Chapter Overview
Summary
1 Samuel 28 is one of the Hebrew Bible's most theologically-charged chapters: Saul, unable to obtain divine guidance by legitimate means (v. 6), consults a necromancer at En-dor who summons up the ghost of Samuel — who pronounces Saul's doom (vv. 15–19). The passage raises profound questions about post-death existence, legitimate-vs-forbidden divination, and divine judgment. The early church fathers (Origen, Augustine) and the rabbinic tradition debated whether the apparition was genuinely Samuel or a demonic impersonation. Ecclesiasticus 46:20 (Sirach) treats it as genuinely Samuel speaking.
Notable Variants
The 'spirit-conjurers' (baalot 'ov / engastrimythoi 'belly-speakers') vocabulary; the 'divine being rising from the earth' (elohim olim) at 28:13 that raises post-mortem-existence questions; Samuel's prophecy at 28:19 'tomorrow you and your sons will be with me.'
Structural Notes
LXX 1 Samuel 28 has 25 verses matching MT.
In those days the Philistines assembled their forces for war, to fight against Israel. Achish said to David, "You must understand clearly that you and your men will march out with me in the army."
Philistine war-assembly tracks MT. Achish's 'you must understand you will fight with me' — the moment of truth for David's double-dealing.
David said to Achish, "Then you yourself will see what your servant can do." Achish said to David, "Then I will make you my permanent bodyguard."
David's deliberately-ambiguous answer tracks MT. 'You will see what your servant can do' — David neither refuses nor commits to fighting Israel. The chapter's suspense: will David fight Saul? The narrative will resolve this by Achish's Philistine commanders rejecting David at 29:4.
Now Samuel was dead. All Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had expelled the spirit-conjurers and the diviners from the land.
Masoretic (WLC)
וְשָׁאוּל הֵסִיר הָאֹבוֹת וְאֶת־הַיִּדְּעֹנִים מֵהָאָרֶץ
Saul had expelled the spirit-conjurers and the diviners from the land
Septuagint (LXX)
καὶ Σαουλ περιείλατο τοὺς ἐγγαστριμύθους καὶ τοὺς γνώστας ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς
Saul had removed the belly-speakers and the knowers from the land
Hebrew obot ('spirit-of-the-dead-mediums') is rendered engastrimythoi — literally 'belly-speakers' (from en + gastēr + mythos) — the Greek technical term for ventriloquist-mediums. The terminology reflects the ancient understanding that the spirits' voice came from the medium's body-cavity.
The yiddonim ('familiar-spirit knowers / wizards') is rendered gnōstai ('knowers'). The terminology preserves the Deuteronomy 18:10–12 anti-necromancy prohibition-categories.
Saul's earlier expulsion of these practitioners — in compliance with Torah — makes his chapter-28 consultation of one doubly damning: he violates his own prior royal-edict.
The Philistines assembled, advanced, and encamped at Shunem. Saul gathered all Israel, and they encamped at Gilboa.
Philistine camp at Shunem, Israel at Gilboa tracks MT.
When Saul saw the Philistine camp, he was afraid, and his heart shook violently.
Saul's fear and heart-shaking tracks MT.
Saul inquired of the LORD, but the LORD did not answer him — not by dreams, not by the Urim, not by prophets.
'The LORD did not answer him — not by dreams, not by the Urim, not by prophets' tracks MT. The three-fold legitimate-divination methods (dreams, Urim, prophets) are named and all fail. Saul's access to divine guidance is completely cut off.
Saul said to his servants, "Find me a woman who commands a spirit-pit, so I can go to her and seek answers through her." His servants said to him, "There is a woman who commands a spirit-pit at Endor."
Saul's decision to consult a medium tracks MT. The 'woman who commands a spirit-pit' (literally 'mistress of a medium-spirit') is euphemistically phrased.
Saul disguised himself, put on different clothing, and set out — he and two men with him. They came to the woman at night. He said, "Conjure for me through the spirit-pit and bring up for me whoever I name to you."
Saul's disguise tracks MT. The irony: the king who banned necromancy now has to disguise himself to practice it — a king hiding from his own laws.
The woman said to him, "You surely know what Saul has done — how he cut down the spirit-conjurers and the diviners from the land. Why are you setting a trap for my life, to get me killed?"
The medium's fear tracks MT.
Saul swore to her by the LORD: "As the LORD lives, no punishment will fall on you for this."
Saul's swearing-by-the-LORD-not-to-punish-her tracks MT. The blasphemous oath: swearing by the LORD while violating LORD's explicit law. Saul's theological collapse is total.
The woman said, "Whom should I bring up for you?" He said, "Bring up Samuel for me."
'Bring up Samuel' tracks MT.
When the woman saw Samuel, she screamed aloud. The woman said to Saul, "Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!"
The medium's scream and recognition tracks MT. Her recognition of Saul happens upon her sighting of Samuel — as if the genuine divine encounter reveals the concealed royalty to her.
