Then said Saul to his servants, Seek me a woman that has a spirit of Python, that I may go to her and inquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman who has a spirit of Python at En-dor.
God has gone silent, and Saul is out of options. So he sends his servants to find a medium — but what could she give him that God would not?
The verse opens with "then." It follows straight on from a prayer God would not answer. One writer sets that prayer beside the summary in Chronicles, which says Saul did not inquire of the Lord at all. (The quote uses an older translation.)
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Let us look for a moment at 1 Sam. 28:6, "And when Saul inquired of the Lord," and compare it with 1 Chron. 10:14, "And inquired not of the Lord." Samuel records the outward act. In Chronicles the Holy Spirit gives God's judgment on the inward state of his soul. Despair squeezed a useless cry out of his heart, but there was no real turning to Him. And He never shuts out the most desperate cry from a truly broken soul. All help was gone. In his fear he inquires of the Lord he had always disobeyed and neglected.
The silence was worse for Saul than Israel's old idolatry had been.
This position was more miserable than when Israel had followed magic and strange gods! At least those had seemed to answer Israel. It was an illusion, no doubt, but an illusion that lifted their sinking spirits for a moment. Now: nothing but silence… What to do? Whom to consult? Whom to lean on?
Saul himself had cleared mediums out of the land. Now he sends men to find one — breaking his own law as well as God's.
Consider, too, Saul's grievous sin in consulting the woman at Endor who had a familiar spirit, after having "put away those that had familiar spirits… out of the land" (1 Sam. 28:3)… By turning to this woman of Endor, Saul commits this terrible sin against his own ban and in inexcusable disobedience to God's command. All he hears from Samuel is, once more, the reason God had rejected him.
Another writer sees a judgment behind the move, not just a bad decision.
What a terrible judgment, when God takes back the grace a man has stubbornly despised! No other resource remained for Saul but to return to those things he had once thrown up.
Older translations call her a woman with a "familiar spirit." One dictionary explains the Hebrew word behind that phrase.
The word is ob, which means 'a leather bottle or skin.' It is thought to imply that such people claimed to be filled with a spirit… As an example of the meaning of this word we have the woman at Endor whom Saul consulted… It was her profession, so it seems, to call up departed spirits.
One writer separates what is real here from what is only illusion.
The reality is that a demon puts itself at the disposal of the medium; the illusion is that she is able to call up the dead. The demon only clothes itself with a shadowy appearance. Jesus holds the keys of death and of Hades, and no power but His own can open its doors. Satan himself cannot call up the dead. Those who died without believing are and remain "the spirits in prison." God alone, as an exception, could allow Samuel to come out of the unseen world and appear.
Saul goes at night, in borrowed clothes, with two men — and one commentator sees the whole man exposed in that detail.
"And Saul disguised himself, and put on other clothing." Every shred of honesty and truth was clearly gone.
The disguise also says something about how well known this trade still was, despite the ban.
He goes against his own law against sorcery. He asks his servants to find him a woman (not a man) who had contact with a familiar spirit (v. 7). They knew there was such a woman at En-dor, still in business. Despite Saul's ban, many people must have known about her unlawful trade.
One writer turns to people who try to contact the dead today.
The claim to put the living in communication with the dead is a monstrous fraud. The keys of Hades are in divine hands alone. Neither the just nor the unjust can be disturbed by spiritualist mediums. Yet it is not denied that such persons are in communication with the invisible world, but it is with demons they have to do.
- Cause. Saul's cry in verse 6 was despair, not repentance. Chronicles judges the heart behind the outward act: he did not truly seek the Lord.
- Vacuum. God's silence left him with less than the old idols gave. Even a comforting illusion was gone.
- Reversal. He goes back to the very evil he once cleared out, breaking his own law. Grace despised is grace withdrawn.
- Fraud. Her link to the unseen world was real, but it was to a demon. She had no power over the dead: the keys of death and Hades are Christ's alone.
- Result. Saul's ban had not killed the trade; his servants knew where to look. And from Samuel he heard only the reason God had rejected him.
And Saul disguised himself, and put on other garments, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night; and he said, I pray thee, divine to me by the spirit of Python, and bring me [him] up whom I shall name to thee.
Saul faces his last battle, and heaven has gone quiet. So the king who once banned mediums from Israel puts on other clothes and goes to one by night.
The trip to Endor begins with silence. Saul could get no word from God, and one commentator names each channel that had closed:
He therefore gets no answer in any of the three possible ways. Dreams would be the most direct. God would come to him in the visions of the night and give him His message with the conviction that it was true. By Urim, God made His mind known through the priest, using the Urim and Thummim of the breastplate on the ephod. But Saul had killed the priests and cut himself off from that source. And the prophet, the human channel of God's messages, was dead. So every link is broken — personal, priestly, or prophetic.
Saul changes his clothes so the woman will not know him. Yet a disguise only works on someone who cannot see through it:
So the king disguises himself. Under cover of night he goes down with two companions to the haunt of the evil spirit, at last turning his back on the LORD. In the same way Jeroboam's wife pretended to be someone else when she came to the prophet. What madness it is to think of God as one just like ourselves, as though He could be deceived by a disguise! The night shines as the day to Him.
The costume also shows what Saul wanted that night: secrecy, and help he could not get from God:
To visit the woman, Saul disguises himself. How sadly degraded for a king of Israel! But he needed supernatural help. Since he had refused the Word of God, he turns in desperation to demonic sources. He took two men with him and went by night, for he wanted no one to suspect his consulting a spirit medium.
