Scripture quotations on this page are from the World English Bible (public domain), shown in quotation marks; all commentary is written by Scripture Trove. Source: 1 Samuel 28 · Commentary
At the end of chapter 27, Achish mistakenly believed David, saying, "He will be my servant forever" (27:12). This "mistaken belief" is now to be realized: at the beginning of chapter 28, Achish summoned David to go out to battle with him, to confront Saul. David was caught in the middle, between the Philistine king who had given him Ziklag and sheltered him for sixteen months, and the Yahweh-anointed king of his own people. He was pushed step by step into this desperate situation by his own words in 27:1, "David said in his heart."
But the narrator then shifts the camera, moving away from David's predicament, and turns to film another king. The latter large section of chapter 28 (verses 3–25) shows us Saul's last night of spiritual bankruptcy: God's silence, the prophet's death, disguising himself at night, traveling over twenty kilometers to find a medium he himself had banished... This is the darkest and most dramatic chapter in the entire book of Samuel.
“When Saul inquired of Yahweh, Yahweh didn’t answer him by dreams, by Urim, or by prophets.”, 28:6
The two lines of this chapter ultimately converge into a contrast: two kings simultaneously trapped in desperate situations; one "said in his heart" and walked in a gray area, but God still preserved him; the other directly consulted the dead, and God was completely silent.
This chapter belongs to 1 Samuel 27–31, "The Final Stage of Flight," following chapter 27 (David in Philistia) and preceding chapter 29 (David's dismissal), chapter 30 (Amalek attacks Ziklag), and chapter 31 (Saul's death in battle). The two parallel lines of the entire book of 1 Samuel (Saul's decline, David's rise) intersect most tightly in chapter 28:
The narrator's arrangement is extremely ingenious: he first places David in the suspense of "about to participate in battle" in 28:1–2, then immediately cuts to Saul's night at Endor; chapter 29 then returns to David's dismissal; chapter 30 sees David inquire of the Lord and achieve a great victory over Amalek; chapter 31 sees Saul die in battle. Two kings, the same night, two kinds of inquiry, two outcomes—this is 1 Samuel's most carefully arranged contrast.
This chapter has four sections, with the rhythm starting from "Achish's Command," moving into "Saul's Fear," falling to "Night Journey to Endor," and finally concluding with "Samuel's Pronouncement and Saul's Collapse":
The entire chapter has three layers of exquisite contrast in its narrative:
| Contrast 1: The Two Kings' Situations on the Same Night | David (Extension of Chapter 27) | Saul (28:3–25) |
|---|---|---|
| Object of Inquiry | (Unstated, hesitating) | Yahweh → No response → Medium → The dead |
| State | At a low point in life, but still has a way out | At the end of his rope, utterly despairing |
| Food | Living normally in Ziklag | Ate nothing all day, only ate when persuaded |
| Contrast 2: Before and After Echoes | 1 Samuel 15 | 1 Samuel 28 |
|---|---|---|
| Samuel's Words to Saul | "Yahweh made you king over Israel" + "Yahweh has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today" | "Yahweh has departed from you, and has become your enemy" + "Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me" |
| Saul's Reaction | Grasped Samuel's robe, and it tore | Fell down, ate nothing all night |
| Contrast 3: Two Kinds of Inquiry within the Same Chapter | 28:6 (Daytime, according to the law) | 28:8 (Nighttime, violating the law) |
|---|---|---|
| Medium | Dreams, Urim, prophets | Medium with a familiar spirit |
| God's Response | Silence | Granted, but the response is a pronouncement |
The dramatic arc of the entire chapter is that Saul, unable to get an answer from God (28:6), turns to consult the dead; the dead actually come, but bring not a way out, but the last page of a judgment scroll. God's "silence" was originally a space for Saul to repent; Saul forcibly breaks the silence with necromancy, only to be met with news of his death.
28 "This chapter is Saul's last night of spiritual bankruptcy. He first abandoned the law (sparing Amalek, 1 Sam 15), then pursued the anointed one (chapters 19–26), and finally abandoned the proper way of inquiring of Yahweh, turning instead to a medium he himself had banished. When God's silence becomes the loudest sound you've ever heard, yet you refuse to admit it's because you once drove Him away, at that moment you are living in the tragedy you yourself forged. This chapter is also God's dual declaration of sovereignty and justice: God will not lose His sovereignty because of human necromancy (He can still allow Samuel to come up and speak), but His word will never change the plot because of human demands (tomorrow you will die). The negative example of the gospel is more piercing than the positive one."
28:6 "When Saul inquired of Yahweh, Yahweh didn’t answer him by dreams, by Urim, or by prophets."
1 Samuel 28:6（World English Bible）
28:15 "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.”"
1 Samuel 28:15（World English Bible）
28:19 "Moreover Yahweh will deliver Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines; and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Yahweh will deliver the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.”"
1 Samuel 28:19（World English Bible）
Dear brothers and sisters, chapter 28 is the most somber night in the entire book of Samuel, and also the night that should make us pause and listen the most. It is not a story about "whether ancient witchcraft is good or bad"; it is a story about how a person gradually closes God's ears. The twenty kilometers Saul walked that night were the cumulative distance of many times in his life when he "did not listen to Yahweh."
Please ponder the pain of 28:6. He inquired of Yahweh, but received no answer through any of the three proper channels. This was not God suddenly becoming indifferent; it was Saul himself who, step by step, blocked all proper paths: he drove away David (David had the ephod and Urim with him), he slaughtered the priests of Nob (the priests were with David), he literally angered Samuel to death (the prophet was dead). Thirty years of not listening echoed back to him as silence that night.
But the most piercing part of this chapter is not God's silence, but Saul's continued impenitence. After hearing the pronouncement of his impending death, he fell down, ate nothing all night, and was almost broken, but he did not kneel and say, "Yahweh, I have sinned." This is the tragedy of Saul: he feared death, but not his own sin. He sought methods, not repentance. This "hardness of soul" is the sharpest mirror chapter 28 offers to every reader: when I am in distress, what do I seek? Do I seek God to change my circumstances, or to change my heart?
Also remember a touch of tenderness in this chapter, the woman of Endor. She was an outcast by law, someone Saul intended to eliminate, yet that night she became the only one who truly treated Saul kindly. She slaughtered her best calf and baked unleavened bread for this desperate king. This tenderness did not come from the temple, nor from a prophet, nor from the palace; it came from a country woman living in the gray area of the law. Sometimes God uses the people we least expect to show us the most unexpected mercy.