The king said to her, "Do not be afraid. What do you see?" The woman said to Saul, "I see a divine being rising from the earth."
Masoretic (WLC)
אֱלֹהִים רָאִיתִי עֹלִים מִן־הָאָרֶץ
I see a divine being rising from the earth
Septuagint (LXX)
θεοὺς ἑόρακα ἀναβαίνοντας ἐκ τῆς γῆς
I have seen gods coming up from the earth
ELOHIM AS PLURAL. The Hebrew elohim is grammatically plural but typically singular in meaning. The medium uses the plural — 'a divine being' or 'gods' — which the LXX renders with the straightforward plural theoi.
The medium's vision: a deceased figure described as elohim / theoi — raising profound questions about what the medium is seeing. Christian interpretive tradition has been divided: Origen (Homilies on 1 Samuel 5) argued it was genuinely Samuel; Tertullian and some later fathers argued it was a demonic impersonation. Augustine waffled.
The LXX's straightforward plural preserves the Hebrew interpretive openness. The biblical text does not resolve the question of what kind of entity was summoned.
He said to her, "What does he look like?" She said, "An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped in a robe." Saul knew it was Samuel. He bent down with his face to the ground and prostrated himself.
'An old man wrapped in a robe' tracks MT. The description fits Samuel — old-man-with-robe (recalling 15:27 where Saul tore the robe). Saul bows — recognizing his former anointer.
Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?" Saul said, "I am in terrible distress. The Philistines are waging war against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no longer — not through prophets, not through dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what I should do."
'Why have you disturbed me?' tracks MT. The language of being 'raised up / disturbed' (anastēsai in LXX) implies post-death rest that has been interrupted. This becomes important evidence in later Jewish and Christian debate about intermediate-state consciousness.
Samuel said, "Why do you ask me, when the LORD has turned away from you and become your adversary?"
'The LORD has turned away from you' tracks MT. The apparition delivers the verdict Saul already fears.
The LORD has done to you just as he spoke through me: the LORD has torn the kingdom from your hand and given it to your neighbor — to David.
'The LORD has torn the kingdom from your hand and given it to David' — explicit naming of David — tracks MT. Echoes 15:28.
Because you did not obey the voice of the LORD and did not carry out his burning anger against Amalek, therefore the LORD has done this thing to you today.
Reason given: disobedience at Amalek tracks MT. The chapter 15 sin is named as the cause of the present disaster — theological-historical coherence.
The LORD will also hand Israel over, along with you, into the power of the Philistines. Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The LORD will give the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.
Masoretic (WLC)
וּמָחָר אַתָּה וּבָנֶיךָ עִמִּי
Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me
Septuagint (LXX)
καὶ αὔριον σὺ καὶ οἱ υἱοί σου μετ᾽ ἐμοῦ
Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me
'With me' — in Sheol — is the death-prediction. The phrase has been theologically mined by Christian interpreters: does 'with me' imply continued existence? Is Samuel a fellow-resident of a postmortem realm that Saul will soon join?
The verse is a key early-OT indicator of meaningful postmortem continuation — not merely extinction — that will develop through Isaiah 26:19, Ezekiel 37, and Daniel 12:2 into full-blown resurrection-theology.
Jesus' 'today you will be with me in paradise' (Luke 23:43) echoes the 'with me' formulation in a redemptive-resurrection frame — the NT's transfiguring of the En-dor's doom-with-me into salvation-with-me.
Saul immediately fell full-length on the ground, terrified by Samuel's words. There was no strength left in him, because he had eaten no food all that day and all that night.
Saul's collapse tracks MT. The picture: a king prostrate on the ground, depleted physically and spiritually, the victim of the oracle he forced.
The woman came to Saul and saw that he was deeply shaken. She said to him, "Your servant listened to your voice. I put my life in my hands and obeyed the words you spoke to me.
The medium's compassion tracks MT. Her ministrations mirror the Samaritan's compassion in Luke 10 — the outsider-practitioner becomes the minister of human kindness in a moment of crisis.
Now please, you too listen to the voice of your servant. Let me set a piece of bread before you. Eat, so that you will have strength when you go on your way."
Her offer of food tracks MT.
He refused and said, "I will not eat." But his servants, along with the woman, pressed him until he gave in. He got up from the ground and sat on the bed.
Saul's initial refusal and eventual acceptance track MT.
The woman had a fattened calf in the house. She quickly slaughtered it, took flour, kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread.
The woman's slaughtering-and-baking tracks MT. The 'fattened calf' detail — preparing a sudden-feast for a royal-but-distressed guest — is the same narrative-pattern as Luke 15:23's fatted-calf for the prodigal son.
She set it before Saul and before his servants, and they ate. Then they rose and went out into the night.
The meal and departure into the night tracks MT. The chapter closes with Saul walking into the darkness that he will never emerge from — he will die the next day on Gilboa (ch 31).