Discovery Box1 Samuel 18:24 
Context18:24 When Saul’s servants reported what David had said,
1 Samuel 26:4
Context26:4 David sent scouts and verified that Saul had indeed arrived. 1
1 Samuel 28:3
Context28:3 Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented over him and had buried him in Ramah, his hometown. 2 In the meantime Saul had removed the mediums 3 and magicians 4 from the land.
1 tn Heb “and David sent scouts and he knew that Saul had certainly come.”
2 tn Heb “in Ramah, even in his city.”
3 tn The Hebrew term translated “mediums” actually refers to a pit used by a magician to conjure up underworld spirits (see 2 Kgs 21:6). In v. 7 the witch of Endor is called the owner of a ritual pit. See H. Hoffner, “Second Millennium Antecedents to the Hebrew ’OñBù,” JBL 86 (1967): 385-401. Here the term refers by metonymy to the owner of such a pit (see H. A. Hoffner, TDOT 1:133).
4 sn See Isa 8:19 for another reference to magicians who attempted to conjure up underworld spirits.
