MAGIC
645
MAGIC
Most of all, the vigor of the narrative, showing ns the scene in a iew words, proves its antiquity and genuine- ness. We can see no reason whatever for supposing that it is an interpolation.
" Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Kamali, even in his own city. And Saul had put away tliose that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land. And the Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and pitched in Shunem ; and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they pitched in Gilboa." That the Philistines should liave advanced so far, sjireading in the plain of Esdraelon, the garden of the Holy Land, shows the straits to which Saul had come. Here, in times of faith, Sisera was de- feated b}^ Barak, and the Jlidianitcs were smitten by Gideon, some of the army of the former perishing at En-dor itself (Psa. Ixxxiii, 9, 10). "And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets. Then said Saul unto his ser- vants. Seek me a woman that liath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her. And his servants said to him. Behold, [there is] a woman that hath a fa- miliar spirit at En-dor. And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night." En-dor lay in the territory of Issachar, about seven or eight miles to the northward of Mount Gilboa. Its name, the " fountain of Dor," may connect it with the Phoenician city Dor, which was on the coast to the westward. If so, it may have retained its stranger-population, and been therefore chosen by the witch as a place where she might ^vith less danger than elsewhere practice her arts. It has been noticed that the mountain on whose slope the modern village stands is hollowed into rock- hewn caverns, in one of which the witch may probably have dwelt. See Ex-doij. Saul's disguise, and his journeying by night, seem to have been taken that he might not alarm the woman, rather than because he may have passed through a part of the Philistine force. The Philistines held the plain, having their camp at Shunem, wliither they had pushed on from Aphek : the Israelites were at first encamped by a fomitain at Jez- reel, but when their enemies had advanced to Jezreel they appear to have retired to the slopes of Gilboa, whence there was a way of retreat either into the moun- tains to the south, or across Jordan. The latter seems to have been the line of flight, as, though Saul was slain on Mount Gilboa, his body was fastened to the ^vall of Bcthshan. Thus Saul could scarcely have reached En- dor without passing at least very near the army of the Philistines. "And he said, divine unto me, I pray thee, by the familiar spirit, and bring me [him] up whom I shall name unto thee." It is noticeable that here witch- craft, the inquiring by a familiar spirit, and necromancy, are all connected as though but a single art, which fa- vors the idea that the prohibition in Deuteronomy spe- cifies every name by Avhich magical arts were known, rather than so many different kinds of arts, in order that no one should attempt to evade the condemnation of such practices by any subterfuge. It is evident that Saul thought he might be able to call up Samuel by the aid of the witch, but this does not prove what was his own general conviction, or the prevalent conviction of the Israelites on the suiiject. He was in a great ex- tremity; his kingdom in danger; himself forsaken of God: he was weary with a nifcht-joumey, perhaps of risk, perhaps of great length to avoid the enemy, and faint with a day's fasting : he was conscious of wrong as, probably for the first time, he commanded unholy rites and lieard in the gloom unholy incantations. In sucli a strait no man's judgment is steady, and Saul may have asked to see Samuel in a moment of sudden des- peration, when he had only meant to demand an oracu- lar answer. It may even be thoup;ht tliat. yearning for the counsel of Samuel, and longing to karn if the" net