1 Samuel 28
BSASBFacing a huge Philistine army and a silent heaven, King Saul breaks his own law and seeks out a medium at Endor. Samuel appears and confirms the judgment Saul already knew: the kingdom is gone and he will die in battle. The chapter shows where a man ends up when he refuses to obey God and then seeks answers on his own terms.
1 Samuel 28:1-2
The Philistines prepare for war, and Achish, David’s host, expects David to fight alongside him. David answers in words that can be read more than one way, and Achish hears only loyalty. David is caught in a hard place, and God will deal with it in the next chapter.
BSA: bodyguard (“keeper of my head”): The title means a personal protector close to the king, showing how fully Achish trusts David.
1 Samuel 28:3
The writer sets the scene. Samuel, the one voice Saul could once turn to, is dead and mourned. Saul had earlier expelled mediums and spiritists, as God’s law commanded. So what he does next goes against what he himself enforced.
BSA: mediums (“those who contact the dead”): These people claimed to speak with the dead, a practice God’s law forbade.
See also: Leviticus 19:31; Deuteronomy 18:10-12.
1 Samuel 28:4
The two armies take their positions. The Philistines camp at Shunem in the north, and Saul gathers Israel on Mount Gilboa. The battle line is drawn on ground where Saul’s life will end.
BSA: Gilboa (“a mountain in Palestine, meaning swollen heap”): This mountain is where Israel’s king will fall, as the next chapters tell.
1 Samuel 28:5
Saul looks at the enemy camp and is gripped by fear. The man who was head and shoulders above his people now shakes. His fear is not really of the Philistines alone, but of facing them without God.
BSA: trembled (“shook, quaked”): The word shows his body shaking with a pounding heart, not just a worried mind.
1 Samuel 28:6
Saul does ask the LORD, but heaven is silent. Dreams, the Urim (sacred lots kept by the priest) and prophets are all closed to him. Silence like this is not random. Saul has long turned from God’s word, and now God does not answer him.
BSA: Urim (“sacred stones, divine decision-makers”): These were lots carried by the priest to learn God’s answer to a question.
See also: 1 Samuel 14:37; Proverbs 1:28.
1 Samuel 28:7
Rather than repent, Saul looks for another door. He tells his servants to find a medium, and they know of one at Endor. His request shows he wants an answer, but not at the price of turning back to God.
BSA: medium (“a woman with a familiar spirit”): She claimed to have a spirit that served her as a go-between with the dead.
1 Samuel 28:8
Saul slips out at night in borrowed clothes with only two men. The king hides his face to do what he outlawed. He asks the woman to bring up a dead person he will name. Sin often works in the dark.
BSA: disguised (“put on a disguise”): The king has to hide who he is, which shows he knows this act is wrong.
See also: Deuteronomy 18:11.
1 Samuel 28:9
The woman is wary. She knows Saul’s decree and fears a trap. It is striking that she, a medium, reminds the king of his own law. Saul has become a man who must be reminded of what he once enforced.
BSA: trap (“a snare”): She pictures a hidden snare, like one set for an animal, with her life as the bait.
1 Samuel 28:10
Saul swears an oath in the name of the LORD to protect a medium who breaks the LORD’s law. The contradiction is plain. He uses God’s name to cover disobedience, while claiming no guilt will fall on her.
BSA: punishment (“iniquity, moral evil”): The Hebrew word often means guilt itself, so Saul is promising she will bear no guilt or penalty.
1 Samuel 28:11-12
Saul asks for Samuel. At once the woman cries out in a loud voice. Her shock suggests this was not what she usually did, and that something unexpected happened. She then realizes her visitor is the king. Many Christians read the text as showing God allowed Samuel’s actual appearing.
BSA: deceived (“betrayed, misled”): She feels tricked, for she saw only afterward who her customer really was.
1 Samuel 28:13
Saul calms her and asks what she sees. She speaks of a god rising from the earth. The word here is Elohim, which can mean a divine or spiritual being. She means someone awesome and not of this world. Saul himself sees nothing yet.
BSA: god (“Elohim, a divine being”): The word marks a being of the spirit world, not the Most High, and the woman uses it for a awe-inspiring figure.
Hebrew: אֱלֹהִים (ʼelohim, H430) — “God, gods, or a divine being.” The word is often used of the true God, but it can also name any spiritual being. Here it describes an awesome figure coming up, not a worshipped deity.
1 Samuel 28:14
The woman describes an old man in a robe. That is enough for Saul, who remembers Samuel’s mantle. He bows with his face to the ground. He is willing to bow to a dead prophet he would not obey while Samuel lived.
BSA: robe (“mantle, outer garment”): Samuel’s mantle was a mark of his prophetic office and recalls earlier scenes between the two men.
See also: 1 Samuel 15:27.
1 Samuel 28:15
Samuel asks why he has been disturbed. Saul pours out his trouble: the enemy is near and God no longer answers him. He wants advice, but he still does not say he is sorry. He wants help without a return to God.
BSA: disturbed (“troubled, disquieted”): Samuel speaks as one called out of rest, which is a quiet picture of death as a resting place.
1 Samuel 28:16-17
Samuel gives no new advice. He repeats what Saul already knew: the LORD has turned from him and the kingdom is given to David. The medium cannot change God’s word. Saul asks the dead for what the living God had already told him.
BSA: torn (“rent, ripped away”): The kingship was torn like cloth, recalling the torn robe at Samuel’s earlier rebuke.
See also: 1 Samuel 15:28.
1 Samuel 28:18
Samuel names the root cause. Saul did not carry out God’s judgment on Amalek, as he had been told. His trouble did not begin tonight at Endor. It began with partial obedience years before, and the LORD’s word has now come due.
BSA: obey (“listen to and follow”): The Hebrew idea of hearing includes doing, so not obeying means not truly listening.
See also: 1 Samuel 15:3; 1 Samuel 15:22-23.
1 Samuel 28:19
The message grows worse. Israel’s army will fall to the Philistines, and by tomorrow Saul and his sons will be with Samuel, meaning among the dead. Saul’s sin brings suffering on others too, since a king’s choices reach his people.
BSA: hand (“power, control”): To be given into the enemy’s hand means to be placed under his power.
1 Samuel 28:20
Saul collapses full length on the ground, terrified by what he heard. He is also weak from hunger, having eaten nothing all day and night. Fear and exhaustion together leave him with no strength at all.
BSA: terrified (“sore afraid, exceedingly fearful”): His fear is now deep dread, much greater than his earlier trembling at the army.
1 Samuel 28:21-22
The woman, who had feared for her life, now shows real kindness. She reminds him she risked everything to obey him and asks him to take some food. Even in this dark scene, her care for a broken man stands out.
1 Samuel 28:23
Saul first refuses to eat, but his servants join the woman and he gives way. He gets up from the ground and sits on the bed. The proud king is now someone who has to be persuaded to take a meal.
BSA: heeded (“listened to, obeyed”): It is a sad turn that Saul obeys his servants’ voice now, when he had not obeyed God’s voice.
1 Samuel 28:24-25
The woman quickly prepares a fattened calf and bakes bread without yeast, which needs no time to rise. They eat and leave in the night. It is like a last supper before the morning of defeat, and it leaves the reader with Saul’s tragic end approaching.
BSA: unleavened bread (“sweet bread without yeast”): Bread without yeast could be made quickly, fitting the hurry of the night.