Saul himself had banned this trade. Now he uses it himself, and one writer sees a fault that runs deeper than Saul:
Earlier in his reign Saul had tried to stamp out this appalling evil, but apparently it was still practised secretly. What an inconsistent thing poor flesh is! It can grow angry at one form of wickedness and work to stamp it out. At the same time it freely indulges in other forms, just as offensive to God. Even God's true saints are not free from this danger. After Saul disobeyed God about Amalek, Samuel told him, "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry" (1 Sam. 15:23). Why? Because it puts something in the place of God. Saul did this again and again in his life of self-pleasing.
(The ESV renders that verse: "For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.")
One writer weighs what the disguise says about Saul, and what the woman feared:
Every shred of honesty and truth was clearly gone… She was afraid that he might report her to the king!
The disguise hid Saul's face; the errand uncovered his heart. Pressure did not create his unbelief; it exposed it:
Saul's seeking help from one who had a familiar spirit is a true index of the heart. He had no faith in God, but in the witch of Endor; therefore he did not enquire of the LORD. In earlier days he had clothed himself with zeal as with a garment. Extreme danger strips him of his borrowed robe, and he appears in his own naked unbelief. God judges the heart. "Behold, You delight in truth in the inward being" (Ps. 51:6). The piercing eye of God saw no truth in Saul.
The night did not go as either of them planned. Commentators agree that the medium's craft never got started:
Before she could begin her incantations, Samuel appeared. She was not permitted to get in touch with her usual demon that night. The LORD intervened for reasons of His own. The woman was terrified at the appearance of Samuel, for she had never had such an experience before. God sent the prophet to the abandoned king; the woman had nothing whatever to do with the matter.
The outcome gives nothing to anyone hoping to reach the dead. Samuel came with a verdict, not with counsel:
This was beyond her art, and shows her plainly a higher power overpowering it: the "keys of hades" were in no witch's hand… He speaks straight to Saul while he hides his face from him. In a few words of judgment he announces the doom that is at hand.
- Silence — God gave Saul no answer by dream, priest, or prophet. Saul had killed the priests, and Samuel was dead.
- Disguise — New clothes may fool a stranger at Endor. They treat God as if He could not see in the dark.
- Descent — Saul broke the very law he had enforced. Anger at one sin sits easily beside indulging another.
- Exposure — Danger did not make Saul faithless. It stripped off his borrowed zeal and showed the unbelief already there.
- Sentence — The medium's art never worked. God sent Samuel Himself, and the answer Saul got was his own doom.
And the woman said to him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul has done, how he has cut off the necromancers and the soothsayers out of the land; and why layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?
Saul comes by night to a woman he had outlawed, and asks her to do what his own law punished with death. She does not know who he is, so she quotes that law back to him and refuses.
The woman is not inventing a rule. She is describing a royal purge carried out earlier in Saul's reign, in line with God's written command.
In the closing days of the reign of Saul, the first king of Israel, something tragic happened. According to the commandment of Deuteronomy 13, Saul had cut off from the land of Israel those who had familiar spirits — in other words, mediums.
Older wording in these quotes calls them "those who had familiar spirits" and "wizards". The purge was real, but it was never complete.
For some reason, the servants knew quite well where to find the person he wanted. So with all his zeal in getting rid of witches, people still knew where they were.
Her question about a trap is the caution of a woman who could die for answering.
The woman is on guard. She suspects a trap to find her guilty of practising spiritism and have her put to death (v.9).
Her fear did Saul a service he refused to take.
He knew well that it was an unholy source, and one forbidden by God. He himself had at one time cut off those who had familiar spirits and wizards out of the land. The woman at Endor reminded him of this. It was a last warning to stop his downward course, if he would only take it. Death was the penalty for the sin of consulting such people (Lev. 20:6).
Saul could campaign against witchcraft and still hold on to sins just as offensive to God. Writers see a danger here far wider than Saul.
Earlier in his reign Saul had tried to stamp out this appalling evil. Apparently people still practised it in secret. What an inconsistent thing poor flesh is! It can grow indignant at one form of sin and work to suppress it. At the same time it freely indulges in other sins just as offensive to God. Even God's true saints are not free from this danger.
One writer traces the zeal itself back to Saul's failure over Amalek — a man trying to buy back lost ground.
This will explain Saul's activity in seeking to clear those who had familiar spirits out of the land. By fresh zeal against spiritists he would win back the favour he had forfeited by his failure over Amalek. Of course, that does not mean anyone should have tolerated or allowed spiritism in the land.
She speaks freely about "what Saul has done" only because she does not know she is speaking to Saul. The costume is the whole reason for the exchange.
"So Saul disguised himself and put on other garments." Every shred of honesty and truth was plainly gone.
Only one thing could remove her objection: the king's promise not to enforce his own law. He gives that promise in God's name.
When Saul asked her to bring up the man he would name, the woman protested. It was against the law of the kingdom, and it could cost her her life. Saul then had the audacity to swear to her by the LORD: "As the LORD lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing." The wretched man could not go further in sin than to pledge the LORD's holy name in a matter so hateful in His sight.
One writer measures what that promise cost Saul.
She does not know who he is, so she reminds him of his own decree. But Saul undoes all his past by swearing that no guilt will fall on her for what she is about to do.
- Law — Saul had cleared the mediums out of the land, as God had commanded. The woman knows it, and his own law is why she resists.
- Leak — the reform was never thorough. His servants knew where a medium lived, so the ban pushed the practice out of sight, not out of the land.
- Lopsided — a man can attack one sin hard while feeding another. Writers warn that believers are not safe from this.
- Last warning — her fear of the death penalty put Saul's own law in front of him one more time, a chance to stop that he refused.
- Loss — to calm her fear he swore by the Lord's name that she would go unpunished. One sentence cancelled the one thing in his reign that had looked like obedience.
And Saul swore unto her by Jehovah, saying, [As] Jehovah liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing.
Saul has come to Endor by night, in disguise, to ask a woman to do the very thing his own decree had banned. She hesitates, so he swears her an oath in the name of the God whose law they are both about to break.
The visit was not curiosity. It was the move of a man out of options, reaching for the evil he had once tried to stamp out.
Saul, forsaken by God because of his evil way, is hard pressed by the Philistines. In his perplexity and deep distress he turns for help to the evil he had tried to wipe out. He asks for a woman with a familiar spirit, and hears of one at Endor. He disguises himself to calm her fears. Then he tells her to bring up the prophet Samuel — the wise and godly man of God, who had given good counsel in the past.
Her fear was not private nervousness. Behind it stood God's standing command that Israel must never tolerate this practice.
Witchcraft — sorcery — "Spiritualism" — this great evil has many names, and is very ancient. Early in human history men turned their backs on God. They tried to reach the invisible world by forbidden means. Satan was, of course, their teacher in this, for by it he gained ears that should have been always open to the voice of God. Deuteronomy 18 gives Israel stern commands. They were to show this great evil no mercy once they entered the promised land. They would find Canaan full of it, but God's own people must neither learn it nor spare it.
She answers Saul by quoting Saul. His reply is to erase his own record with a single sentence — and the pardon he offers is worth nothing.
He demands that the woman bring up the spirit of the person he wants to contact. She does not know who he is, so she reminds him of his own decree. But Saul undoes all his past. He swears that no guilt will fall on her for what she is about to do… She needs his assurance again that no punishment awaits her from him. Sadly, he was in no position to inflict it. Was he not the one who prompted her wickedness?
Notice what he swears by. The guarantee is not "as the king lives" but "as the LORD lives" — the name attached to the very law he is helping her break.
Nor does he hesitate to swear by the LORD Himself to protect her while she breaks the LORD's law.
One writer sees this oath, not the visit, as the lowest point of the night.
Saul had the audacity to swear to her by the LORD: "As the LORD lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing." The wretched man could sink no lower in sin than this — pledging the LORD's holy name to a matter so hateful in His sight. He had completely lost any sense that he was really dealing with God.
The oath and the disguise belong together. Both treat God as someone to manage — dodged with a change of clothes, enlisted with a change of words.
So the king disguises himself. Under cover of night he goes down with two companions to the haunt of the evil spirit, and so turns his back on the LORD at last… What madness it is to think of God as one just like ourselves! As though He could be fooled by a disguise. To Him the night shines like the day.
Another writer names what made such an oath possible.
Saul's conscience is so deadened that he even calls on the name of the Lord. He swears to her that she will not suffer any punishment for her unlawful services in this case.
- Forsaken. Saul comes to Endor as a man forsaken by God. He turns for help to the evil he had once worked to remove from the land.
- Forbidden. Her fear is well founded. God commanded Israel to show this evil no mercy: never learn it, never spare it.
- Undone. Saul cancels his own decree by promising her safety. The pardon is empty. He could not punish her anyway, since he had prompted the sin himself.
- Profaned. He does not swear by his crown but by the Lord — pledging God's holy name to protect someone in breaking God's own law. One writer calls this the furthest into sin he could go.
- Deluded. The disguise and the oath share one error. Both imagine that God is like us — that night can hide us from Him, and that His name will bless what He hates.
Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up to thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? Even thou art Saul.
Rejected by God and facing the Philistine army, Saul disguises himself and visits a woman at Endor who calls up spirits. He asks for Samuel, and the moment Samuel appears she screams and names her disguised visitor as the king.
Her cry is the proof that something happened which she did not arrange:
"When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice" (v. 12). This was not the result she had expected from her sorcery. The spirit she knew did not come to dress itself in a false shape, like the ones she had made her followers watch. Before she can even call up the spirit, someone rises up in front of her and terrifies her. This is not just another appearance but a divine reality... someone over whom her enchantments have no hold. It is Samuel himself, recognised by the king before whom he had walked for so long. The woman does not recognise Samuel, but Saul does. God is not answering through the prophets, yet after Samuel's death He answers one last time through him — only to confirm the judgment already pronounced.
Two things in the verse seem unrelated: the sight of Samuel, and her naming of the king. One commentator draws the link:
What is the connection? Why should she conclude from the sight of Samuel that this must be Saul? We have no reason to think Samuel said it was Saul. Yet she concluded at once that it must be Saul. And why? Because it was not the familiar spirit she expected, but Samuel, whom God alone could send. Why would God do so, if not for the king? She only expected the spirit she knew — the demon, in New Testament language, that impersonated whoever was named. When she saw that it was the true Samuel who came, she could not help feeling the reality of the case... It was God Himself who took it all up. So Saul, desperate to consult a witch and her familiar spirit, was caught in his own trap. He heard his doom from the dead prophet.
The demon she relied on never got to play its part:
At Endor the witch tried to call up Samuel through her "familiar spirit," who would have impersonated him. But God held the demon in check and allowed Samuel himself to appear. God can restrain the adversary in this way as seems good to Him.
Her fear is part of the answer to an old doubt:
Many have doubted whether it was really Samuel who arose, because he was God's prophet. The woman had counted on her familiar demon impersonating him as usual. So when God allowed Samuel's spirit to appear this one time, she was terrified.
Commentators have also weighed a proposed change to the wording of the verse:
Some have suggested that the word "Samuel" in verse 12 should be "Saul." On that reading the woman recognised Saul, and this would explain the second half of the verse. But there is no reason to make such a change.
The rule behind that night still holds for anyone who claims contact with the dead:
Samuel undoubtedly appeared to the terrified king, and spoke to him with an audible voice. But did the woman's actions produce him? Certainly not. The keys of death and of Hades are not within the reach of any mere creature (Rev. 1:18)... Saints are not at the mercy of wicked practitioners. They cannot be disturbed at any moment so that such people may earn a fee. God's power guards sinners closely too. Some claim that voices are sometimes heard from the world of spirits. The explanation is that demons impersonate the dead. Their aim is to deceive foolish listeners to their eternal ruin.
The night visit was not a sudden fall. It was the end of a road that began when Saul kept back what God told him to destroy:
On the day Saul failed to wipe out Amalek, he never guessed where it would lead. The cattle he spared "to sacrifice to the Lord" — against God's word — would end in the spells of a woman with a familiar spirit. We do not realise the unity that underlies all evil. Cut one link of obedience to God, and the soul puts itself into the hands of Satan.
- Cause — One cut link of obedience took Saul from sparing Amalek's cattle to a medium's tent at night. Evil has a unity we do not notice.
- Control — The woman's scream proves she produced nothing. God held back the impersonating demon and sent Samuel Himself.
- Clue — Only a king would draw such an answer from God. So her disguised visitor had to be Saul.
- Caution — The keys of death belong to God alone. Where mediums claim to reach the dead, commentators say demons impersonate them.
- Consequence — Saul went hunting for an answer and was caught in his own trap. He heard his doom from the prophet he had refused to obey.
And the king said to her, Be not afraid; but what didst thou see? And the woman said to Saul, I saw a god ascending out of the earth.
Saul has come to a woman at Endor who calls up spirits, and what rises is not what she trades in. Her answer to his question raises the two issues the chapter turns on: was this really Samuel, and whose power brought him up?
Fear struck her before she had done any of her usual work.
This was not the result she had expected from her sorcery. The spirit she knew had not come to dress itself in a false form, like the ones she had shown her followers. Before she can even call up the spirit, a person suddenly rises up in front of her and fills her with fear. This is not just another appearance but a divine reality, "a god coming up out of the earth" (v. 13) — someone over whom her spells have no hold. It is Samuel himself, recognised by the king before whom he had walked for so long. The woman does not recognise Samuel, but Saul does.
The text has a name for her trade. The Hebrew word behind that name points to what such people claimed, and to a voice from the ground.
The word is ob, which means "a leather bottle or skin." It is thought to imply that such people claimed to be filled with a spirit… The woman at Endor whom Saul consulted is an example: the text says she had a familiar spirit. Her profession, it seems, was to call up departed spirits… One striking mark of those who have a familiar spirit is that a voice appears to come "out of the ground." Isaiah 29:4.
If the usual deception had worked, she would have had nothing to scream about.
One who calls up the dead claims to really bring a dead person into contact with a living person. This is deception, because in reality a familiar spirit impersonates the dead person. King Saul asked the witch of Endor to bring up Samuel (1 Sam. 28:11), but the sight of Samuel terrified the woman (v. 12), because she was used to the deceit of a familiar spirit. But God intervened in this one case to make a striking exception.
The exception had a purpose. Saul had asked God and received silence; here God speaks, but not as comfort.
When Saul wanted the mind of God, he could not get it. God had left him, because he had first set himself in open opposition to God… Saul, who had openly turned from God, got his answer from the aged prophet of God. God met the unhappy man in this way, and did not allow a demon to impersonate His servant. It was Samuel whom Saul saw. It was an unusual sight the woman beheld. She admitted it when she told Saul she saw gods coming up out of the earth. Her familiar spirit was unable to act, for God Himself had taken up the matter against Saul.
This was God's act, not the woman's. So no one can copy it, and no believer needs to fear it.
A believer who walks with God, and keeps far from all tampering, meddling or curiosity, has no reason at all to be alarmed by an event like this one… The devil has no power to bring up the spirits of either the lost or the blessed. Only God can do that. And, needless to say, He does it only when He judges the circumstances enough for Him to step right outside His ordinary ways. This was such an occasion. But we must not be quick to imagine cases of this kind.
Saul had once enforced the ban on this trade himself.
He knew well that it was an unholy source, forbidden by God. He had himself once cut out of the land those who had familiar spirits and wizards. The woman at Endor reminded him of this — a last warning, had he taken it, to stop on his downward road. Death was the penalty for the sin of consulting such people (Lev. 20:6). In Saul's case that penalty fell on him (1 Chron. 10:13).
Saul recognises the figure and falls on his face — the reverence he never gave the prophet while Samuel was alive.
Yes, he bows himself now before the spirit of the prophet; but too late. He had refused the prophet's warnings while Samuel was alive, and now from the grave he must hear his final doom pronounced.
- Silence — Saul had turned from God in the open. When he wanted God's mind, he could not get it.
- Source — so he went to a trade he had once banned himself. The penalty for it was death.
- Substitution — a medium's usual work is a familiar spirit pretending to be the dead person.
- Surprise — the woman screamed because no spirit played the part. God had taken up the matter against Saul, and sent Samuel himself.
