The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Saul and the Medium of Endor
1 Samuel 28:7–25 — Saul and the Medium of Endor. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
7Then Saul said to his servants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I can go and consult her.” “There is a medium at Endor,” his servants replied.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šā·’ūl way·yō·mer la·‘ă·ḇā·ḏāw baq·qə·šū- lî ’ê·šeṯ ba·‘ă·laṯ- ’ō·wḇ wə·’ê·lə·ḵāh ’ê·le·hā wə·’eḏ·rə·šāh- bāh hin·nêh ’ê·šeṯ ba·‘ă·laṯ- ’ō·wḇ bə·‘ên dō·wr ‘ă·ḇā·ḏāw ’ê·lāw way·yō·mə·rū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said Saul to-his-servants: “Seek-ye-out for-me a-woman mistress-of-an-ʼôb, and-I-will-go unto-her and-I-will-inquire by-her.” And-said his-servants unto-him: “Behold, a-woman mistress-of-an-ʼôb in-En-dor.”
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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.
En-dor ] = fountain of the dwelling , was on the northern slope of the Little Hermon ( Neby Dûhy ), where the village of Endôr still marks the site. It was famous as the scene of Sisera’s defeat and death
Baalath-ob: the mistress (or possessor) of a conjuring spirit, i.e., of a spirit with which the dead were conjured up, for the purpose of making inquiry concerning the future
8So Saul disguised himself by putting on different clothes, and he set out with two of his men. They came to the woman at night, and Saul said, “Consult a spirit for me. Bring up for me the one I name.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šā·’ūl way·yiṯ·ḥap·pêś way·yil·baš ’ă·ḥê·rîm bə·ḡā·ḏîm way·yê·leḵ hū ‘im·mōw ū·šə·nê ’ă·nā·šîm way·yā·ḇō·’ū ’el- hā·’iš·šāh lā·yə·lāh way·yō·mer qå̄·sō·mī nå̄ bā·’ō·wḇ lî wə·ha·‘ă·lî lî ’êṯ ’ă·šer- ’ō·mar ’ê·lā·yiḵ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-disguised-himself Saul, and-he-put-on garments other, and-he-went — he and-two men with-him — and-they-came unto the-woman by-night. And-he-said: “Divine, I-pray-thee, for-me by-the-ʼôb, and-bring-up for-me him-whom I-shall-name unto-thee.”
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He does not seek God in his misery, but is led by Satan to unlawful means, which in his conscience he condemns.
The darkness around was a fit emblem of the darkness in Saul’s soul.
How nearly allied are infidelity and impiety to superstition; and what will not they do who will not confide in and obey God!
9But the woman replied, “Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has killed the mediums and spiritists in the land. Why have you set a trap to get me killed?”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hā·’iš·šāh wat·tō·mer ’ê·lāw hin·nêh ’at·tāh yā·ḏa‘·tā ’êṯ ’ă·šer- šā·’ūl ‘ā·śāh ’ă·šer hiḵ·rîṯ ’eṯ- hā·’ō·ḇō·wṯ wə·’eṯ- hay·yid·də·‘ō·nî min- hā·’ā·reṣ wə·lā·māh ’at·tāh miṯ·naq·qêš bə·nap̄·šî la·hă·mî·ṯê·nî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said the-woman unto-him: “Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath-done, how he-hath-cut-off the-ʼôbôth and-the-knowing-one out-of the-land. And-why art-thou laying-a-snare against-my-nephesh, to-cause-me-to-die?”
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As Saul had driven the necromantists out of the land, she was afraid that the unknown visitor (for it is evident from 1 Samuel 28:12 that she did not recognise Saul at first) might be laying a snare for her soul with his request
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
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.Ellicott alone raises the mercenary reading — that she may have been inflating her danger to raise her fee. It is a conjecture, offered as one, and the narrative never confirms it.
10Then Saul swore to her by the LORD: “As surely as the LORD lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šā·’ūl way·yiš·šā·ḇa‘ lāh Yah·weh lê·mōr Yah·weh ḥay- ’im- ‘ā·wōn yiq·qə·rêḵ bad·dā·ḇār haz·zeh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-swore to-her Saul by-YHWH, saying: “As-YHWH-liveth, there-shall-not befall thee guilt-punishment in-this-matter.”
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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
But when Saul swore to her that no punishment should fall upon her on that account (יקּרך אם, "shall assuredly not fall upon thee"), an oath which showed how utterly hardened Saul was
11“Whom shall I bring up for you?” the woman asked. “Bring up Samuel,” he replied.
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mî ’a·‘ă·leh- lāḵ hā·’iš·šāh ’eṯ- wat·tō·mer ha·‘ă·lî- lî šə·mū·’êl way·yō·mer ’eṯ-
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said the-woman: “Whom shall-I-bring-up for-thee?” And-he-said: “Bring-up for-me Samuel.”
Where the English smooths the original
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.Ellicott is quoting Archbishop Trench; the sentence is Trench's, recorded by Ellicott. Barnes quotes the same passage from Trench's Shipwrecks of Faith, which is why the two commentaries read almost identically here.
He speaks according to his gross ignorance not considering the state of the saints after this life, and how Satan has no power over them.
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
Many who despise and persecute God's saints and ministers when living, would be glad to have them again, when they are gone.
12But when the woman saw Samuel, she cried out in a loud voice and said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!”