And the deepest gospel is not in chapter 28, but after chapter 28 pushes us to the brink. When Saul's situation of "tomorrow you will die" and "God is my enemy" stands before us, we see more deeply the Mediator who is never shut out, Jesus Christ. He opened the door we ourselves had closed; He bore the night of "God is our enemy" for us (He cried out on the cross, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" which was what Saul should have cried). So today, even in our own night of Endor, when God seems far away, our inquiries go unanswered, and the burden of sin is suffocating, there is still a Savior who walked the path Saul did not: from disobedience to obedience, from deserving death to atonement. Chapter 28 forces us to see that apart from this Savior, everyone is Saul.
These two verses are like an "opening announcement" in a play. They light the fuse buried at the end of chapter 27, then the camera immediately cuts away, leaving the explosion to be dealt with in chapter 29. Readers, left with the suspense of "will David really fight his own people?", are forced into Saul's night at Endor. The narrator's cut is brilliant; he wants readers, in Saul's desperation, to reflect on David's dilemma, thus revealing the dual-track contrast of the entire chapter.
28:1 "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.”"
1 Samuel 28:1（World English Bible）
"gathered their armies together". This was a total mobilization of the Philistines, with the five-city alliance (Gath, Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, Ashdod) all sending troops. Chapter 29 will tell us the assembly point was Aphek (29:1), the camp advanced to the Jezreel Valley (28:4 Shunem), and finally the battle of Mount Gilboa (chapter 31). This was one of the largest military operations launched by the Philistines against Israel.
Achish's "Know assuredly" uses an emphatic form in Hebrew, an order that cannot be refused. This is the practical fulfillment of 27:12's "you shall be my servant forever": since you are my vassal, live in my land, eat my food, and have been given a city by me, what I want now is for you to go out to battle. Please remember, this is the fruit of David's "said in his heart" in 27:1. When a believer, in order to "escape from his hand," acts cleverly and steps into a gray area, the cost of that gray area will one day come due.
28:2 "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.”"
1 Samuel 28:2（World English Bible）
"Therefore you will know what your servant can do". This is a carefully crafted ambiguous statement that can be interpreted as:
This is a continuation of the "two faces" rhetoric from chapter 27; the same sentence, outwardly submissive, inwardly left blank. The narrator once again makes readers ponder: is this cleverness, or is it a fall?
Achish heard a promise and immediately "increased his salary and bestowed office," making him "my bodyguard for ever." This is equivalent to the king's personal bodyguard, a position of trusted confidant in ancient Near Eastern courts. Achish thought he had recruited a fierce warrior; in fact, he was planting a bomb for himself, because if David truly defected in battle, he would be the closest to the king's neck. In chapter 29, other generals precisely for this reason firmly demanded David's dismissal, "lest in the battle he become an adversary to us" (29:4).
Please note the narrator's technique: he leaves David's "dilemma" unresolved here and cuts away, jumping to Saul. Readers, carrying this suspense, read through the night at Endor, and then return to chapter 29 to see David's deliverance. This structure itself proclaims the theology of "God working on both kings on the same night."
This section serves as the "prelude" and "theological premise" for the entire chapter. The narrator sets the stage with three sentences: Samuel is dead (the prophetic line is broken), Saul has expelled those who consult mediums (the enforcer of the law is about to break it), and Saul seeks in vain (God's silence). These three facts are interconnected; without this groundwork, the drama at Endor in the next section would not stand.
28:3 "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."
1 Samuel 28:3（World English Bible）
Samuel's death was already recorded once in 25:1 ("Samuel died; and all Israel gathered themselves together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah"). The repetition here in 28:3 is not a narrative error but a literary intention; the author wants to strike the "prophet is dead" bell again before the entrance to this night at Endor. This firmly establishes: "The person you summon tonight is a dead person; the path you walk tonight is one where no living prophet can be consulted."
"Saul had put away those who had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land." The irony of this sentence is one of the sharpest strokes in the entire chapter. He himself was once an enforcer of the law; this was an achievement in his early kingship, and it was a clear prohibition in Deuteronomy 18:10–11:
"There must not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or who uses divination, or an observer of seasons, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh." (Deuteronomy 18:10–12 [partial verse])
Saul had forbidden this in his early years, indicating he knew it was prohibited by the law. What he is about to do in chapter 28 is not out of ignorance, but out of a conscious transgression in desperation. This sin is more severe than a sin of ignorance; he is not "unaware of the rules," he "knows the rules and still breaks them."
28:4 "The Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and encamped in Shunem; and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they encamped in Gilboa."
1 Samuel 28:4（World English Bible）
Shunem, a city on the southern edge of the Jezreel Plain, was the Philistines' forward base for their northward advance (later the city where the Shunammite woman welcomed Elisha, 2 Kings 4). Gilboa, a mountain range on the southern side of the Jezreel Plain, was Saul's final stand. The two armies faced each other across the plain, a typical "north-south decisive battle" terrain in Israelite history, and a key battlefield in many wars (Megiddo in Judges, Jehu in Kings were in this area).
Geographically, it was genuinely possible for Saul on Gilboa to "see" the Philistine camp; the summit of Mount Gilboa offers a wide view directly facing Shunem. 28:5, "When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled," the sequence of verbs here is a typical Hebrew narrative "three-step internal collapse."
28:5 "When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly."
1 Samuel 28:5（World English Bible）
Please compare this verse with chapter 17. When Goliath came out, "When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid" (17:11). That time, a young David stepped forward and fought the battle for him. This time, young David is gone; David, whom he had pursued for over ten years, is no longer in the Israelite camp, but rather on the enemy's bodyguard roster. The loneliness Saul created for himself is precisely his most painful loneliness in chapter 28.
28:6 "When Saul inquired of Yahweh, Yahweh didn’t answer him by dreams, by Urim, or by prophets."
1 Samuel 28:6（World English Bible）
This is the most solemn verse in the entire chapter, and the theological core of the whole chapter. Please read it slowly, word by word.
