According to the summary of Saul’s career in the biblical 1 Chronicles 10:13, he died for being unfaithful to the LORD and, moreover, enquiring of a ghost. But in the later Deutero-canonical book of Sirach, the whole episode is thoroughly bowdlerised: Even after he [Samuel] had fallen asleep, he prophesied and made known to the king his death, and lifted up his voice from the ground in prophecy, to blot out the wickedness of the people. Sirach 46:20 (NSRV version)