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hā·’iš·šāh ’eṯ- wat·tê·re šə·mū·’êl wat·tiz·‘aq gā·ḏō·wl bə·qō·wl hā·’iš·šāh ’el- wat·tō·mer šā·’ūl lê·mōr lām·māh rim·mî·ṯā·nî wə·’at·tāh šā·’ūl
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-saw the-woman Samuel, and-she-shrieked with-a-voice great; and-said the-woman unto Saul, saying: “Why hast-thou deceived me — and-thou art Saul!”
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These words imply most unquestionably that the woman saw an apparition which she did not anticipate
It is manifest both that the apparition of Samuel was real, and also that the woman was utterly unprepared for it.
Her assertion that she saw Samuel was probably false; and it was in feigned excitement that she cried outSet here deliberately against Barnes and K&D on the facing page. The Pulpit Commentary holds the whole scene to be the woman's practised fraud; the brief preserves both readings and this edition does not adjudicate between them.
On the other hand, many eminent writers (considering that the apparition came before her arts were put in practice; that she herself was surprised and alarmed; that the prediction of Saul's own death and the defeat of his forces was confidently made), are of opinion that Samuel really appeared.JFB lays out both cases at length and declines to decide. This excerpt is the second half of that balance, not JFB's own verdict.
13“Do not be afraid,” the king replied. “What do you see?” “I see a god coming up out of the earth,” the woman answered.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’al- tî·rə·’î ham·me·leḵ way·yō·mer lāh kî māh rā·’îṯ rā·’î·ṯî ’ĕ·lō·hîm ‘ō·lîm min- hā·’ā·reṣ hā·’iš·šāh ’el- šā·’ūl wat·tō·mer
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said to-her the-king: “Fear-not. For what seest-thou?” And-said the-woman unto Saul: “ʼElôhîm I-have-seen coming-up out-of the-earth.”
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But it is evident from 1 Samuel 28:14 that only a single figure appeared. Elôhîm here denotes a supernatural, non-earthly being
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.
She useth the plural number, gods, either after the manner of the Hebrew language, which commonly useth that word of one person
14“What does he look like?” asked Saul. “An old man is coming up,” she replied. “And he is wearing a robe.” So Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed facedown in reverence.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mah- tā·’o·rōw way·yō·mer lāh zā·qên ’îš ‘ō·leh wat·tō·mer wə·hū ‘ō·ṭeh mə·‘îl šā·’ūl way·yê·ḏa‘ kî- hū šə·mū·’êl way·yiq·qōḏ ’ap·pa·yim ’ar·ṣāh way·yiš·tā·ḥū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-said to-her: “What-is his-form?” And-she-said: “An-old-man coming-up, and-he wrapped-in a-mᵉʻîl.” And-knew Saul that-it-was Samuel-himself, and-he-bowed-low, nostrils to-the-earth, and-he-prostrated-himself.
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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.
At first Samuel was seen by the witch only, but Saul’s obeisance, and the conversation carried on between them, seem to indicate that he afterwards became visible to Saul also.
But that it was not Samuel, but the devil representing Samuel, is sufficiently evident.Poole's is the sharpest statement of the demonic-impersonation reading held by Luther, Calvin and most of the earlier Protestant commentators. K&D, who records that history in full, takes the opposite side. The brief preserves both.
15Then Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” “I am deeply distressed,” replied Saul. “The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has 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.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šə·mū·’êl way·yō·mer ’el- šā·’ūl lām·māh hir·gaz·ta·nî lə·ha·‘ă·lō·wṯ ’ō·ṯî lî mə·’ōḏ ṣar- way·yō·mer šā·ʾûl ū·p̄ə·liš·tîm nil·ḥā·mîm bî wê·lō·hîm sār mê·‘ā·lay wə·lō- ‘ō·wḏ ‘ā·nā·nî gam bə·yaḏ- han·nə·ḇî·’im gam- ba·ḥă·lō·mō·wṯ wā·’eq·rā·’eh lə·ḵā lə·hō·w·ḏî·‘ê·nî māh ’e·‘ĕ·śeh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said Samuel unto Saul: “Why hast-thou made-me-quake, to-bring-me-up?” And-said Saul: “Straitened to-me exceedingly — and-the-Philistines are-fighting against-me, and-ʼElôhîm has-turned-aside from-upon-me, and-He-answers-me no more, neither by-hand-of the-prophets nor by-dreams. And-I-called to-thee to-make-known to-me what I-shall-do.”
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I know not anywhere a sadder story: and I know not where human lips ever poured out a more awful wail-like a Titan in his rage of pain- than these words of our text.
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.Ellicott is quoting Dr. W. M. Taylor of New York; the sentence is Taylor's, preserved in Ellicott's notes.
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 reasonK&D is quoting Clericus here; the closing epigram is Clericus's, and K&D sets it down with approval.
16“Why do you consult me,” asked Samuel, “since the LORD has turned away from you and become your enemy?
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wə·lām·māh tiš·’ā·lê·nî way·yō·mer šə·mū·’êl Yah·weh sār mê·‘ā·le·ḵā way·hî ‘ā·re·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said Samuel: “And-why dost-thou ask me — and-YHWH has-turned-aside from-upon-thee, and-He-has-become thy-ʻār?”
