiritism. They are dangerous
links to the demonic, even if undertaken in a spirit of fun. Christians
should have nothing to do with occultic arts or practices.
c. Then the Philistines gathered together, and came and encamped at
Shunem: The geography of Shunem means that the Philistines made an
aggressive attack against Saul and Israel.
i. “Shunem, in the Valley of Jezreel, was about twenty miles north of
Aphek, the most northerly Philistine city. The fact that the Philistines had
penetrated thus far gives an indication of their dominance over Saul’s
18

19. kingdom, and of their intention to press further east to the Jordan.”
(Baldwin)
d. When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart
trembled greatly: Long before his downward spiral, when Saul still walked
in the Spirit, he was a man of great courage (as in 1Sa_11:6-11). Saul began
to lose his courage when the Holy Spirit withdrew from him (1Sa_16:14), and
now, after the death of Samuel (the only man to have much spiritual
influence on Saul) his courage seems almost completely gone.
WHEDON, "Verses 3-25
SAUL’S DISTRESS, AND INTERVIEW WITH THE WITCH OF ENDOR, 1
Samuel 28:3-25.
Saul’s interview with the witch of Endor has ever been regarded as a subject beset
with peculiar difficulties, and variously has it been explained.
Justin Martyr and Origen held that by the incantations of the witch the spirit of
Samuel actually appeared and conversed with Saul. Modern spiritism also affirms
that the witch was a medium through whom the king of Israel received
communications from the spirit of Samuel. But the majority of the older expositors,
and some few moderns, believing it absurd for a holy prophet to be raised from the
dead by the arts of witchcraft, regard the supposed apparition of Samuel as Satan
personating that prophet. This opinion, however, has not been generally received by
later commentators; and the present prevailing opinion seems to be, that not by the
arts of the witch, but contrary to her expectations, and by the express permission
and command of God, the deceased Samuel actually appeared and spoke to Saul.
It is usually assumed that the expressions, “The woman saw Samuel,” 1 Samuel
28:12; “Saul perceived that it was Samuel,” 1 Samuel 28:14; “Samuel said to Saul,”
1 Samuel 28:15-16; “the words of Samuel,” 1 Samuel 28:20 — necessarily imply the
actual presence of the deceased prophet. And this conclusion cannot well be avoided
if we take this narrative of Saul’s interview with the witch to be an actual
communication of the Holy Spirit to the writer of the books of Samuel. But was it
thus divinely communicated to the sacred writer? or is it the report of the two men
(1 Samuel 28:8) who accompanied Saul to Endor? Inasmuch as the greater portion
of these books is a compilation from pre-existing documents — often the reports of
eye-witnesses of the events recorded, (see Introduction,) — we are perfectly safe in
taking the ground that this narrative originated with those who were eye and ear
witnesses of the interview, and who reported the matter just as it appeared to them.
Perhaps one of them was the king’s scribe. See note on 2 Samuel 8:17. It is,
19

20. therefore, a most natural supposition that Saul and his two attendants believed that
the witch had really brought up Samuel from the dead, and, so believing, they
would naturally report the matter just as it is here recorded. Hence such expressions
as “Samuel said to Saul,” may be legitimately explained in this case as the manner in
which the witnesses understood and reported what they heard. See, further, the
notes on 1 Samuel 28:14-15.
We are driven to this view of the subject by the insuperable difficulties that attend
the belief that Samuel actually appeared. Admitting this belief, we are forced to
admit, also, not only that he was at least apparently brought up by the
instrumentality of the witch, but also, according to 1 Samuel 28:15, that he was
disturbed, and forced up against his will. For, assuming the real appearance of the
prophet, it is idle to say, as some do, that the witch did not bring Samuel up, but
that he appeared, to her great surprise and terror, before she had yet resorted to her
incantations. 1 Samuel 28:11-12 most clearly imply that she was instrumental in
causing Samuel to appear, and the alarm of the witch, as her own words show, (1
Samuel 28:12,) was not at suddenly seeing the prophet, but at recognising Saul.
Here, then, appears an insuperable difficulty — we might well say, an utter
absurdity — to suppose that after Jehovah had refused to answer Saul by urim, by
prophets, and by dreams, and had also, in his law, denounced the heaviest
punishments against all forms of witchcraft, and had forbidden all resort to such as
had familiar spirits, he would yet send Samuel from heaven to communicate with
Saul through the agency of a miserable witch!
Another difficulty is the character of the communication which is pretended to come
from Samuel. It contains nothing worth sending a sainted prophet from heaven to
tell; nothing which the witch might not, under the circumstances, have naturally
and easily devised to awe and terrify the king. Its language, too, savours more of the
spirit of witchcraft than of the spirit of divine revelation. See notes on vers. 15 to 19.
The manner of Samuel’s appearance is also of a strange and suspicious character.
He comes up out of the earth, not as one from heaven; he bears the marks of
decrepitude and age, and apparently wears the cast-off garments of his earthly life.
All this agrees well enough with the superstitions of ancient necromancy, but is
hardly in keeping with that lofty conception of the glorious appearing of a sainted
spirit which other parts of the Scriptures suggest. How different from Moses and
Elijah, who appeared “in glory!” Luke 9:31. This is the more noticeable when we
observe that the witch is the only one who sees Samuel. She alone sees the gods
ascending; she alone sees the old man with the mantle; and it is not until after she
tells her pretended vision that Saul understands and is convinced that it is Samuel.
See note on 1 Samuel 28:14. So, then, Saul did not see Samuel; he only heard, as he
supposed, the words of the angry prophet.
20

21. In view of all these difficulties we feel obliged to reject that interpretation which
assumes an actual appearance of Samuel.
There are two other methods of explaining this subject, either of which is beset with
fewer difficulties. According to one theory the witch of Endor had known Samuel in
life, had often seen him, and had heard some of his oracles. His venerable form and
mantle were familiar to all Israel. His last words to Saul, predicting the ruin of his
house and the transfer of the kingdom to David, were also known throughout the
land, and would be particularly remembered by one who was devoted to the arts of
divination. The witch, also, knew Saul, and had reason to believe that the hour of his
ruin was at hand, for the field of his last battle was near her home, and she may
have known the position, plans, and prospects of both armies. She not only
recognised the king as soon as he came into her presence, but at a glance discerned
the anxiety of his soul, and the real object of his coming; and all her words and
actions on the occasion were in perfect keeping with the arts of witchcraft, and
designed to awe and overwhelm him.
It is impossible successfully to controvert the above suppositions, for they are not
only possible but probable; and if any one has doubts of the ability of a professional
witch to apprehend a person’s thoughts and feelings, and utter some surprising
oracles, he will do well to ponder the following observations of a distinguished
medical writer:
“A person of close observation and great shrewdness can acquire a degree of skill in
furnishing communications purporting to be spiritual, which can hardly be
appreciated by one who has not given much thought to the subject. This is a kind of
acquirement not sought for, except by those who mean to use it for deception, and
therefore by most persons is but little understood. Let an individual of proper
capacity make it a business to study the significance of every slight movement,
intonation of voice, and expression of countenance, as criteria of concealed thoughts,
and let this pursuit be prosecuted for years, under the incentives afforded by the
love of gain or applause, or the fear of detection, and the tact thus acquired will be
likely to develop results that appear almost incredible.” — Dr. Austin Flint, (in
Quart. Jour. of Psychological Medicine, July, 1869.)
There is another, and, to our mind, more complete exposition of this subject, which
we present in these notes. It assumes that the woman of Endor was a superior
clairvoyant. All the parts of the narrative are so happily explained on this
hypothesis as to evidence its probable correctness and worth. Careful and continued
investigations in clairvoyance have, within the last century, shed much light on the
mysteries of magic. We know that men have charmed serpents and serpents have
21

22. charmed men. Man, too, can charm man; and it has been shown beyond successful
contradiction that, in accordance with certain occult laws of our being, one person
can so fascinate another, and place himself in such sympathetic rapport with his
soul, as to become sensible of what he feels or imagines. This power, however, exists
in different persons in different degrees. Some persons it seems impossible to
mesmerize at all, while others are highly susceptible to mesmeric operations, and are
easily thrown into a clairvoyant state. Others, again, have the unusual power of
spontaneously inducing upon themselves the clairvoyant state, and, by coming into
contact or association with the soul of another, the superior clairvoyant becomes
cognizant of the feelings and emotions of that soul. By the power of an inner vision
he appears to see in that soul the thoughts and impressions that are deeply fixed in
the imagination or the memory.
We assume, then, that the witch of Endor was a clairvoyant who could
spontaneously place herself in mesmeric intercourse with the souls of those who
came to inquire of her; and that with this power she united the practice of lying and
deceit as she found occasion to serve her own dark purposes. We hope to show, by
fair and worthy criticism, that upon this hypothesis the narrative before us is
capable of a happy and consistent interpretation, and is relieved of the difficulties
which attend the assumption of the actual appearance of Samuel.
PETT, "Verses 3-19
Saul Consults A Necromancer And Samuel Appears To Him (1 Samuel 28:3-19).
Having been unable to obtain any response from God, Saul, in desperation,
determined to turn to a necromancer. It would, however, only be in order to receive
bad news. For Samuel’s message to him would be that his case was hopeless. Thus
instead of receiving help he would learn of coming failure and death. It is a
reminder that those who treat God lightly can be sure that one day they will reap
what they have sown, and that when they need Him they might well not find Him.
We must seek Him while He is yet speaking to us. ‘Now is the acceptable time. Now
is the Day of Salvation’. Tomorrow may be too late.
Analysis.
a Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in
Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits,
and the wizards, out of the land. And the Philistines gathered themselves together,
and came and encamped in Shunem (1 Samuel 28:3-4).
22

23. b And Saul gathered all Israel together, and they encamped in Gilboa. And when
Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.
And when Saul enquired of YHWH, YHWH did not answer him, neither by
dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets (1 Samuel 28:5-6).
c Then said Saul to his servants, “Seek me out a woman who has a familiar spirit,
that I may go to her, and enquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “Look, there
is a woman who has a familiar spirit at En-dor.” And Saul disguised himself, and
put on other clothing, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the
woman by night, and he said, “Divine to me, I pray you, by the familiar spirit, and
bring me up whoever I shall name to you” (1 Samuel 28:7-8).
d And the woman said to him, “Look, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut
off those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards (‘knowing ones’) out of the land.
Why then do you lay a snare for my life, to cause me to die?” (1 Samuel 28:9).
e And Saul swore to her by YHWH, saying, “As YHWH lives, there shall no
punishment happen to you for this thing” (1 Samuel 28:10).
d Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up to you?” And he said, “Bring me
up Samuel.” And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice, and the
woman spoke to Saul, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul.” (1
Samuel 28:11-12).
c And the king said to her, “Do not afraid, for what do you see?” And the woman
said to Saul, “I see an elohim (other world being) coming up out of the earth.” And
he said to her, “Of what form is he?” And she said, “An old man comes up, and he is
covered with a robe.” And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his
face to the ground, and did obeisance. And Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you
disquieted me, to bring me up?” (1 Samuel 28:13-15 a).
b And Saul answered, “I am sore distressed, for the Philistines make war against
me, and God is departed from me, and answers me no more, neither by prophets,
nor by dreams, therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I
shall do” (1 Samuel 28:15 b).
a And Samuel said, “Why then do you ask of me, seeing YHWH is departed from
you, and is become your adversary? And YHWH has done to him (God’s
23

24. adversary), as he spoke by me, and YHWH has rent the kingdom out of your hand,
and given it to your compatriot, even to David, because you did not obey the voice of
YHWH, and did not execute his fierce wrath on Amalek. Therefore has YHWH
done this thing to you this day. Moreover YHWH will deliver Israel also with you
into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow will you and your sons be with me.
YHWH will deliver the host of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines” (1 Samuel
28:16-19).
Note that in ‘a’ Samuel is dead and the Philistines are threatening, and in the
parallel the Philistines will triumph, and Saul and his sons will join Samuel beyond
the grave. In ‘b’ YHWH does not answer Saul by any means, and in the parallel that
is precisely what Saul tells Samuel. In ‘c’ Saul seeks out a woman who has a
‘familiar spirit’, and in the parallel the woman whom he has found seeks to call on
her familiar spirit. In ‘d’ the woman thinks that these strange men are seeking to
entrap her, and in the parallel she thinks that that is precisely what Saul has done.
Centrally in ‘e’ Saul swears by YHWH that she will not be punished.
1 Samuel 28:3
‘Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah,
even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the
wizards, out of the land.’
“Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah,
even in his own city.” For these words compare 1 Samuel 25:1. Then it had
introduced a situation where the second person whom Samuel had anointed (David)
was going from triumph to triumph because his trust was in YHWH, and was
continually revealing his obedience to YHWH. Now it introduces a situation where
the first person whom Samuel had anointed (Saul) was in a hopelessly lost condition
because of his gross disobedience to YHWH. He had previously retained for himself
what had been ‘devoted to YHWH’, a crime of huge dimensions in the eyes of all
who lived in those days. (Men would have spoken of it in hushed tones). And even
though given a ‘second chance’ he had not repented. Rather he had allowed himself
to be hardened by his sin, and had decided that he could carry on without Samuel’s
blessing.
“Those that had familiar spirits (ob), and the wizards (yid‘oni - ‘those who know”
by means of contact with spirits).’ An ob was a spirit, known to the medium (a
familiar spirit), through which mediums claimed to contact the dead. The Scripture
makes quite clear that it is sinful to use such ‘mediums’ and ‘knowers’ (Leviticus
19:31), and that they should be put to death (Leviticus 20:27). See also Deuteronomy
24

25. 18:9-22. In obedience to the Law Saul had put all such out of the land in one way or
another. It was a sign of his increasing degradation and despair that he would now
turn to them.
4 The Philistines assembled and came and set up
camp at Shunem, while Saul gathered all the
Israelites and set up camp at Gilboa.
BARNES, "Gilboa - Now called Jebel Fukuak. But the ancient name is preserved
in the village of Jelbon, situated on the south side of the mountain. It was separated
from Shunem (see the marginal reference) by the deep valley of Jezreel. The
Philistines either advanced along the seacoast, and then entered the valley of Jezreel
from the west, or they came by the present road right through Samaria, starting
from Aphek 1Sa_29:1.
GILL, "And the Philistines gathered themselves together,.... From different parts,
and formed a considerable army:
and came and pitched in Shunem; a city, in the borders of the tribe of Issachar, of
which See Gill on Jos_19:18,
and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they pitched in Gilboa; a range of
mountains, near Jezreel, and which Jerom (b) calls the mountains of the Philistines,
six miles from Scythopolis, where there is a large village called Gelbus.
HENRY, "The drawing of the armies, on both sides, into the field (1Sa_28:4): The
Philistines pitched in Shunem, which was in the tribe of Issachar, a great way north
from their country. The land of Israel, it seems, was ill-guarded, when the
Philistines could march their army into the very heart of the country. Saul, while he
pursued David, left his people naked and exposed. On some of the adjacent
mountains of Gilboa Saul mustered his forces, and prepared to engage the
Philistines, which he had little heart to do now that the Spirit of the Lord had
departed from him.
25

26. JAMISON, "the Philistines ... pitched in Shunem — Having collected their forces
for a last grand effort, they marched up from the seacoast and encamped in the
“valley of Jezreel.” The spot on which their encampment was fixed was Shunem
(Jos_19:18), now Sulem, a village which still exists on the slope of a range called
“Little Hermon.” On the opposite side, on the rise of Mount Gilboa, hard by “the
spring of Jezreel,” was Saul’s army - the Israelites, according to their wont, keeping
to the heights, while their enemies clung to the plain.
K&D, "1Sa_28:4-5
When the Philistines advanced and encamped at Shunem, Saul brought all Israel
together and encamped at Gilboa, i.e., upon the mountain of that name on the north-
eastern edge of the plain of Jezreel, which slopes off from a height of about 1250 feet
into the valley of the Jordan, and is not far from Beisan. On the north of the western
extremity of this mountain was Shunem, the present Sulem or Solam (see at Jos_
19:18); it was hardly two hours distant, so that the camp of the Philistines might be
seen from Gilboa. When Saul saw this, he was thrown into such alarm that his heart
greatly trembled. As Saul had been more than once victorious in his conflicts with
the Philistines, his great fear at the sight of the Philistian army can hardly be
attributed to any other cause than the feeling that God had forsaken him, by which
he was suddenly overwhelmed.
PULPIT, "1Sa_28:4
The Philistines … pitched in Shunem. Having collected their forces, the Philistines
entered Palestine as we have seen, by the valley of Jezreel, also called Esdraelon,
and, marching eastward, encamped at Shunem. This was a village in the tribe of
Issachar (Jos_19:18), rendered famous as the abode of the woman who made a little
chamber for Elisha (2Ki_4:8); and from thence also came Abishag (1Ki_1:8).
Conder describes it as being at present only a mud hamlet, with cactus hedges and a
spring, but the view extends, he says, as far as to Mount Carmel, fifteen miles away
(’Tent-Work,’ 1:123). It is now called Sulem, a name given to it also by Eusebius,
and lies upon the slopes of the little Hermon, opposite Mount Gilboa, from which it
is separated by the valley of Jezreel. This broad plain "is bounded on the east by the
range of Gilboa, rising 1500 feet above the sea, and consisting of white chalk; while
on the west a long spur runs out at about the same average elevation with Gilboa,
and wends northwest to the ridge of Carmel. As the valley is about 250 feet above
the sea level, Saul, from an elevation of 1200 feet, would easily see the camp of the
Philistines pitched upon the slopes of the opposite range at a distance of about four
miles.
ELLICOTT, " (4) And pitched in Shunem.—As has been already described in the
Note on 1 Samuel 27:1, the Philistine army had penetrated into the heart of
Palestine, and, marching across the Valley of Jezreel, took up a strong position on
the south-western slope of “Little Hermon,” near to the village, or town, of Shunem,
26

27. a little to the north of Jezreel. Shunem is known in Biblical history as the home of
Abishag (1 Kings 1:3), and the dwelling-place of the woman who entertained Elisha,
and whose dead son he raised to life (2 Kings 4).
It has been identified by modern travellers. Conder speaks of it as being at present
only a mud hamlet, with cactus hedges and a spring; but the view, he says, extends
as far as Mount Carmel, fifteen miles away. It is now called Sutêm.
And Saul gathered all Israel together, and they pitched in Gilboa.—Saul’s position
was only a few miles distant from the camp of his enemies, on the slope of the hills
opposite Shunem, but parted by the deep Valley of Jezreel. From the high ground
by his camp Saul could plainly see the whole of the Philistine army. Mount Gilboa is
the name given to a range of lofty hills, rising 1,500 feet above the sea, and
consisting of white chalk.
HAWKER, "Verses 4-6
(4) And the Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and pitched in
Shunem: and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they pitched in Gilboa. (5) And
when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart greatly
trembled. (6) And when Saul enquired of the LORD, the LORD answered him not,
neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.
It is more than probable, that Saul in his haste to destroy David, had neglected even
the common means of safety respecting his kingdom. His army perhaps dwindled
and scattered abroad; so that when the Philistines came forward with so formidable
an host, and even advanced as far as Shunem, which lay in the tribe of Issachar, and
in the borders of Israel itself, there was great cause for dismay. But all this would
have been nothing, if Saul had made God his friend. Israel had found, upon all
occasions, while the Lord of hosts fought their battles, that one would chase a
thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight. But when the Lord is turned to be
their enemy, and to fight against them, this sums up the full heaped measure of
human misery.
PETT, "1 Samuel 28:4
27

28. ‘And the Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and encamped in
Shunem. And Saul gathered all Israel together, and they encamped in Gilboa.’
The third item in the equation was that the Philistines had gathered themselves
together and had come in massive force to encamp in Shunem. So the situation is
laid bare. Samuel the prophet of YHWH was dead, all who claimed to consult the
dead were no longer available, and the Philistines had gathered for the kill. This was
a Philistia at the height of its power facing a bankrupt Saul.
Shunem was in the territory of Isacchar near Jezreel. It was on the south west lower
slope of Mount Moreh opposite Mount Gilboa. The Philistines probably hoped to
engage in battle in the plain of Esdraelon where their chariots would be most
effective. They had learned that dealing with the Israelites in the mountains was a
much more difficult proposition (compare 1 Kings 20:23). By taking up this position
they had cut Saul off from the northern tribes, while at the same time occupying
Israelite territory. (Compare how 1 Samuel 31:7 speaks of the men of Israel who
were on the other side of the valley. With the Philistines encamped where they were
they were unable to reach Saul).
For the description of the gathering of the Philistines compare 1 Samuel 17:1. Then
that gathering had a different outcome because of one man, a YHWH inspired
David. But now David was no longer with Saul, and YHWH had deserted him. He
was on his own.
Saul meanwhile had little alternative but to react to Philistine belligerence and to
send out to the tribes the call to arms in order to gather the armies of Israel
together, for Israelite territory had been occupied. It was in accordance with treaty
obligation under YHWH’s covenant with His people that in times of trouble all the
tribes who could would muster in order to assist their fellow tribesmen, and this was
even moreso now that they had a recognised King (melech) and Warleader (nagid).
But not all could reach him in time (1 Samuel 31:7).
Possibly had he had wise advice he would have withdrawn his army to the hills,
where they would have had a far better chance of defeating the Philistines. But that
would have meant leaving good portions of the lowlands of Israel open to the
ravages of the Philistines, a price tougher generals would have been willing to pay.
But it would have put Saul in a bad light before many of his countrymen and have
diminished his popularity. They had got used to the idea of Saul confronting their
28

29. enemies on the border. No wonder that he did not know what to do.
5 When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was
afraid; terror filled his heart.
CLARKE, "When Saul saw - He saw from the superiority of his enemies, from the
state of his army, and especially from his own state towards God, that he had every
thing to fear.
GILL, "And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines,.... From the mountains of
Gilboa, where he had pitched his camp:
he was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled; on sight of the numbers of them, and
thinking perhaps of the death of Samuel, and of the loss of David; who was now
among the Philistines, and might possibly fight against him, and for the Philistines,
of which he might be informed; however, he was not with him, and his conscience
might accuse him of various sins he had been guilty of, for which he might fear the
Lord would now reckon with him.
HENRY, "The terror Saul was in, and the loss he was at, upon this occasion: He
saw the host of the Philistines, and by his own view of them, and the intelligence his
spies brought him, he perceived they were more numerous, better armed, and in
better heart, than his own were, which made him afraid, so that his heart greatly
trembled, 1Sa_28:5. Had he kept close to God, he needed not have been afraid at the
sight of an army of Philistines; but now that he had provoked God to forsake him
his interest failed, his armies dwindled and looked mean, and, which was worse, his
spirits failed him, his heart sunk within him, a guilty conscience made him tremble
at the shaking of a leaf. Now he remembered the guilty blood of the Amalekites
which he had spared, and the innocent blood of the priests which he had spilt. His
sins were set in order before his eyes, which put him into confusion, embarrassed all
his counsels, robbed him of all his courage, and produced in him a certain fearful
looking for of judgment and fiery indignation. Note, Troubles are terrors to the
children of disobedience. In this distress Saul enquired of the Lord, 1Sa_28:6. Need
drives those to God who in the day of their prosperity slighted his oracles and altars.
Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, Isa_26:16. Did ever any seek the Lord and not
find him? Yes, Saul did; the Lord answered him not, took no notice either of his
29

30. petitions or of his enquiries; gave him no directions what to do, nor any
encouragement to hope that he would be with him. Should he be enquired of at all by
such a one as Saul? Eze_14:3. No, he could not expect an answer of peace, for, 1. He
enquired in such a manner that it was as if he had not enquired at all. Therefore it is
said (1Ch_10:14), He enquired not of the Lord; for he did it faintly and coldly, and
with a secret design, if God did not answer him, to consult the devil. He did not
enquire in faith, but with a double unstable mind. 2. He enquired of the Lord when
it was too late, when the days of his probation were over and he was finally rejected.
Seek the Lord while he may be found, for there is a time when he will not be found. 3.
He had forfeited the benefit of all the methods of enquiry. Could he that hated and
persecuted Samuel and David, who were both prophets, expect to be answered by
prophets? Could he that had slain the high priest, expect to be answered by Urim?
Or could he that had sinned away the Spirit of grace, expect to be answered by
dreams? No. Be not deceived, God is not mocked.
PULPIT, '1Sa_28:5, 1Sa_28:6
When Saul saw, etc. It is plain from this that the Philistines had not forced their way
up through the Israelite territory; for this was evidently Saul’s first sight of their
forces, and his alarm was caused by finding them so much larger than he had
expected. He therefore in his anxiety enquired of Jehovah, but received no answer,
neither by dreams. He had expected these to be vouchsafed, possibly to himself, but
more probably to some class of prophets (see Jer_23:25, where false prophets claim
to have dreamed, in imitation no doubt of true prophets); but though dreams were
thus recognised as a means for communicating God’s will to man, yet, as Erdmann
well remarks, "a subordinate position is certainly assigned in the Old Testament to
the dream as the medium of the Divine influence on the inner life, which in sleep
sinks into a state of passiveness." Nor by Urim. Though Abiathar after the massacre
of his family had fled to David with the ephod, it is quite possible that Saul may
have had another ephod made, and have set up a fresh sanctuary, perhaps at
Gibeon, with Zadok, of the family of Eleazar, as high priest. This would account for
Zadok being joined with Ahimelech, the son of Abiathar, as one of two high priests
early in David’s reign (2Sa_8:17). It is remarkable, however, that Saul does not
mention the Urim himself in 1Sa_28:15, and very probably it is named here not
because the ephod was actually used, but as enumerating all the various ways by
which men inquired of Jehovah. Nor by prophets. In his dee spair Saul may have
turned to some reputed soothsayer present with the host, but his wilful life had
alienated both priest and prophet from him. And this is the meaning of the passage
in 1Ch_10:14: "Saul enquired not of Jehovah; therefore he slew him." He may have
gone through the form of inquiring, and certainly now would have been glad of an
answer, but his whole mind was determinately set upon carrying out his own
purposes, and he would never permit, after the first year or two of his reign, the
royal prerogative to bend to the will of God.
30

31. ELLICOTT, "(5) He was afraid.—There is no doubt that Saul was discouraged
when he viewed the enemy’s ranks from the eminence of Gilboa. They were far
more numerous than he had expected. But the real reason of his trembling must be
looked for in the consciousness that God had forsaken him. Many of the well-known
Israelite warriors had, during the late events, taken service with his dreaded rival,
David, and David, he knew, was now the vassal of Achish, a Philistine king. We may
imagine Saul, the forsaken of God, as be stood on the white chalk hill of Gilboa,
gazing on the long lines of Philistine tents pitched on the opposite hill of Shunem,
wondering if his old friend was there, with his mighty following, in the division of
Gath.
PETT, "1 Samuel 28:5
‘And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart
trembled greatly.’
Surveying the Philistine hosts from his position on Mount Gilboa (and no doubt by
means of scouts) Saul was able to assess the size and weaponry of this massed
Philistine army which clearly meant serious business. He did not like what he saw
and was afraid. He knew that his own army was no match for them in view of their
numbers, their skill in warfare and their superior iron weapons. Thus he was afraid,
and his heart beat loudly. Perhaps he even began to wish that he had David with
him. David was a skilled general and would surely have known what to do. We must
not think that Saul was a coward. It was simply that he recognised the odds against
him. What he needed was the good old-fashioned intervention of YHWH. Indeed he
recognised that otherwise the cause was lost. For a long while now he had relied on a
superficial relationship with YHWH. He had ‘done all the right things’, without
really becoming too personally involved. YHWH had not very often entered his
thoughts, partly because the Philistine menace had not been so great. But now that
he wanted His activity as never before, he was to learn that God could not just be
sidelined and then called on to be available when wanted. Rather He is near to those
who are continually of a humble and contrite spirit (Isaiah 57:15). And that was
what Saul was not. Furthermore such an attitude could not just be manufactured at
any time for the sake of convenience. It was one that had to be developed
6 He inquired of the LORD, but the LORD did
31

32. not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets.
BARNES, "When Saul inquired of the Lord ... - It is said 1Ch_10:14 that one
reason why the Lord killed Saul, and gave his kingdom to David, was because he
inquired not of the Lord. The explanation of this apparent discrepancy is to be
found in the fact that inquiring of the familiar spirit was positively antagonistic to
inquiring of the Lord. That Saul received no answer - when he “inquired of the
Lord” by dreams, which was an immediate revelation to himself; by Urim, which
was an answer through the high priest clothed in the ephod; or by prophets, which
was an answer conveyed through some seer speaking by the Word of the Lord 1Sa_
22:5 - was a reason for self-abasement and self-examination, to find out and, if
possible, remove the cause, but was no justification whatever of his sin in asking
counsel of familiar spirits.
CLARKE, "The Lord answered him not - He used the three methods by which
supernatural intelligence was ordinarily given: -
1. Dreams. - The person prayed for instruction; and begged that God would
answer by a significant dream.
2. Urim. - This was a kind of oracular answer given to the high priest when
clothed with the ephod, on which were the Urim and Thummim. How these
communicated the answer, is not well known.
3. Prophets. - Who were requested by the party concerned to consult the Lord on
the subject in question, and to report his answer. The prophets at that time
could only be those in the schools of the prophets, which Samuel had
established at Naioth and Gibeah. These were the only successors of Samuel
that we know of.
GILL, "And when Saul inquired of the Lord,.... And this being not done truly and
heartily, nor continued in, it was as if he had not inquired, and especially after he
had inquired of one that had a familiar spirit, as Kimchi observes; for so it is said,
1Ch_10:14,
the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams; which he dreamed himself, from
whence he could not conclude anything relating to the will of God; so the
Targum,"the Lord did not receive his prayer even by dreams;''or by dreamers,
32

