I Shmuel 28: But What About the Ewoks?

Shaul is at the end of the line. The Philistines prepare for battle and Shaul is cut off from God. He tries in vain to speak with God to ask God whether the Israelites should go out to battle. Desperate, he has his servants search for a witch who can raise spirits for him. In an ironic twist, the servants have difficulty locating a witch because of Shaul’s own decree that outlawed all types of necromancy (וְשָׁאוּל הֵסִיר אֶת־הָאֹבוֹת וְאֶת־הַיִּדְּעֹנִים מֵהָאָרֶץ) (I Samuel 28:3). Shaul did the righteous thing by removing this form of idol worship from the land, but his station has fallen so that he must transgress his own ruling. This also tracks with his earlier decree to massacre the city of Nov going against another major tenant of the Torah against murder. The servants locate a witch in the town of Endor. Not realizing she is talking to Shaul, she says she cannot perform magic because Shaul outlawed it (הִנֵּה אַתָּה יָדַעְתָּ אֵת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה שָׁאוּל אֲשֶׁר הִכְרִית אֶת־הָאֹבוֹת וְאֶת־הַיִּדְּעֹנִי מִן־הָאָרֶץ) (I Samuel 28:9). Shaul assures her she will be unharmed (חַי־ה׳ אִם־יִקְרֵךְ עָוֺן בַּדָּבָר הַזֶּה) (I Samuel 28:10), again emphasizing the fact that he must go against his own decree. The woman begins her incantations and Shaul says he wants her to resurrect the spirit of Shmuel. “Then the woman recognized Samuel, and she shrieked loudly, and said to Saul, ‘Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!’” (וַתֵּרֶא הָאִשָּׁה אֶת־שְׁמוּאֵל וַתִּזְעַק בְּקוֹל גָּדוֹל וַתֹּאמֶר הָאִשָּׁה אֶל־שָׁאוּל לָמָּה רִמִּיתָנִי וְאַתָּה שָׁאוּל) (verse 12).Why does the witch scream when she sees Shmuel? Why does seeing Shmuel lead to her figuring out that Shaul is Shaul. It cannot be because he asked her to resurrect Shmuel, then she would have protested immediately. Rashi explains that she shrieked because the spirit of Shmuel was not appearing in the regular way of a resurrected spirit. Normally a spirit appears upside down, but Shmuel appeared right side up. Rashi explains that she interpreted this as a sign of respect toward Shaul. This was the telltale sign that he was the king. Radak agrees with Rashi’s reasoning about how she knew it was Shaul, but he says she screamed because she was afraid of Shaul once she figured it out. In both of these interpretations, the witch’s magic is real. Another interpretation is that she screamed because her magic worked for the first time. She may have been a charlatan witch who claimed to speak to the dead, but instead conjured up a ruse. She fully intended to do that here, but instead she actually saw someone. When Shmuel appeared, recognizable in his official cloak (אִישׁ זָקֵן עֹלֶה וְהוּא עֹטֶה מְעִיל) (I Samuel 28:14), she was frightened that there was actually a spirit in her room. Only the king could have been responsible for such a miracle, and that is why she knew it was Shaul. Shaul also recognized Shmuel from his cloak. Perhaps he was wearing the very cloak that Shaul ripped (וַיַּחֲזֵק בִּכְנַף־מְעִילוֹ וַיִּקָּרַע) (I Samuel 15:27). In this way Shaul was able to come to terms with the fact that this upcoming battle will really be his last (וּמָחָר אַתָּה וּבָנֶיךָ עִמִּי) (I Samuel 28:19). Throughout the book, Shaul has tried to resist that decree by chasing David, fighting fate, and attempting to preserve his throne by force. Now, standing before Shmuel once again, there is no more running and no more uncertainty. The torn cloak that once symbolized the loss of his kingdom has returned as a final reminder that God's judgment has been carried out. Shaul's visit to Endor is therefore not merely an attempt to learn the future; it is his final confrontation with a past he has spent years trying to escape.