Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 28:16

"And Samuel said, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing Jehovah is departed from thee, and is become thine adversary?" — 1 Samuel 28:16 (ASV)

Seeing the Lord is departed from thee. —In other words, If Jehovah has left you, why do you come to consult me, His servant and prophet?

The Hebrew word translated here as “enemy” is only found in Psalms 139:20 and has been assumed to be an Aramaic form—ain for tsadde. There are, however, no other Aramaic forms in this book, which is written in pure “classical” Hebrew. The letter ain, or the first letter in the text here, through a very slight error of the copyist, could easily have been altered from tsadde, the first letter of the usual word for “enemy.”

The Septuagint and Vulgate Versions apparently had another reading before them, for they translate the last clause of the verse as, “and is with thy neighbors.”