1 Samuel 28:15–28:19, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
1 Samuel 28:15–28:19
The figure named Samuel repeats Saul's rejection
The figure named Samuel asks why Saul has disquieted him
Samuel says to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? Saul answers, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answers me no more, neither by prophets nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.
The summons is named as disturbance, not as an approved route to guidance. Distress is heard. Necromancy is not thereby certified as trustworthy. Interpreters disagree about the speaker's identity and agency; the speech still functions as judgment, not as a new permission.
The old rejection is repeated, now with tomorrow's death in it
Samuel says, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the LORD is departed from thee and is become thine enemy? The LORD has done to him as he spoke by Samuel: the LORD has rent the kingdom out of his hand and given it to his neighbor, even to David, because he obeyed not the LORD's voice and did not execute the fierce wrath upon Amalek. Moreover the LORD will also deliver Israel with him into the hand of the Philistines. Tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me. The LORD also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.
The oracle echoes the earlier kingdom-transfer word and names Amalek again. It predicts defeat and death. It does not make every distressed person rejected, and it does not authorize blaming a military loss on mental health. A word of doom received through a banned practice is not a spiritual technique to copy.
How this should shape us
Do not go looking for the dead to settle what the living word already said. Hear that distress can be real and still not turn a forbidden consultation into wisdom. Do not tell struggling people they are Saul, and do not use this prediction to sneer at fear or illness.
Teach it back
Explain 1 Samuel 28:15–28:19 in your own words, including its movement, one source-controlled detail, one uncertainty, one affected person, and one misuse the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful readers disagree?
Best judgment: Interpretations disagree about the apparition's identity and agency, while the speech deliberately echoes Samuel's earlier judgment and advances the Gilboa outcome.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
1 Samuel 28:15–28:19, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology, with the two KJV-Hebrew versification shifts stated rather than silently offset.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Sam.xml, OSIS 28:15–28:19; KJV 20:42 spans Hebrew 20:42–21:1, KJV 21:1–15 maps to Hebrew 21:2–16, KJV 23:29 maps to Hebrew 24:1, and KJV 24:1–22 maps to Hebrew 24:2–23
Supports: Only the translator notes actually printed for these verses, used for lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, and older-English controls.
NET Bible First Edition Notes, 1 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 504–543, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 28:15–28:19
Supports: Thematic and reception guidance for terminology and the encounter; not a complete commentary or a settlement of the apparition's metaphysics.
Zucker, 'The Medium of Endor and Saul,' Jewish Bible Quarterly 48.4 (2020), pp. 235–244, including 'Medium, Necromancer, or Witch?'
Supports: Public scholarly control against equating ancient spirit language with modern diagnosis, evil, rejection, or violence; not clinical assessment.
Baden, 'Mental Illness, Evil Spirits, and Scripture,' Yale Reflections, sections 'Readings and Misreadings,' 'Sorting Out the Frameworks,' and 'Interpretive Circle,' accessed 2026-08-29
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: 1 Samuel 28:15–28:19, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Samuel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology, with the two KJV-Hebrew versification shifts stated rather than silently offset.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Sam.xml, OSIS 28:15–28:19; KJV 20:42 spans Hebrew 20:42–21:1, KJV 21:1–15 maps to Hebrew 21:2–16, KJV 23:29 maps to Hebrew 24:1, and KJV 24:1–22 maps to Hebrew 24:2–23
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: 1 Samuel
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Only the translator notes actually printed for these verses, used for lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, and older-English controls.
Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Notes, 1 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 504–543, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 28:15–28:19
Open source ↗peer reviewed scholarly article
The Medium of Endor and Saul
David J. Zucker
Jewish Bible Quarterly 48.4, 2020
Supports: Thematic and reception guidance for terminology and the encounter; not a complete commentary or a settlement of the apparition's metaphysics.
Exact location: Zucker, 'The Medium of Endor and Saul,' Jewish Bible Quarterly 48.4 (2020), pp. 235–244, including 'Medium, Necromancer, or Witch?'
Open source ↗public scholarly essay
Mental Illness, Evil Spirits, and Scripture
Joel Baden
Yale Divinity School Reflections, undated page; accessed 2026-08-29
Supports: Public scholarly control against equating ancient spirit language with modern diagnosis, evil, rejection, or violence; not clinical assessment.
Exact location: Baden, 'Mental Illness, Evil Spirits, and Scripture,' Yale Reflections, sections 'Readings and Misreadings,' 'Sorting Out the Frameworks,' and 'Interpretive Circle,' accessed 2026-08-29
Open source ↗