"inquired," in Hebrew וַיִּשְׁאַל שָׁאוּל בַּיהוָה (vayishal Shaul ba-YHWH, Saul inquired of Yahweh). Please note the pun on a name: "Saul" (שָׁאוּל, Shaul) itself means "asked for" or "requested" (the verb shaal is the root of "to ask"). The narrator uses a linguistic irony: the person whose name means "inquiry" never inquired of God's will throughout his life, but only proceeded according to his own will or to please others; until the very end, when he was at his wit's end, he still only inquired of God pragmatically. Such an inquiry, of course, ultimately failed.
All three mediums were silent:
The simultaneous silence of all three channels is not God suddenly becoming distant, but rather the doors Saul progressively closed with his own hands over thirty years. Reading this, please remember a pastoral principle: God's silence is often the accumulation of many past instances of "not listening." When we say, "Why doesn't God answer me?", the first person to ask is not God, but ourselves: what were you doing when He answered you before?
This is the most dramatic, mysterious, and controversial section of the entire chapter. Readers here begin to face a narrative dilemma: "Was the one who came up truly Samuel?" We will present three complete theological interpretations in the theological deep dive; here, we will first follow the literal narrative, where the narrator states that this was Samuel himself (28:12 "When the woman saw Samuel," 28:15 "Samuel said to Saul," there are no words like "seemed" or "pretended" in the Hebrew).
28:7 "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.”"
1 Samuel 28:7（World English Bible）
"Woman who has a familiar spirit," in Hebrew אֵשֶׁת בַּעֲלַת־אוֹב (eshet baalat-ov, "woman, owner of a spirit"). The word ov (אוֹב) originally might mean "waterskin" or "hollow vessel." Ancient Near Eastern sorcerers used similar magical instruments to contain "spirit voices" (voices emanating from the bottom of an altar, sounding like the deceased speaking). This is a mixed form of native Canaanite sorcery and Mesopotamian necromancy (etemmu).
Endor, in the territory of Issachar, is on the other side of Shunem (to the north), about 20 kilometers from Saul's camp at Gilboa, and requires circling around the flank of the Philistine army camp. This was a frantic night journey; Saul was essentially traversing the edge of the enemy lines to see someone he himself had expelled. The geographical details of this night themselves speak to the depth of his despair.
28:8 "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.”"
1 Samuel 28:8（World English Bible）
"Disguised himself," in Hebrew וַיִּתְחַפֵּשׂ (vayithapes, to disguise, to put on a disguise), not the same word as David's feigned madness in 22:8 (shanah taamo). This word's meaning is closer to "putting on clothes that do not belong to one's identity." In this verse, Saul, Yahweh's anointed, the king of Israel, takes off his royal robes and puts on the clothes of a lawbreaker to do an unlawful act. The change of attire is an irony of identity; at that moment, he no longer recognized himself as king.
Night, disguise, and illegality—the accumulation of these three actions amounts to complete self-exile. The same motif of disguise appeared twice before in 1 Samuel (10:9–13 Saul's first prophecy after being made king, 19:24 Saul prophesying naked for a day and a night), both related to "abnormal, almost frenzied" states, but still under the Spirit of Yahweh. This "disguise" in chapter 28, however, sees him completely outside Yahweh's protection, which is the greatest tragedy of the narrative.
28:9 "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?”"
1 Samuel 28:9（World English Bible）
The woman's words are highly ironic; she is the first person to utter the name "Saul" that night, and she knows the decree, the risks, and that she is breaking the law. Her fear is real; according to the law (Exodus 22:18 "You shall not allow a sorceress to live"), if she were discovered by officials, her life would be in peril.
Please note an irony: the law was promulgated by Saul, the lawbreaker is Saul himself, and the one asking for the law not to be enforced is also Saul himself. That night, the law was torn apart by its own enforcer. Biblical irony often unfolds quietly like this; the narrator does not comment, only records.
28:10 "Saul swore to her by Yahweh, saying, “As Yahweh lives, no punishment will happen to you for this thing.”"
1 Samuel 28:10（World English Bible）
The sharpest irony in the entire chapter. Saul uses Yahweh's name to guarantee something Yahweh strictly forbids. This is an extreme form of "taking Yahweh's name in vain" (Exodus 20:7), not using God's name in cursing, but using God's name to endorse an action that violates His law.
Please read slowly: "As Yahweh lives" (חַי־יְהוָה, hay-YHWH, by the living Yahweh), this is the most solemn oath formula in the Old Testament. Saul still understands this rhetoric; he remembers that Yahweh is "living," but the one he seeks is "dead" (Samuel's spirit). The rift between words and actions is a microcosm of Saul's spiritual state in chapter 28.
28:11 "Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up to you?” He said, “Bring Samuel up for me.”"
1 Samuel 28:11（World English Bible）
Why did Saul want to summon Samuel? Because he remembered that when Samuel was alive, he was the only window through which he could hear God's clear words. By summoning Samuel, he essentially wanted to bypass death and reopen that long-closed door.
But please note: when Samuel was alive, Saul repeatedly disobeyed Samuel's words (chapter 13 sacrifice, chapter 15 Amalek). Now he wants to summon Samuel's spirit, is he more willing to listen? Or does he just want to ask a specific "can we win tomorrow?" In 28:15, he himself says, "show me what I shall do," he doesn't say "show me how to repent." He wants a roadmap, not repentance. This is Saul's way of asking, seeking help but not seeking change.
28:12 "When the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul!”"
1 Samuel 28:12（World English Bible）
This is the most mysterious verse in the entire passage; the woman screams when she sees Samuel. What does the narrator imply? The most natural reading is: what appeared this time exceeded her usual experience with sorcery.
Here, a crucial New Testament theological perspective needs to be introduced: Paul explicitly states in 1 Corinthians 10:20, "the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God." The logical transfer of this statement to necromancy is: what sorcerers usually summon are not truly deceased relatives, but unclean spirits impersonating the voices and appearances of the departed. Unclean spirits say things that "sound like what that relative would say," making the worshipers believe they have truly seen the spirits of the dead, thereby further binding them to the system of idolatry and sorcery. This is the Bible's overall commentary on all ancient Near Eastern necromancy; the channel was never truly opened, and the entities contacted are imposters, not the deceased.
Understanding this premise allows us to comprehend the woman's scream: when she usually summoned "spirits of the dead," she dealt with her familiar rituals involving unclean spirits, to which she was accustomed; what she saw this time was not the kind of imposter she was familiar with, but a real, dignified being from God, which instantly terrified her into screaming, and at the same moment, she recognized that the guest before her was Saul himself (perhaps the spirit of the real Samuel directly told her, or in her astonishment, she instantly realized "this caliber of request could only be from Saul"). In other words, this was not a success of sorcery; it was God sovereignly overriding the sorcery: He allowed His true prophet to speak one last time, personally delivering words of judgment to Saul.
