Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

Wherefore then dost thou ask of me - Was ever I wont to give answers that were not dictated by the Lord? It is his counsel alone that I communicate.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Then said Samuel, wherefore then dost thou, ask of me,.... Whom thou knowest to have been a prophet of the Lord, and therefore can say nothing more or less than what comes from him, and is according to his will, if anything at all; the "devil" representing Samuel, whom Saul had called for, and reasons in such language as might be thought to be his own, though sometimes he betrays himself:

seeing the Lord is departed from thee; as Saul himself owned: to which he adds:

and is become thine enemy; to make his case appear still more desperate; for his whole view is to lead him to despair, which shows what sort of spirit he was: though some understand this as spoken of David, and read the words, and "he is with thine enemy"^F9ויהי ערך "et est cum inimico tuo", Pagninus, Vatablus; so V. L. ; is on his side, and favours his cause; so the Targum,"and he is for the help of a man, whose enmity thou sharest in;'or who is at enmity with thee, meaning David; but now the true Samuel would never have said this, or suggested it, that David was an enemy to Saul, for he was not.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

1 Samuel 28:16 Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the LORD is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy?

Ver. 16. Wherefore then dost thou ask of me?] Samuel himself could not have spoken more gravely, severely, divinely, than this fiend doth. (a) Well may lewd men be good preachers; well may hypocrites make a great flaunt; well, it may be, that in charms and spells there is nothing to be found but good words and good prayers; of which, nevertheless, one well saith, Si Magicae, Deus non vult tales: si piae, non per tales.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

16.Wherefore then dost thou ask of me — It required no prophet from heaven to suggest this question to the God-forsaken king, and if we regard it as any thing more than another device of the woman to increase Saul’s terror and impose upon him, we involve ourselves in the absurdity of supposing that after Jehovah had in his law condemned all seeking unto necromancers, and after he had refused to answer the king by urim and by prophets, he nevertheless disturbed a holy prophet from his rest in heaven, and suffered him to rise from the dead, apparently as if forced up against his will by the arts of witchcraft!

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Rival. How vain is it to expect that a prophet can give an answer when the Lord is silent! Hebrew, "is become thy enemy." (Haydock)

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

Then said Samuel. Jehovah might have sent "a lying spirit", and given by it a true message, just as He did in 2 Chronicles 18:19-22. Nothing was said but what was well known before.

become thine enemy. The Septuagint reads "and hath come to be with thy neighbour". Compare 1 Samuel 28:17 with 1 Samuel 15:28.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) Seeing the Lord is departed from thee.—In other words, If Jehovah have left thee, why comest thou to consult me, His servant and prophet? The Hebrew word here translated “enemy” is only found in Psalms 139:20 and has been assumed to be an Aramaic form—ain for tsadde. There are, however, no other Aramaic forms in this book, which is written in pure “classical” Hebrew. The letter ain, or the first letter in the text here, through a very slight error of the copyist, could easily have been altered from tsadde, the first letter of the usual word for “enemy.” The LXX. and Vulg. Versions apparently had another reading before them, for they translate the last clause of the verse, “and is with thy neighbours.”

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Wherefore

Judges 5:31; 2 Kings 6:27; Psalms 68:1-3; Revelation 18:20,24; 19:1-6

and is become

Lamentations 2:5