1 Samuel 28:14

_AND HE SAID UNTO HER, WHAT FORM IS HE OF? AND SHE SAID, AN OLD MAN COMETH UP; AND HE IS COVERED WITH A MANTLE. AND SAUL PERCEIVED THAT IT WAS SAMUEL, AND HE STOOPED WITH HIS FACE TO THE GROUND, AND BOWED HIMSELF._ And he said unto her, What form is he of?, х_ MAH_ (H4100) _ TAA'ªROW_ (H8389)] - What is his appearance? AN OLD MAN - seen to be so from his white Nazarite locks (1 Samuel 1:11; 1 Samuel 12:2). AND HE IS COVERED WITH A MANTLE, х_ Mª`IYL_ (H4598)] - an exterior tunic, longer than the common, without sleeves, worn by persons of rank ...

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 28:14. _AN OLD MAN COMETH UP, AND HE_ IS _COVERED WITH A_ _MANTLE._] This seems to have been a _second_ apparition; she cannot mean that she had seen _gods_ ascending out of the earth, and these _gods_ were like an _old man with a mantle_. The angelic appearance first mentioned prepared the way for Samuel; and the whole was done so as to show to the woman that her art had not prevailed in the present instance, and that what was now taking place was wholly independent of _her incantations_. _SAUL PERCEIVED THAT IT WAS SAMUEL_] The description was suitable to his person and clothing....

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 HE SAID UNTO HER, WHAT FORM [IS] HE OF?.... Of what stature is he? or rather of what age does he seem to be? and what clothes has he on? as appears from the answer: AND SHE SAID, AN OLD MAN COMETH UP, AND HE IS COVERED WITH A MANTLE; such as either priests or judges wore, and Samuel did in his lifetime: AND SAUL PERCEIVED THAT IT [WAS] SAMUEL; by the description she gave of him, by his age and apparel; for as yet it is not certain that he himself saw him, though it should seem as if he did by what follows: it is in the original, "that it was Samuel himself"; which seems to make for those who think the real Samuel appeared, and no doubt Saul thought it was really he himself: AND HE STOOPED WITH [HIS] FACE TO THE GROUND, AND BOWED HIMSELF: either in reverence to Samuel, and from whom he hoped relief, and therefore was all obeisance; or he put himself in this posture, that he might l...

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)....

MAN. Hebrew. _'ish._ App-14. Not. spirit. mantle. If. spirit, why. mantle? Samuel's spirit was with God (Ecclesiastes 12:7). And if Samuel's body, it would be with "grave-clothes" (John 11:44). PERCEIVED. understood: i.e. from what the medium said. He _saw_ nothing. STOOPED. did obeisance....

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;...

FOR WHAT SAWEST THOU?— It should be rendered, _but what sawest thou?_ The word translated _Gods,_ is אלהים _elohim._ The Chaldee renders it, _a messenger of the Lord._ Houbigant thinks that she speaks after the manner of idolators, who used to address in the plural the gods whom they worshipped; a custom which they transferred to their Genii, and even to the souls of the departed which they evoked. Saul, acquainted with this language, sufficiently understood that the woman saw only one ascending from the earth, though she spoke in the plural. The woman thought that Samuel ascended out of the earth; and from the description which she gave, Saul knew it to be Samuel; (see chap. 1 Samuel 15:27.) though it is possible that _at the same moment Saul knew_ it was Samuel himself; for the word וידע _vaiiedang,_ rendered _perceived,_ may as well be rendered kne