Sa mu el 218 Qimhi ( Radak in his commentary to 28 : 24 ) , citing Rabbi Samuel son of Hofni, provides a different explanation to the necromancer’s activity in this scene . He argues that the apparition is based entirely on a deception . The woman could not raise anybody from the dead ; she cannot cause Samuel the prophet to arrive . The woman identifies Saul from the beginning . Yet she postpones her rebuke to Saul for his deceit until the stage of the apparition, in order to prove to him that her craftsmanship provides her even the knowledge to unmask the king’s disguise . Samuel does not appear at all, another person hides and speaks in a low voice imitating Samuel and quoting from the prophet’s earlier well - known prophecies . Abarbanel in his commentary on the chapter rejects this suggestion pointing out that the text is very clear that Samuel himself really appears and a bitter dialogue breaks out between the prophet and the king . In Y . Kaufmann’s ( 1966 : 208 – 212 ) opinion,...
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