Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 28:19

"Moreover Jehovah will deliver Israel also with thee into the hand of the Philistines; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: Jehovah will deliver the host of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines." — 1 Samuel 28:19 (ASV)

Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel ... into the hands of the Philistines. —Three crushing judgments, which were to come directly upon Saul, are contained in the prophet’s words related in this 19th verse:

1. The utter defeat of the army of Israel.
2. The violent death of Saul himself and his two sons in the course of the impending fight.
3. The sacking of the Israelite camp, which was to follow the defeat, and which would terribly increase the horrors and disasters of the rout of the king’s army.

“This overthrow of the people was to heighten Saul’s misery, when he saw the people plunged with him into ruin through his sin.” — O. von Gerlach.

Tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me. —The Hebrew word here rendered “tomorrow,” machar, need not signify “the next day,” but some near future time. In saying “thou shalt be with me,” Samuel does not pronounce Saul’s final condemnation, for he had no mission to do so, but rather draws him by his tenderness to a better mind.

He uses a mild and charitable expression, applicable to all, good and bad: “You shall be as I am: no longer among the living.” In the vision of the world of spirits, revealed to us by our blessed Lord, the souls of Dives and Lazarus may be said to be together in the abode of the departed spirits, for Dives saw Lazarus and conversed with Abraham, though there was a gulf fixed between them.

“If Samuel had said to Saul, ‘You shall be among the damned,’ he would have crushed him with a weight of despair and hardened him in his impenitence; but by using this gentler expression, he mildly exhorted him to repentance. While there was life there was hope: the door was still open.” — Bishop Wordsworth.

“Shalt thou be with me does not refer to an equality in bliss, but to a like condition of death.” — St. Augustine. Augustine here means that tomorrow Saul would be “a shade,” like what Samuel then was; he says, however, nothing regarding Saul’s enjoying bliss like that which he (Samuel) was doubtless then enjoying.

The host. —“Host” here should be rendered camp. The meaning, then, of the whole verse would be:

1. There would be a total defeat of the royal army.
2. Saul and his sons would fall.
3. The rout would be followed by the sack of the camp of Israel and its attendant horrors.