- Sentence — Saul bowed at last, but too late. His one answer was his doom, not guidance — and not an open door to the dead.
And he said to her, What is his form? And she said, An old man comes up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself.
Saul has come by night, in disguise, to a woman at Endor who claims contact with the dead. He asked for Samuel, the prophet who had told him his reign was over, and her sparse description is enough: Saul knows him and falls on his face.
The woman names one thing: a robe. Writers describe this garment and list who wore it:
The MANTLE, or ROBE (meil) is described as "a large tunic, worn over the common one, but without sleeves." Priests wore it, Ex. 28:31; 1 Sam. 28:14; Ezra 9:3, 5; so did kings and princes, 1 Sam. 18:4; 1 Sam. 24:4, 11; men of rank, Job 1:20; Job 2:12; and women, 2 Sam. 13:18.
Saul never says he saw anything; he asks, and then he knows. Commentators hold that God Himself stepped in, and that the prophet was there in person:
Clearly God steps in, and permits Samuel to reappear to Saul. We do not press for the details. But there can be no question that the prophet was personally present. He made himself visible to the woman, and she described him to Saul as an old man, whom Saul perceived to be Samuel.
The woman's own dismay shows who was in control that night:
He tells her to bring up Samuel to him; and to the woman's own dismay Samuel really appears. This was beyond her art, and shows her plainly a higher power overpowering it. The "keys of hades" were in no witch's hand. He appears to her alone, to her distress, yet he speaks directly to Saul, while Saul hides his face from him. In brief judicial words he announces his doom as near at hand.
Saul's face to the ground looks like reverence. The problem is when it comes:
Yes, he bows himself now before the spirit of the prophet; but too late. He had refused his warnings while Samuel was alive, and now from the grave he is to hear his final doom pronounced.
Samuel's robe appears in an earlier scene too. Saul had laid hold of it to keep the prophet from leaving. What he hears now echoes that day:
Samuel goes on speaking. Jehovah had at last taken the case into His own hands. After all these years of patience, and with no repentance from Saul, the original word now comes true. The language is very like what the prophet used years before. Then Saul had laid hold of his mantle and tried to keep him back. As then, he declares, "Jehovah has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbour," who is now named.
God broke in here. That says nothing in favour of mediums, and one writer presses the warning hard:
We most surely believe that all these things we have named are of the devil. This may sound harsh and severe; but we cannot help that. We are thoroughly persuaded of this. When people give themselves to the awful business of bringing up the spirits of the departed, in any way, they hand themselves over to the devil. He will deceive them and delude them with his lies. These people hold in their hands a perfect revelation from God. What do they want with table-turning and spirit-rapping? Surely nothing.
- Robe — One detail is given: a mantle, the sleeveless over-tunic worn by priests, kings, princes and people of rank. It is enough for Saul to know who has come.
- Real — God stepped in and let Samuel reappear. The prophet was personally present, and he made himself visible to the woman.
- Overruled — The appearance was beyond the woman's art. The keys of hades were in no witch's hand; a higher power overpowered hers.
- Reversed — Saul once grabbed that robe to hold the prophet back. The robe returns now, and with it the old sentence: the kingdom torn out of his hand and given to his neighbour.
- Too late — Saul bows to the prophet he ignored while Samuel lived. The posture is right; the moment is gone. And Endor is no invitation to seek the dead: that road puts a person into the devil's hands.
And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul said, 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 thee, that thou mayest make known to me what I shall do.
Saul stands at night in a medium's house, in disguise. He is asking a dead prophet for guidance he could no longer get from God. His own words explain why he is there. The Philistines are pressing, God has withdrawn, and heaven has gone silent. They also raise the hardest question in the chapter. How does a man reach the point where God will not answer him?
Saul's cry is not a sudden discovery. It is the end of a long road. God gives a similar warning elsewhere about a people He finally leaves alone.
He tried to get through to God for counsel and help — the God whom he had so badly slighted throughout his reign. But "the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets." He wailed that God had turned away from him and would answer him no more. This reminds us of Hosea 4:17: "Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone." It is a serious thing for anyone to refuse to hear the voice of God, for even His patience has limits.
Saul complains that no prophet answers him. No one owed him this. God had spoken to him for years, and Saul had ignored it.
At every important moment of his life, Saul had met the prophet. The prophet came so that Saul might know God's thoughts, orders, counsels, and judgments. No doubt he had not listened to them, but he had been able to hear them. To have God's word within reach is an immense privilege and an immense responsibility. Saul had enjoyed this privilege... Now these prophets themselves were no longer answering.
Saul's visit to a medium exposes a contradiction that is not unique to him.
Earlier in his reign Saul had tried to stamp out this appalling evil, though it seems it was still practised in secret. What an inconsistent thing is poor flesh! It can grow angry at one form of wickedness and work hard to stamp it out. At the same time it freely indulges in other forms that offend God just as much. Even God's true saints are not free from this danger. Samuel told Saul after his disobedience over Amalek, "rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry." Why? Because it puts something in the place of God. Saul kept doing this all through his self-pleasing career.
Samuel asks why Saul disturbed him and brought him up. What power could do such a thing? Not the medium's craft.
The reality is that a demon puts itself at the disposal of the medium; the illusion is that she is able to call up the dead. The demon only clothes itself with a shadowy appearance. Jesus holds the keys of death and of Hades, and no power but His own can open its doors. Satan himself cannot call up the dead... God alone, by making an exception, can permit Samuel to come out from the invisible world and appear.