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In other words, If Jehovah have left thee, why comest thou to consult me, His servant and prophet?
The expression is startling, and it is almost certain that there is some corruption in the text.Cambridge's textual doubt is the reason the Psalm 139:20 thread below is flagged rather than confirmed.
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 wasGill writes throughout on the assumption that the speaker is a demonic impersonator, and reads the harshness of this line as evidence of that. K&D and Benson read the same line as the honest severity of the true prophet.
17He has done exactly what He spoke through me: The LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor David.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
Yah·weh lōw way·ya·‘aś ka·’ă·šer dib·ber bə·yā·ḏî Yah·weh ’eṯ- way·yiq·ra‘ ham·mam·lā·ḵāh mî·yā·ḏe·ḵā way·yit·tə·nāh lə·rê·‘ă·ḵā lə·ḏā·wiḏ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-has-done YHWH for-Himself according-as He-spoke by-my-hand: and-YHWH has-torn the-kingdom out-of-thy-hand, and-has-given-it to-thy-neighbour, to-David.
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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.Ellicott is recording Bishop Wordsworth's argument, not stating his own conclusion.
for the accomplishment of his counsel, and prediction, and oath, and for the glory of his justice and holiness.
The perfects express the purpose of God, which had already been formed, and was now about to be fulfilled.
Saul's rebellion is there said, in ver. 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.The Pulpit Commentary supplies the cross-reference that makes this verse turn: at 1 Samuel 15:23 Samuel called rebellion a sin as great as the divination Saul was then punishing with executions.
18Because you did not obey the LORD or carry out His burning anger against Amalek, the LORD has done this to you today.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ka·’ă·šer lō- šā·ma‘·tā bə·qō·wl Yah·weh wə·lō- ‘ā·śî·ṯā ḥă·rō·wn- ’ap·pōw ba·‘ă·mā·lêq ‘al- kên had·dā·ḇār Yah·weh ‘ā·śāh- haz·zeh lə·ḵā hay·yō·wm haz·zeh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
According-as thou didst-not hearken to-the-voice of-YHWH, and-didst-not do the-burning of-His-nostril against-Amalek — therefore this-thing has-YHWH done to-thee this day.
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The connexion between the sin and the sentence is emphasized by the use of the same verb in the original in both clauses.
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 diedGill's strongest argument for the impersonation reading, and an honest difficulty for the opposite view: the oracle names Amalek and says nothing of Nob or of the night's own sin.
Nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek; he mentions this as an eminent instance of his disobedience.
19Moreover, the LORD will deliver Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. And the LORD will deliver the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
gam Yah·weh ’eṯ- wə·yit·tên yiś·rā·’êl ‘im·mə·ḵā bə·yaḏ- pə·liš·tîm ū·mā·ḥār ’at·tāh ū·ḇā·ne·ḵā ‘im·mî gam ’eṯ- Yah·weh yit·tên ma·ḥă·nêh yiś·rā·’êl bə·yaḏ- pə·liš·tîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-will-give YHWH also Israel with-thee into-the-hand of-the-Philistines; and-tomorrow thou and-thy-sons shall-be with-me. Also the-camp of-Israel will-YHWH give into-the-hand of-the-Philistines.
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but by using this gentler expression, he mildly exhorted him to repentance. While there was life there was hope: the door was still open.Ellicott is quoting Bishop Wordsworth. The claim that the door stood open is a pastoral inference, not something the text states.
In Sheôl or Hades, the abode of departed spirits of righteous and wicked alike.
Now as no evil spirit or impostor of any kind could possibly know these particulars, which were all exactly accomplished next day
so doth this counterfeit Samuel here. For, as concerning the time, he says to-morrow; which he understood indifferently for the very next day, or for some short time after.Directly contradicts Benson above on the same words. Poole's case rests on reading machar loosely; Benson's on reading it strictly.
20Immediately Saul fell flat on the ground, terrified by the words of Samuel. And his strength was gone, because he had not eaten anything all that day and night.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·ma·hêr šā·’ūl way·yip·pōl mə·lō- qō·w·mā·ṯōw ’ar·ṣāh way·yi·rā mə·’ōḏ mid·diḇ·rê šə·mū·’êl gam- kō·aḥ ḇōw hā·yāh lō- kî lō ’ā·ḵal le·ḥem kāl- hay·yō·wm wə·ḵāl hal·lā·yə·lāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-hastened, Saul, and-he-fell the-fulness-of-his-stature earthward, and-he-feared exceedingly from-the-words of-Samuel. Also strength was-not in-him, for he-had-not-eaten bread all the-day and-all the-night.
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These words so alarmed him, that he fell his whole length upon the ground; for he had been kneeling hitherto
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.
Terror of mind and exhaustion of body left him powerless.
21When the woman came to Saul and saw how distraught he was, she said to him, “Look, your maidservant has obeyed your voice. I took my life in my hands and did as you told me.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hā·’iš·šāh wat·tā·ḇō·w ’el- šā·’ūl wat·tê·re kî- niḇ·hal mə·’ōḏ wat·tō·mer ’ê·lāw hin·nêh šip̄·ḥā·ṯə·ḵā šā·mə·‘āh bə·qō·w·le·ḵā wā·’ā·śîm nap̄·šî bə·ḵap·pî wā·’eš·ma‘ ’eṯ- də·ḇā·re·ḵā ’ă·šer dib·bar·tā ’ê·lāy
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-came the-woman unto Saul and-saw that he-was terrified exceedingly, and-she-said unto-him: “Behold, thy-handmaid has-hearkened to-thy-voice, and-I-put my-nephesh in-my-palm, and-I-hearkened to-thy-words which thou-spokest unto-me.”
