1 Samuel 28:24

And the woman had a fat calf in the house; and she hasted, and killed it, and took flour, and kneaded it, and did bake unleavened bread thereof:

The woman had a fat calf in the house. The flesh of the herd was reckoned, when young, one of the greatest delicacies. The houses in the village of In-dor are built at the entrance to the caves, and the cattle are stalled in them, along with their owners.

She hasted, and killed it. The cookery was performed with singular despatch, because the animal must have been slaughtered, and the bread baked (unleavened, of course, there being no time for the leavening process), after midnight. But this was not uncommon (see the note at Genesis 18:7; Judges 13:1; Luke 15:27), and is still practiced in the tents of the Bedouins. In less than half an hour a sheep or calf is brought and killed in presence of the guest, and then, having been thrust into a large cauldron swung over the fire, the contents are taken out and placed on an immense tray, and served up amid a mass of roasted grain (Burghul), boiled rice, and leban (curdled or sour milk). Exhausted by long abstinence, overwhelmed with mental distress, and now driven in despair, the cold sweat broke on his anxious brow, and he had sunk helpless on the ground. But the kind attentions of the woman and his servants having revived him, Saul returned to the camp refreshed in body, but with a sad depression of spirits, which was ominous of his approaching doom.-This story has led to much discussion, as involving several topics about which a difference of opinion is naturally entertained. These topics are:

(1) Whether the scene described was the device of an artful sorceress, or there was an actual apparition.

(2) Whether, there being an apparition, it was called up by the incantations of the necromancer.

(3) Whether it was produced by demoniacal agency, or was allowed by the special interposition of God.

On the one hand, the woman's profession, which was forbidden by the divine law; her pretended ignorance of her visitor (though the stature of Saul, and the deference paid to him by his two attendants, must have betrayed his real rank); the refusal of God to answer Saul; the well-known age, figure, and dress of Samuel, which she could easily represent herself or by an accomplice-the alleged figure being evidently at some distance, the head and shoulders only rising above the ground, being muffled, and not actually seen by Saul [wayidaa`, and (Saul) understood, i:e., concluded; Septuagint, egnoo, knew], whose attitude of prostrate homage, moreover, must have prevented him distinguishing the person, though he had been near; and the voice seemingly issuing out of the ground, and coming along to Saul, with the vagueness of the information, imparting nothing as to the past, but what must have been notorious throughout all Israel, regarding the alienation of Samuel from Saul, with the causes of it, and nothing as to the future but what might have been reached by natural conjecture as to the probable inane of the approaching conflict; together with the fact that all the sons of Saul did not perish in the battle-the want of the word "when" in the original (2 Samuel 2:9) text, indicating that the "loud voice" was not the effect, but a sequence merely, of her seeing Samuel, and the customary tone (triste et acutum; Horace, 'Sat.,' 8:, lib. 1:) which was employed by sorceresses; and, lastly, the woman's coolness in ministering to Saul, as if nothing unusual in her experience had occurred;-all these circumstances have led many to think that the whole scene was a deception-the imposture of a necromancer-somewhat akin to the pretensions of mesmerism, the tricks of medium clairvoyantes.

But many, perhaps, are firmly of opinion that this is a wrong view, because it appears that before the woman had begun her incantations there was the appearance of something extraordinary, which struck her with astonishment and terror; and, though they cannot suppose that God would allow the spirits of the just made perfect to be called from their rest in glory at the bidding of a witch, it must be admitted that she was either the cause or the instrument of evoking an unusual object. But what was that object? Was it Samuel, exhibited to the eye and imagination only-a deceptio visus-or the prophet in propria persona?

Some consider that Satan, in whose service this enchantress was employed, conjured up a personified likeness of Samuel, and that there was an apparition, though a fictitious one (Willet, 'Harmonie,' p. 319, followed by Poole, Henry, Brown, and other popular commentators). But undoubtedly the historian would have mentioned Satan by name, had this been the case, and not have so repeatedly spoken of Samuel, when the father of lies was meant. To adopt such an hypothesis is, as Henderson ('Inspiration,' pp. 140-145) justly remarks, 'contrary to the style of the sacred writers, and to unsettle the entire basis of the divinely-inspired narrative.' Besides, however sagacious and penetrating Satan may be, from his lengthened observation and experience, to anticipate the issue of many events, there is no reason to believe that he can predict what is to happen in the future х maachaar (H4279), tomorrow, is taken by some in an indefinite sense here, as meaning soon. But there is no example of such a use of the term (see Gesenius, sub voce)].

Not a few eminent writers, therefore, considering that the apparition came before the witch's arts were put in practice-that it is called in the Hebrew text (1 Samuel 28:14) х Shªmuw'eel (H8050) huw' (H1931)], Samuel himself-that the woman herself was surprised and alarmed at what she saw-that the prediction of Saul's own death, and the defeat of his forces, were confidently and truthfully made-are of opinion that the literal interpretation of this narrative is the true one, and that Samuel really appeared. If he did (and no one can deny God's power of reinvesting the soul of Samuel with some kind of corporeal covering), it is a solitary instance in which God permitted the dead to reappear to the living, for the purpose of confirming truths previously revealed, and of condemning the conduct of these consulted persons claiming to have "a familiar spirit." The rejection of Saul is ascribed, among other causes, to his consulting of the witch (1 Chronicles 10:13: cf. 2 Kings 21:11). The purposes to which the miraculous appearance of Samuel on this occasion contributed are summarized by Dr. Hales ('New Analysis of Chronology') as follows:

(1) To make Saul's crime the instrument of his punishment in the dreadful denunciation of his approaching doom.

(2) To show to the pagan world the infinite superiority of the ORACLE OF THE LORD, inspiring his prophets, over the powers of darkness, and the delusive prognostics of their wretched votaries in their false oracles.

(3) To confirm the belief in a future state by 'one who rose from the dead, even under the Mosaic dispensation.' Having submitted these different views, we leave the decision of this puzzling narrative to the judgment of the enlightened and reflecting reader.