33. diviners, who pretended to give answers by dreams:
nor by Urim; there being no priest to consult in this way, Abiathar having fled with
the ephod, in which were the Urim and Thummim, to David, 1Sa_23:9; though some
think that he sent to Abiathar, who was with David, to inquire for him; and others
that he made another ephod with Urim, and appointed another priest to consult by
them; neither of which are probable:
nor by prophets; of which there was a school not far from him, even at Naioth in
Ramah, of which Samuel in his lifetime was president; but neither by the one nor
the other could Saul get an answer from God, who for his sins had departed from
him.
HENRY, "Troubles are terrors to the children of disobedience. In this distress
Saul enquired of the Lord, 1Sa_28:6. Need drives those to God who in the day of
their prosperity slighted his oracles and altars. Lord, in trouble have they visited thee,
Isa_26:16. Did ever any seek the Lord and not find him? Yes, Saul did; the Lord
answered him not, took no notice either of his petitions or of his enquiries; gave him
no directions what to do, nor any encouragement to hope that he would be with him.
Should he be enquired of at all by such a one as Saul? Eze_14:3. No, he could not
expect an answer of peace, for, 1. He enquired in such a manner that it was as if he
had not enquired at all. Therefore it is said (1Ch_10:14), He enquired not of the Lord;
for he did it faintly and coldly, and with a secret design, if God did not answer him,
to consult the devil. He did not enquire in faith, but with a double unstable mind. 2.
He enquired of the Lord when it was too late, when the days of his probation were
over and he was finally rejected. Seek the Lord while he may be found, for there is a
time when he will not be found. 3. He had forfeited the benefit of all the methods of
enquiry. Could he that hated and persecuted Samuel and David, who were both
prophets, expect to be answered by prophets? Could he that had slain the high
priest, expect to be answered by Urim? Or could he that had sinned away the Spirit
of grace, expect to be answered by dreams? No. Be not deceived, God is not mocked.
V. The mention of some things that had happened a good while ago, to introduce
the following story, 1Sa_28:3. 1. The death of Samuel. Samuel was dead, which
made the Philistines the more bold and Saul the more afraid; for, had Samuel been
alive, Saul probably thought that his presence and countenance, his good advice and
good prayers, would have availed him in his distress. 2. Saul's edict against
witchcraft. He had put the laws in execution against those that had familiar spirits,
who must not be suffered to live, Exo_22:18. Some think that he did this in the
beginning of his reign, while he was under Samuel's influence; others think that it
was lately done, for it is spoken of here (1Sa_28:9) as a late edict. Perhaps when
Saul was himself troubled with an evil spirit he suspected that he was bewitched,
and, for that reason, cut off all that had familiar spirits. Many seem zealous against
sin, when they themselves are any way hurt by it (they will inform against swearers
if they swear at them, or against drunkards if in their drink they abuse them), who
otherwise have no concern for the glory of God, nor any dislike of sin as sin.
33

34. However it was commendable in Saul thus to use his power for the terror and
restraint of these evil-doers. Note, Many seem enemies to sin in others, while they
indulge it in themselves. Saul will drive the devil out of his kingdom, and yet
harbour him in his heart, by envy and malice.
K&D, "1Sa_28:6
In his anxiety he inquired of the Lord; but the Lord neither answered him by
dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets, that is to say, not by any of the three media
by which He was accustomed to make known His will to Israel. ‫ָה‬‫ו‬ֹ‫יה‬ַ‫בּ‬ ‫ל‬ ַ‫א‬ ָ‫שׁ‬ is the term
usually employed to signify inquiring the will and counsel of God through the Urim
and Thummim of the high priest (see at Jdg_1:1); and this is the case here, with the
simple difference that here the other means of inquiring the counsel of God are also
included. On dreams, see at Num_12:6. According to Num_27:21, Urim denotes
divine revelation through the high priest by means of the ephod. But the high priest
Abiathar had been with the ephod in David's camp ever since the murder of the
priests at Nob (1Sa_22:20., 1Sa_23:6; 1Sa_30:7). How then could Saul inquire of
God through the Urim? This question, which was very copiously discussed by the
earlier commentators, and handled in different ways, may be decided very simply
on the supposition, that after the death of Ahimelech and the flight of his son,
another high priest had been appointed at the tabernacle, and another ephod made
for him, with the choshen or breastplate, and the Urim and Thummim. It is no proof
to the contrary that there is nothing said about this. We have no continuous history
of the worship at the tabernacle, but only occasional notices. And from these it is
perfectly clear that the public worship at the tabernacle was not suspended on the
murder of the priests, but was continued still. For in the first years of David's reign
we find the tabernacle at Gibeon, and Zadok the son of Ahitub, of the line of
Eleazar, officiating there as high priest (1Ch_16:39, compared with 1Ch_6:8 and
1Ch_6:53); from which it follows with certainty, that after the destruction of Nob by
Saul the tabernacle was removed to Gibeon, and the worship of the congregation
continued there. From this we may also explain in a very simple manner the
repeated allusions to two high priests in David's time (2Sa_18:17; 2Sa_15:24, 2Sa_
15:29, 2Sa_15:35; 1Ch_15:11; 1Ch_18:16). The reason why the Lord did not answer
Saul is to be sought for in the wickedness of Saul, which rendered him utterly
unworthy to find favour with God.
BENSON, "1 Samuel 28:6. When Saul inquired of the Lord — This seems to
contradict what is affirmed 1 Chronicles 10:14, that he did not inquire of the Lord,
which is assigned as the reason why the Lord slew him. But Rabbi Kimchi, and
others, thus reconcile these two places. That since he did not continue to inquire of
him, but went to a diviner, it was all one as if he had not inquired at all; for he did it
faintly, coldly, and indifferently. A learned Jew, Samuel Laniado, remarks here:
“He whose heart is perfect with God, lifts up his eyes unto him, and fixes them on
him; hoping in him, though he doth not presently hear him; and perseveres in his
expectation and confidence, firmly setting a resolution to wait upon him. But so did
34

35. not Saul, who was remiss and negligent, saying in his heart, If God will not hear me,
I will go and consult a familiar spirit.” The Lord answered him not — Nor is it to be
wondered that he should not answer a man of such a disposition. Neither by
dreams — By which perhaps he prayed that God would inform him. Nor by
Urim — It appears by this, that, Abiathar having fled to David and taken the ephod
with him, Saul had set up another high-priest, and made an ephod in imitation of
the sacred one, not considering the peculiar sanctity of that which God had
appointed, and by which alone he had promised to manifest himself. Nor by
prophets — A school of whom, no doubt, was still remaining at Ramah, over which
Samuel had presided.
ELLICOTT, " (6) And when Saul enquired of the Lord.——The question has been
asked, How was the enquiry made? for since the massacre at Nob, the high priest,
or, at least, the priest in possession of the sacred ephod and the breastplate, with the
Urim and Thummim, was, we know, in the camp of David, and we shall soon hear of
a solemn use being made of the sacred gems. (See 1 Samuel 30:7-8.) It has been
suggested by eminent Biblical scholars that after the murder of Ahimelech and the
flight of Abiathar to David, Saul removed the national Sanctuary from desecrated
Nob, and established it at Gibeon, where, during the first year of David’s reign, we
find the Tabernacle, with Zadok, son of Ahitub, of the house of Eleazar, acting as
high priest—probably placed in that office by Saul. This would account for the
frequent reference in the time of David to two high priests, Zadok and Abiathar:
Zadok, the high priest appointed by Saul, for a considerable period alone in charge
of the Tabernacle; and Abiathar, who fled from Nob with the ephod and the sacred
Urim, acknowledged by David as high priest, when the kingdom was restored
eventually under one head. These two seemed to have divided the honours and
responsibilities of the high priesthood. (See 2 Samuel 8:17; 2 Samuel 15:24; 2
Samuel 15:29; 2 Samuel 15:35; 1 Chronicles 15:11; 1 Chronicles 18:16.)
This Zadok, we may assume, “enquired” for Saul:·some suppose by means of an
ephod made in imitation of the ancient breastplate with the Urim in possession of
Abiathar; but, as may be readily imagined, no response was received. It is also likely
enough that some “prophets”—so called—trained, not improbably, in the school of
Samuel, were present with Saul. These, too, of course, received no Divine message,
either by voice or in dreams.
PETT, "1 Samuel 28:6
‘And when Saul enquired of YHWH, YHWH did not answer him, neither by
dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.’
Saul turned in desperation to YHWH, because he had nowhere else to turn. He
‘enquired of YHWH.’ He did it by every known means, but none worked. None of
35

36. his dreamers and visionaries could have the right dreams. When he consulted the
Urim and Thummim through the high priest and the ephod he obtained the
message, ‘No answer’. The lot went against him. Even the prophets whom he called
on informed him that they had no message from YHWH. Saul grew desperate. If
only, he thought, Samuel had been here. He would have been able to obtain a word
from YHWH. He would have known what to do.
We inevitably feel sorry for Saul. But we must recognise that he had chosen his own
way, and when rebuked had shrugged off the rebuke rather than turning in deep
repentance towards YHWH. He had also refused to become reconciled with Samuel,
even though he had had a secret admiration for him and had feared to act against
him. He had thus chosen his own road. Now he was to discover that he was on the
road to destruction. He was to learn that, ‘God is not mocked. What a man sows,
that will he also reap’ (Galatians 6:7).
Indeed the darkness in which he found himself was so intense that his thoughts
turned to the forbidden way. Perhaps, he thought, if he consulted a necromancer he
could get in touch with Samuel. Surely Samuel, who had once been his mentor,
would be able to help him. The very fact that he could think in this way was an
indication of the condition of his heart. It was typical of Saul’s religion. When it
appeared to fail he did not turn in genuine repentance towards YHWH. Rather he
tried some other method to get round it. His view was that YHWH could be
manipulated. And he was to learn that he was wrong.
7 Saul then said to his attendants, "Find me a
woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire
of her."
"There is one in Endor," they said.
BARNES, "Enquire - A different word from that in 1Sa_28:6, though nearly
synonymous with it. It is more frequently applied to inquiry of a false god, as e. g.
2Ki_1:2; Isa_8:19; Isa_19:3.
En-dor (see Jos_11:2 note) was seven or eight miles from the slopes of Gilboa, on
36

37. the north of little Hermon, where the Philistines were encamped; so that Saul must
have run great risks in going there.
CLARKE, "Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit - Literally, Seek me a
woman, ‫אוב‬ ‫בעלת‬ baalath ob, the mistress of the Obidiah or Pythonic spirit - one
who had a familiar spirit, whom she could invoke when she pleased, and receive
answers from him relative to futurity.
Strange that a man, who had banished all such from the land, as dangerous to the
state, as impostors and deceivers, should now have recourse to them as the only
persons in whom he could safely put his confidence in the time in which Jehovah
had refused to help him!
At En-dor - This was a city in the valley of Jezreel, at the foot of Mount Gilboa,
where the army of Saul had now encamped.
GILL, "Then said Saul unto his servants,.... That waited upon him, to some of them,
to such as he could place most confidence in to keep a secret; perhaps only the two
after mentioned:
seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of
her; that was mistress of the bottle, a ventriloquist, that spoke out of her belly, or
seemed to do; who had the spirit of Python or divination, conversed with the devil,
and by his assistance pretended to bring up a dead person, and thereby foretell
things to come; See Gill on Deu_18:11; a woman is pitched upon, because such were
most addicted to those wicked arts, and being of the weaker sex, were more easily
imposed upon by Satan; and Saul showed himself to be as weak, to seek after such
persons; but being left of God, he acted the part of a mad man, as well as of a bad
man:
and his servants said to him, behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at
Endor; a city in the tribe of Manasseh, of which see Jos_17:11; it was not far from
Gilboa. Mr. Maundrell speaks (c) of it as near Nain, at the foot of Mount Hermon;
and turning, a little southward, he says, you have in view the high mountains of
Gilboa. It is a tradition of the Jews (d) that this woman was the mother of Abner,
the wife of Zephaniah; some say her name was Zephaniah; but, as Abarbinel
observes, if so she would have known Saul, and also Saul would have known her,
and what she was, if, as they say, she was spared because of her relation to him; nor
needed he to have inquired of his servants for such a woman.
HENRY, "Here, I. Saul seeks for a witch, 1Sa_28:7. When God answered him not, if
he had humbled himself by repentance and persevered in seeking God, who knows
but that at length he might have been entreated for him? but, since he can discern
no comfort either from heaven or earth (Isa_8:21, Isa_8:22), he resolves to knock at
37

38. the gates of hell, and to see if any there will befriend him and give him advice: Seek
me a woman that has a familiar spirit, 1Sa_28:7. And his servants were too officious
to serve him in this evil affair; they presently recommended one to him at Endor (a
city not far off) who had escaped the execution of Saul's edict. To her he resolves to
apply. Herein he is chargeable, 1. With contempt of the God of Israel; as if any
creature could do him a kindness when God had left him and frowned upon him. 2.
With contradiction to himself. He knew the heinousness of the sin of witchcraft, else
he would not have cut off those that had familiar spirits; yet now he had recourse to
that as an oracle which he had before condemned as an abomination. It is common
for men to inveigh severely against those sins which they are in no temptation to, but
afterwards to be themselves overcome by them. Had one told Saul, when he was
destroying the witches, that he himself would, ere long, consult with one, he would
have said, as Hazael did, What? Is thy servant a dog? But who knows what mischiefs
those will run into that forsake God and are forsaken of him?
BENSON, "1 Samuel 28:7. Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit — That
converses with evil spirits, or hath power to call up, or make to appear, the spirits of
dead persons, in order to answer questions, or give information of what may be
inquired of them: see on Deuteronomy 18:10-11. Saul mentions a woman rather
than a man, because the weaker sex were most addicted to these practices. In this he
acted like a distracted man, who now approved what he had before condemned. He
had partly cut off, and partly frighted away wizards, sorcerers, and such as had, or
professed to have, these familiar spirits, and now he seeks unto them! What will not
fear and folly force men to! How such a practice as this came to be used at first, and
on what pretence, we cannot now say; but it appears to have been very ancient,
because we find express laws against it in the books of Moses. It is probable it had
its rise in Egypt, where an over-strained search after, and pretence to knowledge,
made many fall into the strangest absurdities and impieties that ever entered into
the human heart. And in all likelihood, not only the Israelites, but the heathen, who,
we find, in general used this practice, were first infected with it from thence. In all
probability, those who pretended to this power were generally impostors, who only
deceived those who consulted them by delusive tricks; yet we may draw this
important conclusion from it, that it has always been a prevailing notion among all
people, that the soul of man still subsists in another state after the body is dead; for
this practice evidently supposes, and indeed was built on this belief.
ELLICOTT, " (7) Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit.—He was left alone
to himself, and now the last spark of life, the religious zeal which he had once shown
even to excess, then also vanished; or, rather. as must always be the case when it has
thus swerved from the moral principle which alone can guide it, was turned into a
wild and desperate superstition. The wizards and familiar spirits, whom in a fit of
righteous indignation he had put out of the land, now became his only resource—
Flectere si nequeo supcros, Acheronte movebo.
STANLEY: Jewish Church, vol. ii., Lect. 21
38

39. Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at En-dor.—One of these
women, mistress or possessor of an ôb, or familiar spirit, who apparently was well
known, dwelt at or was left at Endor. “East of Nain is a village of mud-huts, with
hedges of prickly pear. This is En-dor, famous in connection with the tragic history
of the death of Saul. The adventurous character of Saul’s night journey is very
striking, when we consider that for the king to get to En-dor he had to pass the
hostile camp, and would probably creep round the eastern shoulder of the hill
hidden by the undulations of the ground.”—Conder: Tent Life in Palestine. The
distance from the camp of Israel on Gilboa to En-dor was about ten miles further,
owing perhaps to the circuit they would have to make round the camp of the
Philistines. Jewish tradition speaks of the “two men” who accompanied Saul as
Abner and Amasa, and further mentions that the witch of En-dor was the mother of
the great Abner. If this be true, it would account for her having escaped the general
pursuit after witches mentioned above in the early days of Saul.
WHEDON. " 7. Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit — He finds that God
has utterly forsaken him, and with full purpose and that impulsive rashness which
was ever his easily besetting sin, he rushes into still greater evil. Swept down by the
raging cataract of accumulating woes, he still, like a drowning man, grasps at a
straw. What wonder that God allowed him to be imposed upon by the arts of
necromancy!
Endor — This place lay about three miles south of mount Tabor, and about seven
northeast of Shunem, so that to reach it from the heights of Gilboa, Saul and his two
men must have partly compassed the Philistine encampment. They probably passed
down the northeastern slope of Gilboa to the valley of the modern Jalud, and thence
northward, along the eastern slope of the Little Hermon. See note on 1 Samuel
28:25. The village is overhung by a mountain declivity which is full of caverns, and
it is probable that in one of these the witch concealed herself.
HAWKER, "(7) ¶ Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a
familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to
him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor.
Observe, that Saul, in his distress, enquired of the Lord, but the Lord answered him
not. But how did he enquire? Samuel was dead. The Priests, the faithful Priests of
the Lord, Saul had killed. See 1 Samuel 22:17-19. By whom then did he enquire?
Perhaps presumptuously, without either Prophet or Priest. But if not; it is evident
that Saul's enquiry was not in the way God had appointed, neither was his heart
prepared to enquire, as appears by the sequel. For when the Lord did not
immediately answer; from God, Saul turned to the devil. Alas! what answer can
men expect, when like Saul, they seek not God in faith, but are in league with the
unfruitful works of darkness?
COKE, "1 Samuel 28:7-12. Then said Saul—Seek me a woman that hath a familiar
39

40. spirit— Utterly forsaken of God, yet anxiously desirous of searching into futurity,
Saul, who had prayed to God to no purpose, now resolved to apply himself to
Samuel. To what will not fear and folly force us? In the days of his devotion, Saul
had partly cut off, and partly frighted away, those wizards and sorcerers, those
execrable wretches, the pests of society and enemies of true religion, whom God
commanded to be extirpated. See Leviticus 20:27. Deuteronomy 18:10. However,
some of them, he concluded, might have remained or returned. He enquired, and
was informed [princes never want ministers of mischief] of a Pythoness, who dwelt
not far off, at En-dor, a little village of the tribe of Manasseh, in the valley of
Jezreel, at the foot of mount Gilboa. He accordingly hasted that very night to En-
dor, stripped off his regal apparel, disguising himself as well as he could, and
attended only by two companions. When he arrived, he prayed the woman to divine
by her familiar spirit, that is, to employ her art, in evoking from the dead the person
whom he should name; at the same time assuring her, by a solemn oath, that no evil
should happen to her, on account of what she mentions in the 9th verse. The woman
then demands whom he would have raised: he answers, Samuel. The woman, no
doubt, was then about to proceed to her charms and incantations. But, contrary to
all her expectation, the moment Saul had mentioned the name of Samuel, the
woman saw an appearance, and in great terror cried out to Saul, Why hast thou
deceived me? for thou art Saul. Our translators have inserted the particle when in
the 12th verse, which embarrasses the sense, and implies, that some space of time
had passed between Saul's request, and the appearance of Samuel: whereas the
original text stands thus, When Saul said, bring me up Saumel, then immediately
follows, and the woman saw Samuel, and cried, &c. She saw an apparition that she
did not expect; she knew the prophet; she knew the veneration that Saul had for
him; and she knew that her art had never exhibited a person of that figure to her.
Various have been the opinions concerning this apparition of Samuel. From the
manner in which we have interpreted these verses, and which seems to be just, there
appears no doubt that this was a real apparition of Samuel, sent by the immediate
intervention of God: for one cannot suppose, either that it was a trick put upon Saul
by this sorceress, or that it was a demon which thus assumed the form of Samuel.
PETT, "1 Samuel 28:7
‘Then said Saul to his servants, “Seek me out a woman who has a familiar spirit,
that I may go to her, and enquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “Look, there
is a woman who has a familiar spirit at En-dor.’
So he called on his servants to seek out a woman who had a familiar spirit, a
medium, one who had contact with the spirit world, so that he might go and enquire
of her. Once again we see the superficial nature of Saul’s attitude towards YHWH.
He was hoping to obtain advice from YHWH by using means forbidden by YHWH.
He does not seem to have considered the fact that such a method was self-defeating.
He should have known that the YHWH Who had delivered Israel would never stoop
to working through such means (just as Christians today should know that to
become involved in the occult is an act of gross disobedience to God).
40

41. It is possibly significant that his servants knew where to find such a medium. The
days when Saul was thorough in obedience to YHWH were long past. Even though
they were still forbidden, mediums had gradually crept back into the land. Thus his
servants were able to inform him that in fact there was such a woman not far away,
in En-dor (‘fountain of the dwelling’). We should note in passing that this woman
was not a witch. She made no claim to be involved in magic. Her claim was to be
able to contact the dead.
GUZIK 7-8, " Saul consults a spirit medium.
1. (1Sa_28:7-8) Saul seeks out a medium.
Then Saul said to his servants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, that I may
go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “In fact, there is a
woman who is a medium at En Dor.” So Saul disguised himself and put on other
clothes, and he went, and two men with him; and they came to the woman by
night. And he said, “Please conduct a seance for me, and bring up for me the one
I shall name to you.”
a. Find me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of
her: It wasn’t easy to find a medium in the land of Israel, because Saul had
previously put them out of the land. So Saul asks his staff to find him one,
and they suggest a woman in the city of En Dor.
i. Traditionally, this woman is known as the Witch of Endor. It may be
appropriate to call her a witch, but it is more accurate to call her a
medium or a necromancer - one who makes contact with the dead. The
Hebrew word for medium is owb, and it has the idea of “mumbling” or
speaking with a strange, hollow sound - as if one were “channeling,” with
a dead person speaking through them. The Hebrew word has in mind the
sound the channel makes as they speak. The English word medium has in
mind the concept of a channel - they stand in-between the world of the
living and the dead, and communicate between the two worlds.
ii. Saul recognized that a medium would likely be a woman. It is a
persistent fact that women are more drawn to such occultic arts than men
are. If we were to ask the Apostle Paul why this is the case, he would
reply as he did in 1Ti_2:14 - that Adam was not deceived, but the woman
being deceived, fell into transgression. This means that although men are
culpable for the fall (Adam was not deceived, but sinned knowing exactly
what he did), women are not to be given place of doctrinal or teaching
authority in the church, because as daughters of Eve they are more
susceptible to deception themselves.
iii. “Seek me a woman, rather than a man; for he thought that sex most
likely to be given to those wicked arts, as being the weaker sex, and so
aptest to be deceived, and most prone to superstition.” (Poole)
41

42. iv. Poole, writing about the servants of Saul who helped him find this
medium: “Instead of dissuading him from this wicked and destructive
practice, which they should and would have done, if they had either loved
God or their king, they further him in it.”
v. “Endor was only a short distance away, on the north of the Hill of
Moreh, and accessible despite the Philistine forces close by.” (Baldwin)
Endor was “located four miles northeast of Shunem and thus
dangerously close to where the Philistines were encamped.” (Youngblood)
b. Saul disguised himself . . . and he went: as Saul seeks the medium, he
brings upon himself a curse. God said in Lev_20:6: And the person who turns
after mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My
face against that person and cut him off from his people.
c. Bring up the one I shall name for you: Saul will ask the medium to channel
the deceased prophet Samuel. He does this because he wants to know what
God might say to him! Saul is like a man going to a palm reader to hear the
will of God.
i. This shows the depth of Saul’s fall from God, and how it has affected
his mind. He obviously isn’t thinking clearly here. Once Saul rejected the
truth, he was likely to fall for even the most foolish deception.
8 So Saul disguised himself, putting on other
clothes, and at night he and two men went to the
woman. "Consult a spirit for me," he said, "and
bring up for me the one I name."
BARNES, "Divine - Compare to 1Sa_6:2, note; Num_23:23, note.
Bring me him up - The art of the ventriloquist seems to have been always
connected with necromancy. The Greeks had necromancers who called up departed
spirits to give answers to those who consulted them.
CLARKE, "Saul disguised himself - That he might not be known by the woman,
lest she, being terrified, should refuse to use her art.
42

43. GILL, "And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment,.... Stripped himself
of his royal robes, or military apparel, as supreme commander, and clothed himself
in the habit of a peasant or a common soldier; and this not only that he might not be
known by the woman, but that he might pass from his army incognito, and it might
not be known that he was gone, and especially whither he was gone:
and he went, and two men with him: these, according to the tradition of the Jews (e),
were Abner and Amasa; but it is not probable that Saul should leave his army
destitute of their general at such a time as this:
and they came to the woman by night; not only that they might not be seen, but
because it was a work of darkness they were going about, and it was only in the
night season that such persons exercised their black art; though the Jews (f) say it
was day, only because of their distress it was like tonight with them; but the literal
sense is best:
and he said, I pray thee divine unto me by the familiar spirit; exercise her art of
divination, by the assistance of the familiar spirit she conversed with:
and bring me up whom I shall name unto thee: that is, from the dead; for
necromancy was the kind of divination she professed; and such persons pretended
to have a power to bring up a deceased person, and consult with him about secret
and future things.
HENRY, "Hearing of one he hastens to her, but goes by night, and in disguise,
only with two servants, and probably on foot, 1Sa_28:8. See how those that are led
captive by Satan are forced, 1. To disparage themselves. Never did Saul look so
mean as when he went sneaking to a sorry witch to know his fortune. 2. To
dissemble. Evil works are works of darkness, and they hate the light, neither care
for coming to it. Saul went to the witch, not in his robes, but in the habit of a
common soldier, not only lest the witch herself, if she had known him, should
decline to serve him, either fearing he came to trepan her or resolving to be avenged
on him for his edict against those of her profession, but lest his own people should
know it and abhor him for it. Such is the power of natural conscience that even
those who do evil blush and are ashamed to do it.
III. He tells her his errand and promises her impunity. 1. All he desires of her is to
bring up one from the dead, whom he had a mind to discourse with. It was
necromancy or divination by the dead, that he hoped to serve his purpose by. This
was expressly forbidden by the law (Deu_18:11), seeking for the living to the dead,
Isa_8:19. Bring me up him whom I shall name, 1Sa_28:8. This supposes that it was
generally taken for granted that souls exist after death, and that when men die there
is not an end of them: it supposes too that great knowledge was attributed to
separate souls. But to think that any good souls would come up at the beck of an evil
43

44. spirit, or that God, who had denied a man the benefit of his own institutions, would
suffer him to reap any real advantage by a cursed diabolical invention, was very
absurd.
K&D, "1Sa_28:8
Saul went to this person by night and in disguise, that he might not be recognised,
accompanied by two men; and said to her, “Divine to me through necromancy, and
bring me up whomsoever I tell thee.” The words “bring me up,” etc., are an
explanation or more precise definition of “divine unto me,” etc. Prophesying by the
Ob was probably performed by calling up a departed spirit from Sheol, and
obtaining prophecies, i.e., disclosures concerning one's own fate, through the
medium of such a spirit. On the form ‫י‬ ִ‫ומ‬ֹ‫ס‬ ְ‫ק‬ (Chethibh), see at Jdg_9:8.
BENSON, "1 Samuel 28:8. Saul disguised himself — Both because he was ashamed
to be known, or thought guilty of this practice, and because he suspected the
woman, if she knew him, would not practise her art before him. And he went — In
all haste that very night, stripped of his regal apparel, and attended only by two
companions. How nearly allied are infidelity and impiety to superstition; and what
will not they do who will not confide in and obey God! But a few hours before he
was too haughty to profess himself the servant of the living God, and to observe his
laws, and now he is the slave of his fears and follies! “The most infidel man,” says
Delaney, “that I ever conversed with, was, by the accounts of those who best knew
him, the most superstitious.”
ELLICOTT, "EXCURSUS L: ON WHAT HAPPENED AT EN-DOR? (1 Samuel
28).
In all times the question taken as the title of this Excursus has excited deep
interest—What happened at En-dor? We will divide our general question into three
parts.
(1) Did Samuel, the prophet of the Lord, really appear? and if so, what power
brought him up from the realm of departed spirits?
(2) Granting that something did appear and speak, can we assume that the
appearance was not Samuel, but a demon or evil spirit assuming Samuel’s name?
(3) Is it possible that there was no appearance at all, and that the whole scene was a
well-played piece of jugglery on the part of the woman? or, in other words, that the
whole scene was merely a delusion produced by the woman, without any
background at all.
44

45. On the last (No. 3), which assumes the whole scene at En-dor to have been a piece of
jugglery on the part of the woman, we may observe that it is an hypothesis adopted
by some great names, apparently by the illustrious Jewish commentator,
Maimonides, who wrote in the twelfth century after Christ; by the majority of the
less orthodox modern writers from the seventeenth century downwards, and even
by such true divines and scholars as Dean Payne Smith It is, however, a purely
modern hypothesis, and receives no support from the early Church writers. Dean
Payne Smith admirably puts forth the best arguments employed by the defenders of
this supposition in these word: “We cannot believe that the Bible would set before
us an instance of witchcraft employed by the Divine sanction for holy purposes; but
we can clearly believe that the woman would gladly take a bitter revenge on the man
who had cruelly put to death all persons reported to have such powers as those to
which she laid claim. . . . She reproached him for these crimes, announced to him
what now all were convinced of, that David was to be his successor, and foretold his
defeat and death.”—Dean Payne Smith, in Pulpit Commentary on 1 Samuel
28:17-19. No. 2 assumes that there was an apparition, but that what appeared was
not Samuel, but an evil spirit, which showed itself in the character of Samuel. Not a
few of the fathers, with the great Protestant reformers, such as Luther and Calvin,
have preferred this view. Ephrem Syrus explains the phenomenon by stating that
“an apparent image of Samuel was presented to the eye of Saul through demoniacal
arts.” Luther plainly writes: “The raising of Samuel by a soothsayer, or witch, in 1
Samuel 28:11-12, was certainly merely a spectre of the devil . . . for who could
believe that the souls of believers which are in the hand of God (Ecclesiastes 3:1),
and in the bosom of Abraham (Luke 16:23), were under the power of the devil and
of simple men?”—Luther, Abuses of the Mass, 1522. Calvin similarly tells us: “It is
certain that it was not really Samuel, for God would never have allowed His
prophets to be subject to such diabolical conjuring. For here is a sorceress calling up
the dead from the grave.”—Calvin, Horn. 100, in 1 Sam. No. 1 still remains. Did the
spirit of Samuel the prophet himself really appear in the witch of En-dor’s house to
Saul? Now, without doubt, the ordinary reader would so understand the history.
Everything before and after the incident is simple and natural. The woman herself
is appalled at the sight, whatever it was, and describes it as resembling the dead
seer. Whether or not Saul saw the spectre is uncertain, but he certainly heard the
voice, which spoke a too true and mournful prophecy: nothing fierce or vindictive,
as we have noticed in our comments on the scene—rather the contrary. The words,
so simple and gentle, and yet unutterably sad, were no mere words of a juggling old
woman; still less were they the utterances of an evil or malicious spirit.
We thus confess our full belief that the shade of Samuel was seen by the woman
(perhaps by Saul; but this is uncertain from the narrative), and that his voice was
certainly heard by King Saul; and this has been the common belief in all times.
Bishop Wordsworth’s note here is most learned and exhaustive, and he fully
endorses this view (here styled No. 1). The bishop marshals an array of witnesses
who support this, which I venture to call the plain, common sense interpretation of
the history. He begins with the ancient Hebrew Church, and quotes Sirach 46:20.
45

