“... The concern was not simply what was acceptable to so-called normative Yahwistic religion. Rather, the issue concerns a form of inquiry that competed with prophecy in ancient Israel. Like Isaiah 8:16-20 and Deuteronomy 18:9- 22, 1 Samuel 28:3 frames the question of inquiry as a form of appropriating information from sources that some pre-exilic prophets and Deuteronomists considered wrong. Indeed, necromancy competed with prophecy (Isa. 8:19- 20; 29:4; cf. Lev. 19:26). [...] Elsewhere the dead are called ’ělōhîm, “gods,” as in 1 Samuel 28:3 and Isaiah 8:19. KTU 1.6 VI 45-49 illustrates this usage. In these four lines, rp’im, “rephaim,” is parallel with ’ilnym, “divinities,” and ’ilm, “gods,” is parallel with mtm, “the dead.” The second and third terms are etymologically related to Hebrew ’ělōhîm, “gods.” Similarly, Akkadian ilu and Phoenician ’ln are used for the dead. ...”