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The witch, though a grievous sinner, is struck with a woman’s pity for the stricken king, 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.
exposed it to the utmost danger, since a person of her profession, and token in the exercise of it, was punishable with death
As she had fulfilled his wish at the risk of her own life, she entreated him now to gratify her wish
22Now please listen to your servant and let me set a morsel of bread before you so you may eat and have the strength to go on your way.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·‘at·tāh nā ḡam- ’at·tāh bə·qō·wl šə·ma‘- šip̄·ḥā·ṯe·ḵā wə·’ā·śi·māh paṯ- le·ḥem lə·p̄ā·ne·ḵā we·’ĕ·ḵō·wl wî·hî ḇə·ḵā kō·aḥ kî ṯê·lêḵ bad·dā·reḵ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-now, hearken thou also, I-pray-thee, to-the-voice of-thy-handmaid, and-let-me-set before-thee a-morsel of-bread, and-eat — and-let-there-be in-thee strength, for thou-goest on-the-way.”
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The E. V. fails to bring out the exact parallel which the woman draws between her own compliance and the compliance she asks from Saul.
This earnestness did not come merely from her humanity and respect to Saul, but from a prudent and necessary care of herself, because if Saul had died in her house, his blood would have been charged upon her.Poole's reading of her motive is more guarded than Ellicott's and K&D's, who take her kindness at face value. The text states neither motive.
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.
23Saul refused, saying, “I will not eat.” But his servants joined the woman in urging him, and he heeded their voice. He got up from the ground and sat on the bed.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·mā·’ên way·yō·mer lō ’ō·ḵal ‘ă·ḇā·ḏāw wə·ḡam- hā·’iš·šāh way·yip̄·rə·ṣū- ḇōw way·yiš·ma‘ lə·qō·lām way·yā·qām mê·hā·’ā·reṣ way·yê·šeḇ ’el- ham·miṭ·ṭāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-refused and-said: “I-will-not eat.” And-his-servants broke-in upon-him, and-also the-woman, and-he-hearkened to-their-voice, and-he-rose from-the-earth and-sat upon the-bed.
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or divan, such as in the East still runs along the wall, furnished with cushions, for those who sit at meals
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
Compelled him, i.e. did over-persuade him, by importunate entreaties, as the next words show.
24The woman had a fattened calf at her house, and she quickly slaughtered it. She also took flour, kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·lā·’iš·šāh mar·bêq ‘ê·ḡel- bab·ba·yiṯ wat·tə·ma·hêr wat·tiz·bā·ḥê·hū wat·tiq·qaḥ- qe·maḥ wat·tā·lāš wat·tō·p̄ê·hū maṣ·ṣō·wṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-to-the-woman was a-calf of-the-stall in-the-house; and-she-hastened and-slaughtered it, and-she-took flour and-kneaded, and-she-baked-it unleavened-cakes.
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This was reckoned a very dainty dish in those countries, and fit for any guests, see Genesis 18:7 ; Josephus says (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
With the Bedawin it is nearly universal to cook the meat immediately after it is butchered, and to bake fresh bread for every meal.Cambridge is quoting The Land and the Book. The observation is nineteenth-century travel ethnography, offered as background to the speed of the meal, not as evidence about the text.
There was no time to be lost; so she did not wait to leaven the dough, but at once baked it, and set it before the king.
25She served it to Saul and his servants, and they ate. And that night they got up and left.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wat·tag·gêš lip̄·nê- šā·’ūl wə·lip̄·nê ‘ă·ḇā·ḏāw way·yō·ḵê·lū ha·hū bal·lay·lāh way·yā·qu·mū way·yê·lə·ḵū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-she-brought-it-near before Saul and-before his-servants, and-they-ate. And-they-rose-up and-went-away in-that night.
Where the English smooths the original
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 people. In stolid desperation he went to meet his destiny.Ellicott is quoting O. von Gerlach; K&D quotes the same passage at this verse, which is why the two read alike here.
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 went away before day; not willing to have it discovered that he had consulted with a witch.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit opens with a search party. בַּקְּשׁוּ (baq·qə·šū, H1245, Piel imperative plural) is the verb of seeking that Scripture normally aims at the LORD, and Saul aims it at a class of person he had himself hunted out of the land. Ellicott reads the moment as the extinction of a real zeal: the king “was left alone to himself,” and what had been religious fervour had swerved from the moral principle that alone could guide it. K&D supplies the grammar that the English hides — baʻălaṯ-ʼôḇ is not “a medium” but “the mistress (or possessor) of a conjuring spirit.” ⚙ Note what the servants' answer costs them nothing: they know exactly where she lives. Poole says so bluntly — instead of dissuading him, “they further him in it.” The route matters too: JFB and Cambridge both place En-dor on the far side of the ridge where the Philistines were camped, so that the disguise of v. 8 served the double purpose Ellicott names, hiding him from the witch and from the enemy army he was about to fight. Then in v. 10 the king who is seeking the dead swears by the living God — חַי־יְהוָה — and Gill lets the incongruity stand without softening it: “it is much that Saul… could take the name of the Lord into his mouth.” K&D calls the oath the measure of the man.
