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David replied to Achish, “That being the case, you will come to know what your servant can do!” Achish said to David, “Then I will make you my bodyguard[a] from now on.”[b]

Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented over him and had buried him in Ramah, his hometown.[c] In the meantime Saul had removed the mediums[d] and magicians[e] from the land. The Philistines assembled; they came and camped at Shunem. Saul mustered all Israel and camped at Gilboa.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Samuel 28:2 tn Heb “the guardian for my head.”
  2. 1 Samuel 28:2 tn Heb “all the days.”
  3. 1 Samuel 28:3 tn Heb “in Ramah, even in his city.”
  4. 1 Samuel 28:3 tn The Hebrew term translated “mediums” actually refers to a pit used by a magician to conjure up underworld spirits (see 2 Kgs 21:6). In v. 7 the witch of Endor is called the owner of a ritual pit. See H. Hoffner, “Second Millennium Antecedents to the Hebrew ʾÔḆ,” JBL 86 (1967): 385-401. Here the term refers by metonymy to the owner of such a pit (see H. A. Hoffner, TDOT 1:133).
  5. 1 Samuel 28:3 sn See Isa 8:19 for another reference to magicians who attempted to conjure up underworld spirits.