46. The writer of that book evidently believed that Samuel himself appeared; and so did
the LXX., who plainly express the belief in their addendum to the Hebrew text at 1
Chronicles 10:13. Josephus affirms the same in Antt. vi., 14, 2. Among the early
Christian fathers, Justin Martyr, Trypho, § 105; Origen, tom. II., 490-495; St.
Ambrose in Luc, 1 Samuel 1; St. Basil, Ep. 80; St. Gregory Naz., Orat. III.;
Theodoret, Qu. 63, hold the same belief that the shade of Samuel appeared at En-
dor and spoke to Saul. Among the famous mediæval writers holding the same view,
we may instance Cajetan, Lyra, and à Lapide; later, Waterland may be added to the
list; in our own days, Bishop Hervey, in the Speaker’s Commentary, and Bishop
Wordsworth and the German writers, O. von Gerlach and Keil. Assuming, then,
that the soul of Samuel did appear on earth that night at En-dor, we have still to
deal with the question: By what power was he brought up from the realm of
departed spirits? Here the narrative if carefully read, will supply us with the correct
answer. Far from having herself, by any incautstion she had used, brought Samuel
back again to earth, the witch is represented as crying with a loud voice from very
terror when the shade of the prophet appeared, so little apparently was she
prepared for what she saw. We may, therefore, with Theodoret, dismiss the idea as
unholy, and even impious, that the witch of En-dor, by any power or incantation of
which she was mistress, conjured up the prophet Samuel; and we may affirm with
considerable certainty that it was by the special command of God that he came that
night to speak with King Saul at En-dor. Keil and Bishops Hervey and Wordsworth
all agree in the main with this theory.
The above conclusions respecting the reality of the circumstance detailed in this
remarkable episode in the history of Saul being, as we have seen, in strict harmony
with the judgment of the ancient Hebrew Church (comp. the passage referred to
above from Sirach 46:20; the LXX. addition to 1 Chronicles 10:13; Jos. Antt. vi. 14,
§ 2, besides the general sense of the more mysterious comments in the Talmud), are
a most important contribution to our knowledge of the ancient Hebrew teaching
concerning the state of the soul after death in the earliest Prophetic Schools, as early
as the reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon.
We gather, then, that these old Hebrews held that after death the soul continued in a
state of self-conscious existence; that it was capable of feeling and expressing grief
and sorrow; that it retained the memory of transactions in which it had taken part
when on earth; that it was—at least, in the case of a servant of God like Samuel—in
a state of rest, from which it evidently had no wish to be summoned to share again
in the fret and fever of this life—“Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up?”
Of the abode of the souls of the departed we can gather but little from this passage.
It was evidently not Heaven—the Heaven where is the throne of God, and where
dwell the heavenly powers. The language used, though popular, and adapted to the
ordinary conception of Sheol, or Hades, the unseen place or lodging of the
disembodied souls of men, clearly distinguishes between the abode of souls like
46

47. Samuel and the abode of the heavenly powers. Throughout the history the soul of
Samuel is represented as coming up, instead of coming down or descending, which
would be the popular language used of an angel of God.
The testimony which this history gives to the ancient Jewish belief in the existence of
the soul after death fully accounts for the prominence which the compiler of the
book has given to this episode. It is, besides, an important contribution to our
knowledge of the complex character of the first great Hebrew monarch, so
splendidly endowed by God, tried, and, alas! found wanting. The En-dor incident,
besides, clearly and incisively gives us God’s judgment on necromancy, and
generally on all attempts to hold converse with the souls of the departed.
In every age these attempts have had an extraordinary fascination for men. In our
own day necromancy, unfortunately, is not a lost art among ourselves. Men and
women of education, as Dr. Fraser well observes in the Pulpit Commentary, are not
ashamed or afraid to practise arts and consult “mediums” that are referred to in the
Old Testament as abhorrent to God, and utterly forbidden to His people.
“How pure in heart and sound in head,
With what Divine affection bold,
Should be the man whose thought would hold,
An hour’s communion with the dead.
“In vain shalt thou on any call
The spirits from their golden day,
Except, like them, thou too canst say,
My spirit is at peace with all.
“They haunt the silence of the breast,
Imaginations calm and fair,
The memory like a cloudless air,
47

48. The conscience as a sea at rest.”—TENNYSON.
ELLICOTT, "And Saul disguised himself.—The disguise and the time chosen for
the expedition served a double purpose. The king would, he thought, be unknown in
the darkness and disguise when he came to the witch’s dwelling, and there was, too,
a far greater probability of his escaping his Philistine foes, whose army lay between
him and the village of En-dor.
Divine unto me by the familiar spirit.—Literally, divine unto me by the ôb. Keil’s
remark is interesting: “Prophesying by the ôb was probably performed by calling
up a departed spirit from Sheol, and obtaining prophecies—i.e., disclosures—
concerning one’s own fate through the medium of such a spirit.” No other
commentator touches on the ôb here, and Keil leaves it in doubt as to whether he
considered the ôb was some special spirit devoted to the service of the mistress of the
ôb, or the spirit or soul of one already dead, who, through some occult power, was to
be brought back again for a season to this earth. As far as we can judge of these old
mysteries, the sorcerer or sorceress possessed, or was supposed to possess, a
“familiar.” Through the aid of this “familiar,” the departed spirit was compelled or
induced to re-visit this world, and to submit to certain questioning. The Hebrew
rendered “divine unto me” is of Syriac origin, like most of those words describing
illicit vaticinations.—Speaker’s Commentary. This miserable power, if it did exist,
was one of the things the Israelites learned from the original inhabitants of Canaan.
These “black” arts, as they have been called, have, in all ages, in every degree of
civilisation, always had an extraordinary fascination for men. It is well known that
even in our own “cultured age” similar pretensions are put forth, and the dead are
still invoked, summoned, and questioned, as they were in the half-barbarous age
when Saul and his companions, in their desperate strait, sought the witch of En-dor.
And bring me him up.—The popular idea has always been that Sheol, the place of
departed spirits, is somewhere beneath the ground or earth on which we live, just as
heaven, the abode of God and His holy angels, is in a region above the earth. St.
Paul speaks in this popular language (Ephesians 4:9), where he refers to the lower
parts of the earth as the abode of departed spirits. Hence we have here, “bring me
him up.” The Christian Church, Bishop Wordsworth reminds us, has adopted this
language into her creeds, where she says that Christ in His human soul descended
into hell (Hades). Keil well remarks on this human idea of what is “above” and
“below”: “With our modes of thought, which are so bound up with time and space,
it is impossible to represent to ourselves in any other way the difference and
contrast between blessedness with God and shade-life in death.”
COFFMAN, "SAUL VISITED THE WITCH OF ENDOR
48

49. "So Saul disguised himself and put on other garments, and went, he and two men
with him; and they came to the woman by night. And he said, "Divine for me by a
spirit, and bring up for me whomever I shall name to you." The woman said to him,
"Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the
wizards from the land. Why then are you laying a snare for my life to bring about
my death"? But Saul swore to her by the Lord, "As the Lord lives, no punishment
shall come upon you for this thing." Then the woman said, "Whom shall I bring up
for you"? He said, "Bring up Samuel for me." When the woman saw Samuel, she
cried out with a loud voice; and the woman said to Saul, "Why have you deceived
me? You are Saul.." The king said to her, "Have no fear; what do you see"? And
the woman said to Saul, "I see a god coming up out of the earth." He said to her,
"What is his appearance"? "An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped in a
robe." And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground,
and did obeisance."
"They went ... and came to the woman by night" (1 Samuel 28:8). "This was a
perilous journey of some seven or eight miles from Saul's camp at Gilboa to Endor,
and it involved skirting the Philistine encampment."[11]
"There is something unutterably pathetic in this yearning of the disanointed king to
exchange words with the friend and counselor of his youth, perhaps thinking that if
he was destined to hear the words of his doom, he would prefer to hear them from
no other except Samuel."[12]
"When the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice ... Why have you
deceived me? ... You are Saul" (1 Samuel 28:12). Did the witch of Endor actually see
Samuel? If she could see Samuel, why could not Saul also have seen him? Had she
indeed failed to recognize Saul, the tallest man in all Israel? What was the reason
for that cry with a loud voice? Had the prophet Samuel actually appeared, much to
her surprise, thus causing her to scream out in terror? What is the sense in
supposing that her allegedly "seeing" Samuel had revealed to her the identity of
Saul? These are only a few of the very difficult questions that rise as one
contemplates what is here said. Is there any way that the possible meaning of the
clause, "When the woman saw Samuel" might actually be, "When the woman
pretended to see Samuel"? Note also that the ancient versions render the words of 1
Samuel 28:13 with the plural for "gods," "I saw gods ascending out of the earth."
What, if anything, did she actually see?
If she actually saw him, was Samuel brought back from the dead by God Himself?.
Or, is it possible to suppose that a wicked persons such as the witch, called in
Deuteronomy 10:12 "an abomination to the Lord," could indeed have had the
power to bring back from the dead one of the righteous prophets of God. The
discovery of the truth about what is written here depends upon the manner in which
a number of these questions are answered.
49

50. Before attempting to give an answer to what this writer considers one of the most
difficult problems in the entire Bible, we shall consult some of the things that able
men of other generations have said about it.
As for the witch's pretending not to recognize Saul, R. P. Smith noted that, "When
she saw the tallest man in all Israel and heard him request that she bring up
Samuel, she must have been dull indeed not to know who her visitor was."[13]
Keil has this: "It was not at the call of the idolatrous king, nor at the command of
the abominable witch, nor was it merely by divine permission. No! It was by the
special command of God that Samuel left his grave."[14]
Fred Young pointed out that: "The view of the ancient rabbis was that the spirit of
Samuel actually appeared, a view supported by the Septuagint (LXX) rendition of 1
Chronicles 10:13b, "And Samuel the prophet made answer to him." and by Sirach
46:20. The same view was held by Augustine, Origin and Justin Martyr."[15]
However, these last named scholars were wrong about many things, especially
Justin Martyr in his views regarding the millennium; and, although Martyr did
write that, "The soul of Samuel was called up by the witch as Saul demanded,"[16]
he was not addressing the questions which we raise here but was making an
argument that men have a soul that survives after the death of the body.
Methodius, another of the Ante-Nicene Fathers also wrote that, "When Samuel
appeared, it is clear that, being seen, he was clothed with a body."[17] He also was
using the passage as light upon the question of the type of body that will be raised
from the dead.
Others of the Ante-Nicene Fathers did not hesitate to label this alleged appearance
of Samuel as a cleverly contrived fraud. For example, Tertullian discussed the
episode as follows:
"In the extravagant pretensions of their art, the ancient ventriloquistic spirits
even claimed to represent the soul of Samuel, when Saul consulted the dead after
losing the living God. They can do so under cover of a lying wonder (2
Thessalonians 2:9). God forbid, however, that we should suppose that any saint,
much less the soul of a prophet, can be dragged out of its resting place in Hades by a
demon. We know that Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light (2
Corinthians 11:14) - much more into a man of light - and that at last he (Satan) will
show himself to be even God (2 Thessalonians 2:4) On the aforementioned occasion,
Satan affirmed himself to be a prophet of God, and especially to Saul, in whom he
was then actually dwelling.
50

51. "You must not believe that he who produced the phantom was one, and that he
who consulted it was another. No! It was one and the same spirit both in the
sorceress and the apostate king which easily pretended an apparition of that which
it (the spirit of Satan) had already prepared them to believe as real.
"Furthermore, Our Lord himself has established in the person of his
representative Abraham (Luke 16:26) the fact that Hades is not in any case opened
for the escape of souls therein. Because of this fact, it must never be supposed that
there could be any relaxation of that rule to honor the arrogant pretensions of a
sorceress."[18]SIZE>
Hippolytus also took the same view of this event as did Tertullian. He wrote:
"The question is raised, whether Samuel rose by the hand of the sorceress or
not. And if, indeed, we should allow that he did rise, we should be propounding
what is false. How could a demon call back the soul of anyone whomsoever? The
woman said she saw Samuel, but she also said she saw gods ascending out of the
earth! Extraordinary vision!"[19]
In spite of all this, some raise the question that, "If this episode was the work of
the devil, how could there have been a prophecy that Saul would die on the morrow,
which came true exactly as foretold"? Hippolytus noted in regard to this that, "The
prophecy of the demon regarding Saul's death was in error, affirming that it would
be `on the morrow,' when, as a matter of fact, it occurred a day later than the
prophecy indicated"![20] From this, it appears that the widespread opinion among
present-day commentators that this chapter is misplaced because it belongs just
prior to 1 Samuel 31 is erroneous. This chapter occurs exactly where it belongs in
the Book of First Samuel. The International Critical Commentary makes that clear
enough. "It is unfortunate that (some) would displace this section, ranging it
between 1Sam. 30,1 Samuel 31 ... We have no evidence that, as a part of the Books
of Samuel, it ever occupied any but its Masoretic position."[21] Thus, it must be
accepted as a fact that the "alleged prophecy" of Saul's death, "tomorrow" was an
error, because it did not happen on the morrow. Therefore, it was not Samuel who
uttered that "prophecy" it was an emissary of Satan.
The view that Samuel did indeed appear at the direct commandment of God, as
alleged by Keil and many other able scholars has been widely supported for ages by
many scholars and theologians; and we respect that view, confessing at the same
time that it might indeed be correct. Willis, for example, noted that, "Possibly the
witch did not expect any spirit to appear, but when the Lord caused Samuel to
appear, she became frightened, because nothing like that had ever happened
before."[22] The most important factor supporting this interpretation was cited by
51

52. Payne, "The narrative strongly suggests that it really was Samuel who appeared,
and not a mere apparition or hallucination. The foreknowledge of statements
attributed to him also stamp him as genuinely Samuel."[23] (However, it should be
remembered, as noted above, that the `foreknowledge' mentioned here by Payne
was false.)
Nevertheless, this writer is unable to reconcile that understanding of the passage
with the fact of the consummate wickedness of both the witch and Saul. Where is
there anything in the Bible that supports the notion that God would have raised a
prophet from the dead to speak to such people, especially since they had never
manifested the slightest regard for the word of God through his prophets? While
confessing that there are ample objections to any view of the passage that may be
advocated, the conviction that prevails with this writer favors the view that sees the
whole episode as one loaded with fraud and deception.
HAWKER, "Verses 8-20
(8) And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men
with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee, divine
unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee.
(9) And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how
he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land:
wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die? (10) And Saul
sware to her by the LORD, saying, As the LORD liveth, there shall no punishment
happen to thee for this thing. (11) Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up
unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel. (12) And when the woman saw
Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast
thou deceived me? for thou art Saul. (13) And the king said unto her, Be not afraid:
for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of
the earth. (14) And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man
cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel,
and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself. (15) ¶ And Samuel
said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I
am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed
from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore
I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. (16) Then
said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the LORD is departed
from thee, and is become thine enemy? (17) And the LORD hath done to him, as he
spake by me: for the LORD hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to
thy neighbour, even to David: (18) Because thou obeyedst not the voice of the
LORD, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the LORD
done this thing unto thee this day. (19) Moreover the LORD will also deliver Israel
with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be
with me: the LORD also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the
52

53. Philistines. (20) ¶ Then Saul fell straightway all along on the earth, and was sore
afraid, because of the words of Samuel: and there was no strength in him; for he
had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night.
In order to have a right apprehension of this part of Saul's history, it will be needful
to take into the account the several circumstances connected with it. Let it be then
first observed by the Reader, that what is here called having a familiar spirit, refers
to those who, imposing upon the credulity and ignorance of mankind, pretended to
divine, and foretell events. Thus Balaam was a noted impostor of this kind, whom
Balak called out of the East, to use his enchantments against Israel. And God was
pleased to overrule this man's devices, so as absolutely to make him the instrument
of blessing the very people he hired himself out to curse. See Numbers 22:23-24; and
the Commentary upon those Chapters. Hence we read also in Isaiah, that there were
wizards who did peep, and mutter, and spake as whispering out of the dust. See
Isaiah 8:19; and Isaiah 29:4. There have been such characters in all ages. And men
forsaken of God, in desperate circumstances like Saul, have had recourse to them.
Let us next consider how far the Lord is said to have permitted such things. Paul
tells us, that it is no marvel that there should be false apostles, deceitful workers,
transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ; for Satan himself is
transformed into an angel of light. 2 Corinthians 11:13-14. And in another part of
his writings he seems to admit the possibility that one putting on the appearance of
an angel from heaven might be suffered, by way of exercise to the faith of God's
children, to preach another gospel from the true one. Galatians 1:8. From these
views of the subject, we cannot be at a loss to have a proper conception of this
supposed apparition of Samuel to Saul, by the witch at Endor. The great enemy of
souls might be permitted to personate the departed Prophet. As such he appears to
Saul's view like Samuel. He is permitted to speak of the events shortly to happen;
the rout of Israel, and the death of Saul and of his sons. And thus, through this
means, Saul is awfully apprised of what is about to follow. That it could not be
Samuel himself is, I think, evident from other considerations. Neither Satan nor his
instruments, can have power over the souls of glorified saints. Neither was it
probable that Saul, at his death, should in his spirit associate with Samuel. Neither
could the soul of Samuel be said to come up out of the earth, when we know that the
spirits of just men made perfect are with the Lord. Neither, had it been really
Samuel, would he have told him of the awful events about to take place, without
following it up with advice to repent, instead of driving him to despair, and thereby
forming a temptation to self-murder. From all these considerations, it seems to me
very evident that there was a permission for the appearance of Samuel's form by the
Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that both then and now still worketh in the
children of disobedience; the Lord overruling in this instance, as in that of Balaam,
and in the case of another spirit, permitted to foretell the fall of Ahab at Ramoth
Gilead. See 1 Kings 22:20-22.
But, while I have said so much, by way of helping the ordinary Reader to what
appears to me to be the safest plan of forming a right conception of this part of
53

54. Saul's history, I beg that he will allow me to suggest to him one thought upon it
which is more important; and which may not only serve to guide his mind, under
grace, to a becoming humbleness on this, but other parts of scripture which are not
so interesting for us to be over anxious about the clear apprehension of. Depend
upon it, my Brother, had it been an object of moment to the peace or comfort of the
church, the Holy Ghost would have been more explicit. But wherever we meet with
anything of obscurity, the reason is obvious: Secret things belong to the Lord our
God. Enough is revealed for us and our children to know. And here let our chief
enquiry be directed. One passage in the supposed conference between Saul and
Samuel, opens to our minds a subject of infinite improvement; and to this I would
desire to direct the Reader's principal attention: I mean where Saul saith, I am sore
distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me.
Oh! Reader! what state out of hell can exceed this in misery? When a child of God is
in trouble the Lord is with him. If sorrow, sickness, nay even sin oppress him, Jesus
is the support and burden-bearer of all: and he both bears his people, and all their
burdens with him. But to be at once forsaken both of heaven, and earth, where shall
the wretched run for deliverance then? What a dolorous case like that of Saul's,
doth the prophet de scribe, when he saith; Woe is me for my hurt; my wound is
grievous: truly this is a grief, and I must bear it. Jeremiah 10:19.
PETT, "1 Samuel 28:8
‘And Saul disguised himself, and put on other clothing, and went, he and two men
with him, and they came to the woman by night, and he said, “Divine to me, I pray
you, by the familiar spirit, and bring me up whoever I shall name to you.” ’
So Saul divested himself of his royal robes and put on some common clothing. He
wanted to ensure that he was not identified, otherwise he knew that the woman
would not help him. Had he appeared as Saul he would have met a barrier of total
silence. Then, sufficiently disguised, and taking two of his men with him, he set off
by night and came to where the woman lived. The phrase ‘by night’ is pregnant with
significance. He was walking into the darkness.
It was in fact a courageous act carried out by a desperate man, for the Philistines
were nearby in large numbers, no doubt with their scouts out, and En-dor was not
far from the Philistine camp. But it was also a disreputable act. By it he was
demonstrating why YHWH would not help him. It was because his heart was not set
towards righteousness and towards truth. He wanted YHWH with no strings
attached, and by whatever means. And God is not available on those terms.
On reaching the woman, who did not recognise who he was, he called on her to
contact her familiar spirit and raise up for him the one whom he named. He wanted
her to enable him to contact his only hope, Samuel.
54

55. 9 But the woman said to him, "Surely you know
what Saul has done. He has cut off the mediums
and spiritists from the land. Why have you set a
trap for my life to bring about my death?"
GILL, "And the woman said unto him,.... Not knowing who he was:
behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done; for by his speech and habit she
perceived he was an Israelite, and so must be acquainted with what had passed in
the nation, especially of a public nature, and which made a great noise, as doubtless
this, lid:
how he both cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards,
out of the land; as many of them as he had knowledge of, or information about; and
by this it appears that he did not merely expel them his dominions, but he put them
to death, according to the law of God, Exo_22:18; so the putting them out of the
land, 1Sa_28:3, was putting them to death, and the woman's after reasoning
confirms this: one should think for Saul to be told this to his face must fill him with
shame and confusion, and his conscience must accuse him of sin and folly to make
this attempt; and he must stand self-convicted and self-condemned; and it was
enough to have deterred him from pursuing his scheme, had not his heart been
strangely hardened:
wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die? she suspected that
Saul and his men were persons that came to entrap her; that when they had
prevailed upon her to exercise her art, would turn informers against her, to the
taking away of her life, it being death to practise it.
HENRY, "He tells her his errand and promises her impunity. 1. All he desires of her
is to bring up one from the dead, whom he had a mind to discourse with. It was
necromancy or divination by the dead, that he hoped to serve his purpose by. This
was expressly forbidden by the law (Deu_18:11), seeking for the living to the dead,
Isa_8:19. Bring me up him whom I shall name, 1Sa_28:8. This supposes that it was
generally taken for granted that souls exist after death, and that when men die there
55

56. is not an end of them: it supposes too that great knowledge was attributed to
separate souls. But to think that any good souls would come up at the beck of an evil
spirit, or that God, who had denied a man the benefit of his own institutions, would
suffer him to reap any real advantage by a cursed diabolical invention, was very
absurd. 2. She signifies her fear of the law, and her suspicion that this stranger came
to draw her into a snare (1Sa_28:9): Thou knowest what Saul has done. Providence
ordered it so that Saul should be told to his face of his edict against witches, at this
very time when he was consulting one, for the greater aggravation of his sin. She
insists upon the peril of the law, perhaps to raise her price; for, though no mention
is made of her fee, no doubt she demanded and had a large one. Observe how
sensible she is of danger from the edict of Saul, and what care she is in to guard
against it; but not at all apprehensive of the obligations off God's law and the
terrors of his wrath. She considered what Saul had done, not what God had done,
against such practices, and feared a snare laid for her life more than a snare laid for
her soul. It is common for sinners to be more afraid of punishment from men than
of God's righteous judgment.
K&D, "1Sa_28:9
Such a demand placed the woman in difficulty. As Saul had driven the
necromantists out of the land, she was afraid that the unknown visitor (for it is
evident from 1Sa_28:12 that she did not recognise Saul at first) might be laying a
snare for her soul with his request, to put her to death, i.e., might have come to her
merely for the purpose of spying her out as a conjurer of the dead, and then
inflicting capital punishment upon her according to the law (Lev_20:27).
PULPIT, "1Sa_28:9, 1Sa_28:10
Thou knowest what Saul hath done. Not only had Saul in the earlier part of his
reign been earnest in his zeal for the Mosaic law, but even now it seems as if a witch
was in danger of death; for he has to take an oath before she will acknowledge that
she practises any illicit art,
ELLICOTT, " (9) What Saul hath done . . .—The law, re-enacted by Saul in earlier
days, which made the practice of these dark arts a capital offence, was evidently still
in force. Sorcerers and witches, like the woman of En-dor, had, no doubt, been often
hunted down by means of informers. The woman possibly at first suspected that
something of the kind was intended now. The old tradition, however, which
represents the two companions of the king as Abner and Amasa, would preclude
such a supposition. Still, in any event, the act of summoning the dead was a capital
offence, and the woman would be on her guard, even in the presence of her near
relatives, which the old tradition asserts Abner and Amasa to have been. She may,
too, by enhancing the peril in which she stood, have thought a larger present would
be extorted from the stranger who sought her aid.
56

57. PETT, "1 Samuel 28:9
‘And the woman said to him, “Look, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut
off those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land. Why then do
you lay a snare for my life, to cause me to die?” ’
But the woman was wary. She knew of far too many of her fellow-mediums who had
betrayed themselves in response to such a request. And so she replied that in the
light of Saul’s treatment of mediums and ‘knowers’ she would not even admit that
she could do so,. And she charged them with wanting to entrap her into suggesting
that she was a medium. Did they not recognise that for someone to admit that they
were a medium in Saul’s Israel, was to court death?
Her question brings out the depths of Saul’s hypocrisy. He who was supposed to be
the champion of YHWH, and had to some extent been so, was now taking the way
which was in the opposite direction to the will of YHWH. It is almost inconceivable
that he did not realise how foolish he was being by expecting an answer from
YHWH’s servant when he was using means which were condemned by YHWH. The
only thing that does make it conceivable is the incredible way in which so-called
Christians today can behave in a similar manner and yet convince themselves that
there is no harm in it. The truth is that if we are not careful, when it comes to God
we try to manipulate Him into being what we want Him to be, and then persuade
ourselves that it is so.
WHEDON, "9. Wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life — We have seen
(note introductory to 1 Samuel 28:3) that according to some interpreters the witch
knew Saul as soon as he came into her presence, and her words to him are but a
device to deceive him and secure herself. The possibility of this cannot be denied.
She might have recognised his stately form though in disguise, or possibly some
secret sympathizer with her craft might have advised her of the king’s approach.
But it is more in harmony with the narrative to understand that she knew him not
until she entered the clairvoyant state. Her words in this verse virtually charge Saul
with a purpose of convicting her of sorcery that he might bring her to capital
punishment.
GUZIK, "(1Sa_28:9-10) Saul answers the suspicions of the medium.
Then the woman said to him, “Look, you know what Saul has done, how he has
cut off the mediums and the spiritists from the land. Why then do you lay a
snare for my life, to cause me to die?” And Saul swore to her by the LORD,
57

58. saying, “As the LORD lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.”
a. Why then do you lay a snare for my life, to cause me to die? The medium
wondered if this was a government “sting” operation; but Saul assures her -
swearing in the name of the LORD, no less - that she won’t be punished.
b. Saul swore to her by the LORD: Saul’s oath in the name of the LORD
reminds us that spiritual jargon means nothing. As certainly as the LORD
lives, Saul was in complete disobedience and darkness! This is the last time
Saul uses the name of the LORD. He uses it to swear to a medium that she
will not be punished!
10 Saul swore to her by the LORD, "As surely as
the LORD lives, you will not be punished for
this."
GILL, "And Saul sware to her by the Lord,.... By the Word of the Lord, as the
Targum: it is much that Saul, being about such a work of darkness and wickedness,
could take the name of the Lord into his mouth, and swear by him in such a solemn
manner; which must surely put him in mind of his omniscience, from whom this
wicked action could not be hid:
saying, as the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing;
the tenor of the oath was, and so the woman understood it, that he would never
make any discovery of what she did, and so she would be sat from punishment;
though as he was the supreme governor, and a very arbitrary prince, had it been
discovered, he could have screened her from justice, though contrary to the law of
God; however, he could not secure her from eternal punishment.
HENRY, "Saul promises with an oath not to betray her, 1Sa_28:10. It was his
duty as a king to punish her and he knew it, yet he swears no to do it; as if he could
by his own oath bind himself from doing that which, by the divine command, he was
bound to do. But he promised more than he could perform when he said, There shall
no punishment happen to thee; for he that could not secure himself could much less
secure her from divine vengeance.
. Samuel, who was lately dead, is the person whom Saul desired to have some talk
with; and the witch, with her enchantments, gratifies his desire, and brings them
together. 1. As soon as Saul had given the witch the assurance she desired (that he
58

59. would not discover her) she applied to her witchcrafts, and asked very confidently,
Whom shall I bring up to thee? 1Sa_28:11. Note, Hopes of impunity embolden
sinners in their evil ways and harden their hearts. 2. Saul desires to speak with
Samuel: Bring me up Samuel. Samuel had anointed him to the kingdom and had
formerly been his faithful friend and counsellor, and therefore with him he wished
to advise. While Samuel was living at Ramah, not far from Gibeah of Saul, and
presided there in the school of the prophets, we never read of Saul's going to him to
consult him in any of the difficulties he was in (it would have been well for him if he
had); then he slighted him, and perhaps hated him, looking upon him to be in
David's interest. But now that he is dead, “O for Samuel again! By all means, bring
me up Samuel.” Note, Many that despise and persecute God's saints and ministers
when they are living would be glad to have them again when they are gone. Send
Lazarus to me, and send Lazarus to my father's house, Luk_16:24-27. The sepulchres
of the righteous are garnished.
K&D, "1Sa_28:10-11
But when Saul swore to her that no punishment should fall upon her on that
account ( ֵ‫ר‬ְ‫קּ‬ִ‫י‬ ‫ם‬ ִ‫,א‬ “shall assuredly not fall upon thee”), an oath which showed how
utterly hardened Saul was, she asked him, “Whom shall I bring up to thee?” and
Saul replied, “Bring me up Samuel,” sc., from the region of the dead, or Sheol,
which was thought to be under the ground. This idea arose from the fact that the
dead were buried in the earth, and was connected with the thought of heaven as
being above the earth. Just as heaven, regarded as the abode of God and the holy
angels and blessed spirits, is above the earth; so, on the other hand, the region of
death and the dead is beneath the ground. And with our modes of thought, which
are so bound up with time and space, it is impossible to represent to ourselves in any
other way the difference and contrast between blessedness with God and the shade-
life in death.
PETT, "1 Samuel 28:10
‘And Saul swore to her by YHWH, saying, “As YHWH lives, there shall no
punishment happen to you for this thing.” ’
Saul took the only step that he could think of in order to convince her. He swore ‘by
YHWH’ that ‘as YHWH lived’ no punishment would come on her. At this point his
foolishness is seen to have reached its greatest height, for this was a contradiction in
terms. The truth was that if he thought that YHWH truly lived he should have been
casting this woman from the land in accordance with the covenant Law. He should
not have been consulting her. It once again emphasises his religious superficiality.
However, the strength of his oath was such that it convinced the woman. She
recognised that such an oath was to be taken seriously and was clearly binding. To
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60. go against it would have been to make an attack on the very life of YHWH. And she
knew that no one who was here on behalf of Saul, and intended her harm, would
have made such an oath. The oath had made her inviolable.
11 Then the woman asked, "Whom shall I bring
up for you?"
"Bring up Samuel," he said.
BARNES, "Bring me up Samuel - Dr. Trench observes, “All human history has
failed to record a despair deeper or more tragic than his, who, having forsaken God
and being of God forsaken, is now seeking to move hell; and infinitely guilty as he is,
assuredly there is something unutterably pathetic in that yearning of the
disanointed king to change words with the friend and counselor of his youth, and if
he must hear his doom, to hear it from no other lips but his” (‘Shipwrecks of Faith,
‘ p. 47).
CLARKE, "Whom shall I bring up - The woman certainly meant no more than
making her familiar personify whomsoever the querist should wish. In the evocation
of spirits this is all that, according to the professed rules of their art, such persons
pretend to; for over human souls in paradise or in the infernal regions they have no
power. If we allow that there is such an art founded on true principles, all it can
pretend to is, to bring up the familiar; cause him when necessary to assume the form
and character of some particular person, and to give such notices relative to futurity
as he is able to collect. And this even in the cases to which authenticity is generally
allowed, is often scanty, vague, and uncertain, for fallen spirits do not abound in
knowledge: this is an attribute of God, and rays of this perfection are imparted to
pure and holy intelligences; and even Satan himself, as may be seen from most of his
temptations, is far from excelling in knowledge. He may be cunning and insidious,
but he certainly is not wise and prudent; we in general give this fallen spirit credit
for much more wisdom than he possesses.
GILL, "Then said the woman, whom shall I bring up unto thee?.... For such
persons, according to their profession, pretended they were able to bring up any of
the dead, that he who inquired of them should name:
60