Samuel's first words are a rebuke. They also tell Saul about the world beyond death, which he never asked about.
Samuel was dead, but he had not ceased to exist. Saul would die too, but he would be with Samuel in the place of departed spirits, called hades in the New Testament... But this at least is clear: the prophet was better off there than here. He had no desire to come back to earth. Being brought up had disturbed him. Two points about the other world are, then, made clear here. Death is not the end of any man's existence. And the righteous dead have no wish to come back onto the stage of this world.
Saul asks the very voice he had spent his reign refusing: tell me what to do.
Poor wretched man! He asks advice now from the one whose counsels he had until now refused to obey.
Notice also what is missing from the verse: he names his fear and his abandonment, but not his sin.
Saul exposes his distress, his abandonment, his isolation, and the anguish of his soul (v. 15). It is too late. The measure is full. God has forgotten nothing. Now He has become the enemy of Saul, who has both God and the Philistines against him. And why? Saul did "not obey the voice of the LORD" nor "carry out His fierce wrath against Amalek."
- Refused — Saul had God's word within reach for years and would not listen. Such a privilege carries a matching responsibility.
- Silenced — Saul had slighted God all through his reign. Now God gave no answer. Even His patience has limits.
- Substituted — Saul fought this evil in others, then ran to it himself. Rebellion always puts something in God's place.
- Overruled — no medium holds the keys of death; God alone, as an exception, sent Samuel that night.
- Sentenced — Saul named his anguish but never his sin. The answer he got only confirmed a judgment already spoken.
And Samuel said, Why then dost thou inquire of me, seeing Jehovah is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Jehovah has done for himself as he spoke by me; and Jehovah has rent the kingdom out of thy hand, and given it to thy neighbour, to David.
Saul has come at night to a woman at Endor who claims to speak with the dead. He wants guidance. Instead he hears the dead prophet Samuel repeat a sentence God had passed on him years before. The words settle three things at once: who acted, why, and — for the first time to Saul's face — the name of the man who now has his throne.
Samuel does not bring Saul fresh news. He brings the same verdict, at the moment God chose to execute it. One writer notes that the wording echoes an earlier scene, when Saul grabbed the prophet's robe to hold him back:
Samuel continues to speak. The LORD had at last taken the case into His own hands. After all these years of patience, and with no repentance from Saul, the word first spoken is now fulfilled. The language is very similar to what the prophet used years ago, when Saul grabbed his robe and tried to hold him back. As then, he declares, "The LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbour" — and now the neighbour is named.
The same writer names the sin behind the sentence, and the warning inside the long delay:
The cause too is the same — disobedience, in failing to carry out God's judgment on Amalek. It is solemn to remember this: God may long delay carrying out a sentence, but judgment must fall at last — and for the very sin that first made it necessary!
Every action in the verse is the Lord's own. Samuel only speaks it. One commentator points to the margin of the older translation, which reads that the Lord has done this for Himself:
Samuel then reminds him of the words he had told in his unwilling ears many years before: "The Lord has done for Himself (margin) as He spoke by me… therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day."
Notice who Saul turns to now:
Poor wretched man! He now asks advice from the one whose counsel he had until then refused to obey. But like Esau, who had despised the blessing, "he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears."
Twice before, Samuel had told Saul the kingdom would go to a neighbour. This time God names the man:
Yet another decision comes to Saul, and this for the third time: "The LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hand, and given it to your neighbour, to David" (v. 17). He had already heard this twice from Samuel's mouth… but David's name had not yet been mentioned. Today he learns from the mouth of God what he had long suspected in his hatred. His "neighbour" was this despised, hated, rejected David whom he himself had pursued. And this David is the chosen one, the anointed one, the beloved one who will have the place of honour and to whom the kingdom belongs! … David, the king of grace himself, who had spared Saul so many times… could no longer, from this moment on, come to Saul as anything but a judge.
Saul went to a medium. What he heard was the opposite of a medium's comfort:
Samuel does not answer Saul's problem in the way that an evil spirit would have. An evil spirit speaking through a medium always gives nice, pampering messages meant to make the enquirer feel good. But Samuel tells Saul honestly how inconsistent it is to ask him for help when the Lord had left him (v. 16). Samuel was the Lord's servant, and he agreed with all that the Lord said and did.
Samuel came, but not as an adviser:
Samuel appears, and he terrifies the woman far more than Saul. She did not expect him; Samuel was not the spirit she usually called up. He appears, not to give counsel, but to pronounce the king's doom. This is the end of the king whose beginning was so promising. The living prophet anointed him with oil; the dead prophet — but sent by God — pronounces his doom.
- Spoken — the sentence is not new. It repeats what the prophet said years earlier, when Saul grabbed his robe.
- Delayed — the long gap was patience. Judgment still fell, and for the very sin that first caused it — failing to carry out God's judgment on Amalek.
- Done — the Lord tore the kingdom away and gave it. Samuel only spoke it first. An older translation adds that He did it for Himself.
- Named — the "neighbour" of the earlier warnings is David, the man Saul had hunted. From now on David can only meet him as a judge.
- Too late — Saul asks the prophet whose counsel he had always refused. He gets no help, only his doom confirmed.
Because thou didst not hearken to the voice of Jehovah, and didst not execute his fierce anger upon Amalek, therefore has Jehovah done this thing to thee this day.
Saul has gone by night to a medium, and the answer he gets brings no new charge: it reaches back years to one command he failed to carry out against Amalek. Why should one act of sparing, long past, be the reason the kingdom is torn away now?
