What Does 1 Samuel 28:9 Mean?
And the woman said to him, Look, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the ones who speak out of the ground, and the knowers, from the land. Why then do you lay a trap for my living soul, to cause me to die?
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?THE KEY
The Hebrew root behind “thou knowest” also forms “wizards”, the verse ties Saul’s knowledge of the ban to the very “knowers” he now seeks.
THE MEANING
The woman sees that Saul’s ban does not protect her from the danger of a hidden request; she fears the authority behind it can reach her life. She names the contradiction plainly: the visitor knows what Saul has done, yet presses toward the very people Saul expelled.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that enforcing a boundary proves its enforcer keeps it: Saul has expelled these practitioners, yet now seeks one.
THE ROOT
הַיְּדְעֹנִים
hayyiddeʿonim
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ע
y-d-ʿ
to know, perceive, or recognize
“you know” in this verse is hayyiddeʿonim. English separates “thou knowest” from “wizards,” but both carry the root ידע. The verse calls them “knowers” while the woman reminds Saul that he knows what he has done, making his knowledge of the ban collide with his search for them.
ALSO GROWS
yādaʿ: to know, perceive
יָדַע
This is the root of “thou knowest” earlier in the verse, binding Saul’s awareness to the name given to the practitioners.
daʿat: knowledge, perception
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root makes explicit the knowing contained in the word translated “wizards.”
נַפְשִׁי
nafshi
GROWS FROM
נ־פ־שׁ
n-p-sh
the living self, living soul
“living soul” in this verse is nafshi. Here “life” is נפש, the living self rather than an abstract possession. The woman fears for her whole person, whose safety the visitor’s request puts at risk.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: living soul, person, self
נֶפֶשׁ
The word’s root sense shows what she means by “my life”: her whole living self is at stake.
naphash: to be refreshed, take rest
נָפַשׁ
This related verb uses the same root for restoration, giving the threatened living self a wider range than the English word “life” alone.
THE PATTERN
Public enforcement can conceal private recourse to the very thing condemned.
Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had wailed for him, and buried him in Ramah, in his own city. And Saul had removed the ones who speak out of the ground, and the knowers, from the land.Therefore you who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who cry out not to steal, do you steal?So whatever they tell you to guard, guard and do; but do not do according to their works, for they say and do not.THE THREAD
For God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be like gods, knowing good and evil.The Hebrew root ידע appears in “doth know” and “knowing,” the same root carried by “thou knowest” and “wizards” in this verse. That echo makes knowledge itself part of the tension: Saul knows the ban while seeking those named as knowers.
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