61. and he said, bring me up Samuel; the prophet Samuel he meant, and no doubt the
woman so understood him, whose name was well known; he had been an old
acquaintance and friend of Saul's, his counsellor and adviser in many things and
though he greatly neglected him in the latter part of his life, was very desirous of an
interview with him now dead, that he might be advised by him how to get out of the
straits and difficulties in which he was involved; but it argued extreme folly and
madness in him to imagine, that the spirit of this great and good man was at the
beck of a witch, and he to be called out of the state of the dead by her enchantments;
or that God would permit him to appear to him, and by him give an answer, when
he would not answer him by living prophets, nor any other way.
HENRY, ". Samuel, who was lately dead, is the person whom Saul desired to have
some talk with; and the witch, with her enchantments, gratifies his desire, and
brings them together. 1. As soon as Saul had given the witch the assurance she
desired (that he would not discover her) she applied to her witchcrafts, and asked
very confidently, Whom shall I bring up to thee? 1Sa_28:11. Note, Hopes of impunity
embolden sinners in their evil ways and harden their hearts. 2. Saul desires to speak
with Samuel: Bring me up Samuel. Samuel had anointed him to the kingdom and
had formerly been his faithful friend and counsellor, and therefore with him he
wished to advise. While Samuel was living at Ramah, not far from Gibeah of Saul,
and presided there in the school of the prophets, we never read of Saul's going to
him to consult him in any of the difficulties he was in (it would have been well for
him if he had); then he slighted him, and perhaps hated him, looking upon him to be
in David's interest. But now that he is dead, “O for Samuel again! By all means,
bring me up Samuel.” Note, Many that despise and persecute God's saints and
ministers when they are living would be glad to have them again when they are
gone. Send Lazarus to me, and send Lazarus to my father's house, Luk_16:24-27. The
sepulchres of the righteous are garnished.
PULPIT, "1Sa_28:11
Whom shall I bring up to thee? Assured by Saul’s oath, the woman now asserts her
ability to call up the spirits of the dead, and asks, just as would happen now with
those who claim similar powers, who it is to be. We need not suppose that she
possessed either greater or less powers than those claimed or even exercised now;
for many of the phenomena of clairvoyance, though undoubtedly natural, still
belong to an unscientific, and therefore vague and illusory, region. Perhaps on this
very account these arts have always had an extraordinary fascination for men, and
been practised in all ages and among all people with considerable skill. Bring me up
Samuel. Samuel had been Saul’s friend in his youth, and his guide and counsellor in
those happy days when the young king walked uprightly, and all went well with
him. But gradually the light yoke of respect for one who loved him became too
heavy for a despotic temperament, which would brook no will but its own. Now that
self-will is broken; it had brought the warrior king to a hopeless despair, and in his
distress his mind once again returns to its old channels Intense as was the
61

62. degradation for one so haughty, in disguise by night, at the risk of his life, to seek
help from a sorceress, he bears it all that he may at least for a few minutes see the
spirit of the true though stern monitor, whose memory once again filled his whole
heart.
ELLICOTT, " (11) Bring me up Samuel.—A remarkable passage in the Babylonian
Talmud evidently shows that, at all events in the Rabbinical Schools of a very early
date, the bringing up of Samuel was looked upon as owing to the witch’s power.
“ A Sadducee once said to Rabbi Abhu, ‘Ye say that the souls of the righteous are
treasured up under the throne of glory; how then had the witch of En-dor power to
bring up the prophet Samuel by necromancy?’ The Rabbi replied, ‘Because that
occurred within twelve months after his death; for we are taught that during twelve
months after death the body is preserved, and the soul soars up and down, but that
after twelve months the body is destroyed, and the soul goes up, never to return.’”—
Treatise Shabbath, fol. 88, Colossians 2.
Another Rabbinical tradition, however, seems to limit this near presence of the
departed spirit to the body to four days:—“It is a tradition of Ben Kaphra’s. The
very height of mourning is not till the third day. For three days the spirit wanders
about the sepulchre, expecting if it may return into the body. But when it sees that
the form or aspect of the face is changed [on the fourth day], then it hovers no more,
but leaves the body to itself. After three days (it is said elsewhere), the countenance
is changed.”—From the Bereshith R., p. 1143: quoted by Lightfoot, referred to by
Canon Westcott in his commentary on St. John 11:39.
Saul’s state of mind on this, almost the eve of his last fatal fight at Gilboa, affords a
curious study. He felt himself forsaken of God, and yet, in his deep despair, his mind
turns to the friend and guide of his youth, from whom—long before that friend’s
death—he had been so hopelessly estranged. There must have been a terrible
struggle in the proud king’s heart before he could have brought himself to stoop to
ask for assistance from one of that loathed and proscribed class of women who
professed to have dealings with familiar spirits and demons. “There is,” once wrote
Archbishop Trench, “something unutterably pathetic in the yearning of the dis-
anointed king, now in his utter desolation, to exchange words once more with the
friend and counsellor of his youth; and if he must hear his doom, to hear it from no
other lips but his.”
GUZIK, " (1Sa_28:11-14) To the medium’s surprise, Samuel appears.
Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” And he said, “Bring up
62

63. Samuel for me.” When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice.
And the woman spoke to Saul, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are
Saul!” And the king said to her, “Do not be afraid. What did you see?” And the
woman said to Saul, “I saw a spirit ascending out of the earth.” So he said to her,
“What is his form?” And she said, “An old man is coming up, and he is covered
with a mantle.” And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his
face to the ground and bowed down.
a. Bring up Samuel for me: Why did Saul want to see Samuel? Considering
the times Samuel strongly rebuked Saul (such as in 1Sa_15:22-29), we might
think that Samuel was the last person Saul would want to see. Probably, Saul
wanted to remember his “good old days” with Samuel, when the prophet was
his guide and mentor (1Sa_9:25-26).
i. In the midst of his sin, depression and demonic influence, Saul forgot
that Samuel was in fact his adversary when he slipped into sin (1Sa_
13:13-14; 1Sa_15:22-29).
b. When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice: Why the
medium so shocked? Probably she was a fraud, and most of her dealings
with the spirit realm were mere tricks. Now, Samuel really appears from the
world beyond, and she is completely surprised to have a real encounter with
the spirit realm.
i. In addition, we can say that this medium was familiar with the presence
of demonic spirits, the presence of the Holy Spirit was probably
completely unfamiliar to her. The holy presence of the Holy Spirit may
have seemed terrifying to her. “The indications are that this was an
extraordinary event for her, and a frightening one because she was not in
control.” (Baldwin)
c. Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul! The medium is also
surprised, because now she knows that she is practicing her craft before the
same king who drove out all the mediums and spiritists from Israel. She has
reason to be afraid, both of the real spiritual presence she sees, and the king
right beside her.
i. How did the medium know that the man was King Saul? We simply are
not told how she knew this. It might have been something that Samuel
said when he first appeared. It might have been a word of supernatural
knowledge, communicated to her either from God or from the world of
the demonic.
d. And the woman said to Saul, “I saw a spirit ascending out of the earth.”
The Hebrew word translated spirit in the New King James Version is
actually the Hebrew word elohim - literally, “gods,” but often applied to the
One God in plural form, to both reflect the truth of the Trinity and God’s
greatness, which is indicated in the Hebrew by the plural form. When the
medium says she saw an elohim, does she mean that she saw the One True
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64. God? Does she mean that Samuel is deified? No; speaking from her own
pagan context, she calls this appearing of Samuel an elohim because that was
what it seemed to be in her pagan vocabulary. It is only she who calls Samuel
an elohim.
i. “It seems that in ancient times the deceased could be referred to as
‘gods’ in that they lived in the realm of the preternatural.” (Youngblood)
ii. The medium and Saul encounter what the medium calls an elohim -
“gods.” But Saul will say, “God [elohim] has departed from me” (1Sa_
28:15). Saul had no trouble understanding that even though the medium
referred to Samuel as an elohim because of her occultic background, this
appearance of Samuel was not the real God of heaven. He makes the
distinction in is wording.
iii. “She useth the plural number, gods, either after the manner of the
Hebrew language, which commonly useth that word of one person; or
after the language and custom of the heathens.” (Poole)
iv. Saul came “Ascending out of the earth, as though it came from the
place of the dead.” (Poole)
e. Saul perceived that it was Samuel: However Samuel appeared, he was
visible to both the medium and Saul. This wasn’t a “crystal ball” appearance
that only the medium could pretend to see. Nor was it a “voice in the dark”
that one might encounter in a séance. This was a real appearance of Samuel.
f. What is going on here? This strange incident is controversial, and several
different approaches have been used to understand this passage. Here are
four of the most commonly suggested possibilities.
i. Some believe that this was a hallucination of the medium. But this
doesn’t make sense, because it doesn’t explain why the medium was so
frightened. It doesn’t explain why Saul saw Samuel also, and why Samuel
spoke to Saul, not to the medium.
ii. Some believe that this was a deception by the medium. But this also isn’t
an adequate explanation, for the same reasons given to the previous
suggestion.
iii. Some believe that this was a demonic impersonation of Samuel. It is
possible that the medium, with her occultic powers, summoned a demonic
spirit that deceived both her and Saul. But this suggestion is also
inadequate, because it does not speak to the issue of motive. After all,
what advantage does Satan gain by “Samuel’s” words to Saul?
iv. Some believe that this was a genuine (but strange) appearance of
Samuel. This is the best explanation, because it is supported by the
reaction of the medium, who got more than she bargained for. It is also
supported by the truth of what Samuel said (and the text says that Samuel
said it). Some may say that it is impossible for Samuel to reappear in
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65. some way, coming from the world beyond back to this world. But Moses
and Elijah also came from the world beyond back to this world when they
appeared with Jesus at the Transfiguration (Mat_17:3).
v. Clarke makes an additional valuable point: “I believe that the woman
of En-dor had no power over Samuel; and that no incantation can avail
over any departed saint of God, nor indeed over any human disembodied
spirit.” Samuel really came, but not because the medium called for him.
Samuel appeared because God had a special purpose for it.
g. What was God’s purpose in sending such a strange appearance of Samuel?
This appearance of Samuel accomplished two things: it re-confirmed the
coming judgment upon King Saul’s in a dramatic way, and it taught the
medium a powerful lesson about the dangers of her occultic craft.
i. “I believe Samuel did actually appear to Saul; and that he was sent by
the especial mercy of God to warn this infatuated king of his approaching
death, that he might have an opportunity to make his peace with his
Maker.” (Clarke)
ii. When we close our ears to God, He will find unusual - and perhaps
uncomfortable - ways to speak to us. “That he did appear to Saul, there
can be no question, but he did not come in response to her call. He was
sent of God, for the express purpose of rebuking Saul for his unholy
traffic with these evil things, and to pronounce his doom.” (Morgan)
12 When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at
the top of her voice and said to Saul, "Why have
you deceived me? You are Saul!"
BARNES, "It is manifest both that the apparition of Samuel was real, and also
that the woman was utterly unprepared for it.
Why hast thou deceived me ... - She perhaps inferred that Samuel would have
answered the call of none inferior to the king. Or it may be the presence of an
inhabitant of the world of spirits brought a sudden illumination to her mind.
CLARKE, "When the woman saw Samuel - That Samuel did appear on this
65

66. occasion, is most evident from the text; nor can this be denied from any legitimate
mode of interpretation: and it is as evident that he was neither raised by the power
of the devil nor the incantations of the witch, for the appearances which took place
at this time were such as she was wholly unacquainted with. Her familiar did not
appear; and from the confused description she gives, it is fully evident that she was
both surprised and alarmed at what she saw, being so widely different from what
she expected to see.
GILL, "And when the woman saw Samuel,.... The appearance of him whom she
took for Samuel; no mention is made of the methods she used to raise him, to check
the curiosity of such as might be desirous to know them, and to prevent the
imitation of them; though some think that Samuel, or the apparition, was seen
before she made use of any, which surprised her; but this seems not so probable,
and is only observed for the sake of an hypothesis; though it must be owned the
word "when" is not in the text:
she cried with a loud voice; not so much frightened at what she saw, and the manner
of his appearing, and as thinking the resurrection of the dead was come, as say the
Jews (b), as what she feared would be the consequence to her, even death by the
hand of Saul; for though he had sworn no punishment should come upon her, she
might begin to fear she was not safe, perceiving who he was:
and the woman spake to Saul, saying, why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul:
how she knew this is a question; it could not be by the appearance of Samuel, for it
was Samuel she was to bring up; unless with Ben Gersom it can be thought that she
understood him of another man, whose name was Samuel, and not Samuel the
prophet; and so when she saw him, concluded he was Saul, because of the intimacy
between them in his lifetime; but this is not probable, nor does it appear that she as
yet knew who it was, but rather she was told by her familiar spirit, or by the
apparition, so Josephus (c), that it was Saul that inquired of her; or she guessed at it
by some gesture of the apparition to Saul, by way of homage and honour; and so
Abarbinel thinks that the clause in 1Sa_28:14 respects not Saul's bowing to Samuel,
but Samuel bowing to Saul; and so by this means the woman knew who he was.
HENRY, ". Here is a seeming defector chasm in the story. Saul said, Bring me up
Samuel, and the very next words are, When the woman saw Samuel, (1Sa_28:12),
whereas one would have expected to be told how she performed the operation, what
spells and charms she used, or that some little intimation would be given of what she
said or did; but the profound silence of the scripture concerning it forbids our
coveting to know the depths of Satan (Rev_2:24) or to have our curiosity gratified
with an account of the mysteries of iniquity. It has been said of the books of some of
the popish confessors that, by their descriptions of sin, they have taught men to
commit it; but the scripture conceals sinful art, that we may be simple concerning
evil, Rom_16:19. 4. The witch, upon sight of the apparition, was aware that her
66

67. client was Saul, her familiar spirit, it is likely, informing her of it (1Sa_28:12): “Why
hast thou deceived me with a disguise; for thou art Saul, the very man that I am
afraid of above any man?” Thus she gave Saul to understand the power of her art,
in that she could discover him through his disguise; and yet she feared lest,
hereafter, at least, he should take advantage against her for what she was now
doing. Had she believed that it was really Samuel whom she saw, she would have
had more reason to be afraid of him, who was a good prophet, than of Saul, who
was a wicked king. But the wrath of earthly princes is feared by most more than the
wrath of the King of kings.
K&D, "1Sa_28:12
The woman then commenced her conjuring arts. This must be supplied from the
context, as 1Sa_28:12 merely states what immediately ensued. “When the woman
saw Samuel, she cried aloud,” sc., at the form which appeared to her so
unexpectedly. These words imply most unquestionably that the woman saw an
apparition which she did not anticipate, and therefore that she was not really able to
conjure up departed spirits or persons who had died, but that she either merely
pretended to do so, or if her witchcraft was not mere trickery and delusion, but had
a certain demoniacal background, that the appearance of Samuel differed
essentially from everything she had experienced and effected before, and therefore
filled her with alarm and horror. The very fact, whoever, that she recognised Saul
as soon as Samuel appeared, precludes us from declaring her art to have been
nothing more than jugglery and deception; for she said to him, “Why hast thou
cheated me, as thou art certainly Saul?” i.e., why hast thou deceived me as to thy
person? why didst thou not tell me that thou wast king Saul? Her recognition of
Saul when Samuel appeared may be easily explained, if we assume that the woman
had fallen into a state of clairvoyance, in which she recognised persons who, like
Saul in his disguise, were unknown to her by face.
PULPIT, 1Sa_28:12
When the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice. Evidently the last thing
that she had expected was that anything else should happen than the usual illusion
by which she imposed upon her victims; nor is it certain that anything else did
happen. Her assertion that she saw Samuel was probably false; and it was in feigned
excitement that she cried out, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul. She
could not but have noticed the tall stature, the dignified manner, and also the
intense excitement of her strange visitor; and when he bade her call up the spirit of
Samuel, she must have been dull indeed not to know who the stranger was.
BENSON, "1 Samuel 28:12. And when the woman saw Samuel — The particle
when, which our translators have inserted here, and which is not in the original text,
embarrasses the sense, and is calculated to give the reader a wrong idea of this
transaction, leading him to think that some space of time intervened between Saul’s
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68. request and Samuel’s appearance, during which the woman was employed in
practising her art. Whereas the Hebrew implies no such thing. It is literally, And he
(Saul) said, Bring me up Samuel; and the woman saw Samuel, and cried with a loud
voice, &c. — The true state of this affair seems to have been, that as soon as Saul
had signified whom he wished to have brought up, the woman was about to proceed
to her charms and incantations, “designing,” says Dr. Dodd, “either to put some
trick upon Saul, by producing an accomplice to represent Samuel; or, may we not
believe that evil spirits, really assisting on such occasions, might, and did come in to
the aid of execrable wretches, sold to their service like this woman!” Be this,
however, as it may, contrary to all her expectation, the moment Saul had mentioned
the name of Samuel, the woman saw a venerable figure before her, which made her
shriek out with astonishment, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul — She
knew this appearance was not owing to any contrivance of her own, or her
associates. It was what she in no wise expected; and she immediately concluded, that
it could be no less a person than the king of Israel that this venerable person was
really sent to. From all the circumstances of the relation, it appears that the woman
herself was convinced, as the Egyptian magicians were upon another occasion, that
this was the finger of God. To suppose that the woman herself, by her familiar spirit
or spells, raised Samuel, or any evil spirit that personated him; or that she put a
trick upon Saul, by causing one of her associates to appear as Samuel, is so contrary
to reason, and the circumstances of the story, that no unprejudiced mind can well,
upon an attentive perusal, take it in any such light. Indeed, the credit of the
historian is implicated in this relation. He expressly says the woman saw Samuel,
and if we believe that she did not see Samuel, but only an evil spirit personating
him, we must call in question either the ability or integrity of the sacred writer: we
must conceive either that he did not know what he wrote about, or that he designed
to deceive his readers. Supposing then that both the woman and Saul might be
deceived by an impostor in Samuel’s guise; yet we ask, Was this author deceived?
Or did he mean to deceive us, when he gives us to understand, that the woman saw
Samuel, and was frighted at the sight!
ELLICOTT, " (12) And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud
voice.—Nothing is more clear from the narration than that the woman of En-dor
saw something she never dreamed of seeing. Whatever did appear that night was
different from anything she had seen before. Whether or not she was an impostor
matters little to us. From the severe enactments in the Mosaic code respecting these
practices, it would seem as though in the background there was something dark and
sinister. At all events, on this memorable occasion, the witch was evidently amazed
and appalled at the success of her enchantments. Ewald supposes that she burst into
a loud cry on seeing Samuel’s shade, because it ascended with such frightfully
threatening gestures, as it could have used only against its deadly enemy, Saul; and
she then saw that the questioner must be Saul. This can, however, only be taken as
an ingenious surmise. There is a singular passage in the Chaggigah Treatise of the
Babylonian Talmud (quoted below), which—contrary to the usual interpretation of
68

69. the word rendered “gods” (1 Samuel 28:13)—assumes that a second form “came
up” with Samuel; and one Jewish interpretation tells us that these were “judges”—
so rendering the Elohim of 1 Samuel 28:13—judges robed in their judicial mantles;
and it was the sight of these awful ministers of justice which appalled the
consciously guilty woman. Deeply interesting, however, as are these traditions and
comments, handed down probably from a school of expositors which flourished
before the Christian era, we hardly need anything more to account for the cry of
terror which burst from the woman than this appearance of the venerable seer,
evidently by her quite unlooked for.
And the woman spake to Saul.—At this juncture the woman recognised in the
unknown stranger King Saul. For a moment remembering his stern, ruthless
procedure in such cases of sorcery as the one in which she was then engaged, she
thinks herself betrayed, and given over to a shameful death of agony; and she turns
to the king boeide her with a piteous expostulation, “Why hast thou deceived me?”
The question now comes up, How did she come to recognise Saul in the unknown?
Ewald’s ingenious suggestion has been mentioned above. Keil suggests that the
woman had fallen into a state of clairvoyance, in which she recognised persons who,
like Saul in his disguise, were unknown to her by face. Josephus (, 2), no doubt
writing from traditional sources, asserts that Samuel had most likely revealed the
presence of Saul to the witch. “Samuel saw through Saul’s disguise, which had
deceived her whom Saul came to consult, as he spoke to Saul as Saul. So Ahijah the
prophet, though blind by age, saw through the disguise of the wife of Jeroboam (1
Kings 14:2; 1 Kings 14:6).”—Bishop Wordsworth.
On the whole, Josephus’s explanation is probably the true one. It was some word—
probably spoken by Samuel—not related here which betrayed the king’s identity to
the woman. There is one other possible supposition, but it, of course, belongs to the
realms of fancy. We know it was night, and Saul was disguised; no doubt his face
was partially covered. Is it not to be imagined that with the appearance of the
blessed prophet, with or without a companion, a light filled the dark room of the
En-dor house? This would fall upon the king’s face, who, in the agitation of the
moment, would likely enough have thrown off the cape or mantle which shrouded
his features. Something of the awful supernatural “light” Tennyson describes when
he writes of the Holy Grail:—
“ A gentle sound, an awful light!
Three angels bear the Holy Grail:
69

70. With folded feet in stoles of white,
On sleeping wings they sail.”—Air Galahad.
WHEDON, "12. When the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice — As
soon as he said whom he wished to consult, she proceeded, by her peculiar arts, to
place herself in a clairvoyant state, and as soon as she came in sensational rapport
with Saul’s soul, she saw imaged there the venerable form of the mantled Samuel.
She saw him just as he appeared to Saul the last time, and just as his stern and
threatening form had haunted that monarch’s soul for years. But Saul and his two
men supposed and reported that she saw Samuel actually arise. She discerned, also,
the many harrowing fears of defeat that took shape and form in Saul’s imagination,
and thus became aware that her consulter was no less a person than the king of
Israel. Excessively alarmed at her discovery, she came suddenly out of her
clairvoyant state, and said to Saul, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul.
Observe that her alarm is not at the sight of Samuel, but at finding that the very
monarch of Israel who had put away all wizards out of the land (see 1 Samuel 28:3)
had himself detected her in her sorceries. Those interpreters who affirm that
Samuel really appeared, and frightened the witch by his unexpected coming, are at
a loss to tell how she learned so soon that her guest was Saul. Some say she inferred
it from the venerable appearance of Samuel; but how this should be when Saul had
asked her to bring up Samuel, does not appear. Others say she learned it from
something that Samuel said; but as yet Samuel had not spoken. Keil well says,
though he teaches that Samuel actually appeared: “Her recognition of Saul may be
easily explained if we assume that the woman had fallen into a clairvoyant state, in
which she recognised persons who, like Saul in his disguise, were unknown to her by
face.”
PETT, "1 Samuel 28:12
‘And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice, and the woman
spoke to Saul, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul.” ’
It was only when she actually saw Samuel that she became aware of the truth. This
would most probably have been because some gesture of Samuel’s on rising made
clear that he was aware that he was facing the king. Thus when she saw the gesture
she knew that Saul must be the king because the gesture was one that would only
70

71. have been made towards the king. That then was when she recognised that this
stranger in front of her must be Saul. Turning to Saul in great distress she asked
him bitterly why he had deceived her so utterly.
It should be noted that at this time she still did not realise that the figure who had
come up was Samuel as her subsequent remarks make clear (‘I see an elohim -- an
old man in a robe’). What must therefore have shaken her also, as well as her
recognition of Saul, was that that this was not the usual image that she was used to
seeing. This figure was unlike any that she had previously experienced, and was
totally unexpected. This counts against any suggestion that she really could raise up
genuine people.
13 The king said to her, "Don't be afraid. What
do you see?"
The woman said, "I see a spirit
BARNES, "Gods - ‫אלהים‬ 'ĕlohı̂ ym is here used in a general sense of a
supernatural appearance, either angel or spirit. Hell, or the place of the departed
(compare 1Sa_28:19; 2Sa_12:23) is represented as under the earth Isa_14:9-10;
Eze_32:18.
CLARKE, "I saw gods ascending out of the earth - The word ‫אלהום‬ elohim, which
we translate gods, is the word which is used for the Supreme Being throughout the
Bible; but all the versions, the Chaldee excepted, translate it in the plural number,
as we do. The Chaldee has, I see ‫דיי‬ ‫מלאכא‬ malacha dayeya, an angel of the Lord,
ascending from the earth. This sight alarmed the woman; it was what she did not
expect; in this she could not recognise her familiar, and she was terrified at the
appearance.
GILL, "And the king said unto her, be not afraid,.... Meaning not of the apparition,
but of him; since he had sworn no punishment should come upon her, and he should
inviolably observe his oath: for what sawest thou? for as yet Saul himself saw not
71

72. anything, the woman being between him and the apparition; or she might be in
another room with her familiar spirit performing the operations when Samuel
appeared:
and the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth; a great
personage, one of a majestic form, like the gods, or judges and civil magistrates,
sometimes so called, as Kimchi and R. Isaiah rightly interpret it; and so the
Targum,"I saw an angel of the Lord;''a person that looked like one; for not many
came up with him, and particularly Moses, as say some Jewish writers (d).
HENRY, "Saul (who, we may suppose, was kept at a distance in the next room)
bade her not to be afraid of him, but go on with the operation, and enquired what
she saw? 1Sa_28:13. O, says the woman, I saw gods (that is, a spirit) ascending out of
the earth; they called angels gods, because spiritual beings. Poor gods that ascend
out of the earth! But she speaks the language of the heathen, who had their infernal
deities and had them in veneration. If Saul had thought it necessary to his
conversation with Samuel that the body of Samuel should be called out of the grave,
he would have taken the witch with him to Ramah, where his sepulchre was; but the
design was wholly upon his soul, which yet, if it became visible, was expected to
appear in the usual resemblance of the body; and God permitted the devil, to
answer the design, to put on Samuel's shape, that those who would not receive the
love of the truth might be given up to strong delusions and believe a lie. That it could
not be the soul of Samuel himself they might easily apprehend when it ascended out
of the earth, for the spirit of a man, much more of a good man, goes upward, Ecc_
3:21. But, if people will be deceived, it is just with God to say, “Let them be
deceived.” That the devil, by the divine permission, should be able to personate
Samuel is not strange, since he can transform himself into an angel of light! nor is it
strange that he should be permitted to do it upon this occasion, that Saul might be
driven to despair, by enquiring of the devil, since he would not, in a right manner,
enquire of the Lord, by which he might have had comfort. Saul, being told of gods
ascending, was eager to know what was the form of this deity, and in what shape he
appeared, so far was he from conceiving any horror at it, his heart being wretchedly
hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Saul, it seems, was not permitted to see any
manner of similitude himself, but he must take the woman's word for it, that she
saw an old man covered with a mantle, or robe, the habit of a judge, which Samuel
had sometimes worn, and some think it was for the sake of that, and the majesty of
its aspect, that she called this apparition Elohim, a god or gods; for so magistrates
are styled, Psa_82:1. 6. Saul, perceiving, by the woman's description, that it was
Samuel, stooped with his face to the ground, either, as it is generally taken, in
reverence to Samuel, though he saw him not, or perhaps to listen to that soft and
muttering voice which he now expected to hear (for those that had familiar spirits
peeped and muttered, Isa_8:19); and it should seem Saul bowed himself (probably by
the witch's direction) that he might hear what was whispered and listen carefully to
it; for the voice of one that has a familiar spirit is said to come out of the ground, and
whisper out of the dust, Isa_29:4. He would stoop to that who would not stoop to the
72

73. word of God.
K&D, "1Sa_28:13
The king quieted her fear, and then asked her what she had seen; whereupon she
gave him a fuller description of the apparition: “I saw a celestial being come up from
the earth.” Elohim does not signify gods here, nor yet God; still less an angel or a
ghost, or even a person of superior rank, but a celestial (super-terrestrial), heavenly,
or spiritual being.
PULPIT, "1Sa_28:13
What sawest thou? Thus far Saul had seen nothing; and as the words literally are
What seest thou? it is plain that she had not gone into another room, as some have
supposed. The vision was entirely unsubstantial, and Saul, hearing her cry, and
observing her excitement, and her steady gaze upon some object, asked what that
object was. Probably she was at some distance from him, as was no doubt her
custom when performing her incantations, in order that what she did might not be
too closely observed; probably, too, she burnt odours, and surrounded herself with
the smoke of incense. In answer to Saul she says, "I see Elohim ascending out of the
earth." As the participle is plural, she does not mean God; nor, as it was a single
appearance, is the rendering gods correct. What she means is that she saw some
grand supernatural appearance rising out of the ground, which she calls a god in a
general way, without attaching any very exact meaning to the term.
BENSON, "1 Samuel 28:13. The woman said, I saw gods ascending — The original
word here used is elohim; and is with equal propriety rendered God, a god, or gods;
when spoken of Jehovah it is translated God in the Scriptures; but when meant of
the false gods of the heathen, of angels or of magistrates, which it sometimes is, it is
generally rendered in the plural number. As it is plain the woman saw and spoke
only of one person, it should evidently be translated a god here, that is, a divine or
glorious person, full of majesty and splendour, exceeding not only mortal men, but
common ghosts. Dr. Waterland renders it, a venerable person, and Mr. Locke says,
it here signifies an angel or a judge, and that in the singular number. The same
word certainly means magistrates, Psalms 82:1-6.
ELLICOTT, "(13) I saw gods ascending out of the earth.—The king at once calms
the witch’s fears for her life, and impatiently, as it would seem, asks what she saw
which called forth the cry of fear and terror. “Gods”—this is the rendering of the
Hebrew word Elohim. The English Version, however, follows the majority of the
Versions here. The Chaldee translates the word by “angels.” Corn, à Lapide and the
best modern scholars, however, reasoning from Saul’s words which immediately
follow—“What is his form?”—suppose the Elohim to signify, not a plurality of
73