The Hebrew narrative here has no qualifying words like "it seemed" or "it looked like"; it directly says, "When the woman saw Samuel." The narrator made a clear choice: to treat this as Samuel himself. Theologians have different interpretations of this (see the theological deep dive for details), but the narrator's own position is clear: he narrates the true Samuel.
28:13–14 "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."
1 Samuel 28:13–14（World English Bible）
"A god coming up out of the earth," here is a broad term that can refer to God, a deity, a divine being, or a spiritual entity. The woman saw "a supernatural being," and she described it using her vocabulary.
"An old man comes up; and he is covered with a robe," Samuel's appearance during his lifetime (compare 15:27 where Samuel's "robe" was seized and torn by Saul, becoming a prefigurement of Saul's loss of kingship in chapter 15). This robe is Samuel's emblem, and its appearance in chapter 28 is the narrator driving home the point: the two times this robe appears, both declare that Saul's "kingdom will be torn away." The tearing of the robe in chapter 15 and the night summoning in chapter 28 echo each other.
Saul "stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself," he finally bowed before Samuel. He did not bow when Samuel was alive (chapter 13 direct sacrifice, chapter 15 sophistry about "what the people did"), but only bowed when Samuel was dead, but it was too late. The dislocation of the order of faith is a common recipe for tragedy.
Samuel's words are the core of the entire chapter, three sentences that determine the end of Saul's life. This is the last time God speaks to Saul, and the content of His speech is not a way out, but a judgment. This is the most somber example in the Old Testament of "a believer inquiring, God answering, but the answer being news of death." At the same time, the final detail in this passage, "the woman prepared a meal for Saul," is a deeply moving small detail, a tenderness still present in the darkness.
28:15 "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.”"
1 Samuel 28:15（World English Bible）
Samuel's opening is a rebuke, "Why have you disturbed me?" The Hebrew word rgz carries the meaning of "being disturbed, agitated," often used to describe the rest of the dead being interrupted (cf. Isaiah 14:9, when the king of Babylon descends to Sheol, "Sheol beneath is stirred up for you"). There is no warmth of "Oh, you've come" in Samuel's words, only the rebuke of "you shouldn't have done this."
Saul's answer has three layers:
Listen carefully to what is missing in this monologue: not a single word of repentance, not a single "Please forgive me," not a single "I was wrong." He admits that God has departed from him, but he doesn't ask "why," much less "how should I repent?" He only asks "what should I do?" He wants tactics, not a restored relationship. This is Saul's final spiritual portrait in chapter 28, seeking methods until death, not seeking to return.
28:16–17 "Samuel said, “Why then do you ask me, since Yahweh has departed from you and has become your adversary? Yahweh has done to you as he spoke by me. Yahweh has torn the kingdom out of your hand, and given it to your neighbor, even to David."
1 Samuel 28:16–17（World English Bible）
"and has become your enemy." This is one of the heaviest statements in 1 Samuel. God is not just "not on your side"; He is "against you." Saul's greatest tragedy in life was not losing the kingship, but God changing from "my God" to "my adversary."
Please compare this verse with chapter 15. In chapter 15, Samuel had already spoken of this ("Yahweh has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you," 1 Samuel 15:28). Here in chapter 28, it is almost an exact repetition. Samuel's role, even in death, is still to deliver the same message. This is the solemnity of the prophetic office: the words a prophet spoke in life remain the same even after death.
28:18 "Because you didn’t obey Yahweh’s voice, and didn’t execute his fierce wrath on Amalek, therefore Yahweh has done this thing to you today."
1 Samuel 28:18（World English Bible）
Samuel pins the root of all Saul's calamities on the "sin of Amalek" (Saul spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle in 1 Samuel 15). But it is crucial to understand the deeper meaning of this verse: Saul's tragedy was not that he once committed the sin of Amalek, but that he never truly confessed and repented from that day onward. When Samuel confronted him with his sin in chapter 15, he first equivocated ("the people spared the best... to sacrifice to Yahweh," 15:15), then shifted blame ("I feared the people, and obeyed their voice," 15:24), and finally clung to Samuel's robe, asking for only one thing, "Please honor me now before the elders of my people" (15:30). He cared about his reputation, not the God he had offended. So this sin, which was not properly dealt with 15 years prior, festered within him like an unremoved thorn, leading to suspicion (chapter 18, jealousy of David), to pursuit (chapters 19–26), to the slaughter of the priests of Nob (chapter 22), and to calling up Samuel at Endor tonight. Each step was an extension of the same unyielding heart.
Please do not read chapter 28 as "a small transgression ruined a person's entire life." If that were the case, every one of us would already be doomed. Please read it as the chronic death of a soul that never truly knelt in confession. This is precisely the deepest divergence between Saul and David. David's sin in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah (adultery, murder, family deception, 2 Samuel 11) was legally far more serious than Saul's sin of Amalek; but when the prophet Nathan pointed to him with the words "You are the man" (2 Samuel 12:7), he immediately fell to the ground and said, "I have sinned against Yahweh" (2 Samuel 12:13), and subsequently wrote Psalm 51, "Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness... Against you, and you only, have I sinned..." David repented; Saul did not, even unto death. This is the true weight of 28:18: not "one mistake means eternal unforgiveness," but "a lifetime of never truly returning." 13 years, 15 years, 20 years of time should have given Saul countless opportunities to repent. God was not in a hurry to condemn; it was Saul himself who never knelt down.
Please also connect this line in your mind to chapter 27, where David attacked the Amalekites, partially completing Saul's unfinished task. The theological contrast is quietly completed: Saul failed, lost his kingdom, and would die in the land of Amalek; David inherited, gained land, and would live in the land of Amalek.
28:19 "Moreover Yahweh will deliver Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines; and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Yahweh will deliver the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.”"
1 Samuel 28:19（World English Bible）
Three pronouncements:
"will be with me." This is one of the few direct statements in the Old Testament about the "state after death." The place where Samuel is is Sheol, the general Old Testament term for the afterlife in Israel, the common destination for all people (righteous and wicked). But "with me" implies a certain continuity; Samuel is there with consciousness and identity. This verse later became one of the key scriptures revealing the state after death in the Old Testament (cf. Job 14, Ecclesiastes 9, Psalm 49 for comparison).
