Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, [there is] a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor.
Ver. 7. Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit.] One Rufus I read of, who painted upon his shield, God on the one side, and the devil on the other, with this inscription, Si tu me nolis, iste rogitat, If thou refuse me, here is another that will be glad of me. a Saul seemeth to be like-minded.
“ Flectere cure nequeat superos, Acheronta movebit. ” - Virg.
So Oedipus in Seneca, when he could not get an answer at the oracles, made use of necromancy. This great sin Saul added to all his former, and so became miserable by his own election. Jon 2:8 The like is recorded of Julian the apostate.
Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit.] Heb., The dame of a familiar, such as could raise up the dead as they imagined. So Lucan b saith that a woman of Thessally raised up a soldier lately dead, who declared unto Pompey the evil success of the Pharsalian battle. That the woman here mentioned was Abner's mother, may pass for a Jewish fable. Josephus saith she was vilis operaria, a poor painstaker.
a Animi impii vox. - Piscat.
b Lib. 6.