Samuel brings no fresh accusation. He repeats a sentence already passed years before.
Samuel continues to speak. The Lord had at last taken the case into His own hands. After all these years of patience, and with no repentance on Saul's part, the original word that went out is fulfilled. The language is very like what the prophet had used years before. That was the day Saul took hold of his robe and tried to keep him back. As then, he declares, "The Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbour" — who is now named.
The "fierce wrath against Amalek" was not Saul's idea. God had passed that sentence generations earlier and only told Saul when to carry it out.
The Spirit now gives a whole chapter to the campaign against Amalek. This makes it absolutely clear why the Lord rejected Saul, and how right it was. God's sentence had long since gone out against this persistent enemy of His people. At Rephidim the Lord said He would have "war against Amalek from generation to generation" (Ex. 17:16). In his parting charge to Israel, Moses said, "you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget" (Deut. 25:19). All that was lacking was a word from the Lord about the exact moment to carry out that terrible sentence. That word came to Saul through Samuel.
Commentators also read Amalek as a picture.
Amalek is the great enemy of God's people. As we have seen in our notes on Exodus (chapter 17), Amalek pictures the flesh and its lusts. Israel was to fight Amalek from generation to generation, and the memory of Amalek was to be blotted out completely. So too the flesh is always the enemy of the children of God. "For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh." It is enmity against God. This was the enemy Saul was to fight and destroy utterly. But Saul at heart was nothing but an Amalekite.
Years separate Saul's sparing of Amalek from this night. The verse says the sentence lands "this day."
The cause too is the same — disobedience in failing to carry out God's judgment on Amalek. How solemn to remember this! God may long delay carrying out a sentence, but judgment must fall at last. And it falls for the very sin that made it necessary in the first place. Indeed, sparing Amalek is the root of all sin. At the cross of Christ God passed sentence on sin in the flesh. That sentence declares that nothing short of complete removal will do.
Disobedience does not stay the size it started at.
Samuel's solemn words could head this chapter. Saul had spared the spoil of Amalek against the Lord's command, and Samuel told him, "Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft." The two parts are far apart in time and in outward character, yet they are really one. The old proverb says it well: "Consider the end." Little did Saul think where it would lead. On the day he failed to wipe out Amalek he spared the cattle "to sacrifice to the Lord" — in disobedience to His word. Those spared cattle grew into the spells of a medium. We do not realise the unity underlying all evil; when one link of obedience to God is cut, the soul puts itself into Satan's hands.
Saul came looking for guidance. He got a verdict instead.
Saul had sinned against light and privilege again and again. What could Samuel do but pronounce his doom? For this solemn purpose God was pleased to send His servant back to earth that day. There was nothing of pity or mercy in his words.
Commentators take the voice Saul heard as the real Samuel, not a medium's trick.
Samuel does not answer Saul's problem the way an evil spirit would. When an evil spirit speaks through a medium, its messages are always nice and pampering. They are meant to make the person asking feel good. But Samuel tells Saul the plain truth. It made no sense for Saul to ask Samuel when the Lord had departed from him (v.16).
- One sin. The charge is not new: the whole sentence hangs on the day Saul failed to carry out God's word about Amalek.
- One delay. Years of silence were patience, not pardon; judgment fell at last for the very sin that first required it.
- One root. Amalek pictures the flesh. Sparing it is the root of all sin, and only the cross deals with it fully.
- One road. Sparing Amalek's cattle and consulting a medium are one road: "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft." Cut one link of obedience, and the soul hands itself to Satan.
- One end. Saul asked for counsel and got a verdict — no pity, no mercy, and no way to turn the judgment aside.
And Jehovah will also give Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me; the army of Israel also will Jehovah give into the hand of the Philistines.
On the eve of battle, fear drives Saul to a woman at Endor who claims to speak with the dead. He wants an answer from a God who has stopped speaking to him — and he gets one. The reply names the day of his own death. Two questions have followed it ever since: who spoke that night, and what "with me" means.
One writer points out that the woman never even began her usual routine.
Overruling her objections, he told her to bring up Samuel. Before she could start her incantations, Samuel appeared. That night she could not reach her usual demon. The Lord stepped in for reasons of His own. Samuel's appearance terrified the woman, for she had never had such an experience before. God sent the prophet to the abandoned king; the woman had nothing whatever to do with the matter.
One commentator asks how the woman worked out who her visitor was:
We have no reason to believe that Samuel said it was Saul, but she drew the conclusion at once. And why? Because it was not the familiar spirit she expected, but Samuel, whom God alone could send. And why would God send him, if not for the king?… So Saul, in his desperation, wanted to consult a witch and her familiar spirit. He was caught in his own trap, and heard his doom from the departed prophet.
This sentence goes back years, to God's command about the nation Amalek — a command Saul never carried out.
It is too late. The measure is full. God has forgotten nothing. He has now become the enemy of Saul (v. 16), who has both God and the Philistines against him. And why? Saul did "not listen to the voice of the Lord" nor "carry out His fierce anger against Amalek" (v. 18). On top of that, he had not kept the word of the Lord, and he had consulted a medium for guidance instead of asking the Lord (1 Chronicles 10:13). Disobedience and independence mark out man without God. Despite all appearances, Saul was one of these. Because of these things God decreed the death of Saul and his sons, as well as the defeat of Israel (v. 19).
One writer weighs the tone of the message as much as its content. Samuel had once prayed all night for this man.
