Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 28:3

"Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land." — 1 Samuel 28:3 (ASV)

Now Samuel was dead. —This statement is repeated here to introduce the strange, sad story which follows. The Septuagint, followed by the Vulgate and Syriac Versions, omitted it, not understanding the reason for its repetition.

And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land. —This statement is also inserted to explain what follows. In other words, the compiler says: “Now Samuel, whom Saul was so anxious to see, was dead and buried; and the possessors of familiar spirits, whose aid Saul was about to invoke to carry out his purpose, had long since been put out of the land by his own order.” Those that had familiar spirits—those that had at their command ôboth, translated as “familiar spirits,” the plural form of ôb, a word which has never been explained with any certainty.

Scholars think they can connect it with ôb, to be hollow, and ôb is then “the hollow thing,” or “bag;” and so it came to signify “one who speaks in a hollow voice.”

Therefore, it appears to mean the distended belly of the ventriloquist—a term the Septuagint consistently uses to translate ôb. It is thus used to designate the male or female ventriloquist, as in 1 Samuel 27:3, 1 Samuel 27:9, Deuteronomy 18:11, and other passages, and also the spirit believed to speak from the ventriloquist’s belly, as it is used in this sense in 1 Samuel 27:8–9 and Isaiah 29:4.

This is the explanation given by Erdmann in Lange and by the Bishop of Bath and Wells in the Speaker’s Commentary.

The wizards. —Literally, the wise people. These are always connected with the ôboth, those that had familiar spirits. The name seems to have been given in irony to these dealers in occult and forbidden arts.

The Mosaic command respecting these people was clear and decisive: Thou shalt not suffer a witch (or wizard) to live (Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 20:27). We read that Saul, in his early zeal, had actively enforced these edicts of Moses. Apparently, due to the general laxity that had long prevailed in Israel, these laws had been allowed to remain unenforced.