1 Samuel 28:13

_AND THE KING SAID UNTO HER, BE NOT AFRAID: FOR WHAT SAWEST THOU? AND THE WOMAN SAID UNTO SAUL, I SAW GODS ASCENDING OUT OF THE EARTH._ I SAW GODS ASCENDING OUT OF THE EARTH, х_ 'ªLOHIYM_ (H430). The Septuagint has theous heooraka anabainontas; which our translators have followed. But it is evident from the following verse that it should be rendered 'a god,' a dignitary or ruler.]...

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 28:13. _I SAW GODS ASCENDING OUT OF THE EARTH._] The word אלהום _elohim_, which we translate _gods_, is the word which is used for the Supreme Being throughout the Bible; but all the _versions_, the _Chaldee_ excepted, translate it in the _plural_ number, as we do. The _Chaldee_ has, _I see_ מלאכא דיי malacha dayeya, an angel of _the Lord, ascending from the earth_. This sight alarmed the woman; it was what she did not expect; in this she could not recognise her familiar, and she was terrified at the appearance....

GODS - אלהים _'ĕlohı̂ym_ is here used in a general sense of a supernatural appearance, either angel or spirit. Hell, or the place of the departed (compare 1 Samuel 28:19; 2 Samuel 12:23) is represented as under the earth Isaiah 14:9; Ezekiel 32:18....

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

AND THE KING SAID UNTO HER, BE NOT AFRAID,.... Meaning not of the apparition, but of him; since he had sworn no punishment should come upon her, and he should inviolably observe his oath: for what sawest thou? for as yet Saul himself saw not anything, the woman being between him and the apparition; or she might be in another room with her familiar spirit performing the operations when Samuel appeared: AND THE WOMAN SAID UNTO SAUL, I SAW GODS ASCENDING OUT OF THE EARTH; a great personage, one of a majestic form, like the gods, or judges and civil magistrates, sometimes so called, as Kimchi and R. Isaiah rightly interpret it; and so the Targum, "I saw an angel of the Lord;'' a person that looked like one; for not many came up with him, and particularly Moses, as say some Jewish writers d. d T. Bab. Chagigah, fol. 4. 8. Pirke Eliezer, c. 33....

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)....

GODS. Plural of _Elohim._ Either "a god "or. spirit manifestation. OUT OF THE EARTH. Not down, or forth, as in John 11:43; John 11:44....

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;...