The narrator writes, without hedging, וַתֵּרֶא הָאִשָּׁה אֶת־שְׁמוּאֵל — “and the woman saw Samuel.” Benson stakes the historian's credit on that clause and objects that the English inserted “when” invents an interval of incantation the Hebrew does not give. Barnes agrees that the apparition was real and that she was unprepared for it; K&D says her cry proves “she saw an apparition which she did not anticipate.” Against them stand Poole, Gill and Geneva, who hold the figure to be a demonic impersonation — Poole's reasons are the worship Saul offers it in v. 14, its claim to have been disturbed, and the sins it fails to name — and the Pulpit Commentary, which holds the whole scene to be the woman's practised fraud: “her assertion that she saw Samuel was probably false.” JFB sets out both cases at length and declines to decide. ⚙ This edition declines as well, and records why: every position in that list is an inference about a mechanism the text never describes. What the text does describe is a plural noun with a plural participle — אֱלֹהִים עֹלִים, which Cambridge glosses as “a supernatural, non-earthly being” and K&D as “celestial” — and a מְעִיל, a robe, the garment Saul had once torn (1 Samuel 15:27) and which Samuel had turned into a sign of a kingdom torn away.
Saul came for guidance and receives a verdict. His own diagnosis in v. 15 — סָר מֵעָלַי, God “has turned aside from upon me” — is repeated back to him word for word in v. 16 with from upon thee: nothing he said about his situation is contradicted, only his remedy. K&D, quoting Clericus, exposes the incoherence in his own reasoning: he thought “a dead one might be called up, as if a dead one were less dependent upon God than the living… But fear and superstition never reason.” The oracle itself adds exactly one new fact to what Samuel had said alive at 1 Samuel 15:28 — the רֵעַ, the neighbour, is named, and his name is David. Cambridge shows the craftsmanship of v. 18: “the connexion between the sin and the sentence is emphasized by the use of the same verb in the original in both clauses” — what Saul did not do to Amalek, the LORD has now done to him. Gill's objection is the honest one and this edition does not bury it: the oracle names Amalek and says nothing of Nob, nor of this night's own sin, which 1 Chronicles 10:13 names as the transgression for which Saul died. On “tomorrow thou and thy sons shall be with me,” Henry restricts the meaning to the eternal world, Cambridge to Sheol “of righteous and wicked alike,” and Ellicott records Augustine's careful limit: likeness of condition, not equality of bliss. Poole, reading מָחָר loosely, calls the whole oracle a heathen ambiguity; Benson, reading it strictly, calls its fulfilment the proof that no impostor spoke it. Both readings are in the brief; both are preserved here.
The chapter's final movement is the quietest and the strangest. The man introduced to Israel by his קוֹמָה, his height, now measures “the fulness of his stature” on a floor — Cambridge gives the literal wording. He told the woman in v. 13 not to fear, using yârêʼ; v. 20 uses yârêʼ of him. ⚙ Then the chapter does something no reader expects. The outlawed woman feeds him. She names herself שִׁפְחָה, a household slave, and says the one thing the prophet said Saul never did: thy handmaid has hearkened to thy voice — the exact idiom of v. 18, where Saul did not hearken to the voice of the LORD. Cambridge catches the parallel the English loses: the E.V. “fails to bring out the exact parallel which the woman draws between her own compliance and the compliance she asks.” Her motive is disputed — Ellicott and K&D read natural pity, Poole reads prudent self-protection, since a king dead in her house would be charged to her — and the text states neither. What it states is the menu: a stall-fed calf, עֵגֶל מַרְבֵּק, and unleavened cakes baked in haste. Gill notes it was a dainty dish, and that Josephus commends her liberality. Henry gives the verdict on the man: terrified even to despair, he was not humbled; he confessed no sins, offered no sacrifice, presented no supplications. Ellicott, quoting von Gerlach, closes it: “In stolid desperation he went to meet his destiny.”
⚙ Offered as the tool's own fallible reading, to be tested against the text. Endor is not primarily a chapter about the occult. It is a chapter about a man who would rather have information than a relationship, and who discovered that the two are not interchangeable. Saul's complaint in v. 15 is perfectly accurate and entirely misdirected: God has turned aside, He answers no more — therefore, therefore, I have called thee. The word therefore is where the whole ruin lives. A silence from God is an invitation to repent; Saul treats it as a supply problem and goes looking for another vendor. And when the answer comes it contains nothing he did not already know, except a name he could have guessed. He risked his life crossing the Philistine lines, broke the law he had enforced with executions, and swore by the living God to protect a necromancer — in order to be told again what Samuel had told him years before to his face and he had declined to receive. That is the shape of the sin: not that he consulted a spirit, but that he had already refused the word when it came through the ordinary, lawful, living means, and kept asking for it in forms he could control. Notice what he does not ask, in the whole chapter. He does not ask for mercy. He never says he is sorry. Henry saw it: terrified to despair, and not humbled. And then notice who is kind to him. The last hands to serve this king are the hands of a woman his own edict had marked for death, and she is the only person in the chapter who does what she is asked. ⚙ The tool's reading is that Scripture sets that next to the king's refusal deliberately and without comment, and lets the reader feel the weight of it. Every mechanism question here — did Samuel truly rise, was it a demon, was it fraud — is a question the text refuses to answer, and the fathers, the Reformers and the nineteenth-century commentators split over it precisely because the evidence is not given. What is given is a man who could get an answer out of Sheol and could not get himself to say one honest word to God.