74. appearances, but one God-like form: something majestic and august. The feeling,
however, of antiquity seems to have been in favour of more than one supernatural
form entering into the En-dor dwelling on that awful night. Besides the testimony of
the Versions above referred to, the passage in the Babylonian Talmud treatise
Chaggigah, quoted below, speaks of two positively spirit forms-Samuel and another.
WHEDON, " 13. Be not afraid: for what sawest thou — She probably, at first, after
returning from her clairvoyant state, refused, in her fear, to hold any more
intercourse with the king; but after he had allayed her fears, perhaps by further
oaths, (compare 1 Samuel 28:10,) she answered:
I saw gods ascending out of the earth — Neither the sacred historian nor his
interpreter is responsible for the truth or falsehood of these words of the witch. But
whatsoever of truth they may contain, we regard them as a part of those devices by
which she sought to awe, and impose upon, both Saul and his servants. She
probably alluded to the ghostly pictures which she saw passing, like so many
shadows, over his excited imagination. What she saw in that one vision of Saul’s soul
was a sufficient basis for her to devise and utter the responses that follow.
COKE, "1 Samuel 28:13-14. For what sawest thou?— It should be rendered, but
what sawest thou? The word translated Gods, is ‫אלהים‬ elohim. The Chaldee renders
it, a messenger of the Lord. Houbigant thinks that she speaks after the manner of
idolators, who used to address in the plural the gods whom they worshipped; a
custom which they transferred to their Genii, and even to the souls of the departed
which they evoked. Saul, acquainted with this language, sufficiently understood that
the woman saw only one ascending from the earth, though she spoke in the plural.
The woman thought that Samuel ascended out of the earth; and from the
description which she gave, Saul knew it to be Samuel; (see chap. 1 Samuel 15:27.)
though it is possible that at the same moment Saul knew it was Samuel himself; for
the word ‫וידע‬ vaiiedang, rendered perceived, may as well be rendered knew; and his
stooping to the ground seems to prove this. Dr. Delaney observes, that when Samuel
denounced God's judgments upon Saul, he was clad in a mantle, which Saul tore on
that occasion. He now came to repeat and to ratify the sentence then denounced;
and, to strike him with fuller conviction, he appears in the same dress, the same
mantle in which he denounced that sentence; and since he now again denounced a
division of the kingdom from Saul, why may we not presume that the mantle
showed now the same rent which was the emblem of that division? Is it irrational to
suppose, that when he spoke of this division, he held up the mantle, and pointed to
the rent? It is well known, that the prophets were men of much action in their
speaking, and often illustrated their predictions by emblems; and such actions as I
now mention, I think, could hardly be avoided on this occasion.
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75. PETT, "1 Samuel 28:13
‘And the king said to her, “Do not afraid, for what do you see?” And the woman
said to Saul, “I see an elohim (spirit, other world being) coming up out of the earth.”
’
Saul, however, told her not to be afraid and asked what she saw. It is clear from this
that the figure was invisible to all but the woman. She then described the figure as
‘an elohim’ (or ‘one of the elohim’). While elohim is plural it is clear from what
follows in 1 Samuel 28:14 that she was speaking of only one figure, and that Saul
recognised that fact. Thus it would appear to have been a recognised term used for
an individual spirit (‘one of the elohim’). The word ‘elohim’ is used of angels (‘sons
of the elohim’) and of God (Elohim). It is also very occasionally used of those who
represent God (Psalms 82:6; John 10:35). Here it clearly meant an ‘other world
figure’, someone not of this world. And she describes him as ‘rising from the earth’.
He was clearly not strictly physical, for Saul could not see him (and possibly never
did) and his non-physical nature is confirmed by his rising from the earth. And yet
the woman discerned his form and shape, and saw him as clothed. It is vain to
speculate further.
(We may, of course, compare this with the visit of Moses and Elijah on the Mount of
Transfiguration (Mark 9:1-11), except that there they appeared in glory, and the
appearing of angels in a similar way to the appearance here, which was visible to
Elisha, and then to his servant, but clearly not visible to most human beings (2
Kings 6:17). It was not, of course, a strict resurrection of the dead. In this case it was
a rather shadowy appearance arranged by God in order to rebuke Saul. All it tells
us is that God can do what He will when He will).
14 "What does he look like?" he asked.
"An old man wearing a robe is coming up,"
she said.
Then Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed
down and prostrated himself with his face to the
75

76. ground.
CLARKE, "An old man cometh up, and he is covered with a mantle - This seems
to have been a second apparition; she cannot mean that she had seen gods ascending
out of the earth, and these gods were like an old man with a mantle. The angelic
appearance first mentioned prepared the way for Samuel; and the whole was done
so as to show to the woman that her art had not prevailed in the present instance,
and that what was now taking place was wholly independent of her incantations.
Saul perceived that it was Samuel - The description was suitable to his person and
clothing.
GILL, "And he said unto her, what form is he of?.... Of what stature is he? or
rather of what age does he seem to be? and what clothes has he on? as appears from
the answer:
and she said, an old man cometh up, and he is covered with a mantle; such as either
priests or judges wore, and Samuel did in his lifetime:
and Saul perceived that it was Samuel; by the description she gave of him, by his age
and apparel; for as yet it is not certain that he himself saw him, though it should
seem as if he did by what follows: it is in the original, "that it was Samuel himself";
which seems to make for those who think the real Samuel appeared, and no doubt
Saul thought it was really he himself:
and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself: either in reverence
to Samuel, and from whom he hoped relief, and therefore was all obeisance; or he
put himself in this posture, that he might listen and hear what should be said; it
being a general notion that such spirits gave their responses whispering and
muttering, Isa_8:19; though Abarbinel, as before observed, is of opinion, that this is
to be understood of Samuel, that he bowed to Saul in reverence of him as a king;
which does not so well agree with the connection of the words. Some have thought
that it was the true Samuel, or the soul of Samuel, that appeared; so Josephus (e),
and many other writers; but to this may be objected, that that would not have
ascended out of the earth, but come down from heaven; and that it cannot
reasonably be supposed that it was in the power of the witch, by the assistance of the
devil, to fetch it from heaven; nor be thought that God would send it from thence on
such an errand, to give Saul an answer, when he would not answer him by any
prophet on earth, nor in any other way; and especially it seems quite incredible that
he should send it at the motion of a witch, and through her enchantments, who,
according to a law of his, ought not to live; whereas nothing could have given
greater countenance to such a wicked profession than this: nor would the true
76

77. Samuel have admitted such worship and homage to be paid him, as is expressed in
this last clause, which angelic spirits have refused, Rev_19:10; though perhaps no
more than civil respect is intended: but rather this was a diabolical spectre, or
apparition, or the devil, that appeared in the form and shape of Samuel, and
mimicked him; and was one of those deceiving spirits Porphyry speaks (f) of, that
appear in various shapes and forms, and pretend to be gods or demons, or the souls
of the deceased. Some (g) think all this was the cunning and imposture of the woman
alone, or that she was assisted with a confederate, who acted the part of Samuel; but
this is not probable.
HENRY, "Saul, it seems, was not permitted to see any manner of similitude
himself, but he must take the woman's word for it, that she saw an old man covered
with a mantle, or robe, the habit of a judge, which Samuel had sometimes worn, and
some think it was for the sake of that, and the majesty of its aspect, that she called
this apparition Elohim, a god or gods; for so magistrates are styled, Psa_82:1. 6.
Saul, perceiving, by the woman's description, that it was Samuel, stooped with his
face to the ground, either, as it is generally taken, in reverence to Samuel, though he
saw him not, or perhaps to listen to that soft and muttering voice which he now
expected to hear (for those that had familiar spirits peeped and muttered, Isa_8:19);
and it should seem Saul bowed himself (probably by the witch's direction) that he
might hear what was whispered and listen carefully to it; for the voice of one that
has a familiar spirit is said to come out of the ground, and whisper out of the dust,
Isa_29:4. He would stoop to that who would not stoop to the word of God.
K&D, "1Sa_28:14
Upon Saul's further inquiry as to his form, she replied, “An old man is ascending,
and he is wrapped in a mantle.” Meïl is the prophet's mantle, such as Samuel was
accustomed to wear when he was alive (see 1Sa_15:27). Saul recognised from this
that the person who had been called up was Samuel, and he fell upon his face to the
ground, to give expression to his reverence. Saul does not appear to have seen the
apparition itself. But it does not follow from this that there was no such apparition
at all, and the whole was an invention on the part of the witch. It needs an opened
eye, such as all do not possess, to see a departed spirit or celestial being. The eyes of
the body are not enough for this.
PULPIT, "1Sa_28:14
What form is he of? Rather, "What is his aspect?" i.e. his look. As the term a god
conveyed no other idea than that she had seen something majestic, Saul asks for a
more exact description. She answers that it was an old man clad in a robe, meil (see
on 1Sa_2:19). Samuel seems never to have worn the prophetic mantle (see on 1Sa_
15:27), but always the meil. There was nothing, therefore, distinctive in the dress;
but as she says that she has seen an old man, Saul concludes that he for whom he
had asked had appeared to him. Instead of Saul perceived, the Hebrew has "Saul
77

78. knew." There is nothing to prove that Saul really saw anything; all that is said is
that by the woman’s description "Saul recognised that what she had seen was
Samuel, and he bowed himself to the ground, and made obeisance."
BENSON, "1 Samuel 28:13. The woman said, I saw gods ascending — The original
word here used is elohim; and is with equal propriety rendered God, a god, or gods;
when spoken of Jehovah it is translated God in the Scriptures; but when meant of
the false gods of the heathen, of angels or of magistrates, which it sometimes is, it is
generally rendered in the plural number. As it is plain the woman saw and spoke
only of one person, it should evidently be translated a god here, that is, a divine or
glorious person, full of majesty and splendour, exceeding not only mortal men, but
common ghosts. Dr. Waterland renders it, a venerable person, and Mr. Locke says,
it here signifies an angel or a judge, and that in the singular number. The same
word certainly means magistrates, Psalms 82:1-6.
ELLICOTT, " (14) An old man Cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle.—The
“mantle;” Heb., m’il. The garment so named was not a peculiar one, and bore no
official signification; still, its mention here in this place would seem as though the
woman recognised the well-known m’il which the prophet used to wear in life.
But it has been asked, How could a spirit bear the semblance of an old man? and
further, How could such a being be clothed? Rabbi Moses Maimonides of Cordova
(twelfth century), surnamed the “Eagle of the Doctors,” in his Yad Hachazakah,
admirably replies to these queries when discussing certain similar expressions used
with regard to the Holy One, who is a Spirit without a body or a frame. “We find,”
says Maimonides, “such expressions as ‘under His feet,’ written with the finger of
God,’ ‘the eye of the Lord,’ &c. Of Him one prophet says, ‘That he saw the Holy
One—blessed be He !—whose garment was white as snow’ (Daniel 7:9); whilst
another saw Him ‘like a warrior engaged in battle.’ Compare the saying of the sages
in the Yad Joseph on Exodus 15:3 :—’On the sea He was seen like a man-of-war,
and upon Sinai like a reader of prayers, wrapped (in a surplice); and all this though
he had neither similitude or form, but that these things were in an apparition of
prophecy, and in a vision.’”—Yad Hachazakah, bk. I., ch. 1 “God designed,” says
Bishop Wordsworth, “that the spirit of Samuel should be recognised by human
eyes; and how could this have been done but by means of such objects as are visible
to human sense? Our Lord speaks of the tongue of the disembodied spirit of Dives in
order to give us an idea of his sufferings; and at the Transfiguration He presented
the form of Moses in such a garb to the three disciples as might enable them to
recognise him as Moses.”
And he stooped . . . and bowed himself.—It Seems probable that at this juncture the
king saw the form before him when he did obeisance. It is, however, not clear, from
the language here used, whether this strange act of reverent homage did not at once
follow the description of the woman.
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79. WHEDON, " 14. What form is he of — He uses the singular, ‫,תארו‬ his form, though
the witch had spoken in the plural of gods. But having seen the image of the mantled
prophet in his soul, she proceeds to describe it just as it was pictured there.
An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle — Saul vividly remembered
Samuel in connexion with that mantle the skirt of which he had laid hold of and rent
at Gilgal, when the prophet uttered against him the last bitter oracle of judgment, (1
Samuel 15:27;) and a clairvoyant might see his mantled form just as it was imaged
in the soul of Saul.
Saul perceived that it was Samuel — Observe, it is not said that he saw Samuel. He
formed his opinion from the woman’s words. She described the form of Samuel just
as he appeared in the memory of Saul — an old man wearing a mantle; and from
this description, not from actual sight, he knew or understood ( ‫ידע‬ ; Septuagint,
εγνω; Vulgate, intellexit) that it was Samuel. There is no evidence in the whole
passage that Samuel was seen by any one except the witch.
He stooped — Made obeisance, for he believed that Samuel was there.
PETT, "1 Samuel 28:14
‘And he said to her, “Of what form is he?” And she said, “An old man comes up,
and he is covered with a robe.” And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he
bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance.’
Unable to see what the woman saw Saul asked her to describe it, and she replied,
‘an old man comes up and he is covered with a robe’. The word ‘robe’ indicated to
Saul the prophet’s mantle, and he thus recognised that what she was seeing as a
phantasm was the form of Samuel himself. It was invisible to Saul. We might
possibly say that it was an appearance in the light of the woman’s heightened
perceptibilities rather than a genuine presence.
But conscious that Samuel must be present Saul bowed his face to the ground and
did obeisance. He was not used to dealing with other worldly figures, and was awe-
stricken. All this was outside of his experience. And he wanted to win Samuel over.
15 Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed
me by bringing me up?"
"I am in great distress," Saul said. "The
Philistines are fighting against me, and God has
79

80. turned away from me. He no longer answers me,
either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called
on you to tell me what to do."
CLARKE, "Why hast thou disquieted me - The complaint is not directed against
the woman but against Saul. Indeed, her incantations had no influence in the
business, and it does not appear that she had commenced her operations before the
angels had prepared the way of the prophet, and before the prophet himself had
made his appearance.
That thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do - In his former difficulties,
and when pressed by his enemies, he was in the habit of consulting Samuel; and now
he applies to him as his former preceptor. God, he knew, might answer by such a
man as Samuel, when he would answer by no other means.
GILL, "And Samuel said to Saul, why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up?....
This makes it a clear case that this was not the true Samuel; his soul was at rest in
Abraham's bosom, in the state of bliss and happiness in heaven, and it was not in
the power of men and devils to disquiet it; nor would he have talked of his being
brought up, but rather of his coming down, had it been really he; much less would
he have acknowledged that he was brought up by Saul, by means of a witch, and
through the help of the devil:
and Saul answered, I am sore distressed; in mind, being in great straits and
difficulties, pressed hard upon by men, and forsaken of God, as follows:
for the Philistines make war against me; so they had many times, and he had been
victorious, and had no reason to be so much distressed, if that was all: but he adds:
and God is departed from me: and therefore he feared he should be left to fall into
their hands; and that he had forsaken him he concluded from hence,
and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: See Gill on 1Sa_
28:6; he makes no mention of Urim, either because they were not with him to
inquire by, being carried away by Abiathar when he fled to David, 1Sa_23:9; or, as
the Jews say (h), through shame, he said nothing of the Urim before Samuel, as he
took this appearance to be, because he had slain the priests at Nob, and because of
this shame, they say, his sin was forgiven him:
80

81. therefore have I called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do;
which was downright madness and folly to imagine, that since God had forsaken
him, and would give him no answer, that a prophet of his should take his part; or
when he could get no answer from a prophet of God on earth, that he could expect
an agreeable one from one fetched down from heaven: one would be tempted to
think that he himself believed it was the devil he was talking to, and whom he had
called for under the name of Samuel, and expected to see; for from whom else could
he expect advice, when he was forsaken of God, and his prophets?
HENRY, "We have here the conference between Saul and Satan. Saul came in
disguise (1Sa_28:8), but Satan soon discovered him, 1Sa_28:12. Satan comes in
disguise, in the disguise of Samuel's mantle, and Saul cannot discover him. Such is
the disadvantage we labour under, in wrestling with the rulers of the darkness of this
world, that they know us, while we are ignorant of their wiles and devices.
I. The spectre, or apparition, personating Samuel, asks why he is sent for (1Sa_
28:15): Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up? To us this discovers that it was
an evil spirit that personated Samuel; for (as bishop Patrick observes) it is not in the
power of witches to disturb the rest of good men and to bring them back into the
world when they please; nor would the true Samuel have acknowledged such a
power in magical arts: but to Saul this was a proper device of Satan's, to draw
veneration from him, to possess him with an opinion of the power of divination, and
so to rivet him in the devil's interests.
II. Saul makes his complaint to this counterfeit Samuel, mistaking him for the
true; and a most doleful complaint it is: “I am sorely distressed, and know not what
to do, for the Philistines make war against me; yet I should do well enough with them
if I had but the tokens of God's presence with me; but, alas! God has departed from
me.” He complained not of God's withdrawings till he fell into trouble, till the
Philistines made war against him, and then he began to lament God's departure. He
that in his prosperity enquired not after God in his adversity thought it hard that
God answered him not, nor took any notice of his enquiries, either by dreams or
prophets, neither gave answers immediately himself nor sent them by any of his
messengers. He does not, like a penitent, own the righteousness of God in this; but,
like a man enraged, flies out against God as unkind and flies off from him:
Therefore I have called thee; as if Samuel, a servant of God, would favour those
whom God frowned upon, or as if a dead prophet could do him more service than
the living ones. One would think, from this, that he really desired to meet with the
devil, and expected no other (though under the covert of Samuel's name), for he
desires advice otherwise than from God, therefore from the devil, who is a rival with
God. “God denies me, therefore I come to thee. Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta
movebo.” - If I fail with heaven, I will move hell.
K&D, "1Sa_28:15-17
Then Samuel said, “Why hast thou disturbed me (sc., from my rest in Hades; cf.
81

82. Isa_14:9), to bring me up?” It follows, no doubt, from this that Samuel had been
disturbed from his rest by Saul; but whether this had been effected by the conjuring
arts of the witch, or by a miracle of God himself, is left undecided. Saul replied, “I
am sore oppressed, for the Philistines fight against me, and God has departed from me,
and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams; then I had thee called (on
the intensified form ‫ה‬ ֶ‫א‬ ָ‫ר‬ְ‫ק‬ ֶ‫ָא‬‫ו‬, vid., Ewald, §228, c.), to make known to me what I am to
do.” The omission of any reference to the Urim is probably to be interpreted very
simply from the brevity of the account, and not from the fact that Saul shrank from
speaking about the oracle of the high priest, on account of the massacre of the
priests which had taken place by his command. There is a contradiction, however,
in Saul's reply: for if God had forsaken him, he could not expect any answer from
Him; and if God did not reply to his inquiry through the regularly appointed media
of His revelation, how could he hope to obtain any divine revelation through the
help of a witch? “When living prophets gave no answer, he thought that a dead one
might be called up, as if a dead one were less dependent upon God than the living,
or that, even in opposition to the will of God, he might reply through the arts of a
conjuring woman. Truly, if he perceived that God was hostile to him, he ought to
have been all the more afraid, lest His enmity should be increased by his breach of
His laws. But fear and superstition never reason” (Clericus). Samuel points out this
contradiction (1Sa_28:16): “Why dost thou ask me, since Jehovah hath departed from
thee, and is become thine enemy?” The meaning is: How canst thou expect an answer
under these circumstances from me, the prophet of Jehovah? ֶ‫ר‬ָ‫,ﬠ‬ from ‫ר‬ָ‫,ﬠ‬ signifies
an enemy here (from ‫יר‬ ִ‫,ﬠ‬ fervour); and this meaning is confirmed by Psa_139:20
and Dan_4:16 (Chald.). There is all the less ground for any critical objection to the
reading, as the Chaldee and Vulgate give a periphrastic rendering of “enemy,”
whilst the lxx, Syr., and Arab. have merely paraphrased according to conjectures.
Samuel then announced his fate (1Sa_28:17-19): “Jehovah hath performed for
himself, as He spake by me (‫ו‬ , for himself, which the lxx and Vulg. have arbitrarily
altered into ְ‫,ל‬ σοί, tibi (to thee), is correctly explained by Seb. Schmidt, 'according
to His grace, or to fulfil and prove His truth'); and Jehovah hath rent the kingdom
out of thy hand, and given it to thy neighbour David.” The perfects express the
purpose of God, which had already been formed, and was now about to be fulfilled.
PULPIT, "1Sa_28:15, 1Sa_28:16
Why hast thou disquieted me? I.e. Why hast thou caused me to be disturbed by the
incantations of this woman? Neither by prophets nor by dreams. It is suggested in
the Talmud (Berach 1Sa_12:2) that Saul omitted all mention of the Urim from
shame at having murdered the priests. Is become thine enemy. By a slight difference
of reading the Septuagint have, "is on the side of thy neighbour."
SBC, "We have before us here a picture of a God-deserted man; one who has in
former times had plenteous advantage and revelation, but who has forsaken God
until God has forsaken him in turn, and who is now joined to his idols, seared
against the penitent desire; one who presents that most appalling of all wrecks of
ruin—a human soul consciously severed from the sympathy, and bereft of the
82

83. favour, of the Divine.
I. There is illustrated here the accelerating progress of evil. From the monarch on
the eve of the battle of Jabesh-Gilead, to the monarch on the eve of the battle of
Gilboa, what a fearful fall! Saul had suffered, because Saul had sinned. In his
elevation he had forgotten God. Pride had stolen away his heart; he had been guilty
of repeated and flagrant disobedience, and it is an easy descent to perdition when
the bias of the nature is seconded by the strenuous endeavours of the will.
II. To every sinner there will come his moment of need. The worldling may prolong
his revelry and accumulate his gain, but the hour will come when he will discover
that the world is a cheat and that riches cannot always profit. Your hour of need
may be nearer than you think. God’s mercy may still delay it, but it will come—the
hour of trial, when sorrow breaks upon sorrow, like billows upon a desolate strand.
Flee to the ever-willing Saviour now and you shall have no need to work some foul
enchantment in order to wring direction from the sheeted dead.
III. This subject illustrates the terrible power of conscience. Saul’s greatest enemy
was within—the wounded spirit, a more dreaded foe than all the Philistine armies;
the dogs of remorse more furious than the dogs of war. And so it always is with the
sinner. Christ alone can still the tempest with a word, whether it rage upon a Lake
of Galilee or surge and swell on a poor sinner’s soul.
W. MORLEY Punshon, Sermons, p. 35.
I. We, in this world, are in a state of probation. (1) We are placed amongst a
multitude of outward things which perpetually force us to choose whether we will
act in this way or in that; and every one of these choices must agree with the holy
and perfect will of God, or else be opposed to it. (2) The especial trial of us
Christians consists in our being placed amongst these temptations under the
personal influence of God the Holy Ghost, so that in every such distinct act of choice
there is either a direct yielding, or a direct opposition to His secret suggestions.
II. The necessary consequences of every act of resistance to the Holy Spirit must, by
a twofold process, carry us on towards final impenitence. For (1) by our moral
constitution, the breaking through any restraint from evil, or the resisting any
suggestion of good, carries us by an inevitable reaction somewhat farther than we
were before in the opposite direction. (2) By resisting the Holy Spirit we cause Him
to withdraw from us those influences for good in which is alone for us the spring
and possibility of amendment. As a necessary consequence of such a withdrawal the
progress of the forsaken soul towards final hardness is inevitable.
III. These, then, are the lessons from this fearful subject. (1) That we strive
diligently to maintain such a temper of watchful observance for the motions of the
Blessed Spirit as that we may never unawares resist or neglect any of His lightest
intimations. (2) Let us learn not to trifle with any sin. (3) If through our exceeding
feebleness we have fallen, let us learn to look straight to the cross of Christ and
strive diligently in His strength to arise again.
83

84. S. Wilberforce, University Sermons, p. 222.
BENSON, "1 Samuel 28:15. Why hast thou disquieted me? — “Houbigant observes
very justly, that Samuel complains not of the woman, but of Saul, for disquieting
him; from whence it follows that Samuel was not raised up by her magic arts, but by
the will of God. Samuel’s disquiet plainly arose from Saul’s hardened impenitence.
It was this that grieved and provoked him; and so it should be translated; Why hast
thou provoked me, to make me rise up? Why dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is
departed from thee? But is it probable, say some, that God, who had refused to
answer Saul by all the accustomed methods, would, as it were, submit himself to the
superstition of this prince, and, to satisfy him, raise up Samuel to apprize him of his
destiny? We answer, 1st, That Saul had not consulted God either by Urim or by
prophets; for the Urim was with David; and there was probably no prophet then
alive to whom God communicated himself either by vision or in any other way; and
that in the methods he had employed he had conducted himself hypocritically and
without any right impression of religion. 2d, We answer, that Saul, in danger, and
anxious about the event of it, applies to a pythoness to assist him by her
incantations, and to call up the spirit of Samuel; but before she begins one word of
her spells or charms the prophet interposes, frightens her, and pronounces Saul’s
doom; and she herself witnesses the truth of his appearance. If the thing is singular,
if the event is extraordinary, it does not follow that it is false, much less that it is
impossible. God is not so tied down to his own institutions that he cannot at any time
depart from them. That God should manifest himself by his prophets, to encourage
or countenance what he himself had forbidden, is indeed very unlikely, or, to speak
more justly, very absurd to suppose. But that he should interpose to reprove that
practice, which was the case at present, is doubtless no way incredible or
improbable.” — Delaney and Dodd.
Saul answered and said, I am sore distressed, &c. — Finding that God would give
no answer to him, and being almost in despair, he seems to have foolishly flattered
himself that he might be able to obtain some answer to his petitions by means of that
holy prophet, whom he knew to have had a sincere regard for him in his life-time.
But the prophet, in his answer in the next verse, gives him to know how incapable he
was of doing him any service, seeing that the Lord was departed from him and
become his enemy. From hence we may see the vanity and absurdity of invoking
saints, &c., as their intercession can no way avail us, when by our wickedness we
have made God our enemy. One would think this reply of Samuel would be
sufficient to convince any Christian of the folly of any such application. Therefore I
have called thee, &c. — Happy had it been for him if he had called Samuel sooner,
or, rather, the God of Samuel. It was now too late; destruction was at hand, and
God had determined it should not be stayed.
ELLICOTT, " (15) And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring
84

85. me up?—Erd-manu, in Lange, argues from this that the incantation of the witch of
En-dor had brought about the result, viz., the calling up of the shade of Samuel, and
that hence the appearance of the prophet was not due to the command of God. Keil,
however, rightly concludes that these words by themselves do not decide the
question as to what power called up the “spirit.” They simply assert that Samuel
had been disturbed from his rest by Saul, and ask the reason why. In the
Babylonian Talmud there is a remarkable comment on these words of the shade of
the departed prophet. “Rabbi Elazar said, when he read this Scripture text, ‘Why
hast thou disquieted me?’ If Samuel the righteous was afraid of the Judgment (to
which he thought he was summoned when thus called up), how much more ought we
to be afraid of the Judgment? And whence do we infer that Samuel was afraid?
Because it is written, ‘And the woman said unto Saul, I saw mighty ones [or perhaps
judges]—Elohim—ascending out of the earth: olim, ascending (a plural form),
implies at least two, and one of them was Samuel; who, then, was the other? Samuel
went and brought Moses with him, and said unto him, ‘Peradventure I am
summoned to Judgment-God forbid! O stand thou by me; lo! there is not a thing
which is written in thy Law that I have not fulfilled.”—Treatise Chaggigah, fol. 4, b.
I am sore distressed.—“O, the wild wail of this dark misery! There is a deep pathos
and a weird awesomeness in this despairing cry, but there is no confession of sin, no
beseeching for mercy—nothing but the overmastering ambition to preserve
himself.”—Dr. W. M. Taylor, of New York: “David.”
For the gallant warrior Saul thus to despair was indeed strange, but his gloomy
foreboding before the fatal field of Gilboa, where he was to lose his crown and life,
were sadly verified by the sequel. Shakespeare thus describes Richard III. heavy
and spiritless, with an unknown dread, before the fatal Bosworth field:—
“I have not that alacrity of spirit
Nor cheer of mind that I was went to have.”
King Richard III.
So Macbeth is full of a restless, shapeless terror at Dunsinane before the battle:—
“There is no flying hence, no tarrying here;
85

86. I ‘gin to be aweary of the sun.”—Macbeth.
Neither by prophets, nor by dreams.—Why does Saul omit to mention here the
silence of the “Urim,” especially mentioned in 1 Samuel 27:6, and which seems also
in these days to have been the more usual way of enquiry after the will of the
Eternal King; of Israel? The Talmud, treatise Berachoth, xii. 2, gives the probable
answer. Saul knew the Urim was no longer in his kingdom. It had been worn by one
whom he had foully murdered—Ahimelech, the high priest. Deep shame at the
thought of the massacre of Ahimelech, and afterwards of the priests at Nob, stayed
him from uttering the word “Urim” before Samuel.
Therefore I have called thee.—The Hebrew word here is a very unusual form, which
apparently was used to strengthen the original idea, “I have had thee called “; in
other words, “Hence this pressing urgent call to thee from thy rest.”
WHEDON, "Verse 15
15. Samuel said to Saul — Did, then, Samuel actually speak? We understand that as
the witch did all the seeing for Saul, so also she did all the speaking to him. She was
the medium both of sight and sound. The Septuagint version calls her a
ventriloquist; and she may have caused her voice to sound from some dark corner,
so that Saul and his attendants believed it to be the voice of Samuel. But it is not
necessary to suppose this. Any one who sought unto the dead in this way, even
though he saw and heard the necromancer utter the words with her own lips, if he
believed that the communication came from the person sought, would naturally
speak of it in this way. So when Saul’s servants afterwards reported this affair, they
would naturally say, “Samuel said to Saul,” not “the woman said;” for though they
may have known that the woman was the medium of the sound, they doubtless
believed that the communication itself came from Samuel.
It should here be observed how perfectly noncommittal the sacred historian is in
recording this mysterious transaction. He records the whole matter precisely as it
was reported by the two eye-witnesses, and these witnesses reported it precisely as it
appeared to them. They believed that Samuel had spoken to their king; but the
sacred historian expresses no opinion in the case. He may have believed their report,
as they did, but he does not say so. And it is noticeable that none of the sacred
writers commit themselves to any explanation of the mysteries which they record.
The magicians of Egypt are represented as working actual miracles in opposition to
Moses; but no attempt is made to explain the nature of those miracles. So here the
sacred writer records a mysterious event just as it was currently reported and
believed, but attempts no explanation.
86

87. Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up — This utterance is unworthy of a
holy prophet sent on a mission of God from heaven. He charges Saul with forcing
him up from the grave against his will. The common interpretation affirms that
Samuel rose from the dead by special permission and express command of God; but
how absurd, in the light of Christian truth, to imagine the sainted Samuel coming
thus from the world of spirits, and angrily complaining to Saul that he had
disturbed him! Can it be aught but a pleasure for any of the saints in light to obey
Jehovah’s orders? Or, if the order involve a painful duty, would it not be rebellion
for the servant to complain? The words are rationally explicable only when
regarded as a device of the witch to awe and terrify the soul of the king. They
strongly savour of witchcraft.
COFFMAN, "SAUL VISITED THE WITCH OF ENDOR
"So Saul disguised himself and put on other garments, and went, he and two men
with him; and they came to the woman by night. And he said, "Divine for me by a
spirit, and bring up for me whomever I shall name to you." The woman said to him,
"Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the
wizards from the land. Why then are you laying a snare for my life to bring about
my death"? But Saul swore to her by the Lord, "As the Lord lives, no punishment
shall come upon you for this thing." Then the woman said, "Whom shall I bring up
for you"? He said, "Bring up Samuel for me." When the woman saw Samuel, she
cried out with a loud voice; and the woman said to Saul, "Why have you deceived
me? You are Saul.." The king said to her, "Have no fear; what do you see"? And
the woman said to Saul, "I see a god coming up out of the earth." He said to her,
"What is his appearance"? "An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped in a
robe." And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground,
and did obeisance."
"They went ... and came to the woman by night" (1 Samuel 28:8). "This was a
perilous journey of some seven or eight miles from Saul's camp at Gilboa to Endor,
and it involved skirting the Philistine encampment."[11]
"There is something unutterably pathetic in this yearning of the disanointed king to
exchange words with the friend and counselor of his youth, perhaps thinking that if
he was destined to hear the words of his doom, he would prefer to hear them from
no other except Samuel."[12]
"When the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice ... Why have you
deceived me? ... You are Saul" (1 Samuel 28:12). Did the witch of Endor actually see
87

88. Samuel? If she could see Samuel, why could not Saul also have seen him? Had she
indeed failed to recognize Saul, the tallest man in all Israel? What was the reason
for that cry with a loud voice? Had the prophet Samuel actually appeared, much to
her surprise, thus causing her to scream out in terror? What is the sense in
supposing that her allegedly "seeing" Samuel had revealed to her the identity of
Saul? These are only a few of the very difficult questions that rise as one
contemplates what is here said. Is there any way that the possible meaning of the
clause, "When the woman saw Samuel" might actually be, "When the woman
pretended to see Samuel"? Note also that the ancient versions render the words of 1
Samuel 28:13 with the plural for "gods," "I saw gods ascending out of the earth."
What, if anything, did she actually see?
If she actually saw him, was Samuel brought back from the dead by God Himself?.
Or, is it possible to suppose that a wicked persons such as the witch, called in
Deuteronomy 10:12 "an abomination to the Lord," could indeed have had the
power to bring back from the dead one of the righteous prophets of God. The
discovery of the truth about what is written here depends upon the manner in which
a number of these questions are answered.
Before attempting to give an answer to what this writer considers one of the most
difficult problems in the entire Bible, we shall consult some of the things that able
men of other generations have said about it.
As for the witch's pretending not to recognize Saul, R. P. Smith noted that, "When
she saw the tallest man in all Israel and heard him request that she bring up
Samuel, she must have been dull indeed not to know who her visitor was."[13]
Keil has this: "It was not at the call of the idolatrous king, nor at the command of
the abominable witch, nor was it merely by divine permission. No! It was by the
special command of God that Samuel left his grave."[14]
Fred Young pointed out that: "The view of the ancient rabbis was that the spirit of
Samuel actually appeared, a view supported by the Septuagint (LXX) rendition of 1
Chronicles 10:13b, "And Samuel the prophet made answer to him." and by Sirach
46:20. The same view was held by Augustine, Origin and Justin Martyr."[15]
However, these last named scholars were wrong about many things, especially
Justin Martyr in his views regarding the millennium; and, although Martyr did
write that, "The soul of Samuel was called up by the witch as Saul demanded,"[16]
he was not addressing the questions which we raise here but was making an
argument that men have a soul that survives after the death of the body.
88

89. Methodius, another of the Ante-Nicene Fathers also wrote that, "When Samuel
appeared, it is clear that, being seen, he was clothed with a body."[17] He also was
using the passage as light upon the question of the type of body that will be raised
from the dead.
Others of the Ante-Nicene Fathers did not hesitate to label this alleged appearance
of Samuel as a cleverly contrived fraud. For example, Tertullian discussed the
episode as follows:
"In the extravagant pretensions of their art, the ancient ventriloquistic spirits
even claimed to represent the soul of Samuel, when Saul consulted the dead after
losing the living God. They can do so under cover of a lying wonder (2
Thessalonians 2:9). God forbid, however, that we should suppose that any saint,
much less the soul of a prophet, can be dragged out of its resting place in Hades by a
demon. We know that Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light (2
Corinthians 11:14) - much more into a man of light - and that at last he (Satan) will
show himself to be even God (2 Thessalonians 2:4) On the aforementioned occasion,
Satan affirmed himself to be a prophet of God, and especially to Saul, in whom he
was then actually dwelling.
"You must not believe that he who produced the phantom was one, and that he
who consulted it was another. No! It was one and the same spirit both in the
sorceress and the apostate king which easily pretended an apparition of that which
it (the spirit of Satan) had already prepared them to believe as real.
"Furthermore, Our Lord himself has established in the person of his
representative Abraham (Luke 16:26) the fact that Hades is not in any case opened
for the escape of souls therein. Because of this fact, it must never be supposed that
there could be any relaxation of that rule to honor the arrogant pretensions of a
sorceress."[18]SIZE>
Hippolytus also took the same view of this event as did Tertullian. He wrote:
"The question is raised, whether Samuel rose by the hand of the sorceress or
not. And if, indeed, we should allow that he did rise, we should be propounding
what is false. How could a demon call back the soul of anyone whomsoever? The
woman said she saw Samuel, but she also said she saw gods ascending out of the
earth! Extraordinary vision!"[19]
89

90. In spite of all this, some raise the question that, "If this episode was the work of
the devil, how could there have been a prophecy that Saul would die on the morrow,
which came true exactly as foretold"? Hippolytus noted in regard to this that, "The
prophecy of the demon regarding Saul's death was in error, affirming that it would
be `on the morrow,' when, as a matter of fact, it occurred a day later than the
prophecy indicated"![20] From this, it appears that the widespread opinion among
present-day commentators that this chapter is misplaced because it belongs just
prior to 1 Samuel 31 is erroneous. This chapter occurs exactly where it belongs in
the Book of First Samuel. The International Critical Commentary makes that clear
enough. "It is unfortunate that (some) would displace this section, ranging it
between 1Sam. 30,1 Samuel 31 ... We have no evidence that, as a part of the Books
of Samuel, it ever occupied any but its Masoretic position."[21] Thus, it must be
accepted as a fact that the "alleged prophecy" of Saul's death, "tomorrow" was an
error, because it did not happen on the morrow. Therefore, it was not Samuel who
uttered that "prophecy" it was an emissary of Satan.
The view that Samuel did indeed appear at the direct commandment of God, as
alleged by Keil and many other able scholars has been widely supported for ages by
many scholars and theologians; and we respect that view, confessing at the same
time that it might indeed be correct. Willis, for example, noted that, "Possibly the
witch did not expect any spirit to appear, but when the Lord caused Samuel to
appear, she became frightened, because nothing like that had ever happened
before."[22] The most important factor supporting this interpretation was cited by
Payne, "The narrative strongly suggests that it really was Samuel who appeared,
and not a mere apparition or hallucination. The foreknowledge of statements
attributed to him also stamp him as genuinely Samuel."[23] (However, it should be
remembered, as noted above, that the `foreknowledge' mentioned here by Payne
was false.)
Nevertheless, this writer is unable to reconcile that understanding of the passage
with the fact of the consummate wickedness of both the witch and Saul. Where is
there anything in the Bible that supports the notion that God would have raised a
prophet from the dead to speak to such people, especially since they had never
manifested the slightest regard for the word of God through his prophets? While
confessing that there are ample objections to any view of the passage that may be
advocated, the conviction that prevails with this writer favors the view that sees the
whole episode as one loaded with fraud and deception.
COKE, "1 Samuel 28:15. Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me—
Houbigant observes very justly, that Samuel complains not of the woman, but of
Saul, for disquieting him; whence it appears clear, that Samuel was not raised up by
90

91. her magic arts, but by the will of God. Samuel's disquiet plainly arose from Saul's
hardened impenitence in the way of religion. It was this that grieved and provoked
him; and so it should be translated: Why hast thou provoked me, to make me rise
up?—Why dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee? But is it
probable, say some, that God, who had refused to answer Saul by all the accustomed
methods, would, to satisfy him, raise up Samuel to apprize him of his destiny? We
answer, I. That Saul had not consulted God by Urim, or by prophets; for the Urim
was with David; and there was probably no prophet then alive, to whom God
communicated himself either by vision, or by his prophet; and that in the methods
which he had employed, he had conducted himself hypocritically, and without any
right impression of religion. II. We answer, that Saul, in danger, and anxious about
the event of it, applies to a Pythoness, to assist him by her incantations, and to call
up the spirit of Samuel; but before she articulates one word of her spells or charms,
the prophet interposes, frightens her, and pronounces Saul's doom; and she herself
witnesses the truth of his appearance. God is not so tied down to his own
institutions, that he cannot at any time depart from them. That God should manifest
himself by his prophets, to encourage or countenance what he himself had
forbidden, is indeed very unlikely, or, to speak more justly, very absurd to suppose.
But that he should interpose to reprove that practice, is perfectly compatible with all
our ideas of his perfections.
PETT, "1 Samuel 28:15
‘And Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disquieted me, to bring me up?” And
Saul answered, “I am sore distressed, for the Philistines make war against me, and
God is departed from me, and answers me no more, neither by prophets, nor by
dreams, therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I shall
do.” ’
Samuel’s words that follow will now reveal that there was something genuine about
the situation. It is clear that God had so arranged it in order that He could speak to
Saul through Samuel, rather than through the woman’s familiar spirit. He wanted
the lesson to come home.
Samuel’s first words were a word of rebuke. Samuel had been at peace. Why then
had Saul disturbed him by bringing him up? It is one of the rare hints in the Old
Testament that the truly godly who die are at peace.
Saul’s reply was that it was because he himself was not at peace. Indeed he was sore
distressed, because the Philistines had arrived in massive force to make war ‘against
him’. We immediately note the difference between Saul’s words here and those of
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92. David in 17:26, 36, 45. David had been offended because YHWH had been offended.
Saul simply took it personally. It emphasises the difference in outlook of the two
men.
Saul then explained that ‘God’ had departed from him. The use of God instead of
YHWH illustrated the fact that Saul was far from YHWH. Possibly it also hinted at
the fact that instead of Elohim he must make do with ‘one of the elohim’. And he
then went on to point out that the result was that he could obtain no answer from
Him, neither through prophets or dreams. Compare verse 6. He omitted mention of
the Urim, but possibly he felt that to say that the Urim had also indicated ‘no
answer’ was too damning against him. That then was why he had called on Samuel
so that he could make known to him what he was to do. (Saul appears to have no
sense of shame in having called on Samuel in this way. He was probably exultant
that it had worked. It is a further indication of his religious shallowness in what was
a very religious age).
GUZIK, "Samuel speaks to Saul.
1. (1Sa_28:15-18) Samuel tells King Saul why the LORD will not speak to him.
Now Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?”
And Saul answered, “I am deeply distressed; for the Philistines make war
against me, and God has departed from me and does not answer me anymore,
neither by prophets nor by dreams. Therefore I have called you, that you may
reveal to me what I should do.” Then Samuel said: “Why then do you ask me,
seeing the LORD has departed from you and has become your enemy? And the
LORD has done for Himself as He spoke by me. For the LORD has torn the
kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. Because you did
not obey the voice of the LORD nor execute His fierce wrath upon Amalek,
therefore the LORD has done this thing to you this day.
a. Why have you disturbed me? Samuel’s words would be in the mouth of
anyone who had left the place of comfort and blessing in the world beyond to
come back to the earth. Samuel would rather be back where he was!
i. This is an indication to us of the reality of the world beyond. Though he
passed from this world, Samuel was in a real place, living a real existence.
We need to live every day with the understanding of the reality of
eternity, of the world beyond. Much of this life will only make sense in
light of the world to come.
ii. Properly speaking, Samuel was not in heaven. Jesus explained in the
story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luk_16:19-31) that before the
finished work of Jesus on the cross, the believing dead went to a place of
comfort and blessing known as Abraham’s bosom. When Jesus finished
his work on the cross, the sin’s penalty was paid for these believing dead,
92

93. and they were then ushered into heaven.
b. I am deeply distressed: Saul explains his problem to Samuel. First, the
Philistines make war against me. But far worse than that is the fact that Saul
knows that God has departed from me and does not answer me any more.
Saul then reveals why he called for Samuel: that you may reveal to me what I
should do.
i. God has departed from me: “God never departs from a man until the
man has departed from Him. Then, in the interests of righteousness, God
is against that man.” (Morgan)
ii. What I should do: “Saul is asking for guidance when his course of
action is obvious: he has to fight the Philistines. What he really wants is
reassurance that all will be well and that he will win the battle.”
(Baldwin)
iii. Strangely, though Saul knew that God would not speak to him in any
other way, or through any of the other prophets, he thought that
somehow or some way the godly prophet Samuel, conjured by a medium,
would speak wisdom to him! Even more strangely, Samuel will!
c. What does Samuel say to Saul? Why do you ask me, seeing the LORD has
departed from you and has become your enemy? This is a very logical
question for Samuel to ask. Samuel was on the LORD’s side, so if the LORD
wouldn’t tell Saul what he wanted, he didn’t have any reason to believe that
Samuel would.
i. Perhaps Saul kept seeking, hoping that that the news would get better,
but it never does!
d. As He spoke by me . . . the voice of the LORD: Essentially, Samuel
confirms what God had already said to Saul. The message of the LORD to
Saul is disturbingly consistent; no matter which strange way God chooses to
bring the message.
i. The test for any “spirit encounter” or “angelic revelation” is its
faithfulness to the Biblical message. It doesn’t matter what kind of
impressive encounter one has with a spiritual being; even if an angel from
heaven (or Samuel himself!) preach any other gospel to you . . . let him be
accursed (Gal_1:8).
e. Because you did not . . . execute His fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore
the LORD has done this thing to you this day: Samuel calls Saul’s mind back
to the events recorded in 1Sa_15:1-35. In that chapter, Samuel told Saul “The
LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a
neighbor of yours, who is better than you . . . For He is not a man, that He
should relent” (1Sa_15:28-29). Apparently, in the fifteen or so years since the
events of 1Sa_15:1-35, Saul thought that perhaps the LORD had changed His
mind! Samuel came to tell Saul that the LORD had not changed His mind at
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94. all.
i. Samuel makes this point exactly when he quotes from the 1Sa_15:28-29
passage with these words: For the LORD has torn the kingdom out of
your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. God’s word to Saul
didn’t change at all from the time He first said it until the time it would
be fulfilled. Perhaps Saul thought that time would change God’s mind;
but time never changes God’s mind. Our repentance and genuine
brokenness may change God’s mind, but never time.
ii. When the medium saw Samuel, she said he was covered with a mantle.
The mantle was probably Samuel’s robe, which would have identified
him as both a prophet and a priest. In 1Sa_15:27, when Samuel
announced that God would take the kingdom away from Saul, Saul
grabbed Samuel’s robe in desperation. The Hebrew word used for robe in
1Sa_15:27 (meheel) is the same word used for mantle in 1Sa_28:14. It is
likely that when Samuel appeared before the medium and Saul, he wore
in this same torn robe to remind Saul that the LORD has torn the
kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David.
16 Samuel said, "Why do you consult me, now
that the LORD has turned away from you and
become your enemy?
CLARKE, "Wherefore then dost thou ask of me - Was ever I wont to give
answers that were not dictated by the Lord? It is his counsel alone that I
communicate.
GILL, "Then said Samuel, wherefore then dost thou, ask of me,.... Whom thou
knowest to have been a prophet of the Lord, and therefore can say nothing more or
less than what comes from him, and is according to his will, if anything at all; the
"devil" representing Samuel, whom Saul had called for, and reasons in such
language as might be thought to be his own, though sometimes he betrays himself:
seeing the Lord is departed from thee; as Saul himself owned: to which he adds:
94

95. and is become thine enemy; to make his case appear still more desperate; for his
whole view is to lead him to despair, which shows what sort of spirit he was: though
some understand this as spoken of David, and read the words, and "he is with thine
enemy" (i); is on his side, and favours his cause; so the Targum,"and he is for the
help of a man, whose enmity thou sharest in;''or who is at enmity with thee,
meaning David; but now the true Samuel would never have said this, or suggested
it, that David was an enemy to Saul, for he was not.
HENRY, "It is cold comfort which this evil spirit in Samuel's mantle gives to Saul,
and is manifestly intended to drive him to despair and self-murder. Had it been the
true Samuel, when Saul desired to be told what he should do he would have told him
to repent and make his peace with God, and recall David from his banishment, and
would then have told him that he might hope in this way to find mercy with God;
but, instead of that, he represents his case as helpless and hopeless, serving him as
he did Judas, to whom he was first a tempter and then a tormentor, persuading him
first to sell his master and then to hang himself. 1. He upbraids him with his present
distress (1Sa_28:16), tells him, not only that God had departed from him, but that
he had become his enemy, and therefore he must expect no comfortable answer
from him: “Wherefore dost thou ask me? How can I be thy friend when God is thy
enemy, or thy counsellor when he has left thee?”
ELLICOTT, "(16) Seeing the Lord is departed from thee.—In other words, If
Jehovah have left thee, why comest thou to consult me, His servant and prophet?
The Hebrew word here translated “enemy” is only found in Psalms 139:20 and has
been assumed to be an Aramaic form—ain for tsadde. There are, however, no other
Aramaic forms in this book, which is written in pure “classical” Hebrew. The letter
ain, or the first letter in the text here, through a very slight error of the copyist,
could easily have been altered from tsadde, the first letter of the usual word for
“enemy.” The LXX. and Vulg. Versions apparently had another reading before
them, for they translate the last clause of the verse, “and is with thy neighbours.”
WHEDON "16. Wherefore then dost thou ask of me — It required no prophet from
heaven to suggest this question to the God-forsaken king, and if we regard it as any
thing more than another device of the woman to increase Saul’s terror and impose
upon him, we involve ourselves in the absurdity of supposing that after Jehovah had
in his law condemned all seeking unto necromancers, and after he had refused to
answer the king by urim and by prophets, he nevertheless disturbed a holy prophet
from his rest in heaven, and suffered him to rise from the dead, apparently as if
forced up against his will by the arts of witchcraft!
17 The LORD has done what he predicted
through me. The LORD has torn the kingdom out
95

96. of your hands and given it to one of your
neighbors—to David.
BARNES, "To him - Better, “for Himself,” as in the margin.
CLARKE, "The Lord hath done to him - I believe these words are spoken of Saul;
and as they are spoken to him, it seems evident that him should be thee. The Vulgate
has tibi, the Septuagint σοι, to Thee: and this is the reading of five of Kennicott’s
and De Rossi’s MSS., as well as of both the Bibles printed at Venice in 1518, where
we read ‫לך‬ lecha, to Thee, instead of ‫לו‬ lo, to Him.
As he spake by me - Here was no illusion; none but Samuel could say this.
GILL, "And the Lord hath done to him,.... To David, Saul's enemy, as he insinuated
he was:
as he spake by me; pretending to be the true Samuel, and wearing the guise of him,
he speaks his very words, which he was well acquainted with, and could deliver
exactly as he did:
for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour;
which words are expressed by Samuel, 1Sa_15:28,
even unto David; which is added by the apparition, by way of explanation,
interpreting the words of David; which he might safely venture to do, seeing such a
train of circumstances had occurred since the delivery of these words, which plainly
made it appear he was intended.
HENRY, "He upbraids him with the anointing of David to the kingdom, 1Sa_28:17.
He could not have touched upon a string that sounded more unpleasant in the ear of
Saul than this. Nothing is said to reconcile him to David, but all tends rather to
exasperate him against David and widen the breach. Yet, to make him believe that
he was Samuel, the apparition affirmed that it was God who spoke by him. The
devil knows how to speak with an air of religion, and can teach false apostles to
transform themselves into the apostles of Christ and imitate their language. Those
who use spells and charms, and plead, in defence of them, that they find nothing in
them but what is good, may remember what good words the devil here spoke, and
yet with what a malicious design.
96

97. PULPIT, "1Sa_28:17-19
Jehovah hath done to him. Rather, "hath wrought for himself;" but the LXX;
Vulgate, and some MSS. read "hath done to thee," as in 1Sa_28:18. As he spake by
me. See 1Sa_15:28. Saul’s rebellion is there said, in 1Sa_15:23, to be a crime as great
as the witchcraft which he was at that time so zealously punishing; here, where the
sentence is being carried into execution, Saul has himself become guilty of what in
his better hours he so abominated. Jehovah will also deliver Israel with thee. Rather,
"will deliver Israel also with thee," i.e. the nation is to share thy punishment.
Tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me. I.e. shall be dead. Whence this voice
came it is difficult to say. St. Augustine thought that the woman really conjured up a
demon, who took the form of Samuel. Maimonides treats the whole as the effect of
Saul’s diseased imagination; while many modern commentators regard it as a well
played piece of jugglery on the part of the woman, who recognised Saul at once on
his entrance, but professed not to know him till his name was revealed to her by the
pretended apparition, in whose name she reproached him for his crimes, announced
to him, what now all were convinced of, that David was to be his successor, and
foretold his defeat and death. In the face of such a passage as Deu_18:10-12 we
cannot believe that the Bible would set before us an instance of witchcraft employed
with the Divine sanction for holy purposes; but we can easily believe that the woman
would gladly take a bitter revenge on the man who had cruelly put to death all
persons reputed to have such powers as those to which she laid claim. The object of
the narrative is plainly to set before us the completeness of Saul’s moral downfall
and debasement. Here is the man endowed with so many and so great gifts of genius,
and who in so many things started so well and behaved so nobly, the victim of a
despairing melancholy; his conscience is blackened with the wholesale massacre of
the priesthood, his imagination is ever brooding over the sick fancy of treason
plotted by his son-in-law, whom now he supposes to be in the Philistine camp; his
enemies have invaded his territory in extraordinary numbers and upon new
ground; to him it seems as if they have come to dethrone him and place his crown on
David’s head. In this dire extremity his one wish is to pry into futurity and learn his
fate. There is no submission to God, no sorrow for disobedience, no sign of even a
wish for amendment; it is to unholy arts that he looks, simply that he may know
what a few more hours will make known to all. Neglecting his duties as a general
and king, instead of making wise preparation for the coming fight, he disguises
himself, takes a dangerous and wearisome journey round the enemies’ camp, arrives
at his destination by night, and, exhausted with hunger and mental agitation, seeks
there for the knowledge unattainable in any upright manner from a reputed witch.
He has rejected God, lost all the strength and comfort of true religion, and is become
the victim of abject superstition. Whether he were the victim also of the woman’s
arts, or of his own sick fantasy, is not a matter of much consequence; the interest of
the narrative lies in the revelation it makes to us of Saul’s mental and moral state;
and scarcely is there in the whole of Scripture anything more tragic than this
narrative, or any more intense picture of the depth of degradation to which a noble
but perverse intellect is capable of falling.
97

98. BENSON, "1 Samuel 28:15. Why hast thou disquieted me? — “Houbigant observes
very justly, that Samuel complains not of the woman, but of Saul, for disquieting
him; from whence it follows that Samuel was not raised up by her magic arts, but by
the will of God. Samuel’s disquiet plainly arose from Saul’s hardened impenitence.
It was this that grieved and provoked him; and so it should be translated; Why hast
thou provoked me, to make me rise up? Why dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is
departed from thee? But is it probable, say some, that God, who had refused to
answer Saul by all the accustomed methods, would, as it were, submit himself to the
superstition of this prince, and, to satisfy him, raise up Samuel to apprize him of his
destiny? We answer, 1st, That Saul had not consulted God either by Urim or by
prophets; for the Urim was with David; and there was probably no prophet then
alive to whom God communicated himself either by vision or in any other way; and
that in the methods he had employed he had conducted himself hypocritically and
without any right impression of religion. 2d, We answer, that Saul, in danger, and
anxious about the event of it, applies to a pythoness to assist him by her
incantations, and to call up the spirit of Samuel; but before she begins one word of
her spells or charms the prophet interposes, frightens her, and pronounces Saul’s
doom; and she herself witnesses the truth of his appearance. If the thing is singular,
if the event is extraordinary, it does not follow that it is false, much less that it is
impossible. God is not so tied down to his own institutions that he cannot at any time
depart from them. That God should manifest himself by his prophets, to encourage
or countenance what he himself had forbidden, is indeed very unlikely, or, to speak
more justly, very absurd to suppose. But that he should interpose to reprove that
practice, which was the case at present, is doubtless no way incredible or
improbable.” — Delaney and Dodd.
Saul answered and said, I am sore distressed, &c. — Finding that God would give
no answer to him, and being almost in despair, he seems to have foolishly flattered
himself that he might be able to obtain some answer to his petitions by means of that
holy prophet, whom he knew to have had a sincere regard for him in his life-time.
But the prophet, in his answer in the next verse, gives him to know how incapable he
was of doing him any service, seeing that the Lord was departed from him and
become his enemy. From hence we may see the vanity and absurdity of invoking
saints, &c., as their intercession can no way avail us, when by our wickedness we
have made God our enemy. One would think this reply of Samuel would be
sufficient to convince any Christian of the folly of any such application. Therefore I
have called thee, &c. — Happy had it been for him if he had called Samuel sooner,
or, rather, the God of Samuel. It was now too late; destruction was at hand, and
God had determined it should not be stayed.
ELLICOTT, " (17) And the Lord hath done to him.—Render, as in margin of the
98

99. English Version, the Lord hath done or performed for Himself. The LXX. and Vulg.
here needlessly change the text into, “the Lord hath done to thee.”
And given it to thy neighbour . . . David.—An evil spirit personating Samuel would
not have spoken thus; he would not have wished to help David, “the man after
God’s own heart,” to the throne of Israel; nor would an evil spirit have spoken in
such solemn terms of the punishment due to rebellion against God.—Bishop
Wordsworth, who argues against the supposition that the shade of Samuel was an
evil spirit.
WHEDON, "16. Wherefore then dost thou ask of me — It required no prophet from
heaven to suggest this question to the God-forsaken king, and if we regard it as any
thing more than another device of the woman to increase Saul’s terror and impose
upon him, we involve ourselves in the absurdity of supposing that after Jehovah had
in his law condemned all seeking unto necromancers, and after he had refused to
answer the king by urim and by prophets, he nevertheless disturbed a holy prophet
from his rest in heaven, and suffered him to rise from the dead, apparently as if
forced up against his will by the arts of witchcraft!
PETT, "1 Samuel 28:17-18
“And YHWH has done to him, as he spoke by me, and YHWH has rent the
kingdom out of your hand, and given it to your compatriot, even to David, because
you did not obey the voice of YHWH, and did not execute his fierce wrath on
Amalek. Therefore has YHWH done this thing to you this day.”
What Saul should recognise was that this situation was the outcome of his earlier
gross sacrilege when he had taken for himself what should have been devoted to
YHWH. As the anointed of YHWH he had failed to obey YHWH in the most sacred
of tasks. YHWH was thus simply doing what He had promised at that time through
Samuel, He was tearing the kingship out of Saul’s hands and giving it to his
compatriot David.
The words ‘to him’ are emphasising the connection with God as Saul’s adversary. It
is as God’s adversary that Saul is rejected. (In other words, ‘And God has done to
God’s adversary as He spoke by me’).
99

100. 18 Because you did not obey the LORD or carry
out his fierce wrath against the Amalekites, the
LORD has done this to you today.
CLARKE, "Nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek - See 1Sa_15:1-9 (note)
and the notes there.
GILL, "Because thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord,.... At Gilgal, as Abarbinel
thinks; which is the first thing for which the kingdom was threatened to be taken
from him, 1Sa_13:13,
nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek: in sparing Agag, and the best of the
cattle, 1Sa_15:9,
therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day; forsaken him, rent his
kingdom from him, and would deliver him into the hands of the Philistines, as
follows: had he been the true Samuel, he would have told him of some other sins of
his, provoking to the Lord; as his slaughter of the priests at Nob, his cruel
persecution of David, and especially of his asking counsel of one that had a familiar
spirit at this time, of which not a word is said, and yet was the very transgression for
which Saul died, 1Ch_10:13.
HENRY, "He upbraids him with his disobedience to the command of God in not
destroying the Amalekites, 1Sa_28:18. Satan had helped him to palliate and excuse
that sin when Samuel was dealing with him to bring him to repentance, but now he
aggravates it, to make him despair of God's mercy. See what those get that hearken
to Satan's temptations. He himself will be their accuser, and insult over them. And
see whom those resemble that allure others to that which is evil and reproach them
for it when they have done.
K&D, "1Sa_28:18-19
The reason for Saul's rejection is then given, as in 1Sa_15:23 : “Because (‫ר‬ ֶ‫שׁ‬ֲ‫א‬ַ‫כּ‬,
100

