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The account continues:--
And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with
his face to the ground and did obeisance. And Samuel said to
Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up? And Saul
answered, I am sore distressed: for the Philistines make war
against me, and Elohim is departed from me and answereth me no
more, neither by prophets nor by dreams; therefore I have called
thee that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.
And Samuel said, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing that
Jahveh is departed from thee and is become thine adversary?
And Jahveh hath wrought for himself, as he spake by me, and
Jahveh hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand and given it to
thy neighbour, even to David. Because thou obeyedst not the
voice of Jahveh and didst not execute his fierce wrath upon
Amalek, therefore hath Jahveh done this thing unto thee this
day. Moreover, Jahveh will deliver Israel also with thee into
the hands of the Philistines; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy
sons be with me: Jahveh shall deliver the host of Israel also
into the hand of the Philistines. Then Saul fell straightway his
full length upon the earth and was sore afraid because of the
words of Samuel ..." (v. 14-20).
The statement that Saul "perceived" that it was Samuel is not to
be taken to imply that, even now, Saul actually saw the shade of
the prophet, but only that the woman's allusion to the prophetic
mantle and to the aged appearance of the spectre convinced him
that it was Samuel. Reuss<3> in fact translates the passage
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