Please note that the revelation of the state after death in the Bible is progressive. The Old Testament generally speaks of Sheol, where the righteous and wicked are together (Jacob, Samuel, Saul; this verse in chapter 28 places them in the same space). But in the New Testament, this picture is rewritten by Christ. On the cross, the Lord Jesus said to the repentant thief, "Most certainly, I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43). A criminal who turned to Christ only before death no longer enters the general Sheol to wait, but is with Christ in Paradise that very day. This is a glory unknown to Old Testament believers. Paul also says in Philippians, "I am in a dilemma between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, for this is far better" (Philippians 1:23). The destination of New Testament believers after death is no longer the "waiting in Sheol" state of Samuel, but being with Christ. This is the new realm opened by Christ's death and resurrection. He "has the keys of Death and of Hades" (Revelation 1:18), bringing the righteous from the waiting of Sheol into the glory of God the Father. So when reading chapter 28, please keep in mind: the place Saul descended to that night is no longer the place where we, who are in Christ today, will go after death. This is the weight of the gospel.
28:20 "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."
1 Samuel 28:20（World English Bible）
"fell immediately," Hebrew וַיְמַהֵר שָׁאוּל וַיִּפֹּל (vayemaher Shaul vayipol, Saul quickly fell). The word "quickly" is usually an adverb for positive action; here it is ironically used for falling. His fastest, most decisive action in life was to fall down after hearing the judgment.
"had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night." This was not religious fasting (Saul in chapter 28 would no longer fast), but a physical reaction to being overwhelmed by the news. He had not eaten properly for a day when he left Gilboa that night, and after hearing Samuel's pronouncement, he was completely unable to eat.
28:21–22 "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.”"
1 Samuel 28:21–22（World English Bible）
The most tender passage in the entire chapter. This woman, a lawbreaker, someone Saul intended to expel, a woman terrified to scream that night, became the only person in the entire chapter to express warmth towards Saul. Her logic is simple: you risked your life to ask me, and I risked my life to call him up; now that you've collapsed after hearing, at least let me cook a meal for you.
This is the most humanized scene in the entire chapter. On the fringes of the law, in the deepest valley of judgment, there is still a tenderness of "after all, she is a woman." The narrator writes this passage with great detail, "1 Samuel doesn't have many places that describe such details," indicating that he wants readers to carry this tenderness out of that night.
28:23–25 "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."
1 Samuel 28:23–25（World English Bible）
"a fattened calf," the best meat reserved for important occasions. This poor countrywoman brought out her best. This was a meal almost like a Passover night family feast (unleavened bread, slaughtered calf, with a sense of foreshadowing the "killing of the fattened calf" in Luke 15 for the prodigal son's return). But ironically, this was not a "prodigal son's return" feast, but the king's last supper on his way to death.
"Then they rose up, and went away that night." He knew he was going back to die. Saul had not slept all night, had not eaten all night, had walked over twenty kilometers to get there, had been declared dead, and would walk over twenty kilometers back, arriving at the Gilboa camp before dawn. The next day, he died there (1 Samuel 31). Chapter 28 is Saul's last night of life, and his last meal that night was prepared by a woman he had expelled.
| Hebrew Original | Transliteration | Meaning | Location in Chapter |
|---|---|---|---|
| שָׁאַל | shaal | To ask, inquire; ironic, as it shares the same root as "Saul" | 28:6, 15, 16 |
| לֹא עָנָהוּ | lo anahu | He did not answer him; judgmental silence | 28:6 |
| אוּרִים | Urim | "Lights"; sacred lots on the high priest's breastplate | 28:6 |
| אֵשֶׁת בַּעֲלַת־אוֹב | eshet baalat-ov | Owner of a spirit of the dead, controller of occult implements | 28:7 |
| עֵין־דֹּר | En-Dor | "Spring of Dor"; a small town on the southern edge of Galilee | 28:7 |
| וַיִּתְחַפֵּשׂ | vayithapes | To disguise, conceal one's identity | 28:8 |
| הַעֲלִי | ha'ali | To bring up (a specific verb for summoning the dead) | 28:8, 11 |
| אֱלֹהִים | elohim | God, gods, divine being | 28:13 |
| מְעִיל | me'il | Samuel's distinctive garment, an echo of the tearing of the robe in chapter 15 | 28:14 |
| הִרְגַּזְתַּנִי | hirgaztani | You have disturbed me; the rest of the dead is interrupted | 28:15 |
| עָרֶךָ | arekha | Your adversary; God's position is reversed | 28:16 |
| עִמִּי | immi | With me; revelation of the post-death state | 28:19 |
| שְׁאוֹל | Sheol | The abode of all the dead | 28:13, 19 (implied) |
| צַר־לִי מְאֹד | tsar-li me'od | I am in extreme distress | 28:15 |
↑ End of Chapter 27: Achish mistakenly trusts David
↓
28:1–2 ── Achish summons ── David's dilemma ("The king will know") ── ┐
│
**Scene Change** │ David's storyline unresolved
│ → Chapter 29 resolves
28:3 ── Samuel is dead, Saul banished witchcraft (premise) │
28:4–5 ── Philistines arrayed → Saul sees → his heart trembled │
28:6 ── Three legitimate ways of inquiry → Three silences ←━━━━━━━━━┓ │
┃ │
↓ Turns to unlawful means ┃ │
┃ │
28:7 ── Seeks a woman with a familiar spirit → En-Dor ┃ │
28:8 ── Disguises, travels by night, crosses enemy lines ┃ │
28:9–10── Woman fears, Saul swears by Yahweh's name ┃ │
28:11 ── Asks to bring up Samuel ┃ │
28:12 ── Woman screams, recognizes Saul (miraculous intervention) ┃ │
28:13–14 ─ Describes the form, Saul bows down ┃ │
28:15 ── Samuel: "Why have you disturbed me?" ┃ │
┃ │
↓ Ultimate Judgment ┃ │
┃ │
28:16 ── "Yahweh has become your adversary" ┃ │
28:17 ── Kingdom torn away, given to David (fulfillment of chapter 15) ┃ │
28:18 ── Reason: Sin concerning Amalek ┃ │
28:19 ── Triple judgment (defeat, death, sons die with him) ┛ │
│
28:20 ── Saul falls, eats nothing all day │
28:21–25 ─ Woman persuades him to eat, the last supper ── Rises that night, returns to Gilboa ┘
↓
Chapter 31: Saul dies
The entire chapters 28–30 form a carefully crafted contrasting structure, with the narrator using the technique of "two kings, one night":
A 28:1–2 David faces a dilemma (summoned to war)
B 28:3–25 Saul's night of spiritual bankruptcy (inquiry unanswered → necromancy → judgment)
A' 29:1–11 David is sent back (God saves him through Philistine commanders)
B' 30:1–8 David inquires of Yahweh ("Shall I pursue?", immediately answered)
A''30:9–31 David's great victory over Amalek
B''31:1–13 Saul dies in battle on Gilboa
The two kings act in different directions within the same time window; David is led to the right path, while Saul is pushed towards death. The narrator needs no commentary; the structure itself is the commentary.
