1 Samuel 28:1-7
New English Translation
The Witch of Endor
28 In those days the Philistines gathered their troops[a] for war in order to fight Israel. Achish said to David, “You should fully understand that you and your men must go with me into the battle.”[b] 2 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[c] from now on.”[d]
3 Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented over him and had buried him in Ramah, his hometown.[e] In the meantime Saul had removed the mediums[f] and magicians[g] from the land. 4 The Philistines assembled; they came and camped at Shunem. Saul mustered all Israel and camped at Gilboa. 5 When Saul saw the camp of the Philistines, he was absolutely terrified.[h] 6 So Saul inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him—not by dreams nor by Urim[i] nor by the prophets. 7 So Saul instructed his servants, “Find me a woman who is a medium,[j] so that I may go to her and inquire of her.” His servants replied to him, “There is a woman who is a medium in Endor.”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1 Samuel 28:1 tn Heb “their camps.”
- 1 Samuel 28:1 tc The translation follows the LXX (εἰς πόλεμον, eis polemon) and a Qumran ms למלחמה (lammilkhamah, “for battle”) rather than the MT’s בַמַּחֲנֶה (bammakhaneh, “in the camp”; cf. NASB). While the MT reading is not impossible here, and although admittedly it is the harder reading, the variant fits the context better. The MT can be explained as a scribal error caused in part by the earlier occurrence of “camp” in this verse.
- 1 Samuel 28:2 tn Heb “the guardian for my head.”
- 1 Samuel 28:2 tn Heb “all the days.”
- 1 Samuel 28:3 tn Heb “in Ramah, even in his city.”
- 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).
- 1 Samuel 28:3 sn See Isa 8:19 for another reference to magicians who attempted to conjure up underworld spirits.
- 1 Samuel 28:5 tn Heb “he was afraid, and his heart was very terrified.”
- 1 Samuel 28:6 sn See the note at 1 Sam 14:41.
- 1 Samuel 28:7 tn Heb “an owner of a ritual pit.” See the note at v. 3.
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