Witch of Endor

The Philistines had re-enterd the country, and just before going against them in battle, Saul's courage failed, and he consulted one of the necromancers, the Witch of Endor, who had escaped persecution. It is impossible to determine the relative amount of fraud or of reality in the scene that passed between them, though the obvious meaning of the narrative itself tends to the hypothesis of some kind of apparition.

After Saul promised to hold her blameless, the witch consented to summon out of the darkness any spirit whom Saul named. The king called for the shade of the dead prophet Samuel. When Samuel appeared, he reproved Saul sternly, while the king, broken and despairing, bowed himself at the feet of his old master, crying out that God had cast him off, and entreating the prophet for guidance.

Samuel told Saul that because he had not obeyed the voice of the Lord that he and his three sons would die at the hands of the Philistines. The shadow disappeared, and Saul fell prostrate and fainting to the earth. His attendants were terrified, so they cheered him, forced food upon him, and slowly brought him back to such life and courage as were left to him, now that he felt himself to be face to face with death at last.

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