"Saul" (שָׁאוּל, Shaul) has the root sh-a-l = to ask, inquire. 28:6 uses the verb shaal to describe his inquiry of Yahweh. The king whose name means "asked" never truly sought Yahweh's will throughout his life; only in desperation did he pragmatically inquire once, and naturally, it was in vain. Hebrew narrative loves this kind of "irony of name and reality," see Nabal in chapter 25.
The motif of clothing runs through 1 Samuel:
The repeated appearance of clothing is a tool the narrator uses to concretize the "transfer of royal authority."
28:6 is a representative Old Testament passage for "divine silence as judgment." This theme echoes in Lamentations 2:9 ("Her king and her princes are among the nations. The law is no more. Yes, her prophets find no vision from Yahweh.") and Amos 8:11–12 ("Behold, the days come," says the Lord Yahweh, "that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Yahweh."). Chapter 28 is a concrete narrative of this theology: when people persistently refuse to listen, God's heaviest punishment is not anger, but silence.
1 Samuel intentionally designs chapters 15 and 28 as mirrors:
| Element | 1 Samuel 15 | 1 Samuel 28 |
|---|---|---|
| Characters | Samuel + Saul | Samuel (spirit) + Saul |
| Location | Gilgal | En-Dor |
| Key Action | Saul grasps Samuel's robe → torn | Saul sees Samuel's robe → bows down |
| Samuel's Key Words | "Yahweh has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you." | "Yahweh has torn the kingdom out of your hand, and given it to your neighbor, even to David." |
| Root Sin | Spared Amalek | Did not obey the command concerning Amalek |
| Saul's Reaction | Grasps the robe, pleads | Falls down, eats nothing all night |
The two chapters are two echoes of the same message; the first is a "warning," the second is a "fulfillment."
Endor is located near the modern village of Endor (in Lower Galilee, about 4 km southeast of Mount Tabor). The straight-line distance from Mount Gilboa to Endor is about 15–20 km, but it is separated by the Jezreel Valley, and the Philistine army camp was stationed at Shunem (located west, between Saul and Endor).
Saul's actual path that night:
This was an extremely risky military night journey; any Philistine sentry recognizing him would mean the Israeli army losing its commander-in-chief. The sheer madness of that night can be gauged from the geography alone.
The Mount Gilboa range is a hilly area on the southern edge of the Jezreel Valley, with an average elevation of 400–500 meters. Strategically:
The outcome of this battle for Saul determined not only his own life but also whether the entire north and south of Israel could remain united. One of the consequences of the defeat in chapter 31 was that "the cities on the west bank of the Jordan were abandoned" (31:7), and the Philistines deeply controlled the central highlands, leading to David's initial enthronement only in Hebron (in the south), with the northern tribes later establishing a separate kingdom under Ish-bosheth, until David truly unified the entire nation in 2 Samuel 5.
Deuteronomy 18:10–14, Leviticus 19:31, 20:6, 27 repeatedly forbid ov (mediums) and yidde'oni (wizards). Leviticus 20:27 specifies the penalty as death by stoning, so the woman's fear in 28:9 is entirely reasonable. Saul's early "expulsion" was likely carried out according to this law.
Archaeologically, there are indeed remains of "pits of necromancy" in Canaan. Some sacrificial pits in Megiddo and Lachish preserve combinations of face-down skeletons and ritual objects, which scholars believe may be related to summoning the dead. The phrase "came up out of the earth" in 28:13 suggests the form of witchcraft at the time as "rising from the bottom of a pit," visually aligning with archaeological findings.
Detailed documentation exists for Babylonian and Assyrian summoning of the dead (Akkadian nēpishtu rituals), where a sorcerer acts as a medium, with pits, water, and oil as conduits, and the spirits of the dead responding with growls or hisses. The practice of the woman of Endor in chapter 28 (woman, pit, ritual objects, spirit coming from the ground) is strikingly similar to this tradition, indicating that witchcraft practices in Israel were a localized version of the ancient Near Eastern witchcraft system.
The difference is that Mesopotamian necromancy was often "successful" (in their own worldview, the sorcerer truly heard the "spirits of the dead" speak), but here we must introduce the theological light of the New Testament. Paul makes a startling commentary on idolatry in 1 Corinthians 10:19–20:
"What am I saying then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I don’t want you to be partners with demons." (1 Corinthians 10:19–20)
In other words, behind idols is not the true God, but neither is it "nothing"; behind idols are demons. The same logic applies to necromancy: the so-called "spirits of the dead" summoned by sorcerers are, for the most part, not truly deceased relatives, but rather imitations and impersonations by unclean spirits. Unclean spirits create the illusion of "successful summoning" by "saying things that deceased relatives would say," further binding the worshipers to the system of idols and witchcraft. This is Paul's New Testament theological perspective, a comprehensive reckoning with the spiritual chaos of the ancient Near East.
Therefore, the "success" of Mesopotamian necromancy was a real spiritual encounter, but the objects of contact were not the dead, but unclean spirits impersonating the dead; the "channel between life and death" was never truly opened by them. Israeli law absolutely prohibited such practices because, in the Israeli worldview, the channel between life and death can only be opened by God (Genesis 5:24 for Enoch, 2 Kings 2 for Elijah, God actively taking them). For humans to actively summon the dead is not only to usurp God's prerogative but also to surrender their souls to unclean spirits impersonating the dead.
