1Sa 28:7-25 | TNotes | STEP | 28:7 Excluded from God’s counsel, Saul resorted to illegitimate methods for finding God’s will. Saul had earlier prohibited the occult practice that he now engaged in himself (28:3 ). • Endor was on the boundary between Israel and Philistia; the area near Israel’s border was probably a safer location for a banned practice.

28:7 ^a Excluded from God’s counsel, Saul resorted to illegitimate methods for finding God’s will. Saul had earlier prohibited the occult practice that he now engaged in himself (28:3 ^b).

• Endor was on the boundary between Israel and Philistia; the area near Israel’s border was probably a safer location for a banned practice.
28:9 ^c outlawed: Literally cut off, suggesting that Saul might have had most of the mediums executed.
28:12 ^d It is not clear why seeing Samuel caused the woman to recognize Saul.
28:13 ^e Saul asked the medium to describe what she saw that caused her to scream. She described a divine being, a god (Hebrew ’elohim) coming up. Perhaps she observed a human figure with a godlike or angelic appearance, or her use of the term god might reflect a pagan belief that a person becomes a god—a spirit possessing supernatural abilities—after death.
28:15 ^f God has left me: The same Hebrew term is used in 16:14 ^g and Judg 16:20 ^h.

• won’t reply by prophets or dreams: Cp. 1 Sam 28:6 ⁱ.
28:16 ^j Saul’s enemy was not David but the Lord himself.
28:17 ^k torn the kingdom from you: See 15:28 ^l.
28:18 ^m you refused: Samuel’s message to Saul had not changed (cp. 15:19 ⁿ).
28:19 ^o here with me: In Sheol, the abode of the dead (cp. 2:6 ^p, “the grave”; see also Num 16:30-33 ^q; Job 17:1-16 ^r; Ps 49:11 ^s; Rev 1:18 ^t).
28:24 ^u fattening a calf ... dough ... bread: This meal was a major undertaking, a model of hospitality (cp. Gen 18:5-7 ^v). This meal the medium shared with Saul recalls the fine meal Samuel had shared with Saul (1 Sam 9:22-24 ^w) before he anointed Saul as king. That meal with God’s prophet marked the beginning of Saul’s kingship. This meal with a condemned spiritist came shortly before his death.