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“When Saul enquired of the LORD, the LORD answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets” (1 Samuel 28:6). But Chronicles says Saul died “for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it; And enquired not of the LORD” (1 Chronicles 10:13–14).

The Hebrew has two verbs, both rendered “enquire.” In 1 Samuel 28:6 Saul asked of the LORD (sha’al); in Chronicles he did not seek the LORD (darash). Chronicles uses both of the witch: “asking counsel (sha’al) of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire (darash) of it,” and Saul said, “Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire (darash) of her” (1 Samuel 28:7). He asked the LORD once, and when no answer came he went to seek at Endor. He sought the witch as he never sought the LORD, and an asking that turns from God at the first silence isn’t seeking Him. Gill: he enquired “in an external, careless, and hypocritical manner,” not “with constancy,” so that “it was accounted as if he enquired not at all.”