101. according as) thou ... hast not executed the fierceness of His anger upon Amalek,
therefore hath Jehovah done this thing to thee this day.” “This thing” is the distress of
which Saul had complained, with its consequences. ‫ן‬ ֵ‫תּ‬ִ‫י‬ְ‫,ו‬ that Jehovah may give (= for
He will give) Israel also with thee into the hand of the Philistines. “To-morrow wilt
thou and thy sons be with me (i.e. in Sheol, with the dead); also the camp of Israel will
Jehovah give into the hand of the Philistines,” i.e., give up to them to plunder. The
overthrow of the people was to heighten Saul's misery, when he saw the people
plunged with him into ruin through his sin (O. v. Gerlach). Thus was the last hope
taken from Saul. His day of grace was gone, and judgment was now to burst upon
him without delay.
19 The LORD will hand over both Israel and you
to the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your
sons will be with me. The LORD will also hand
over the army of Israel to the Philistines."
BARNES, "Rather, “will deliver Israel also.” Saul had not only brought ruin
upon his own house but upon Israel also; and when Saul and Jonathan fell the camp
(not “host”) would be plundered by the conquerors 1Sa_31:8; 2Sa_1:10.
CLARKE, "To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me - What an awful
message! In the course of the ensuing day thou shalt be slain, thy three sons shall be
slain, and the armies of Israel shall be delivered into the hands of the Philistines!
Can any person read this, properly considering the situation of this unfortunate
monarch, the triumph of the enemies of God, and the speedy ruin in which the
godlike Jonathan is about to be involved, without feeling the keenest anguish of
heart?
But Samuel says, “He and his sons should be with him.” Does not this mean that
they were to go to paradise? I suppose it means no more than that they should all
die. Yet the paraphrase of the Rev. C. Wesley is beautiful: -
“What do these solemn words portend?
A ray of hope when life shall end.
Thou and thy sons, though slain, shall be
101

102. To-morrow in repose with me.
Not in a state of hellish pain,
If Saul with Samuel do remain:
Not in a state of damn’d despair,
If loving Jonathan be there.”
Saul had committed the sin unto death - the sin to be visited with a violent death,
while tile mercy of God was extended to the soul. Thus say my faith, my hope, and
my charity; and doth not the mercy of God say the same?
GILL, "Moreover, the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hands of the
Philistines,.... Not a word of comfort does he speak unto him, it being the business of
this foul spirit to drive him to despair by the permission of God; had he been the
true Samuel, he would have directed him to have altered his course of life, and
especially his behaviour toward David, and advised him in those difficulties to send
for him, who might have been of singular use unto him; he would have exhorted him
to repentance for his sins, and humiliation before God on account of them, and
given him hope on this that God would appear for him, and work deliverance, as he
had done; but instead of this tells him, that he and his army would be delivered into
the hands of the Philistines, which he might make a shrewd guess at, and venture to
say from the circumstances of things, and the situation Saul and his people were in;
the armies of the Philistines were very numerous, and those of Israel comparatively
weak; Saul was quite dispirited, and God had forsaken him:
and tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me; which if understood in what
sense it may, seems to be a lie of the devil, and at best an ambiguous expression,
such as he has been wont to give in the Heathen oracles; if he meant this of himself
as an evil spirit, it could not be true of Saul and all his sons, that they should be with
him in hell, especially of Jonathan who appears throughout the whole of his life to
have been a good man; if he would have it understood of him as representing
Samuel, and of their being with him in heaven, it must be a great stretch of charity
to believe it true of Saul, so wicked a man, and who died in the act of suicide; though
the Jews (k), some of them, understand it in this sense, that his sins were pardoned,
and he was saved; and if it is taken in the sense of being in the state of the dead, and
in the earth, from whence he is said to ascend, and where the body of Samuel was,
which seems to be the best sense that is put upon the phrase, "with me"; yet this was
not true, if he meant it of all the sons of Saul, as the expression seems to suggest; for
there were Ishbosheth, and his two sons by Rizpah, which survived him; nor was it
true of Saul and his sons that they were cut off, and that they died the next day; for
the battle was not fought till several days after this, see 1Sa_28:23; if it should be
said, that "tomorrow" signifies some future time, and not strictly the next day, this
shows the ambiguity of the expression used, and the insignificance of it to the
present purpose; for who knew not that Saul and his sons would die some time or
another?
102

103. the Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines; which is
only a repetition of what is said in the first clause.
HENRY, "He foretels his approaching ruin, 1Sa_28:19. (1.) That his army should
be routed by the Philistines. This is twice mentioned: The Lord shall deliver Israel
into the hand of the Philistines. This he might foresee, by considering the superior
strength and number of the Philistines, the weakness of the armies of Israel, Saul's
terror, and especially God's departure from them. Yet, to personate a prophet, he
very gravely ascribes it once and again to God: The Lord shall do it. (2.) That he and
his sons should be slain in the battle: Tomorrow, that is, in a little time (and,
supposing that it was now after midnight, I see not but it may be taken strictly for
the very next day after that which had now begun), thou and thy sons shall be with
me, that is, in the state of the dead, separate from the body. Had this been the true
Samuel, he could not have foretold the event unless God had revealed it to him; and,
though it were an evil spirit, God might by him foretel it; as we read of an evil spirit
that foresaw Ahab's fall at Ramoth-Gilead and was instrumental in it (1Ki_22:20,
etc.), as perhaps this evil spirit was, by the divine permission, in Saul's destruction.
That evil spirit flattered Ahab, this frightened Saul, and both that they might fall; so
miserable are those that are under the power of Satan; for, whether he rage or
laugh, there is no rest, Pro_29:9.
BENSON, "1 Samuel 28:19. Moreover, the Lord will also deliver, &c. — Samuel
here predicts three things: 1st, That the Lord would deliver Israel, with Saul, into
the hand of the Philistines. 2d, That Saul and his sons (namely, the three that were
with him in the camp) should be with him, that is, should, like him, be in the state of
the dead, or another world. 3d, That this should take place on the morrow. Now as
no evil spirit or impostor of any kind could possibly know these particulars, which
were all exactly accomplished next day, nor even Samuel himself, unless he had been
divinely inspired with the knowledge of them, it is surprising that any person should
imagine that this appearance of Samuel was either a human or diabolical imposture;
for it is evident it could only proceed from the omniscient God. And if we consider
the whole attentively, we may see a peculiar propriety in it. When Samuel
denounced God’s judgments upon Saul he was clad in a mantle, which Saul tore on
that occasion. He now came to repeat and to ratify the sentence then denounced;
and, to strike him with fuller conviction, he appears in the same dress, the same
mantle, in which he denounced that sentence. And since he now again denounced a
rending of the kingdom from Saul’s posterity, why may we not presume that the
mantle showed now the same rent which was the emblem of that rending? Is it
irrational to suppose that when he spoke of this he held up the mantle and pointed
to the rent? It is well known the prophets were men of much action in their
speaking, and often illustrated their predictions by emblems. It may be observed
further, that although Samuel in his lifetime often reproved Saul for his guilt, and
told him that God had given away his kingdom from him for that guilt; yet he never
told him to whom, nor when the sentence should be executed upon him. How
103

104. proper, then, to raise from the dead the same prophet who predicted that sentence,
to confirm it; to tell him that the kingdom should be taken from him that day; and
to name the very person to whom it should be given; to show by whom, and where,
and how the sentence should be executed; and that the execution of it was instant,
and should be deferred no longer. Was not this an occasion worthy of the divine
interposition? The son of Sirach, who probably had as much wisdom, penetration,
and piety, as any critic that came after him, is clearly of opinion with the sacred
historian, that it was Samuel himself who foretold the fate of Saul and his house in
this interview. And it is no ill presumption that his judgment was also that of the
Jewish Church upon this head. It has been a question with some, whether the Jews
had any belief in the immortality of the soul? This history is a full decision upon
that point, and perhaps the establishment of that truth upon the foot of sensible
evidence, was not the lowest end of Samuel’s appearance upon this occasion. See
Delaney.
COKE, "1 Samuel 28:19. To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me— Samuel
predicts two things. I. That Saul, and his three sons who were with him in the camp,
should be with him; i.e. should, like him, be in another world, or should die. II. That
they should die on the morrow, or rather, very shortly; for that is the signification of
the word ‫מחר‬ machar, in many places of Scripture. See Exodus 13:14 and Joshua
4:6. It is probable, however, that the word in this place may be taken in its literal
sense of to-morrow. These predictions of Samuel evidently proved that he spoke by
God's order; for he foretells, first, the victory of the Philistines; secondly, the death
of Saul and his sons; and thirdly, the advantages which the Philistines should derive
from their victory. See chap. 1 Samuel 31:7. And it is surprising, that after such
plain predictions as these, which could come only from God, any person should
imagine that this apparition of Samuel was either a human or a diabolical
imposture.
ELLICOTT, " (17) And the Lord hath done to him.—Render, as in margin of the
English Version, the Lord hath done or performed for Himself. The LXX. and Vulg.
here needlessly change the text into, “the Lord hath done to thee.”
And given it to thy neighbour . . . David.—An evil spirit personating Samuel would
not have spoken thus; he would not have wished to help David, “the man after
God’s own heart,” to the throne of Israel; nor would an evil spirit have spoken in
such solemn terms of the punishment due to rebellion against God.—Bishop
Wordsworth, who argues against the supposition that the shade of Samuel was an
evil spirit.
WHEDON, " 19. The Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the
Philistines: and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me — To take these
words as a revelation from Samuel involves the evangelical interpreter in the
dilemma expressed by Charles Wesley:
What do these solemn words portend?
104

105. A ray of hope when life shall end.
“Thou and thy sons, though slain, shall be
To-morrow in repose with me.”
Not in a state of hellish pain,
If Saul with Samuel do remain;
Not in a state of dark despair,
If loving Jonathan be there.
But if Saul, Samuel, and the “loving Jonathan” find after death the same abode,
what matters it that “Saul died for his transgressions,” and especially for the crime
of inquiring of a necromancer? See 1 Chronicles 10:13. Universalism may then well
comfort the incorrigible sinner, and assure him of immediate “repose” after death
with the saints in light!! Such theology may do for the witch of Endor, but not for
the holy Samuel. Beholding Saul’s despair and terror, the witch knew that the
Philistines had every probability of victory in the approaching battle, and that
warriors like Saul and his sons would not be likely to survive defeat. We have,
therefore, no evidence of a supernatural communication here. It ought to be noted
that there is no evidence outside of this verse that the disastrous battle of Mount
Gilboa was fought and Saul slain on the morrow after this interview with the witch.
Here she herself, perhaps, made a blunder, for very possibly several days elapsed
before the fatal battle in which Saul and his sons were slain.
PETT, "1 Samuel 28:19
“Moreover YHWH will deliver Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines,
and tomorrow will you and your sons be with me. YHWH will deliver the host of
Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.”
Samuel then removed from him all hope. He had had every opportunity to repent
and had never done so. Now YHWH was about to deliver Israel into the hands of
the Philistines, and the result was that on the morrow both Saul and his soldier sons
would be in the after-world with Samuel. The fact that the host of Israel would be
delivered into the hands of the Philistines is emphasised twice. It signals that the
matter was certain and that nothing could be done about it. Thus instead of
receiving assistance, Saul had, by his unforgivable behaviour, simply brought on
himself a message of doom that he could well have done without. The one positive
aspect of it was that it did, at least theoretically, give him the opportunity to repent.
We may rightly ask why, if Saul was doomed, YHWH had allowed Samuel to come
105

106. to declare to him his fate. Why had He not just allowed Saul a false assurance from
the medium? There can really only be one answer. Saul was still being offered the
opportunity of repentance. Had he truly repented, and had he thrown himself
before YHWH in tears over his sins and pleaded for mercy he might yet have had a
hearing (compare Hezekiah in Isaiah 38; Manasseh in 2 Chronicles 33:12-13). But
he did not do so. And the reason was because his heart was too hardened. It is a
reminder to us that if we would get right with God, and are aware of stirrings
within us that lead in that direction, we would be advised not to delay, and
especially not to wait until the day prior to our death, for then it might well be too
late as it was with Saul.
GUZIK, " (1Sa_28:19) Samuel tells Saul about his fate.
“Moreover the LORD will also deliver Israel with you into the hand of the
Philistines. And tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The LORD will
also deliver the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.”
a. Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me: Saul learns from Samuel
that he will die the next day. In 1Sa_28:16, Saul asked to know what I should
do. Samuel never told him what to do, because it was too late to do anything.
All Samuel told him was what would happen, and God’s judgment was
already in motion.
i. Before this time, Saul had plenty of time to repent; but now time has
run out. We can never assume that we will have as much time as we want
to repent. The desire to repent, and the opportunity to repent are gifts
from God. If we have the desire and the opportunity today, we must seize
upon it, because it may not be there tomorrow.
ii. When Samuel said you and your sons will be with me, did it mean that
Saul was going to heaven, that he would be with the believing dead? Not
necessarily. In the story Jesus told in Luk_16:19-31, the blessed dead and
the cursed dead were both in the same general area. The believing dead
were in the place of comfort knows as the Abraham’s bosom, but the
cursed dead were in a place or torment. So, Saul would be in the same
general area as Samuel, but not the same specific place.
b. The LORD will deliver Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines . . .
you and your sons: When judgment fell upon Saul, it would also trouble the
people around him. His sons and all Israel would also suffer also.
i. “Can any person read this, properly considering the situation of this
unfortunate monarch, the triumph of the enemies of God, and the speedy
ruin in which the godlike Jonathan is about to be involved, without
feeling the keenest anguish of heart?” (Clarke)
106

107. 20 Immediately Saul fell full length on the
ground, filled with fear because of Samuel's
words. His strength was gone, for he had eaten
nothing all that day and night.
CLARKE, "Then Saul fell straightway all along on the earth - Literally, he fell
with his own length, or with the fullness of his stature. He was so overwhelmed with
this most dreadful message, that he swooned away, and thus fell at his own length
upon the ground. The woman, being terrified, had probably withdrawn to some
distance at the first appearance of the prophet; and Saul was left alone with Samuel.
After some short time, the woman came again unto Saul, found him sore troubled,
and offered him those succours which humanity dictated.
GILL, "Then Saul fell straightway all along on the earth,.... Fell at his full length at
once, as if he had been thunderstruck, or pierced through with a dart or sword:
and was sore afraid, because of the words of Samuel; as he supposed they were,
whose words never failed:
and there was no strength in him: to rise up again, he was quite dispirited and
strengthless:
for he had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night; which contributed the more
to his weakness; not only his fears, but not eating any food, occasioned his weakness,
and that through want of an appetite, by reason of the great concern of his mind in
his present troubles.
HENRY, "We are here told how Saul received this terrible message from the
ghost he consulted. He desired to be told what he should do (1Sa_28:15), but was
only told what he had not done and what should be done to him. Those that expect
any good counsel or comfort otherwise than from God, and in the way of his
institutions, will be as wretchedly disappointed as Saul here was. Observe,
I. How he sunk under the load, 1Sa_28:20. He was indeed unfit to bear it, having
eaten nothing all the day before, nor that night. He came fasting from the camp, and
continued fasting; not for want of food, but for want of an appetite. The fear he was
in of the power of the Philistines (1Sa_28:5) took away his appetite, or perhaps the
107

108. struggle he had with his own conscience, after he had entertained the thought of
consulting the witch, made him to nauseate even his necessary food, though ever so
dainty. This made him an easy prey to this fresh terror that now came upon him like
an armed man. He fell all along on the earth, as if the archers of the Philistines had
already hit him, and there was no strength in him to bear up against these heavy
tidings. Now he had enough of consulting witches, and found them miserable
comforters. When God in his word speaks terror to sinners he opens to them, at the
same time, a door of hope if they repent: but those that apply to the gates of hell for
succour must there expect darkness without any glimpse of light.
K&D, "1Sa_28:20
These words so alarmed him, that he fell his whole length upon the ground; for he
had been kneeling hitherto (1Sa_28:14). He “fell straightway (lit. he hastened and
fell) upon the ground. For he was greatly terrified at the words of Samuel: there was
also no strength in him, because he had eaten no food the whole day and the whole
night,” sc., from mental perturbation or inward excitement. Terror and bodily
exhaustion caused him to fall powerless to the ground.
PULPIT, "1Sa_28:20-25. (ENDOR.)
The witch of Endor.
According to Jewish tradition she was the mother of Abner, on which account
perhaps she escaped when others were "put away;" and the two attendants of Saul,
in his visit to her, were Abner and Amass. She dwelt at Endor (the fountain of
habitation), a village four miles south of Mount Tabor (Jos_17:11; Psa_83:10). "The
calcareous cliffs around are filled with wide caverns, and some of the modern
habitations are formed of front wails shutting in these caves," in one of which she
may have dwelt and practised her forbidden art. This possessor or mistress of Ob
(see 1Sa_28:7-10), although differing much from those who were accounted
"witches," greatly abhorred and severely punished in more recent times, was a
representative of many of them in—
1. Perverted religiousness. Her history might have shown that she possessed a more
than ordinary measure of the religious sentiment prevalent in women, and that it
had been (as it often is) misdirected by the influences under which she fell. She was
at first a victim of superstition, and afterwards, finding herself perhaps endowed
with peculiar and mysterious susceptibilities, and looked up to by others on account
of her superior "wisdom," practised on their superstitions fears, in part deceived
and in part deceiving. The mischief of the perversion of the religious sentiment is
incalculable.
2. Secret criminality. If she had lived among the heathen from whom her art was
derived, she might have been held in general repute, like the oracles of Greece. But
in Israel necromancy was condemned as treason against the Divine King, an
abomination associated with and promotive of the worship of idols, and she
108

109. displayed a daring impiety in practising it even in secret. "The Hebrew witch, or she
who communicated or attempted to communicate with an evil spirit, was justly
punished with death, though her communication with the spiritual world might
either not exist at all, or be of a nature much less intimate than has been ascribed to
the witches of later days; nor does the existence of the law against the witches of the
Old Testament sanction in any respect the severity of similar enactments,
subsequent to the Christian revelation, against a different class of persons accused
of a very different species of crime" (Sir W. Scott).
3. Unholy cupidity. The desire of gain, to which she may have been urged by
necessitous circumstances, was probably her principal motive in practising her art
at the risk of life. The same desire leads to the basest actions, and even turns
godliness into ungodliness. It is "a root of all evil."
4. Perpetual fear of discovery and suspicion of deception on the part of those to
whose wishes she ministered, and of whose weaknesses she made traffic (1Sa_28:9).
The sword of justice hangs over the head of secret transgressors, and suffers them
not to enjoy a moment’s peace.
5. Skilful deception. Saul thought to deceive her, but was himself deceived by her,
and fatally deluded. Whatever may have been her power in magic, clairvoyance
(Keil), and ventriloquism (Isa_29:4), she certainly professed what she did not
possess (1Sa_28:11); employed it in "cunning craftiness," and became (whether
designedly or undesignedly) accessory to his ruin (1Ch_10:14). How much of the
power which is now abused and made a curse might if properly used become a
blessing!
6. Kindly sympathy and ministration. On observing his heavy fall (for she was
apparently in the same room) she came to his side, and seeing that he was "sore
troubled," felt a woman’s pity, spoke to him in soothing tones as to a wilful child,
requested him to gratify her wishes in eating "a morsel of bread" to strengthen him,
in return for her obeying his voice (with "a talkativeness characteristic of this class
of women, and a certain humour"), perhaps called his servants, and with them
constrained him. Her heart was not dead. "She had one calf that she was very fond
of, and one that she took a great deal of care of, and fed it herself; for she was a
woman that got her living by the labour of her own hands, and had no other
possession but that one calf; this she killed, and made ready its flesh, and set it
before his servants and himself. Now it is but just to recommend the generosity of
this woman (Josephus).
7. Pitiable desolation. Saul is gone forth into the night to meet his fate. Left to
herself, distrusted and distrustful, feared and fearful, without the consolations of
religion, she is as much an object of pity as of blame. "We take leave of her, as she
took leave of the ruined king, with a pitying heart."—D.
109

110. COFFMAN, "SAUL'S VISIT TO THE WITCH OF ENDOR WAS CONCLUDED
"Then Saul fell at once full length upon the ground, filled with fear because of the
words of Samuel; and there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day
and all night. And the woman came to Saul, and when she saw that he was terrified,
she said to him, "Behold, your handmaid has hearkened to what you have said to
me. Now therefore, you also hearken to your handmaid; let me set a morsel of bread
before you; and eat, that you may have strength when you go on your way." He
refused, and said, "I will not eat." But his servants, together with the woman, urged
him; and he hearkened to their words. So he arose from the earth, and sat upon the
bed. Now the woman had a fatted calf in the house, and she quickly killed it, and she
took flour, and kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread of it, and she put it before
Saul and his servants; and they ate. Then they arose and went away that night."
"So he arose from the earth and sat upon the bed" (1 Samuel 28:23). "The bed" in
the ancient houses of that era was a wide bench against the wall, used as a sitting
place in the daytime and for sleeping at night.
"She had a fatted calf in the house" (1 Samuel 28:24). This is merely the archaic
way of saying that she had such an animal readily available.
The solicitude of the witch for Saul's welfare was understandable. No normal
human being could look upon the terrified and distressed king with any other than
emotions of pity and compassion. Her hospitality was also a matter of insurance on
her part against the possibility that, if Saul survived, he might put her to death as he
had done to most of her contemporary practitioners of necromancy.
BENSON, "1 Samuel 28:20. Then Saul fell straightway all along on the earth —
Struck to the heart, as if the archers of the Philistines had already hit him, at the
hearing this dreadful sentence pronounced upon himself, his family, and people;
and overcome with astonishment and terror. And was sore afraid because of the
words of Samuel — Observe, reader, the words of Samuel, says the inspired
historian, and not the words of Satan, or any evil spirit personating Samuel. These
words, which he now fully believed, and which were the more awful as being
pronounced by a departed spirit, sent from the invisible world on purpose to
pronounce them, even the spirit of a great and holy prophet, whom he had once
highly revered, and to whom, under God, he had owed all his elevation; these words
so operated upon his mind, weakened and oppressed with guilt, and upon his body,
exhausted with fatigue and fasting, that no strength, or power of motion, was left in
110

111. him; and he fell at his full length as dead upon the floor. Unhappy Saul! he now
reaps the bitter fruits of forsaking God, and of being therefore forsaken by him, and
of his many great and aggravated crimes. Vengeance, which had long hovered over
him, and waited in long-suffering for his repentance, now advances with large and
rapid strides, and his doom approaches. He is deeply sensible of it, and is
overwhelmed with horror and dismay on the account thereof.
ELLICOTT, "(20) Then Saul fell straightway all along on the earth.—Up to this
period we must understand Saul listening to the prophet’s words in that attitude of
humble reverence which he assumed when he perceived that he was in the presence
of Samuel (1 Samuel 28:14); but now, on hearing the words of awful judgment,
crushed with terror and dismay, and previously weakened by a long fast and the
fatigue of the rough night walk from Mount Gilboa to En-dor, he fell prostrate to
the earth.
COKE, "1 Samuel 28:20-21. Then Saul fell straightway— Immediately after having
pronounced the dreadful words in the former verse, Samuel disappeared, leaving
the unhappy king in the most dreadful consternation. Saul, most probably, during
the time of Samuel's appearance, had been left alone with him, the woman having
retired. Continuing some time prostrate upon the earth, without power to move or
speak, the woman at length returned to him, and with his servants persuaded him to
take some refreshment. The sacred historian does not inform us of all that passed.
There is no doubt but the Pythoness was well paid, and that the repast she offered
was not at her own expence. Dr. Delaney makes two judicious observations on this
event. The first is, that the son of Sirach, who seems to have had as much wisdom,
penetration, and piety, as any critic who came after him, is clearly of opinion, with
the sacred historian, that it was Samuel himself who foretold the fate of Saul and his
house in this interview: and it is no ill presumption, that his judgment was also that
of the Jewish church upon this head. The next is, that whereas it has been made a
question, Whether the Jews had any belief in the immortality of the soul? this
history is a full decision upon that point; and, perhaps, the establishment of that
truth upon the foot of sensible evidence, was not the slightest purpose of Samuel's
appearance upon this occasion. Indeed, the whole art of necromancy is founded
entirely upon a belief of the immortality of the soul; for how could it be believed,
that the souls of the dead could be evoked, if they died with the body? And, as this
practice was so general among the heathens, it is plain that the immortality of the
soul was generally received as a determined principle. See Le Clerc and Calmet.
Note; (1.) They who depart from God, leave their own mercies. A miserable life, and
a more miserable death, is their wretched portion. (2.) When a man is given up to
despair, he rushes on his own destruction, as the horse rusheth into the battle. (3.)
Let every man who reads Saul's end, tremble at the thought of grieving the holy
111

112. Spirit of God, lest he be thus forsaken, and left to the wickedness and despair of his
own heart.
PETT, "Verses 20-25
Saul’s Response To What He Had Heard (1 Samuel 28:20-25).
Once Samuel had gone Saul’s response to his words are illuminating. It is clear that
he had no thought of repentance or of calling on YHWH. Rather he was terrified as
he considered the implications of what he had heard. We note again in this an
indication of Saul’s surface religiosity. This is further emphasised by the fact that he
had been fasting, no doubt in order to obtain some kind of divine help (compare 1
Samuel 14:24). He seemingly thought that thereby he could move the hand of
YHWH. But the only actual ‘benefit’ that he obtained from it was that he was in no
physical condition to withstand the shock. As Isaiah would declare later, there was
no point in fasting unless the heart was right towards God (Isaiah 58). Thus Saul
gained nothing and was left distraught.
Note that Saul’s growing fear is emphasised throughout the chapter. In 1 Samuel
28:5 he had been greatly afraid and his heart had trembled violently at the sight of
the great host assembled against them. It was this naked terror that had driven him
to do what he had done. Somehow as he had seen that host in front of his eyes he
had probably known that it was the end. And now he was even more terrified, for
his certain doom had been announced. And the result of that and the fasting was
such that he physically collapsed.
And yet he still refused to eat. Perhaps it was because he clung tenaciously to the
only exercise that he felt could bring him assistance in his hour of need, a desperate
and superstitious attempt to manipulate YHWH, or perhaps it was because he knew
that to accept the medium’s hospitality (thus declaring friendship) was to put him
beyond the pale. He would be aligning himself with her. But whichever it was in the
end he was persuaded to eat, and did so, probably because he came to the
recognition that he could not go on unless he did so. He had reached the end of his
tether.
Analysis.
112

113. a Then straight away Saul fell his full length on the earth, and was terrified (sore
afraid), because of the words of Samuel, and there was no strength in him, for he
had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night (1 Samuel 28:20).
b And the woman came to Saul, and saw that he was very much troubled, and said
to him, “Look, your handmaid has listened to your voice, and I have put my life in
my hand, and have listened to your words which you spoke to me. Now therefore, I
pray you, you listen also to the voice of your handmaid, and let me set a morsel of
bread before you, and eat, in order that you may have strength, when you go on
your way” (1 Samuel 28:21-22).
c But he refused, and said, “I will not eat” (1 Samuel 28:23 a).
b But his servants, together with the woman, constrained him, and he listened to
their voice. So he arose from the earth, and sat on the bed, and the woman had a
fatted calf in the house, and she acted hurriedly, and killed it, and she took flour,
and kneaded it, and baked from it unleavened bread (1 Samuel 28:23-24).
a And she brought it before Saul, and before his servants, and they ate. Then they
rose up, and went away in/into that night (1 Samuel 28:25).
Note that in ‘a’ Saul had not eaten and was terrified, and in the parallel he ate and
went out into ‘that night’. In ‘b’ the woman offers him food, and seeks to constrain
him to eat, and in the parallel he is constrained and does eat. Central in ‘c’ was his
desire not to eat (and possibly break a vow).
1 Samuel 28:20
‘Then straight away Saul fell his full length on the earth, and was terrified (sore
afraid), because of the words of Samuel, and there was no strength in him, for he
had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night.’
This probably means that he fainted, and when he came to himself was filled with
113

114. terror at the remembrance of what he had been told. We are then given the
explanation for his fainting fit. It was because he had not been eating properly. He
had eaten nothing since daybreak. From what we already know of Saul this was
probably because he was hoping thereby to ensure victory (1 Samuel 14:28). He was
one of those who were superstitious and never learned from experience.
21 When the woman came to Saul and saw that
he was greatly shaken, she said, "Look, your
maidservant has obeyed you. I took my life in my
hands and did what you told me to do.
GILL, "And the woman came unto Saul,.... Having left him and the apparition in a
room by themselves to converse together, and perhaps on hearing him fall to the
ground came in:
and saw that he was sore troubled: by his lying on the ground, and the agonies he
seemed to be in, and the uneasiness that sat upon his countenance:
and said unto him, behold, thine handmaid hath obeyed thy voice; in divining by
her familiar spirit for him, and in bringing up Samuel to him, as he desired:
and I have put my life in my hand; exposed it to the utmost danger, since a person of
her profession, and token in the exercise of it, was punishable with death; and
especially she was in the greater danger, as it was Saul himself, who had by an edict
expelled all such persons from his dominions, who now employed her, as she
perceived:
and have hearkened unto thy words which thou spakest unto me: to the oath he had
taken, that no hurt should come to her, which she confided in, and relied upon, and
to what he bid her do, according to her art of divination.
HENRY 21-25, " With what difficulty he was persuaded to take so much relief as
was necessary to carry him back to his post in the camp. The witch, it should seem,
had left Saul alone with the spectre, to have his talk with him by himself; but
perhaps hearing him fall and groan, and perceiving him to be in great agony, she
came to him (1Sa_28:21), and was very importunate with him to take some
114

115. refreshment, that he might be able to get clear from her house, fearing that if he
should be ill, especially if he should die there, she should be punished for it as a
traitor, though she had escaped punishment as a witch. This, it is probable, rather
than any sentiment of kindness, made her solicitous to help him. But what a
deplorable condition had he brought himself to when he needed so wretched a
comforter! 1. She showed herself very importunate with him to take some
refreshment. She pleaded (1Sa_28:21) that she had obeyed his voice to the
endangering of her life, and why therefore should not he hearken to her voice for
the relieving of his life? 1Sa_28:22. She had a fat calf at hand (and the word signifies
one that was made use of in treading out the corn, and therefore could the worse be
spared); this she prepared for his entertainment, 1Sa_28:24. Josephus is large in
applauding the extraordinary courtesy and liberality of this woman, and
recommending what she did as an example of compassion to the distressed, and
readiness to communicate for their relief, though we have no prospect of being
recompensed. 2. He showed himself very averse to it: He refused, and said, I will not
eat (1Sa_28:23), choosing rather to die obscurely by famine than honourably by the
sword. Had he laboured only under a defect of animal spirits, food might have
helped him; but, alas! his case was out of the reach of such succours. What are
dainty meats to a wounded conscience? As vinegar upon nitre, so is he that sings
songs to a heavy heart, so disagreeable and unwelcome. 3. The woman at length, with
the help of his servants, overpersuaded him, against his inclination and resolution,
to take some refreshment. Not by force, but by friendly advice, they compelled him
(1Sa_28:23), and of no other than such a rational and courteous compulsion are we
to understand that in the parable, Compel them to come in, Luk_14:23. How forcible
are right words, when men are pressed by them to that which is for their own
interest! Job_6:25. Saul was somewhat revived with this entertainment; so that he
and his servants, when they had eaten, rose up and went away before it was light
(1Sa_28:25), that they might hasten to their business and that they might not be seen
to come out of such a scandalous house. Josephus here much admires the bravery
and magnanimity of Saul, that, though he was assured he should lose both his life
and honour, yet he would not desert his army, but resolutely returned to the camp,
and stood ready for an engagement. I wonder more at the hardness of his heart, that
he did not again apply to God by repentance and prayer, in hopes yet to obtain at
least a reprieve; but he desperately ran headlong upon his own ruin. Perhaps,
indeed, now that rage and envy possessed him to the uttermost, he was the better
reconciled to his hard fate, being told that his sons, and Jonathan among the rest,
whom he hated for his affection to David, should die with him. If he must fall, he
cared not what desolations of his family and kingdom accompanied his fall, hoping
it would be the worse for his successor. Emou thanontos gaia michthetō puri - I care
not if, when I am dead, the world should be set on fire. He begged not, as David, “Let
thy hand be against me, but not against thy people.”
ELLICOTT, "(21) And the woman.—The story is completed in these few
concluding verses (1 Samuel 28:21-25) in a most natural and unaffected style. The
witch, though a grievous sinner, is struck with a woman’s pity for the stricken king,
115

