Saul at En-dor and the Justice He Welcomed

"And Saul said: I am sore distressed; for the Philistines, etc." (1 Samuel 28:15). Why did he not inquire by the Urim and Tummim? Rabbi Yitzchak bar Chiyya said: "The heart knoweth its own bitterness" (Proverbs 14:10) — had he inquired by the Urim and Tummim, would they not have said to him: Are you not the Saul who destroyed Nob, the city of the priests? "And Samuel said: Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, etc. [seeing the LORD is become thine enemy]" (1 Samuel, ibid. [28:16]) — this one who did not exact [punishment] from your enemy [ʿarekha] is the one who did not exact it from your fellow [chavrakh]. [The Aramaic gloss turns on ʿarekha, "your adversary"; rendering uncertain.] "And the LORD hath done to him, as he spake by me, etc." (1 Samuel, ibid. [28:17]). Earlier he had said to him, "and hath given it to thy neighbour, that is better than thou" (1 Samuel 15:28), and now, "and given it to thy neighbour, even to David" (1 Samuel 28[:17]). He said to him: When I sat beside you, I was sitting in the world of falsehood, and I was constrained on your account, that you not kill me; but now that I sit in the world of truth, you will hear from me nothing but the truth. "Moreover the LORD will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines" (ibid. [28:]19). He said to him: There is no [way] to flee. He said: If you flee, will you be saved? If you accept upon yourself the attribute of justice, then tomorrow "shalt thou and thy sons be with me" (ibid.) — with me, within my partition. Immediately, "Then Saul fell straightway all along [his full height], etc." (ibid. [28:]20). Immediately he went out to war and took his three sons with him: Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchishua. At that hour the Holy One, blessed be He, called to the ministering angels [and said to them]: Come, see a creature that I created and that I formed. It is the way of the world that a man goes to the house of feasting and does not take his sons with him, on account of appearances; yet this one knew truly that he would be slain, and went out to war and took his three sons with him, rejoicing that the attribute of justice was striking him. Rabbi Yehoshua of Sikhnin in the name of Rabbi Levi: Because the Holy One, blessed be He, had shown the first man each generation and its kings, each generation and its officers, and when He showed him Saul falling by the sword, he said: This is the reward of your children? The first king who arises for Israel falls by the sword! He said to him: To Me do you say it? Say it to the priests, who accuse him — "Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron" (Leviticus 21:1).