שמואל א, פרק כ״ח, פסוק ז׳

Overwhelmed by deep anxiety about the future, King Saul makes a desperate and fateful decision. Driven by fear, he turns to a forbidden path and commits a severe sin for which he is later condemned [רלב״ג, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. He seeks out a medium to summon the dead, specifically looking for a woman who practices this craft [רד״ק]. The search targets a female medium because witchcraft and communicating with spirits were far more common among women. Some commentators suggest this prevalence was due to women being more easily drawn to such practices, which is why the Torah originally phrased its prohibition against witchcraft in the feminine form [רד״ק, מצודת דוד].

In planning this encounter, Saul attempts to find a loophole in the strict prohibition against consulting the dead. His original intention is merely to ask the woman for information, using her as an intermediary to speak to the spirit on his behalf. He believes that this indirect method of communication does not violate the Torah's command. It is only later, as the events unfold and the spirit of Samuel begins to speak, that Saul is swept up in the moment and communicates directly with the spirit himself [מלבי״ם].

The specific medium he finds in Endor is not an ordinary citizen, but a figure of high status. According to tradition, she is the mother of Abner, the commander of Saul's army, and the wife of Zephaniah [רד״ק, חומת אנך]. The fact that a woman of such noble standing possesses knowledge of witchcraft is explained by her original intentions. Initially, she studied magic purely on a theoretical level. This was similar to the judges of the high court, who were required to understand sorcery so they could properly judge related cases, rather than to actually practice it themselves [חומת אנך].