Endor is what it looks like when a man wants the answer more than he wants the One who gives it.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
Saul's instruction in v. 7 is worded out of the law that forbids it. The Verifier records the shared lexemes אוֹב (ʼôwb, H178) and דָּרַשׁ (dârash, H1875) between 1 Samuel 28:7 and Deuteronomy 18:11 — the identical noun-plus-verb pairing by which Moses proscribes the consulter of a familiar spirit. ʼÔwb is rare: it stands in only 16 verses of the whole Hebrew Bible, and most of them are prohibitions or indictments. Henry names the reference without being prompted by the lexicon: “this was expressly forbidden, De 18:11.” Cambridge and JFB cite the same law. ⚙ The force of the link is that the king does not stumble into a grey area; he quotes the banned category to his own servants.
Deuteronomy 18:11 · Leviticus 19:31
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H178 ʼôwb (rare — in 16 vv) and H1875 dârash (in 152 vv) between 1 Sa 28:7 and Dt 18:11; the rarity of ʼôwb plus the fixed dârash-be-ʼôb collocation makes this a real verbal link to the statute. Leviticus 19:31 shares H178 ʼôwb with H1245 bâqash (in 215 vv). Not a formal citation — the narrative does not quote the law, it uses its vocabulary.
In v. 9 the woman says Saul הִכְרִית (hiḵ·rîṯ, Hifil of kârath, H3772) the ʼôbôth out of the land. Leviticus 20:6 uses the same verb of what the LORD will do to the person who turns to an ʼôb: “I will set my face against that soul, and will cut him off.” The Verifier records both lexemes shared — H178 ʼôwb (16 vv) and H3772 kârath (280 vv). Gill establishes from the woman's own reasoning that Saul's purge was capital, not merely an expulsion: “he did not merely expel them his dominions, but he put them to death, according to the law of God.” K&D cites Leviticus 20:27 as the statute she fears. ⚙ The irony is not the commentators' invention but the text's arithmetic: the executioner of the statute has placed himself under its other clause.
Leviticus 20:6 · Leviticus 20:27
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H178 ʼôwb (rare — in 16 vv) and H3772 kârath (in 280 vv) between this unit and Lv 20:6. The rare lexeme carries the link; kârath alone would prove nothing. No quotation is claimed in either direction.
Isaiah's taunt uses the same two words as Saul's order: dârash and ʼôb, of those who seek the mutterers and peepers instead of their God, and “on behalf of the living, the dead.” Poole cites Isaiah 8:19 in his note on v. 7; Barnes cites it as a characteristic setting for this sense of the verb; Gill cites it at v. 14 for the whispering and muttering of such oracles. The Verifier confirms the shared lexemes. ⚙ Read forward, 1 Samuel 28 is the narrative case study Isaiah later argues from — and Isaiah 19:3, which the Verifier also returns with the same pair, applies the identical charge to Egypt, so the prophets treat the behaviour as a single recognizable act wherever it appears.
Isaiah 8:19 · Isaiah 19:3
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H1875 dârash (in 152 vv) and H178 ʼôwb (rare — in 16 vv) with both Is 8:19 and Is 19:3. Verbal on the strength of the rare lexeme and the fixed collocation; neither prophet cites 1 Samuel, so no quotation is asserted.
At v. 16 Samuel says the LORD has become עָרֶךָ (‘ā·re·ḵā, from ʻâr, H6145). The Verifier returns Psalm 139:20 as the only other verse in the canon carrying this lexeme — a frequency of 2, which would normally make the link as strong as a lexical link can be. ⚙ But the basis is contested at its root. Cambridge judges: “The expression is startling, and it is almost certain that there is some corruption in the text,” noting that the form is Aramaic and that the Septuagint (“has turned to be with thy neighbour”), the Vulgate (“to thy rival”) and the Targum (“the help of a man who is thine enemy”) all point elsewhere. Ellicott suggests a copyist's confusion of ayin for tsadde. K&D defends the Masoretic reading and cites Psalm 139:20 and Daniel 4:16 in its support. Because the rarity that would justify a verbal tier depends on a reading three ancient versions and two modern commentators dispute, this edition downgrades rather than builds.
Psalm 139:20
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H6145 ʻâr (in 2 vv) — the rarest link in this unit, and the reason it must be flagged rather than confirmed: Cambridge calls the MT reading almost certainly corrupt, Ellicott proposes ʻayin/tsadde confusion, and LXX, Vulgate and Targum each read differently. K&D defends the MT. The lexical link is real only if the MT stands.
Verse 24 uses three verbs in order: וַתְּמַהֵר (mâhar, H4116), קֶמַח (qemach, H7058), וַתָּלָשׁ (lûwsh, H3888). Genesis 18:6 has the same three, in the same order, when Abraham hastens to Sarah and she takes fine flour and kneads it for the three visitors. Lûwsh stands in only 5 verses in the canon and qemach in 14, so the triple is not an accident of common speech. Cambridge, reasoning only from ethnography, points to the same passage: “Cp. Genesis 18:6 ff.” ⚙ The synthesis offered here is restrained: the Hebrew has one standard way of telling a story about an unexpected guest fed at speed, and this narrator uses it — which places a hospitality formula from the friend of God into the house of a woman under sentence of death. The text draws no moral from that. Neither will this note.