This also directly relates to the dilemma in chapter 28: was the "Samuel who came up out of the earth" real or fake? According to the default premise of Pauline theology, most spirits brought up by necromancy are impersonations by unclean spirits. But the peculiarity of this particular instance in chapter 28 is precisely that the woman herself screamed (28:12), indicating that this appearance exceeded her everyday experience with witchcraft. God sovereignly intervened this time, allowing His true prophet Samuel to come up and deliver His final words of judgment (see "Three Theological Interpretations" below for details). The rule is: most necromancy involves impersonations by unclean spirits; the exception is: God can sovereignly speak in any ritual, but this is not due to the efficacy of witchcraft, but God's sovereign action overriding witchcraft.
In the ancient Near East, it was a regular royal protocol for kings to inquire of the gods before battle. Clear textual records exist for Assyrian King Ashurbanipal's "war oracles" and Hittite kings' "prophetic inquiries" before battle. Saul's use of "dreams, Urim, and prophets" as three mediums in 28:6 is precisely the Israelite version of the "pre-war inquiry ritual," which was what a king should do. The problem was not that he inquired, but that he could not connect.
On a deeper level, when an Assyrian king failed to get an answer, he would resort to other methods (private divination, astrology, liver divination); Saul's failure to get an answer and turning to necromancy follows the same logic of "changing methods." The reaction pattern of an Israelite king in desperation was not essentially different from that of a foreign king. This is the most profound theological commentary behind chapter 28: by this point, Saul had become an "Israelite king who had become like a foreigner."
Most kings in the ancient Near East did not prohibit witchcraft; witchcraft was often integrated into the court system (e.g., the bārû class of diviner-priests in Mesopotamia). Saul's early prohibition of mediums, according to the logic above, might have been to centralize "religious authority" within the priestly system, but the fundamental motive of the law was not political; it was to prohibit contact with spiritual mediums other than God. Saul's prohibition was according to the law, yet his motives might have been impure (out of royal power); his transgression was out of desperation, yet it was also an honest exposure of the truth that he had never truly believed in the God whom the law believed in.
| Scripture | Who | Inquired / Did Not Inquire | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Samuel 9:9 | General Israelites | Went to see a "seer" | Normal state of inquiry |
| 1 Samuel 14:18, 36–37 | Saul | Inquired through Ahijah's ephod | Still inquiring early on |
| 1 Samuel 22:10 | David (Ahimelech interceded) | Inquired of the Lord at Nob | Guided |
| 1 Samuel 23:2, 4 | David | Inquired twice | Received clear guidance |
| 1 Samuel 27:1 | David | "Said in his heart," did not ask the Lord | Entered a sixteen-month gray period |
| 1 Samuel 28:6 | Saul | Inquired of Yahweh | No answer through three legitimate means |
| 1 Samuel 28:7–8 | Saul | Inquired of the dead | Received a response, but it was a death prophecy |
| 1 Samuel 30:7–8 | David | Inquired after "greatly distressed" | Immediately received a response, great victory |
| 2 Samuel 2:1 | David | "Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah?" | Inquiry before enthronement |
This line hits rock bottom in chapter 28; the "direction of inquiry" of a king determines the direction of a king's destiny.
Situations of "God's silence" in the Old Testament:
Chapter 28 is a classic example of judgmental silence, set against a backdrop of 30 years of "not hearing Yahweh." The doctrinal application is not to interpret all silence as "God is testing me"; sometimes His silence is of the 28:6 type, requiring not more earnest inquiry, but repentant return.
28:13 ("I see a god coming up out of the earth") + 28:19 ("you and your sons will be with me") are early, rare, and explicit Old Testament verses about existence after death. Taken together, the Old Testament depicts the state after death as:
Jesus' death and resurrection in the New Testament opened Sheol, bringing the righteous into paradise with Christ (Luke 23:43 "Today you will be with me in Paradise"), and ultimately a bodily resurrection at the end of days (1 Cor 15). Samuel "waiting for Saul in Sheol" in Chapter 28 has been rewritten by the New Testament era; Christ has "the keys of Death and of Hades" (Rev 1:18).
| Old Testament (1 Sam 28) | New Testament Echo | Related Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| 28:6 Three righteous paths simultaneously silent | Heb 12:25 "See that you don’t refuse him who speaks" | God speaks through Christ today; if we still don't listen, silence can still be judgment |
| 28:7 Seeking the dead | Luke 16:29 "They have Moses and the Prophets. Let them listen to them" | Abraham refused the rich man's request to "send someone to my brothers"; for those who don't listen to God while alive, even the dead speaking is useless |
| 28:7 The nature of necromancy | 1 Cor 10:19–20 "The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God" | What sorcerers usually summon are not true spirits of the dead, but unclean spirits impersonating the deceased. The channel was never truly opened; they contact imposters. Modern psychic shows, mediums, and meditating on deceased relatives fall into this category; they are not empty superstitions, but real demonic deception |
| 28:8 Disguising to do unlawful things | Eph 5:11–12 "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them. For the things which are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of" | The fundamental problem with acting in darkness is not being discovered, but having already left the light |
| 28:13 "a god coming up out of the earth" | Eph 4:9–10 "When he ascended on high... he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth" | The limited "up and down" channel of the Old Testament; Christ completely opened heaven and earth |
| 28:15 "God has departed from me, and doesn’t answer me" | Matt 27:46 "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" | Christ experienced "God departing" for us, so that we may never be forsaken |
| 28:18 Saul never truly repented for the sin of Amalek | 2 Sam 12:13 + Ps 51 David "I have sinned against Yahweh" | Saul never knelt in confession throughout his life; David committed more serious sins (Bathsheba, Uriah) but immediately fell to the ground in repentance. The anointed one is identified not by not sinning, but by whether they will kneel after sinning |
| 28:18 The chronic fermentation of Saul's spiritual tragedy | Heb 3:13 "but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called ‘today,’ lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin" | Unaddressed sin hardens the heart step by step. The thorn Saul didn't remove in Chapter 15 festered all the way to Chapter 28. The New Testament warns: deal with it today |
| 28:19 "Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me" | Luke 23:43 "Today you will be with me in Paradise" | Old Testament "with me in Sheol" → New Testament "with me in Paradise"; Christ rewrote the state after death |
| 28:21–25 The woman prepares dinner for Saul | Luke 22:14–20 The Lord Jesus' last supper before Gethsemane | Both are "last meals before death," but the former is mercy in despair, the latter is the institution of redemptive love |
| 28:25 Saul "rose up that night, and went away" (to his death) | Matt 26:46 "Arise, let’s be going" | Both rose up at night to walk towards death, but Saul walked towards his own curse, Christ walked towards our redemption |
The greatest theological difficulty in 1 Samuel 28 is: who exactly was the "Samuel" who appeared that night? There are three main interpretations in church history:
Representatives: Origen, Josephus, Matthew Henry, Bill Arnold, Robert Bergen, Dale Ralph Davis
Supporting Reasons:
Theological Difficulty: God seems to have "permitted" a law-breaking act of necromancy to succeed? Explanation: God is sovereign; He is not bound by sorcery but can sovereignly intervene in such a ritual when necessary to convey His own words. The appearance of the true prophet in this instance is itself an ironic negation of sorcery: you thought sorcery summoned him; in fact, God allowed His prophet to speak one last time. The woman's "scream" is key evidence that this was beyond her normal magical abilities.