116. and with kind words and still kinder acts does her best to recover him from the
death-like swoon into which the hapless Saul had fallen. Her whole behaviour
contradicts the supposition that she was moved by a bitter hatred against Saul (see
Excursus L at end of this Book) to desire the appearance of Samuel, and to imitate
his voice by means of ventriloquism. Firstly, she was herself terrified at the
apparition; and secondly, she was saddened by the effect of the dead seer’s words on
the king, and did her poor best to restore him to composure and strength again. We
read in the next verse how the woman, with Saul’s servants, used even a gentle
compulsion to induce the king to take the nourishment he was so sorely in need of.
HAWKER, "Verses 21-25
(21) And the woman came unto Saul, and saw that he was sore troubled, and said
unto him, Behold, thine handmaid hath obeyed thy voice, and I have put my life in
my hand, and have hearkened unto thy words which thou spakest unto me. (22)
Now therefore, I pray thee, hearken thou also unto the voice of thine handmaid, and
let me set a morsel of bread before thee; and eat, that thou mayest have strength,
when thou goest on thy way. (23) But he refused, and said, I will not eat. But his
servants, together with the woman, compelled him; and he hearkened unto their
voice. So he arose from the earth, and sat upon the bed. (24) And the woman had a
fat calf in the house; and she hasted, and killed it, and took flour, and kneaded it,
and did bake unleavened bread thereof: (25) And she brought it before Saul, and
before his servants; and they did eat. Then they rose up, and went away that night.
The sequel of this story is just as might be expected. Had this message, awful as it
was, come from heaven in answer to prayer, a door of hope might have still been
open to repentance. But, when the poor misguided wretch had knocked at the gates
of hell, and received such an answer, nothing but a fearful looking for of judgment
and fiery indignation remained, to finish the misery. See that awful scripture;
Hebrews 10:26-31.
K&D 21-22, "1Sa_28:21-22
The woman then came to him and persuaded him to strengthen himself with food
for the journey which he had to take. It by no means follows from the expression
“came unto Saul,” that the woman was in an adjoining room during the presence of
the apparition, and whilst Samuel was speaking, but only that she was standing at
some distance off, and came up to him to speak to him when he had fallen fainting
to the ground. As she had fulfilled his wish at the risk of her own life, she entreated
him now to gratify her wish, and let her set a morsel of bread before him and eat.
“That strength may be in thee when thou goest thy way” (i.e., when thou returnest).
This narrative, when read without prejudice, makes at once and throughout the
impression conveyed by the Septuagint at 1Ch_10:13 : ἐπηρώτησε Σαοὺλ ἐν τῷ
ἐγγαστριμύθῳ τοῦ ζητῆσαι, καὶ ἀπεκρίνατο αὐτῷ Σαμουὴλ ὁ προφήτης; and still
116

117. more clearly at Ecclus. 46:20, where it is said of Samuel: “And after his death he
prophesied, and showed the king his end, and lifted up his voice from the earth in
prophecy, to blot out the wickedness of the people.” Nevertheless the fathers,
reformers, and earlier Christian theologians, with very few exceptions, assumed that
there was not a real appearance of Samuel, but only an imaginary one. According to
the explanation given by Ephraem Syrus, an apparent image of Samuel was
presented to the eye of Saul through demoniacal arts. Luther and Calvin adopted
the same view, and the earlier Protestant theologians followed them in regarding the
apparition as nothing but a diabolical spectre, a phantasm, or diabolical spectre in
the form of Samuel, and Samuel's announcement as nothing but a diabolical
revelation made by divine permission, in which truth is mixed with falsehood.
(Note: Thus Luther says (in his work upon the abuses of the Mass, 1522): “The
raising of Samuel by a soothsayer or witch, in 1Sa_28:11-12, was certainly
merely a spectre of the devil; not only because the Scriptures state that it was
effected by a woman who was full of devils (for who could believe that the souls
of believers, who are in the hand of God, Ecclus. 3:1, and in the bosom of
Abraham, Luk_16:31, were under the power of the devil, and of simple men?),
but also because it was evidently in opposition to the command of God that Saul
and the woman inquired of the dead. The Holy Ghost cannot do anything
against this himself, nor can He help those who act in opposition to it.” Calvin
also regards the apparition as only a spectre (Hom. 100 in 1 Samuel.): “It is
certain,” he says, “that it was not really Samuel, for God would never have
allowed His prophets to be subjected to such diabolical conjuring. For here is a
sorceress calling up the dead from the grave. Does any one imagine that God
wished His prophet to be exposed to such ignominy; as if the devil had power
over the bodies and souls of the saints which are in His keeping? The souls of the
saints are said to rest and live in God, waiting for their happy resurrection.
Besides, are we to believe that Samuel took his cloak with him into the grave?
For all these reasons, it appears evident that the apparition was nothing more
than a spectre, and that the senses of the woman herself were so deceived, that
she thought she saw Samuel, whereas it really was not he.” The earlier orthodox
theologians also disputed the reality of the appearance of the departed Samuel
on just the same grounds; e.g., Seb. Schmidt (Comm.); Aug. Pfeiffer; Sal.
Deyling; and Buddeus, Hist. Eccl. V. t. ii. p. 243, and many more.)
It was not till the seventeenth century that the opinion was expressed, that the
apparition of Samuel was merely a delusion produced by the witch, without any real
background at all. After Reginald Scotus and Balth. Becker had given expression to
this opinion, it was more fully elaborated by Ant. van Dale, in his dissert. de
divinationibus idololatricis sub V. T.; and in the so-called age of enlightenment this
was the prevailing opinion, so that Thenius still regards it as an established fact, not
only that the woman was an impostor, but that the historian himself regarded the
whole thing as an imposture. There is no necessity to refute this opinion at the
present day. Even Fr. Boettcher (de inferis, pp. 111ff.), who looks upon the thing as
an imposture, admits that the first recorder of the occurrence “believed that Samuel
appeared and prophesied, contrary to the expectation of the witch;” and that the
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118. author of the books of Samuel was convinced that the prophet was raised up and
prophesied, so that after his death he was proved to be the true prophet of Jehovah,
although through the intervention of ungodly arts (cf. Eze_14:7, Eze_14:9). But the
view held by the early church does not do justice to the scriptural narrative; and
hence the more modern orthodox commentators are unanimous in the opinion that
the departed prophet did really appear and announce the destruction of Saul, not,
however, in consequence of the magical arts of the witch, but through a miracle
wrought by the omnipotence of God.
This is most decidedly favoured by the fact, that the prophetic historian speaks
throughout of the appearance, not of a ghost, but of Samuel himself. He does this
not only in 1Sa_28:12, “When the woman saw Samuel she cried aloud,” but also in
1Sa_28:14, 1Sa_28:15, 1Sa_28:16, and 1Sa_28:20. It is also sustained by the
circumstance, that not only do the words of Samuel to Saul, in 1Sa_28:16-19, create
the impression that it is Samuel himself who is speaking; but his announcement
contains so distinct a prophecy of the death of Saul and his sons, that it is impossible
to imagine that it can have proceeded from the mouth of an impostor, or have been
an inspiration of Satan. On the other hand, the remark of Calvin, to the effect that
“God sometimes give to devils the power of revealing secrets to us, which they have
learned from the Lord,” could only be regarded as a valid objection, provided that
the narrative gave us some intimation that the apparition and the speaking were
nothing but a diabolical delusion. But it does nothing of the kind. It is true, the
opinion that the witch conjured up the prophet Samuel was very properly disputed
by the early theologians, and rejected by Theodoret as “unholy, and even impious;”
and the text of Scripture indicates clearly enough that the very opposite was the
case, by the remark that the witch herself was terrified at the appearance of Samuel
(1Sa_28:12). Shöbel is therefore quite correct in saying: “It was not at the call of the
idolatrous king, nor at the command of the witch, - neither of whom had the power
to bring him up, or even to make him hear their voice in his rest in the grave, - that
Samuel came; nor was it merely by divine 'permission,' which is much too little to
say. No, rather it was by the special command of God that he left his grave (?), like a
faithful servant whom his master arouses at midnight, to let in an inmate of the
house who has wilfully stopped out late, and has been knocking at the door. 'Why
do you disturb me out of my sleep?' would always be the question put to the
unwelcome comer, although it was not by his noise, but really by his master's
command, that he had been aroused. Samuel asked the same question.” The
prohibition of witchcraft and necromancy (Deu_18:11; Isa_8:19), which the earlier
writers quote against this, does not preclude the possibility of God having, for His
own special reasons, caused Samuel to appear. On the contrary, the appearance
itself was of such a character, that it could not fail to show to the witch and the king,
that God does not allow His prohibitions to be infringed with impunity. The very
same thing occurred here, which God threatened to idolaters through the medium of
Ezekiel (Eze_14:4, Eze_14:7,Eze_14:8): “If they come to the prophet, I will answer
them in my own way.” Still less is there any force in the appeal to Luk_16:27., where
Abraham refuses the request of the rich man in Hades, that he would send Lazarus
to his father's house to preach repentance to his brethren who were still living,
118

119. saying, “They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. If they hear not
Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the
dead.” For this does not affirm that the appearance of a dead man is a thing
impossible in itself, but only describes it as useless and ineffectual, so far as the
conversion of the ungodly is concerned.
The reality of the appearance of Samuel from the kingdom of the dead cannot
therefore be called in question, especially as it has an analogon in the appearance of
Moses and Elijah at the transfiguration of Christ (Mat_17:3; Luk_9:30-31); except
that this difference must not be overlooked, namely, that Moses and Elijah appeared
“in glory,” i.e., in a glorified form, whereas Samuel appeared in earthly corporeality
with the prophet's mantle which he had worn on earth. Just as the transfiguration
of Christ was a phenomenal anticipation of His future heavenly glory, into which He
was to enter after His resurrection and ascension, so may we think of the
appearance of Moses and Elijah “in glory” upon the mount of transfiguration as an
anticipation of their heavenly transfiguration in eternal life with God. It was
different with Samuel, whom God brought up from Hades through an act of His
omnipotence. This appearance is not to be regarded as the appearance of one who
had risen in a glorified body; but though somewhat spirit-like in its external
manifestation, so that it was only to the witch that it was visible, and not to Saul, it
was merely an appearance of the soul of Samuel, that had been at rest in Hades, in
the clothing of the earthly corporeality and dress of the prophet, which were
assumed for the purpose of rendering it visible. In this respect the appearance of
Samuel rather resembled the appearances of incorporeal angels in human form and
dress, such as the three angels who came to Abraham in the grove at Mamre (Gen
18), and the angel who appeared to Manoah (Judg 13); with this exception, however,
that these angels manifested themselves in a human form, which was visible to the
ordinary bodily eye, whereas Samuel appeared in the spirit-like form of the
inhabitants of Hades. In all these cases the bodily form and clothing were only a
dress assumed for the soul or spirit, and intended to facilitate perception, so that
such appearances furnish no proof that the souls of departed men possess an
immaterial corporeality.
(Note: Delitzsch (bibl Psychol. pp. 427ff.) has very properly rejected, not only
the opinion that Samuel and Moses were raised up from the dead for the
purpose of a transient appearance, and then died again, but also the idea that
they appeared in their material bodies, a notion upon which Calvin rests his
argument against the reality of the appearance of Samuel. But when he gives it
as his opinion, that the angels who appeared in human form assumed this form
by virtue of their own power, inasmuch as they can make themselves visible to
whomsoever they please, and infers till further from this, “that the outward
form in which Samuel and Moses appeared (which corresponded to their form
when on this side the grave) was the immaterial production of their spiritual and
psychical nature,” he overlooks the fact, that not only Samuel, but the angels
also, in the cases referred to, appeared in men's clothing, which cannot possibly
be regarded as a production of their spiritual and psychical nature. The earthly
dress is not indispensable to a man's existence. Adam and Eve had no clothing
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120. before the Fall, and there will be no material clothing in the kingdom of glory;
for the “fine linen, pure and white,” with which the bride adorns herself for the
marriage supper of the Lamb, is “the righteousness of saints” (Rev_19:8).
PETT, "1 Samuel 28:21
‘And the woman came to Saul, and saw that he was very much troubled, and said to
him, “Look, your handmaid has listened to your voice, and I have put my life in my
hand, and have listened to your words which you spoke to me.”
Not surprisingly Saul was in great distress. The man whom he trusted more than
any other had informed him ‘from the other side’ that the cause was already lost,
and that there was no hope, at least in the short term. The hope of Israel, the one
who might have made a difference, was far away (as this was the night before the
battle he was possibly by this time back in Ziklag or chasing the Amalekites (1
Samuel 29-30)).
The woman of Endor was very concerned for him. She pointed out to him that she
had listened to his words, and had trusted him, even putting her life in his hands
(note the threefold emphasis). Now she appealed for him to do the same for her, to
listen to her and act accordingly.
GUZIK, "(1Sa_28:21-25) The medium comforts Saul.
And the woman came to Saul and saw that he was severely troubled, and said to
him, “Look, your maidservant has obeyed your voice, and I have put my life in
my hands and heeded the words which you spoke to me. Now therefore, please,
heed also the voice of your maidservant, and let me set a piece of bread before
you; and eat, that you may have strength when you go on your way.” But he
refused and said, “I will not eat.” So his servants, together with the woman,
urged him; and he heeded their voice. Then he arose from the ground and sat on
the bed. Now the woman had a fatted calf in the house, and she hastened to kill
it. And she took flour and kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread from it. So
she brought it before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they rose and
went away that night.
a. The woman came to Saul and saw that he was severely troubled: It’s a sad
note when a practitioner of the occult is comforting the King of Israel. But
they were two of the same kind; each lived in rebellion to God, and each was
under judgment from the LORD.
b. And they ate: The dinner Saul ate that night was like the last meal of a
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121. man on death row, waiting execution in the morning.
c. Then he rose and went away that night: Saul leaves this strange encounter
resigned to his fate. Even if he didn’t learn his lessons from this, we can hear
what the LORD would say in this chapter.
i. To hear from the LORD, we should begin by obeying what we already
know He has told us in His word.
ii. We should reject any connection with the occult or spiritists.
iii. When we close our ears to God, He will find unusual - and perhaps
uncomfortable - ways to speak to us.
iv. We must understand - and appreciate - the reality of the world beyond
this present world.
v. The test of any spiritual experience or revelation is how it measures
against God’s Word.
vi. God’s Word stays the same. Time does not make Him change His
mind.
d. “The additional information, that within twenty-four hours he and his
sons would be dead, was no help at all to his morale. Indeed he would have
been better without it. He did himself no good by doing what he had decreed
to be unlawful. God’s word stood and could not be altered. He should have
believed it instead of thinking that by further consultation he could reverse
its judgment. The Lord did not answer him, because there was no more to be
said.” (Baldwin)
22 Now please listen to your servant and let me
give you some food so you may eat and have the
strength to go on your way."
GILL, "Now therefore, I pray thee, hearken thou also unto the voice of thine
handmaid,.... She argues, that as she had hearkened unto him to the endangering of
her life, it was but reasonable, and might be expected, that he would hearken to her
in a case that would be to the preservation of his life:
and let me set a morsel of bread before thee, and eat, that thou mayest have
strength, when thou goest on thy way; which she might urge, not merely out of
121

122. respect to the king, but for her own sake, lest should he die in her house, she might
be taken up, not only for a witch, but as being accessory to the death of the king;
and therefore she moves, that he would take some food for refreshment of nature,
that he might be able to depart her house, and go on his way to his army.
23 He refused and said, "I will not eat."
But his men joined the woman in urging him,
and he listened to them. He got up from the
ground and sat on the couch.
BARNES, "The bed - Rather, “the bench” or divan, such as in the East still runs
along the wall, furnished with cushions, for those who sit at meals Est_1:6; Eze_
23:41.
CLARKE, "I will not eat - It is no wonder that not only his strength, but also his
appetite, had departed from him.
And sat upon the bed - Beds or couches were the common places on which the
ancients sat to take their repasts.
GILL, "But he refused, and said, I will not eat,.... Choosing rather to die with
famine than by the sword of the Philistines; though perhaps his meaning is, he could
not eat, his stomach loathed it, being overwhelmed with grief and trouble:
but his servants, together with the woman, compelled him; not by force, but by
arguments; they reasoned with him, and prevailed upon him to try to eat:
and he hearkened unto their voice; and agreed to eat, if he could:
so he arose from the earth; on which he lay at his full length:
and sat upon the bed; or couch, it being now the custom to recline on couches at
caring; though some deny that this custom obtained so early.
ELLICOTT, "(23) And sat upon the bed—That is, upon the divan, or cushioned
122

123. seat, which usually runs round the walls of rooms in Eastern dwellings. There is
nothing in the narration to support the common idea, represented so often in
painting, that the scene above related took place in a cave. The witch probably lived
in a dwelling of her own at En-dor. There is nothing either in the narrative to
indicate that she was living in a place of concealment.
PETT, "1 Samuel 28:23
‘But he refused, and said, “I will not eat.” But his servants, together with the
woman, constrained him, and he listened to their voice. So he arose from the earth,
and sat on the bed.’
But Saul refused. He was an obstinate man and his religious inclinations which were
based on false premises, were overriding his common sense. So he declared, “I will
not eat.” Perhaps he also felt that to accept the hospitality of such a woman would
put him in the wrong (such is the self-contradictory nature of human beings).
However, in the end, still lying faint on the floor, he did listen to the combined
appeals of his men and of the woman, and agreed to eat. Then he picked himself up
and sank onto the cushion-covered bench along the wall.
24 The woman had a fattened calf at the house,
which she butchered at once. She took some flour,
kneaded it and baked bread without yeast.
CLARKE, "The woman had a fat calf - The ancients used great despatch in their
cookery. In hot countries they could not keep flesh meat by them any length of time;
hence they generally kept young animals, such as calves, lambs, and kids, ready for
slaughter; and when there was occasion, one of them was killed, and dressed
immediately.
Unleavened bread - There was not time to bake leavened bread; that would have
taken considerable time, in order that the leaven might leaven the whole lump.
GILL, "And the woman had a fat calf in the house,.... This was reckoned a very
dainty dish in those countries, and fit for any guests, see Gen_18:7; Josephus says
123

124. (l), she vouchsafed to feed and take care of it in her house, and it was very familiar
with her; and he highly commends the liberality of the woman, and as worthy of
imitation:
and she hasted and killed it; and dressed it in some way or another, and which in
those times was done speedily:
and took flour and kneaded it, and did bake unleavened bread therewith; which was
soonest made, she not having time to leaven it.
WHEDON, " 24. A fat calf in the house — At this day cattle are kept stalled in the
caves of Endor. Dr. Thomson saw little calves at the mouths of these caves, where
they were kept while their mothers were at pasture.
She hasted, and killed it — “With the Bedouin it is nearly universal to cook the meat
immediately after it is butchered, and to bake fresh bread for every meal.… A sheep
or a calf will be brought and killed before you, thrust instanter into the great
caldron, which stands ready on the fire to receive it, and, ere you are aware, it will
reappear on the great copper tray, with a bushel of burgul, (cracked wheat,) or a
hill of boiled rice and leben… It seems that this killing, cooking, and eating in rapid
succession is a very old custom. Abraham, and Manoah, and many others, besides
the witch of Endor, were expert in getting up such impromptu feasts; and our
Saviour has given it a proverbial expression in the fatted calf of the prodigal
son.” — The Land and the Book; vol. ii, p. 162.
PETT, "1 Samuel 28:24
‘And the woman had a fatted calf in the house, and she acted hurriedly, and killed
it, and she took flour, and kneaded it, and baked from it unleavened bread.’
The woman then hurried out and fetched the fatted calf (a calf kept especially
fattened up in case important guests came). Then she killed and cooked it, hurriedly
made some unleavened bread (there was no time for leavening). It would be a
hastily prepared meal but a substantial one, ‘fit for a king’. The later Bedouin in
fact regularly cooked meat immediately after killing an animal, and prepared fresh
bread for each meal. It was not therefore something unusual.
25 Then she set it before Saul and his men, and
they ate. That same night they got up and left.
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125. CLARKE, "They rose up, and went away that night - The transactions of this
chapter occupy one night only.
1. Saul came by night to En-dor, 1Sa_28:8.
2. He consulted the woman, and had his conference with Samuel the same night;
for no time whatever appears to have been lost after his arrival at En-dor.
3. He was overcome by the heavy tidings which he heard; and which for a time
appear to have deprived him of all power.
4. The woman kills a calf; dresses a part; makes and bakes bread; and Saul and
his servants eat. And,
5. They rose and went away that night, 1Sa_28:25. The next day, in all
probability, the battle happened in which Israel was defeated, and Saul and
his sons lost their lives.
There is a considerable diversity of opinion, both among learned and pious men,
relative to the subject mentioned in this chapter, that of raising Samuel from the
dead. Some deny the possibility of the thing, and say that it was the devil that
personified Samuel; and others, that the whole was the imposition of this cunning
woman, and that there was no supernatural agency in the business. This is not a
proper place to argue the point. I have given my opinion in the notes. I may sum up
in a few particulars.
1. I believe there is a supernatural and spiritual world, in which Human spirits,
both good and bad, live in a state of consciousness.
2. I believe there is an invisible world, in which various orders of spirits, not
human, live and act.
3. I believe that any of these spirits may, according to the order of God, in the
laws of their place of residence, have intercourse with this world, and become
visible to mortals.
4. I believe there is a possibility, by arts not strictly good, to evoke and have
intercourse with spirits, not Human; and to employ, in a certain limited way,
their power and influence.
5. I believe that the woman of En-dor had no power over Samuel; and that no
incantation can avail over any departed saint of God, nor indeed over any
human disembodied spirit.
6. I believe Samuel did actually appear to Saul; and that he was sent by the
especial mercy of God to warn this infatuated king of his approaching death,
that he might have an opportunity to make his peace with his Maker.
7. I believe that the woman found, from the appearances, that her real or
pretended charms had no effect; and that what now took place came from a
totally different disposition of things from those with which she was
conversant.
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126. 8. I believe that direct, circumstantial, and unequivocal oracles were now
delivered concerning things which neither human nor diabolical wisdom could
foresee or penetrate; that the defeat of the Israelites, and the death of Saul and
his three sons on the following day, were matters which, from their nature,
could only be known to God himself; and that no demon or bad spirit could be
employed in such a transaction.
GILL, "And she brought it before Saul, and before his servants, and they did eat,....
Of the fatted calf, and unleavened bread, which she set upon a table before them, in
the best manner she could:
then they rose up, and went away that night; that it might not be seen in what house
they had been, and that they might get to the camp without being discovered by the
Philistines, or known by the Israelites that they had been out.
HENRY, "Saul was somewhat revived with this entertainment; so that he and his
servants, when they had eaten, rose up and went away before it was light (1Sa_
28:25), that they might hasten to their business and that they might not be seen to
come out of such a scandalous house. Josephus here much admires the bravery and
magnanimity of Saul, that, though he was assured he should lose both his life and
honour, yet he would not desert his army, but resolutely returned to the camp, and
stood ready for an engagement. I wonder more at the hardness of his heart, that he
did not again apply to God by repentance and prayer, in hopes yet to obtain at least
a reprieve; but he desperately ran headlong upon his own ruin. Perhaps, indeed,
now that rage and envy possessed him to the uttermost, he was the better reconciled
to his hard fate, being told that his sons, and Jonathan among the rest, whom he
hated for his affection to David, should die with him. If he must fall, he cared not
what desolations of his family and kingdom accompanied his fall, hoping it would be
the worse for his successor. Emou thanontos gaia michthetō puri - I care not if, when
I am dead, the world should be set on fire. He begged not, as David, “Let thy hand be
against me, but not against thy people.”
JAMISON, "Then they rose up, and went away that night — Exhausted by long
abstinence, overwhelmed with mental distress, and now driven to despair, the cold
sweat broke on his anxious brow, and he sank helpless on the ground. But the kind
attentions of the woman and his servants having revived him, he returned to the
camp to await his doom.
ELLICOTT, " (25) Went away that night.—The same night they retraced their
steps, and returned to Gilboa. “Saul was too hardened in his sin to express any grief
or pain, either on his own account or because of the predicted fate of his sons or his
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127. people. In stolid desperation he went to meet his destiny. This was the terrible end of
one whom the Spirit of God had once taken possession of and turned into another
man—of one who had been singularly endowed with Divine gifts to enable him to
act as the leader of the people of God.”—O. von Gerlach.
K&D, "a_28:25
When Saul and his servants had eaten, they started upon their way, and went
back that night to Gilboa, which was about ten miles distant, where the battle
occurred the next day, and Saul and his sons fell. “Saul was too hardened in his sin
to express any grief or pain, either on his own account or because of the fate of his
sons and his people. In stolid desperation he went to meet his fate. This was the
terrible end of a man whom the Spirit of God had once taken possession of and
turned into another man, and whom he had endowed with gifts to be the leader of
the people of God” (O. v. Gerlach).
BENSON, "1 Samuel 28:25. They arose up and went away that night — “What
remorse,”
says Delaney, “what desolation of mind, what horrors of guilt, what terrors and
anticipations of divine wrath haunted him by the way, may no reader ever learn
from his own experience!” Some have expressed a hope, that as, no doubt, his past
sins were now brought to his remembrance, he felt contrition for them. Of this,
however, the Holy Ghost is silent; and considering that at last he was guilty of self-
murder we have no reason to think he experienced any repentance that was of any
service to his immortal interests.
WHEDON, " 24. A fat calf in the house — At this day cattle are kept stalled in the
caves of Endor. Dr. Thomson saw little calves at the mouths of these caves, where
they were kept while their mothers were at pasture.
She hasted, and killed it — “With the Bedouin it is nearly universal to cook the meat
immediately after it is butchered, and to bake fresh bread for every meal.… A sheep
or a calf will be brought and killed before you, thrust instanter into the great
caldron, which stands ready on the fire to receive it, and, ere you are aware, it will
reappear on the great copper tray, with a bushel of burgul, (cracked wheat,) or a
hill of boiled rice and leben… It seems that this killing, cooking, and eating in rapid
succession is a very old custom. Abraham, and Manoah, and many others, besides
the witch of Endor, were expert in getting up such impromptu feasts; and our
Saviour has given it a proverbial expression in the fatted calf of the prodigal
son.” — The Land and the Book; vol. ii, p. 162.
HAWKER, "REFLECTIONS
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128. IF ever the contemplation of the wicked, in his progress from sin to sin can become
profitable to deter from the commission of sin, and to keep back the soul, under
grace, from presumption; surely there is not a character in scripture which teaches
this more loudly, than that of Saul. Behold him from the moment of Samuel's
anointing him king, to the hour in which the Holy Ghost hath here sketched his
history, and what doth it afford but the very melancholy account of a desperately
wicked heart. That heart of Saul was never changed by grace; for though he is said
to have had another heart from what he had when seeking his Father's asses, when
he came to the kingdom; yet not a new heart created in righteousness and true
holiness. With this deceitful heart of nature, the acquired purple of a kingdom, and
the power of a Prince, only furnished means of manifesting what that heart
originally was by nature, and what it ever remained untouched by grace. It only was
uniformly making a greater progression and ripeness in evil. Reader! behold in his
history how he proposed to himself pleasure in offending God; fighting against the
gracious hand that had given him a throne; and as one determined to sacrifice
everything rather than that God should appoint a successor in his kingdom, who
had, unasked, and unthought of, given a kingdom to him. Think here from what an
awful thing it must be in the wicked to be found fighting against God.
From the view of Saul, let us turn our thoughts to Jesus, whose redemption work
becomes the only remedy for all sin, even in his children, who are by nature open
and justly exposed to wrath even as others. We read the history of Saul to very little
purpose if the sequel of it and indeed every part of it, doth not lead to this
conclusion of the apostles; Are we then better than they? Are we in ourselves, and in
our fallen state, by nature, less exposed to the same commission of sin? No, in no
wise. For the scripture hath before proved all under sin. And God hath concluded
all in unbelief as well as sin. Well may every truly awakened soul cry out, under the
heart-felt conviction of the truth; Oh! the depth of the riches both of the wisdom
and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past
finding out. Here then, Reader! let you and I join issue and rejoice. Jesus is set forth
as a propitiation for sin through faith in his blood. He is the salvation and the
righteousness of God to every sinner that believeth. Oh! Lord, grant us the fullness
of grace to believe the record which God the Father hath given of his dear Son. And
may that precious scripture be ever sounding in our ears, and ever living in its
divine and saving influence in our hearts; God having raised up his Son Jesus hath
sent him to bless you, in turning away everyone of you from his iniquities.
PETT, "1 Samuel 28:25
‘And she brought it before Saul, and before his servants, and they ate. Then they
rose up, and went away in/into that night.’
Then she brought it before Saul and his servants, and they all ate. Considerably
strengthened they then went away ‘into that night’. They had come by night and
they went out into the night. All was darkness. It was symbolic of their state of
heart, and of what was to happen. It was the darkness before a dawn which would
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129. have such devastating consequences for Saul and for Israel. And it was symbolic of
Saul’s life. Having refused the bread of YHWH he partook of the bread of darkness.
By this time he had nowhere else to turn.
This whole incident is given in some detail because in the writer’s mind it
summarised Saul’s life and superficiality. He looked for quick fixes without
commitment. He was religiously orthodox as regards the externals, until it suited
him to be otherwise, but he lacked heart. And he used his religion as a tool in order
to obtain favour. However, once his heart was put to the test he failed. He was
spiritually shallow. Unlike David he had no real conception of ‘the fear of God’.
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