Genesis 18:6
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H3888 lûwsh (rare — in 5 vv), H7058 qemach (in 14 vv) and H4116 mâhar (in 61 vv) with Gn 18:6, occurring in the same sequence. The rarity of lûwsh would license a verbal tier, and this edition declines it: the three words are a shared narrative formula for a guest fed at speed, not a quotation and not a demonstrable allusion. Downgraded deliberately.
Verse 23 seats Saul on the מִטָּה (miṭṭâh, H4296) — Barnes and Cambridge both insist it is the divan running along the wall, not a bed — and v. 24 sets before him a עֵגֶל מַרְבֵּק, a calf of the stall. Amos 6:4 indicts those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves on their couches and eat calves out of the midst of the stall, using all three lexemes: miṭṭâh, ʻêgel, marbêq. Marbêq occurs in only 4 verses in the whole Hebrew Bible. ⚙ Amos is condemning luxury and this is a night meal in a village hut, so no charge transfers; what transfers is the picture. Israel's first king takes his last recorded meal in the exact posture and with the exact menu that the prophets would later make the emblem of a nation eating well on the eve of its own captivity.
Amos 6:4 · Jeremiah 46:21
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H4770 marbêq (rare — in 4 vv), H5695 ʻêgel (in 35 vv) and H4296 miṭṭâh (in 29 vv) with Am 6:4; H4770 + H5695 with Jr 46:21. The rare lexeme would support a verbal tier, but the resemblance is a shared scene and posture rather than a verbal allusion, so the tier is deliberately downgraded.
The place name עֵין־דֹּאר (ʻÊyn-Dôʼr, H5874) appears in only 3 verses of the Hebrew Bible: here, Joshua 17:11 in the Manassite town list, and Psalm 83:10, which remembers that Sisera and Jabin “perished at En-dor; they became as dung for the earth.” Cambridge makes the connection explicitly at v. 7: En-dor “was famous as the scene of Sisera's defeat and death (Psalm 83:10).” Gill and K&D both route the reader to Joshua 17:11 for the site. ⚙ The reading offered is structural, not verbal: the ground where the LORD once broke a Canaanite army for Israel is the ground where Israel's own king, on the eve of a Philistine battle, crawls in the dark to consult the dead. The narrator never says it. The psalmist's memory of the place says it for him.
Psalm 83:10 · Joshua 17:11
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H5874 ʻÊyn-Dôʼr (in 3 vv). Deliberately NOT tiered verbal despite the rarity: a shared proper place-name establishes a common setting, not a verbal allusion, and Ps 83:10 makes no reference to Saul. Cambridge records the same pairing independently.
Cambridge, annotating baʻălaṯ-ʼôḇ at v. 7, sends the reader straight across the Testaments: “Lit. ‘possessor of an Ob.' See on 1 Samuel 28:3, and cp. Acts 16:16” — the slave girl at Philippi with a pneuma pythōna, whose owners made money by her soothsaying. JFB independently calls the woman of En-dor a “pythoness,” the same Greek term. ⚙ Both scenes present a woman owned or owning in the traffic of oracles, both sit beside a political authority, and both end with the speaking silenced — one by Paul's command, one by the death of the king who came to buy. No shared lexeme is possible here: 1 Samuel 28 is Hebrew and Acts 16 is Greek, so no Strong's number can bridge them and the link cannot be tiered verbal on any evidence. It rests on Cambridge's and JFB's own cross-reference and on a shared institutional picture, and it is tiered accordingly.
Acts 16:16
basis: Cross-Testament (Hebrew↔Greek): shared Strong's numbers are impossible by definition, so a verbal tier is unavailable and is not claimed. Basis is the named cross-reference supplied by Cambridge at 1 Sa 28:7 (cp. Acts 16:16) and JFB's use of 'pythoness' for this woman, plus a shared social institution — a person owned/owning in the trade of oracles, standing beside political power.
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
The governing verb of this chapter is עָלָה in the Hifil, cause to come up, three times in nine verses (vv. 8, 11, 15), always with a human subject and always aimed downward, מִן־הָאָרֶץ, out of the earth. Ellicott traces the cosmology behind it and takes it straight to Paul: “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,” adding that “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).” Barnes places Sheol under the earth from Isaiah 14:9-10 and Ezekiel 32:18; K&D, commenting on the same verb, says that minds bound by time and space have no other way to picture the difference between blessedness with God and shade-life in death. ⚙ Set beside that, Romans 10:7 is startling in its exactness: Paul forbids the question “Who will descend into the abyss? (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)” — the identical operation Saul commissioned, refused as a way of obtaining the word, because the word is already near. Saul paid a night's journey and a broken oath for a descent. The gospel's claim is that the descent was made once, from the other direction, by the One who came up and was not fetched.
