3:15 So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he opened the doors of the Lord’s house. But Samuel was afraid to tell Eli about the vision.
9:17 When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said, 1 “Here is the man that I told you about! He will rule over my people.”
28:3 Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented over him and had buried him in Ramah, his hometown. 2 In the meantime Saul had removed the mediums 3 and magicians 4 from the land.
1 tn Heb “responded.”
1 tn Heb “in Ramah, even in his city.”
2 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 ’OñBù,” 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).
3 sn See Isa 8:19 for another reference to magicians who attempted to conjure up underworld spirits.