1 Samuel 28:9

_AND THE WOMAN SAID UNTO HIM, BEHOLD, THOU KNOWEST WHAT SAUL HATH DONE, HOW HE HATH CUT OFF THOSE THAT HAVE FAMILIAR SPIRITS, AND THE WIZARDS, OUT OF THE LAND: WHEREFORE THEN LAYEST THOU A SNARE FOR MY LIFE, TO CAUSE ME TO DIE?_ No JFB commentary on this verse....

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....

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 WOMAN SAID UNTO HIM,.... Not knowing who he was: BEHOLD, THOU KNOWEST WHAT SAUL HATH DONE; for by his speech and habit she perceived he was an Israelite, and so must be acquainted with what had passed in the nation, especially of a public nature, and which made a great noise, as doubtless this, lid: HOW HE BOTH CUT OFF THOSE THAT HAVE FAMILIAR SPIRITS, AND THE WIZARDS, OUT OF THE LAND; as many of them as he had knowledge of, or information about; and by this it appears that he did not merely expel them his dominions, but he put them to death, according to the law of God, Exodus 22:18; so the putting them out of the land, 1 Samuel 28:3, was putting them to death, and the woman's after reasoning confirms this: one should think for Saul to be t

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)....

LIFE. soul. Hebrew. _nephesh._ App-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;...

THEN SAID SAUL—SEEK ME A WOMAN THAT HATH A FAMILIAR SPIRIT— Utterly forsaken of God, yet anxiously desirous of searching into futurity, Saul, who had prayed to God to no purpose, now resolved to apply himself to Samuel. To what will not fear and folly force us? In the days of his devotion, Saul had partly cut off, and partly frighted away, those wizards and sorcerers, those execrable wretches, the pests of society and enemies of true religion, whom God commanded to be extirpated. See Leviticus 20:27. Deuteronomy 18:10. However, some of them, he concluded, might have remained or returned. He enquired, and was informed [princes never want ministers of mischief] of a _Pythoness,_ who dwelt not far off, at _En-dor,_ a little village of the tribe of Manasseh, in the valley of Jezreel, at

Saul Seeks the Witch of En-dor. 1 Samuel 28:7-14 7 Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to him, behold, _there is_ a woman that hath a familiar spirit at En-dor. 8 And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me _him_ up, whom I shall name unto thee. 9 And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die? 10 And Saul sware to her by the Lord, saying, _As_ the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing.