Endor was a small settlement located in the Valley of Jezreel, between Mount Tabor and the hill of Moreh, in the north of the promised land.
The town fell within the territory allotted to the tribe of Manasseh, even though it was surrounded by land belonging to Issachar and Asher. The Canaanites continued living there even after the conquest led by Joshua.
Centuries later, a psalmist recalled Endor as the place where Sisera and Jabin died in defeat, a sign of God’s power against the enemies of Israel.
But it is for another episode that Endor became best known. There lived a woman who practiced necromancy, something expressly forbidden by God’s law.
On the eve of the battle against the Philistines on Mount Gilboa, King Saul disguised himself and went by night to this woman, asking her to call up the spirit of the prophet Samuel.
The spirit confirmed the sentence Saul already feared: the kingdom would be torn from him and given to David, and he would die the next day along with his sons.
The story of Endor is a solemn warning. It shows what happens when someone seeks answers outside the will of God, after years of disobedience.