But Saul had sinned away his day of grace. Nothing was left but to pass sentence on him… Saul had had many opportunities. In his early reign he had the light of God's presence, and the counsel and support of the prophet. Yet his privileges were nothing compared with those of people today, who get to hear the gospel of Christ preached in their ears.
Those sons include Jonathan. One writer traces his death to a choice made years before:
He does not follow David, but stays in the house of Saul, where "David's place was empty."… And what was the end? Jonathan lost his life on the mountains of Gilboa. He died among the enemies of David. He refused to share the rejection of David, and suffered loss in consequence.
Some take it to mean only that Saul would be among the dead:
Samuel did not mean that Saul would end up in the same place and circumstances as himself. Between saved and lost "a great chasm has been fixed," and no one can cross it from either side. Samuel meant only that Saul would be dead the next day — numbered among the dead like the departed prophet.
Others argue from the timing that the grave cannot be the meaning:
That could not mean the grave. Samuel knew that soldiers killed in battle are not, as a rule, buried on the same day, if at all. In fact, the Philistines did not find Saul's body until the day after he died — two days after his meeting with Samuel.
Saul collapsed at the news. One writer sets him beside a man who faced death without fear.
Now notice the contrast in Paul the apostle. His life was in danger for the sake of the gospel. But was he dismayed? Far from it: "we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord."… His own words in Romans 5:8 tell us all we need to know: "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Known and believed, that truth banishes all dread of death from the soul. Christ has gone into death for us, making full atonement for all our sin and guilt, and breaking the power of the enemy once and for all.
- Answer. Saul asked a medium; God answered instead. Even she could see this was not her usual work.
- Amalek. One disobeyed command about Amalek, left unrepented for years, stands behind the death sentence.
- Alone. Samuel speaks without a trace of tenderness. Saul had spent his day of grace.
- Accompanied. Saul does not fall alone: his sons and Israel's army fall with him. Jonathan chose Saul's house over David's exile.
- Afterwards. Commentators differ over what "with me" covers. All agree the news flattened Saul — while the other Saul, sure that Christ died for sinners, met death without dread.
And Saul fell straightway his full length 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.
Saul spends his last night in a medium's house, and the message he hears there destroys him. The tall, strong king ends up flat on the ground, with no strength to stand and no food in him — so why does the collapse come only now?
One commentator insists the medium's words had no power to put the king on the ground.
But what a sight — the king of Israel, the anointed of the Lord, in the house of a witch, fallen on the ground! David might well say, "How the mighty have fallen!" But it is not the words of a witch that have thrown him down; it is the judgment of God. The outward end, however, has not yet come, and Saul must still face the enemy into whose hands he put himself.
The verse measures his fall by his own height: he went down full length. The same commentator sees in that fall the picture of every proud thing God brings down.
When Saul hears the awful message of Samuel, he falls face down on the ground. That fall which had been delayed so long comes at last, and the giant tree of the forest is brought low. "For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up — and it shall be brought low; against all the cedars of Lebanon... And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low."
Saul had refused God's word before this night. One commentator explains why the fear only breaks him now.
Saul "fell at once full length on the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel" (v. 20). It is only when a man finds himself before his inevitable fate that he really appreciates all that it means. Until then there is always room for some illusion which hides the horror of our future from us. The king has no strength. He is faint with hunger but will not eat. In the end he accepts some material help from the hand of one who is condemned just like himself.
The verse gives two reasons for his weakness — the words he had heard, and a full day and night without food. One writer sees the fasting as an effort to win God's favour, and the whole scene as a warning.
What a shock for Saul! There is not the slightest ray of hope to lighten his darkness. He only felt worse for consulting the spirit medium. Tall and strong as he was, he fell to the ground in terror (v. 20). He had refused the Word of God. Now he has to face the results of his own folly and is not prepared. What a picture of those who dare to dismiss God from their lives, then come to the end, having nothing whatever to depend on! He had not eaten, evidently thinking that fasting would gain him some favour with God.
Saul had been told he would die the next day. One writer weighs what death means for a man who meets it without God.
Death is always a solemn thing. It marks the close of one stage of a man's existence, and it is the gateway into the indefinite beyond. It is therefore a test for every man. Mistakes made on earth cannot be put right in eternity. Even the believer in Jesus feels the weight of that great change... But the ungodly man has every reason to tremble when death lays its icy hand on him. For him, "the last enemy" is the policeman who comes to bring him up for judgment. It is what comes after death that guilty ones dread.
The same writer turns that message on his readers and asks how they would take it.
Let us ask ourselves what our feelings would be if a message like the one delivered to Saul were delivered to us. What if from the realm of the dead we heard the words: "Tomorrow you shall be with me"? The believer in Jesus would say with joy: "My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better."
One commentator finds the whole scene hollow — and says the same of any life lived on under God's wrath.
But how empty it all seems! And think of the sinner under sentence for his sins. He drags out his few days, or years, with the wrath of God resting on him. That is just as futile. Oh that even now he might throw himself on the mercy of Him who never fails the repentant soul!
- Cause. The medium's house is only the setting; what put Saul on the ground was the judgment of God, not the words of a witch.
- Delay. Distance leaves room for illusion. Face to face with his fate, Saul felt its full weight.
- Emptiness. No food, no hope, no preparation — a man who dismissed God and reached the end with nothing to lean on.
- Dread. What crushed him was not tomorrow's battle. It was what lies past it. Guilty people fear what follows death.
- Contrast. The same announcement — "tomorrow you shall be with me" — turns one man to terror and would turn a believer to joy.