3 A long time before this, Saul stopped the clever men and women from talking to the spirits of dead people, and he hunted them away from Israel. You see, that is in God’s law.

When the old man Samuel died, the Israel mob all cried for him, and they buried him in his own town, called Ramah.* Leviticus 20:27; Deuteronomy 18:10-11; 1 Samuel 25:1

4 Some time later, the Philistia mob came together at a place called Shunem to fight with the Israel mob. Saul gathered his soldiers together at another place called Gilboa, not far from Shunem. 5 As soon as he saw the Philistia mob, he was really frightened and confused. 6 He prayed to God, but God did not answer him. God didn’t talk to Saul in dreams, and nobody came to bring him a word from God. Nothing. So he got the special stone that they used to find out what God wanted, and he threw it down, to see if it lay on its back or on its side. But still God did not show him anything.* Numbers 27:21 7 So Saul said to his men, “Go and look for a clever woman, one that can talk to dead people’s spirits. I want her to ask Samuel for me. He might give me an answer.”

They said to him, “There’s one at that place called Endor.”

8 So Saul put on some working man’s clothes to make himself look different. Then, at night, he went with 2 of his men to look for that woman. He found her and said, “Will you talk to a dead man for me? I will call the dead man’s name, and you get him for me.”

9 But the woman said, “I can’t do that. You know, Saul hunted the clever men and women away from Israel. You are making trouble for me. If I do this for you, Saul might send people to kill me dead.”

10 Saul answered, “God is listening, so I tell you straight. Nobody can kill you or do payback to you.”

11 The woman answered, “All right, who do you want me to get for you?”

Saul said, “That old man Samuel. Get him for me.”

12 Then she talked to Samuel’s spirit, and he came to her. As soon as she saw him, she was frightened and yelled at Saul, “You tricked me. You are Saul.”

13 Saul said, “It’s all right. Don’t be frightened. What can you see?”

She said, “I can see a spirit coming out of the ground here.”

14 Saul asked, “What does it look like?”

She said, “It’s an old man wearing long clothes.”

Saul knew it was Samuel, and he got down on his knees and put his face near the ground to show respect to that spirit.

15 Samuel said, “I was dead. Why did you wake me up? Why did you bring me back?”

Saul stood up and answered, “Things are really bad for me now. The Philistia mob will try to kill me dead. God turned away from me, and he doesn’t answer me. He doesn’t talk to me through a man, or a dream. Nothing. That’s why I’m here now, to ask you what I have to do.”

16 Samuel said, “Yes, God turned away from you. He is your enemy now. Why do you ask me to help you? 17 While I was alive, he told me the story about you. And I told it to you. Now it’s come true. You are not the big boss of Israel any more. God has already picked David to be the big boss instead of you.* 1 Samuel 15:28 18 You did not listen to God, so he did that. He was angry with the Amalek mob, so he told you to finish all of them up, and their animals too. He told you what to do, but you didn’t do it.* 1 Samuel 15:3-9 19 So now the Philistia mob will kill you and your soldiers. Tomorrow God will let them beat you mob. They will kill you and your sons dead. You will all come to sit with me, here, with all the dead people.”

20 You see, from early that day Saul didn’t eat any food, and he ate nothing all that night too. So he was weak. And as soon as he heard Samuel’s words, he got very frightened. He was so weak that he fell to the ground.

21 The woman saw Saul on the ground. He was shaking, and she said, “Look. I listened to you. I was afraid you might kill me, but I did like you asked. 22 Now you have to listen to me. Let me give you some food to make you strong again, so you can go back home.”

23 But he said, “No. I can’t eat.”

Then his 2 men said the same thing, “Boss, you have to eat some food.” He listened to them and got up and sat on a chair.

24 There was a fat young cow at that place. It belonged to the woman, and she quickly killed it. While the meat was cooking, she got some flour and cooked a flat damper. 25 She gave food to Saul and the other 2 men. After they ate it, they went back to their camp, while it was still dark.