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14 “What does he look like?” asked Saul. “An old man is coming up wrapped in a robe,” she replied. Saul knew that it was Samuel, and so he bowed his face to the ground in homage.

Saul’s Doom. 15 [a]Samuel then said to Saul, “Why do you disturb me by conjuring me up?” Saul replied: “I am in great distress, for the Philistines are waging war against me and God has turned away from me. Since God no longer answers me through prophets or in dreams, I have called upon you to tell me what I should do.”(A) 16 To this Samuel said: “But why do you ask me, if the Lord has abandoned you for your neighbor?(B) 17 The Lord has done to you what he declared through me: he has torn the kingdom from your hand and has given it to your neighbor David.

18 “Because you disobeyed the Lord’s directive and would not carry out his fierce anger against Amalek, the Lord has done this to you today.(C) 19 Moreover, the Lord will deliver Israel, and you as well, into the hands of the Philistines. By tomorrow you and your sons will be with me, and the Lord will have delivered the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.”(D)

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Footnotes

  1. 28:15–19 The consultation with the medium serves to remind the reader that the Lord’s plan for David marches onward; no sorcery can thwart it.