11 Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel.
11 Then the woman asked, "Whom shall I bring up for you?" "Bring up Samuel," he said.
11 Then the woman said, "Whom shall I bring up for you?" He said, "Bring up Samuel for me."
11 The woman said, "So whom do you want me to bring up?" "Samuel. Bring me Samuel."
11 Then the woman said, "Whom shall I bring up for you?" And he said, "Bring up Samuel for me."
11 Finally, the woman said, "Well, whose spirit do you want me to call up?" "Call up Samuel," Saul replied.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 1 Samuel 28:11
Commentary on 1 Samuel 28:7-19
(Read 1 Samuel 28:7-19)
When we go from the plain path of duty, every thing draws us further aside, and increases our perplexity and temptation. Saul desires the woman to bring one from the dead, with whom he wished to speak; this was expressly forbidden, Deuteronomy 18:11. All real or pretended witchcraft or conjuration, is a malicious or an ignorant attempt to gain knowledge or help from some creature, when it cannot be had from the Lord in the path of duty. While Samuel was living, we never read of Saul's going to advise with him in any difficulties; it had been well for him if he had. But now he is dead, "Bring me up Samuel." Many who despise and persecute God's saints and ministers when living, would be glad to have them again, when they are gone. The whole shows that it was no human fraud or trick. Though the woman could not cause Samuel's being sent, yet Saul's inquiry might be the occasion of it. The woman's surprise and terror proved that it was an unusual and unexpected appearance. Saul had despised Samuel's solemn warnings in his lifetime, yet now that he hoped, as in defiance of God, to obtain some counsel and encouragement from him, might not God permit the soul of his departed prophet to appear to Saul, to confirm his former sentence, and denounce his doom? The expression, "Thou and thy sons shall be with me," means no more than that they shall be in the eternal world. There appears much solemnity in God's permitting the soul of a departed prophet to come as a witness from heaven, to confirm the word he had spoken on earth.