1 Samuel 28:11

_THEN SAID THE WOMAN, WHOM SHALL I BRING UP UNTO THEE? AND HE SAID, BRING ME UP SAMUEL._ Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? - i:e., evoke from Sheol, Hades, the invisible subterranean world, which, according to the popular ideas of the Hebrews, was the abode of departed spirits until they were delivered from that quiet, though imperfect and temporary, state of bliss [hence the phrases which are frequently used in the Septuagint, hupo chthonos, under the earth, and kath' Hadou, down in Hades; and the spirits existing in the state of the dead are in the New Testament termed _ KATACHTHONIOS_ (G2709) (Philippians 2:10) and _ HUPOKATOO_ (G5270) _ TEES_ (G3588) _ GEES_ ...

7-19 When we go from the plain path of duty, every thing draws us further aside, and increases our perplexity and temptation. Saul desires the woman to bring one from the dead, with whom he wished to speak; this was expressly forbidden, Deuteronomy 18:11. All real or pretended witchcraft or conjuration, is a malicious or an ignorant attempt to gain knowledge or help from some creature, when it cannot be had from the Lord in the path of duty. While Samuel was living, we never read of Saul's going to advise with him in any difficulties; it had been well for him if he had. But now he is dead, "Bring me up Samuel." Many who despise and persecute God's saints and ministers when living, would be glad to have them again, when they are gone. The whole shows that it was no human fraud or trick. Though the woman could not cause Samuel's being sent, yet Saul's inquiry might be the occasion of it....

Verse 1 Samuel 28:11. _WHOM SHALL I BRING UP_] The woman certainly meant no more than making her _familiar_ personify whomsoever the querist should wish. In the evocation of spirits this is all that, according to the professed rules of their art, such persons pretend to; for over human souls in _paradise_ or in the _infernal_ _regions_ they have no power. If we allow that there is such an art founded on true principles, all it can pretend to is, to bring up the familiar; cause him when necessary to assume the _form_ and _character_ of some particular person, and to give such notices relative to _futurity_ as he is able to collect. And this even in the cases to which authenticity is generally allowed, is often scanty, vague, and uncertain, for fallen spirits do not abound in _knowledge_: this is an attribute of God, and rays of this perfection...

BRING ME UP SAMUEL - Dr. Trench observes, “All human history has failed to record a despair deeper or more tragic than his, who, having forsaken God and being of God forsaken, is now seeking to move hell; and infinitely guilty as he is, assuredly there is something unutterably pathetic in that yearning of the disanointed king to change words with the friend and counselor of his youth, and if he must hear his doom, to hear it from no other lips but his” (‘Shipwrecks of Faith, ‘ p. 47)....

DOWNFALL AND DEATH OF SAUL (CHS. 28-31.) THE PHILISTINES GATHER TOGETHER FOR WAR. DISTRESS OF SAUL, AND VISIT TO THE WITCH OF ENDOR (1 Samuel 28:1.). EXPOSITION ACHISH SUMMONS DAVID TO JOIN HIM IN THE WAR AGAINST ISRAEL (1 Samuel

THEN SAID THE WOMAN, WHOM SHALL I BRING UP UNTO THEE?.... For such persons, according to their profession, pretended they were able to bring up any of the dead, that he who inquired of them should name: AND HE SAID, BRING ME UP SAMUEL; the prophet Samuel he meant, and no doubt the woman so understood him, whose name was well known; he had been an old acquaintance and friend of Saul's, his counsellor and adviser in many things and though he greatly neglected him in the latter part of his life, was very desirous of an interview with him now dead, that he might be advised by him how to get out of the straits and difficulties in which he was involved; but it argued extreme folly and madness in him to imagine, that the spirit of this great and good man was at the beck of a witch, and he to be called out of the state of the dead by her enchantments; or that God would permit him to appear to h...

7. SAUL AND THE WITCH AT ENDOR CHAPTER 28 _ 1. David fully joined to Achish (1 Samuel 28:1)_ 2. Forsaken Saul (1 Samuel 28:3) 3. The command to seek a witch (1 Samuel 28:7) 4. Saul's visit to Endor (1 Samuel 28:8) 5. Samuel's solemn message (1 Samuel 28:15) 6. Saul's despair and departure (1 Samuel 28:21) Saul's final plunge towards his awful end is the main topic of this chapter. Israel had ad

1 SAMUEL 28:2 is continued by 1 Samuel 29:1; the _connexion is_ broken by the insertion of 1 SAMUEL 28:3. SAUL AND THE WITCH OF ENDOR. This section interrupts the connexion; moreover, it would come naturally immediately before the battle of Gilboa. Saul is at Gilboa (p. 29) in 284. Opinions are divided; some hold that this section is from another source (E) than the bulk of 1 Samuel 25-31, and some that it is from the same source (J), that originally it stood in that document immediately before ch. 31, and that it has got into the wrong place, because it was omitted from an edition of _Samuel,_ and reinserted in a later edition (see p. 273)....

UP. Note: not down, or forth. Compare 1 Samuel 28:13....

Saul resorts to the witch of Endor 3. _Now Samuel_, &c. From 1 Samuel 28:3 to the end of the chapter is an independent narrative. 1 Samuel 28:3 states by way of introduction certain facts as the key to the incidents about to be related: (1) the death and burial of Samuel (1 Samuel 25:1); (2) Saul's expulsion of the soothsayers. This he probably did in the early part of his reign. An allusion to it may be traced in 1 Samuel 15:23. It was In accordance with the Law. See Leviticus 19:31;...