1 Samuel 28:20–28:25, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
1 Samuel 28:20–28:25
The endangered woman feeds the collapsed king
Saul falls straightway all along on the earth
Then Saul falls straightway all along on the earth, and is sore afraid because of the words of Samuel. There is no strength in him, for he has eaten no bread all the day nor all the night. Collapse follows fear and fasting. It is not a show, and it is not a diagnosis to be pronounced from a distance.
The woman he endangered now presses him to eat
The woman comes to Saul and sees that he is sore troubled. She says, Behold, thine handmaid hath obeyed thy voice, and I have put my life in my hand, and have hearkened unto thy words which thou spakest unto me. Now therefore, I pray thee, hearken thou also unto the voice of thine handmaid, and let me set a morsel of bread before thee; and eat, that thou mayest have strength when thou goest on thy way. He refuses. His servants, together with the woman, compel him. He hearkens to their voice, arises from the earth, and sits upon the bed. The woman has a fat calf in the house; she hastes and kills it, takes flour, kneads it, and bakes unleavened bread. She brings it before Saul and his servants. They eat, rise up, and go away that night.
Reciprocity is her argument: she heard him at the risk of her life; now he should hear her about food. Care from a person you have just coerced does not excuse the coercion. A meal is not a treatment that undoes the announced outcome. She is not responsible for rescuing the king who put her in danger.
How this should shape us
If someone has collapsed in fear and hunger, offer food and a way to sit, without making the most vulnerable person in the room carry the ruler. Do not turn her calf into a spiritual remedy, and do not forget who created the danger she is now feeding.
Teach it back
Explain 1 Samuel 28:20–28:25 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: The narrative gives the woman practical courage and reciprocity after Saul endangered her; it does not report that the meal changes the announced 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 28:20–28:25, 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 28:20–28:25; 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 28:20–28:25
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: One literary, ethical, and political account of divine and human violence; publisher-visible scope does not establish consensus.
Gilmour, Divine Violence in the Book of Samuel (2021/2022), official abstract and TOC: relevant discussion for 1 Samuel 28:20–28:25, including 1 Samuel 12 pp. 71–81, Saul's rejection pp. 90–139, Eli's house pp. 140–150, or ark violence pp. 154–185 as applicable
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 28:20–28:25, 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 28:20–28:25; 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 28:20–28:25
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 ↗scholarly monograph abstract and contents
Divine Violence in the Book of Samuel
Rachelle Gilmour
Oxford University Press, 2021 online; 2022 print
Supports: One literary, ethical, and political account of divine and human violence; publisher-visible scope does not establish consensus.
Exact location: Gilmour, Divine Violence in the Book of Samuel (2021/2022), official abstract and TOC: relevant discussion for 1 Samuel 28:20–28:25, including 1 Samuel 12 pp. 71–81, Saul's rejection pp. 90–139, Eli's house pp. 140–150, or ark violence pp. 154–185 as applicable
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 ↗