Representatives: Chrysostom (in some works), Calvin (early), some Puritan commentators
Supporting Reasons:
Theological Difficulty: The literal usage of the Hebrew narrative has no markers of "false" or "like." If the narrator intended to say "a demon impersonated," he could have written "the woman thought she saw Samuel" or "someone like Samuel." But he did not. This interpretation somewhat "reads into" the text what is not explicitly stated.
Supporting reasons: In a state of extreme fear, insomnia, and hunger, Saul's suggestive performance by the woman triggered a collective hallucination. Samuel's words were merely a rehash of what Saul already knew in his subconscious (Samuel had said similar things in chapter 15).
Theological difficulties: This reading essentially denies the supernatural layer of the text and is incompatible with the overall worldview of 1 Samuel. A minority of purely rationalist scholars hold this reading, but it has almost no market in the evangelical tradition.
This Bible Study leans towards Reading A. The narrator clearly states that it was Samuel himself, and the woman's scream indicates God's sovereign intervention beyond the normal scope of witchcraft. This stance is theologically impactful: God can sovereignly intervene in a ritual forbidden by His law. But this is precisely the theological sharpness of chapter 28: God is not limited by any power outside of His law. He is not hijacked by witchcraft (witchcraft cannot compel Him), but He can sovereignly choose to speak at that moment, allowing His own final judgment to fall upon Saul's heart.
At the same time, we respect Reading B. The value of this reading lies in its emphasis on the seriousness of the law, reminding readers not to adopt any tolerant attitude towards witchcraft because of chapter 28. Regardless of who the figure in chapter 28 was, witchcraft itself is still strictly forbidden by Deuteronomy 18, and this legal position remains unshaken.
In study groups, it is suggested that both readings be presented for discussion, allowing brothers and sisters to weigh them themselves. The difficulty of this chapter is that it forces one to pause and ponder where the line truly lies between God's sovereignty and human transgression.
1 Samuel 28 is a mirror, showing us what a soul that resisted God all its life looks like on its last night. In this mirror, there is no beauty, no courage, no repentance, no faith, only disguise, night travel, necromancy, falling, a last meal, and going back to die. This is the portrait of the rejected.
But this chapter is also a window, and outside the window is another king on that same night in chapter 30. When David wakes up in Ziklag (the night at the end of chapter 28, possibly the eve of chapter 30), he will face his own crisis (Amalek's raid on the city, his family taken captive, the people wanting to stone him). But he did what Saul did not do in chapter 28: he inquired of Yahweh (30:7–8). The same crisis, the same night, the two kings' directions of inquiry were diametrically opposed, and their outcomes were also diametrically opposed.
This is the gospel undertone of 1 Samuel: it is not "brave heroes conquering evil," but "a person who kneels and inquires is closer to God's heart than a person wearing a king's robe." Chapter 28 vividly displays Saul's path of no return; chapter 30 will present David's path of correction with equal clarity.
And these two kings are not the ultimate end; they both point to the true King, Christ, who forever kneels to seek the Father's will. In the night of Gethsemane, He said, "Nevertheless, not what I desire, but what you desire." (Matthew 26:39). This is a sentence Saul never spoke in his life, and a sentence David did not perfectly fulfill. Only this ultimate King spoke it, lived it, and died it, winning for us, who are both like Saul and like David, a battle we could never win ourselves.
| Role | Identity | Actions/State of Mind in This Chapter | Theological Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saul | Rejected king, anointed one whose throne was taken | Achish's war on David → fear → no answer to inquiry → night travel for necromancy → fell → went to die | A complete textbook of spiritual bankruptcy, seeking methods not repentance in despair |
| David | Anointed but not yet enthroned king of Judah | Dragged by Achish into the dilemma of war against Israel | The cost of "said in his heart" in chapter 27 begins to be paid, but God intervenes in chapter 29 |
| Achish | King of Gath, mistakenly trusted David | Recruited David, appointed him bodyguard | Still in mistaken trust, God still uses his mistaken trust to preserve |
| Samuel (spirit) | God's final messenger | Rebuked, pronounced judgment, reiterated words from chapter 15 | God's last words to Saul, content is judgment not a way out |
| Woman of Endor | Sorceress, lawbreaker | Necromancy, recognized Saul, gently urged him to eat | The only human warmth in the entire chapter, a small candle in the dark night |
| Jonathan (implicit) | David's closest friend, Saul's son | Does not appear, but 28:19 already foretold | The pain point of chapter 28, he will die with his father tomorrow |
| Theme | Content in This Chapter | Scriptural Basis |
|---|---|---|
| God's Silence | Three legitimate ways (dreams, Urim, prophets) all unanswered simultaneously, a judgment not an accident | 28:6 |
| Qualification for Inquiry | For one who resisted God all his life, seeking inquiry again in desperation, the door may already be closed | 28:6, 15 |
| Irony of the Law | The executor of the law personally breaks the law, punishing himself | 28:3, 9, 10 |
| God's Sovereignty | Even when humans use unlawful means (necromancy), God can still have a true prophet deliver a true message | 28:12, 15 |
| Unchanging Word | Samuel's words when alive (chapter 15) and after death (chapter 28) remain unchanged | 28:17, 18 |
| Seeking Methods vs. Seeking Repentance | Saul sought "what should I do" until death, never "how should I return" | 28:15 |
| Long-term Consequences of Sin | The sin of Amalek still being accounted for 15 years later | 28:18 |
| Consciousness After Death | "with me," early Old Testament revelation of the state after death | 28:19 |