World English Bible
- In those days, the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. Achish said to David, “Know assuredly that you will go out with me in the army, you and your men.”
- David said to Achish, “Therefore you will know what your servant can do.” Achish said to David, “Therefore I will make you my bodyguard forever.”
- Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. Saul had sent away those who had familiar spirits and the wizards out of the land.
- The Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and encamped in Shunem; and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they encamped in Gilboa.
- When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.
- When Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD didn’t answer him by dreams, by Urim, or by prophets.
- Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek for me a woman who has a familiar spirit, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” His servants said to him, “Behold, there is a woman who has a familiar spirit at Endor.”
- Saul disguised himself and put on other clothing, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night. Then he said, “Please consult for me by the familiar spirit, and bring me up whomever I shall name to you.”
- The woman said to him, “Behold, 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?”
- Saul swore to her by the LORD, saying, “As the LORD lives, no punishment will happen to you for this thing.”
- Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up to you?” He said, “Bring Samuel up for me.”
- 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!”
- The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid! What do you see?” The woman said to Saul, “I see a god coming up out of the earth.”
- He said to her, “What does he look like?” She said, “An old man comes up. He is covered with a robe.” Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and showed respect.
- Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me, to bring me up?” Saul answered, “I am very distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God has departed from me, and answers me no more, by prophets, or by dreams. Therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I shall do.”
- Samuel said, “Why then do you ask me, since the LORD has departed from you and has become your adversary?
- The LORD has done to you as he spoke by me. The LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, even to David.
- Because you didn’t obey the LORD’s voice, and didn’t execute his fierce wrath on Amalek, therefore the LORD has done this thing to you today.
- Moreover the LORD will deliver Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines; and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The LORD will deliver the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.”
- Then Saul fell immediately his full length on the earth, and was terrified, because of Samuel’s words. There was no strength in him, for he had eaten no bread all day long or all night long.
- The woman came to Saul and saw that he was very troubled, and said to him, “Behold, your servant 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, please listen also to the voice of your servant, and let me set a morsel of bread before you. Eat, that you may have strength when you go on your way.”
- 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.
- The woman had a fattened calf in the house. She hurried and killed it; and she took flour and kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread of it.
- She brought it before Saul and before his servants, and they ate. Then they rose up and went away that night.
The Long Shadow of Silence
The Philistine armies mass in the fertile Jezreel Valley. Saul, who once rallied Israel with Spirit-fueled courage (cf. 1 Sam 11), now trembles at Shunem’s campfires. Excavations at nearby Megiddo and Beth-shan show layers of Philistine pottery from this period—tangible reminders that the threat was real, not merely literary.
The narrator’s first theological note is stark: “When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid; terror filled his heart” (New International Version). The Hebrew verb for “terrified” (חרד, ḥārad) carries the sense of shaking to the core. Fear is the seedbed in which poor spiritual choices often grow.
Cross-references
• Psalm 27:1–3 — a contrasting picture of fear answered by trust.
• Isaiah 31:1 — warning against turning to human solutions when danger
looms.
Saul inquires of the Lord by three traditional channels—dreams, the Urim, and prophets—but “the Lord did not answer him.” The Urim and Thummim (small stones kept in the priestly breastpiece) functioned as lots; archaeologists have found comparable objects in Mari and Nuzi archives. Yet even the sacred dice stay silent.
The silence is not divine indifference; it is judicial. Earlier devotionals (see entries on chapters 13 and 15) traced Saul’s long drift from obedience. Silence is often God’s last word to hearts that will not listen.
Cross-references
• Proverbs 1:24–28 — wisdom withheld from the unresponsive.
• Amos 8:11 — famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
“Seek a woman who is a medium,” Saul orders. The Hebrew word for medium is אוֹב (ʾōb), literally “a hollowed-out skin” or “spirit-pit,” evoking the low moaning used to summon the dead. Irony rings loud: Saul himself had expelled such practitioners (Deuteronomy 18:10–12 was clear), yet he now seeks what he once banned.
Western readers may picture a spooky séance. In ancient Near Eastern culture, consulting the dead was often a family affair, done at ancestral tombs. Clay plaques from Ugarit show dining scenes with the departed—an attempt to secure guidance or blessing. Saul’s act is not only disobedient; it is an assault on Israel’s unique trust in the living God.
Disguised, Saul asks for Samuel. The woman sees “elohim coming up out of the earth.” Elohim here is plural in form but can mean a single “divine being.” Many scholars note the text’s matter-of-fact tone; the writer does not dwell on technique, only on result. God allows the dead prophet to speak—an act of sovereignty, not endorsement of necromancy.
Patristic voices differ:
• Justin Martyr and Augustine read it as a demonic imitation.
• Tertullian, Aquinas, Calvin, and most modern commentators accept that
it is truly Samuel, because the message is wholly consistent with
earlier prophecy and because the narrator says so without
qualification.
Either way, the encounter underscores Saul’s isolation. The prophetic voice he silenced in life now condemns him from beyond the grave.
“Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” The Hebrew idiom
literally reads, “made me tremble,” hinting that even righteous Samuel
dislikes being called from Sheol. His message contains three
parts:
1. The Lord has turned away.
2. The kingdom is torn out of Saul’s hand.
3. Tomorrow Saul and his sons will be with Samuel—dead.
The phrase “with me” is sobering. Death is the great leveler; king and commoner share the same dust. Samuel’s words echo earlier judgments (15:26–28) and align with 1 Chronicles 10:13, which later summarizes Saul’s death as the result of consulting a medium.
Literary Device
The narrative brims with tragic irony: Saul, desperate for guidance,
receives only confirmation of doom. The chiastic structure of Samuel’s
speech (past rejection → present silence → future defeat → death →
defeat restated) tightens the noose.
Saul collapses “full length on the ground.” The medium, whom he planned to use, now becomes caregiver—cooking a fatted calf and offering unleavened bread. In Near Eastern hospitality, feeding a guest sealed a temporary covenant of peace. Even here, God sprinkles common grace through an unlikely servant.
Spiritual Application
1. When we break God’s boundaries, we often end up relying on the very
people or systems we once condemned.
2. God’s mercy may find us in dark places, but it does not cancel
consequences.
• Kingship and Covenant: Saul’s tragedy sets the stage for David’s
ascent and for the promise of a better King whose communion with the
Father would never be broken (Luke 22:42).
• Life, Death, and Revelation: Scripture forbids necromancy not because
the dead cannot speak, but because God alone governs revelation (Isaiah
8:19–20). Christ, not ancestral spirits, is the Word made flesh.
• Divine Silence: At the cross, Jesus enters the deepest silence (“My
God, why have you forsaken me?”) so that we might never be shut out.
• John Chrysostom: “Saul’s ruin began in small disobedience and ended
where no prophet could help him.”
• Martin Luther: “When Scripture is closed to us, we must repent, not
run elsewhere for light.”
• C. S. Lewis (in The Silver Chair): “The lesson is, when Aslan is
silent, wait, keep to the signs already given.”
“God Moves in a Mysterious Way” — William Cowper, 1774
Its theme of unseen providence fits a chapter where God speaks even
through forbidden channels to accomplish His purpose.
Lord of light and truth,
Guard our hearts from fear that rushes us into forbidden paths.
Teach us to wait when the heavens seem silent,
to trust the words already spoken,
and to seek no voice above Yours.
May the stillness that once judged Saul become, for us, a holy
hush
in which we hear Your gentle whisper.
Through Jesus, the true and living Word, Amen.