Ephesians 4:9 · Romans 10:7 · 1 Samuel 28:11
Cambridge, at v. 8, reaches for John's Gospel unprompted: “Cp. John 13:30, and Augustine's comment ‘Nox erat, et ipse qui exivit erat nox' (It was night, and he who went forth was night).” The comparison is Cambridge's, and its warrant is the doubled לַיְלָה that opens (v. 8) and closes (v. 25) this unit. ⚙ The synthesis offered here extends that pairing and marks it as the tool's own. In the upper room there is bread, a man who takes the morsel, and a going out into the night that ends in death by his own hand. At En-dor there is unleavened bread baked in haste, a king who takes it, and a going out into the night that ends the next day in death by his own hand. Both meals are eaten after the sentence has already been pronounced and received. ⚙ But the reading must state its limit, and the limit is total: Saul is not a figure of Christ in this scene, he is a figure of what happens to a man who receives the word and will not repent. The unleavened cakes here are explained by every commentator in the brief, and by the Hebrew, as haste — Ellicott, Geneva, Gill and Cambridge all say she had no time to leaven the dough — and this edition refuses to convert that practicality into a Passover claim. What is offered is the pattern, not a type: Scripture knows what it looks like when a condemned man eats his last bread in the dark and walks out into it.
John 13:30 · 1 Samuel 28:25
Samuel's עִמִּי in v. 19 is two syllables that say almost nothing. Cambridge fixes its horizon: Sheol, “the abode of departed spirits of righteous and wicked alike.” Henry holds it to mean “no more than that they shall be in the eternal world.” Ellicott records Augustine's careful restriction — likeness of condition, not equality of bliss — and Wordsworth's judgment that Samuel, having no commission to damn, used a mild word that left a door open. ⚙ The reading offered here, as the tool's own, is that the whole weight of the gospel sits in the difference between that sentence and Luke 23:43. Both are spoken to a condemned man on the eve of his death. Both promise company beyond it. One says: tomorrow you will be where I am, and cannot say what that is. The other says: today you will be with me, in Paradise — and names it. The difference is not in the grammar but in who is speaking. A prophet can only tell a dying man where the dead go. ⚙ This pairing is a reading, not a received typology; it is offered to be tested, and its only sourced ground is the commentators' own insistence, quoted above, that Samuel's with me is deliberately and honestly indeterminate.
Luke 23:43 · 1 Samuel 28:19
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
Text. Three places in this unit carry live textual questions, and the English of BSB resolves each without signalling it. (1) v. 8 קָסוֹמִי — K&D notes the Chethibh form and refers to Judges 9:8. (2) v. 16 עָרֶךָ, “thine enemy” — Cambridge calls a corruption “almost certain,” listing the Aramaic form and the divergence of the ancient versions (LXX: “has turned to be with thy neighbour”; Vulgate: “to thy rival”; Targum: “the help of a man who is thine enemy”); Ellicott proposes a copyist's ayin for tsadde; K&D defends the Masoretic text, citing Psalm 139:20 and Daniel 4:16. This edition flags the resulting thread rather than building on it. (3) v. 17 לוֹ, “to him / for himself” — Barnes and Ellicott prefer “for Himself”; Geneva and Poole read “to David”; K&D records that LXX and Vulgate altered it to “to thee,” and calls the alteration arbitrary. Cambridge lays out all three.
The disputed question. Whether Samuel actually appeared is not settled by this unit and is not settled here. For a real appearance: Benson (who stakes the narrator's credibility on the verb “saw” in v. 12), Barnes, Ellicott (with Bishop Wordsworth), Cambridge (“It is assumed in the notes here that Samuel really appeared and spoke”), K&D, and Henry (who frames it as divine permission). For a demonic impersonation: Poole, Gill, Geneva. For fraud by the woman: the Pulpit Commentary. JFB presents both sides and declines. K&D's note preserves the history of the question — Ephraem Syrus, Luther (1522), Calvin (Hom. 100) and most earlier Protestant theologians against a real appearance; the Septuagint at 1 Chronicles 10:13 and Ecclesiasticus 46:20 for it. That K&D entry is capped in the brief (about 8,500 further characters), as are the Ellicott entry at v. 12 (about 210 characters), the Maclaren sermon at v. 15 (about 4,680 characters), and the Pulpit note at v. 17 (about 57 characters). No excerpt in this unit was taken from beyond a cap.
What is uncertain in the machine layer. The En-dor/Psalm 83:10 pairing and the Amos 6:4 pairing are tiered structural rather than verbal by deliberate downgrade, even though the Verifier's rare lexemes (H5874, 3 verses; H4770, 4 verses) would technically license a verbal tier — a shared place name and a shared domestic scene are not verbal allusions. The Acts 16:16 thread cannot be tiered verbal at all, because Greek and Hebrew share no Strong's numbers; it rests on Cambridge's and JFB's own cross-references. The Genesis 18:6 link is the strongest purely lexical result in the unit after H6145, and it too is tiered structural by deliberate downgrade: three shared words, one of them rare, still amount to a narrative formula for a guest fed at speed rather than a demonstrable allusion. The two Christ readings marked “novel” — the En-dor/upper-room pairing and the “with me”/“with me in Paradise” pairing — are the tool's own and are offered to be tested; neither is a received typology, and the unleavened cakes of v. 24 are explained by the brief's commentators, unanimously, as haste and not as Passover. Chronology: Gill and Poole both observe that the battle does not appear to have fallen on the literal next day, which bears on how מָחָר in v. 19 should be read; Benson and Ellicott read it strictly. The brief does not decide it, and neither does this unit.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)