Sa mu el 216 ) ידעני ( and the mantic wizards ) האבות ( those that have familiar spirits out of the land… ? ” The woman claims to be a professional and to have extraordinary knowledge . But she cannot unmask the disguised stranger who talks to her . That sounds ridiculous . Furthermore, when she sees Samuel, she does not know his identity . Saul through her description identifies the prophet as the narrator states, “And Saul that it was Samuel…” ( v . 14 b ) . Ironically, the woman ) וידע ( perceived who should know better, cannot identify the stranger in the first stage of their meeting and neither can she identify Samuel . In this first round of the conversation, Saul has latently been dou - bly blamed : firstly, that he is violating the norms which he himself has established ; secondly, he is now sinning against the commandments of the Israelite religion, which is opposed to heathen rites . Deuteronomy defines all types of divinations as “abominations of the nations”, the culture of...
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