1st Samuel Chapter 28 verse 3 Holy Bible
Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land.
read chapter 28 in ASV
Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel, after weeping for him, had put his body in its last resting-place in Ramah, his town. And Saul had put away from the land all those who had control of spirits and who made use of secret arts.
read chapter 28 in BBE
(Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and they had buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away the necromancers and the soothsayers out of the land.)
read chapter 28 in DARBY
Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land.
read chapter 28 in KJV
Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land.
read chapter 28 in WBT
Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. Saul had put away those who had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land.
read chapter 28 in WEB
And Samuel hath died, and all Israel mourn for him, and bury him in Ramah, even in his city, and Saul hath turned aside those having familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land.
read chapter 28 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 3. - Samuel was dead. A repetition of 1 Samuel 25:1, inserted to explain Saul's conduct, as is the other fact, that Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, etc. We are not told when Saul did this; but at the commencement of his reign, when he brought the ark to Nob, he was probably earnest generally in his observance of the precepts of the Mosaic law. Familiar spirits. Hebrew, oboth, the plural of ob, a leathern bottle. It is generally taken to refer to the distended belly of the conjurer, into which the summoned spirit of the dead was supposed to enter, and thence speak; for which reason the Septuagint renders the word" ventriloquist," and is followed by most modern commentators. Wizards. Hebrew, "knowing ones," from the verb to know; just as wizard comes from the old verb to wiss. With ignorant people unusual knowledge is always looked upon with suspicion; but these supposed magicians professed a knowledge to which they bad no claim.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(3) Now Samuel was dead.--A statement here repeated to introduce the strange, sad story which follows. The LXX., followed by the Vulg. and Syriac Versions, omitted it, not understanding the reason for its repetition.And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land.--This statement is also inserted explanatory of what follows. In other words, the compiler says: "Now Samuel, whom Saul was so anxious to see, was dead and buried, and the possessors of familiar spirits, whose aid Saul was about to invoke to carry out his purpose, had long since been put out, by his own order, from the land." "Those that had familiar spirits"--those that had at their command oboth, rendered "familiar spirits," the plural form of ob, a word which has never been explained with any certainty. Scholars think they can connect it with ob, to be hollow, and ob is then "the hollow thing," or "bag;" and so it came to signify, "one who speaks in a hollow voice." It hence appears to mean the distended belly of the ventriloquist, a word by which the LXX. always render ob. It thus is used to designate the male or female ventriloquist, as in 1Samuel 27:3; 1Samuel 27:9, and Deuteronomy 18:11, &c., and also the spirit which was supposed to speak from the belly of the ventriloquist; in this sense it is so used in 1Samuel 27:8-9, and Isaiah 29:4. This is the explanation given by Erdmann in Lange, and the Bishop of Bath and Wells in the Speaker's Commentary. . . .
