of Baal. Samuel promised that God would subject the people to foreign invaders should they disobey. However, 1 Kings 11:5, 33, and 2 Kings 23:13 note that the Israelites fell into Asherah worship later on. Critic of Saul When Saul was preparing to fight the Philistines, Samuel denounced him for proceeding with the pre-battle sacrifice without waiting for the overdue Samuel to arrive. He prophesied that Saul's rule would see no dynastic succession. Samuel also directed Saul to "utterly destroy" the Amalekites in fulfilment of the commandment in Deuteronomy 25:17–19: When the Lord your God has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, ... you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. During the campaign against the Amalekites, King Saul spared Agag, the king of the Amalekites, and the best of their livestock. Saul told Samuel that he had spared the choicest of the Amalekites' sheep and oxen, intending to sacrifice the livestock to the Lord. This was in violation of the Lord's command, as pronounced by Samuel, to "... utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass" (1 Samuel 15:3, KJV). Samuel confronted Saul for his disobedience and told him that God made him king, and God can unmake him king. Samuel then proceeded to execute Agag. Saul never saw Samuel alive again after this. Samuel then proceeded to Bethlehem and secretly anointed David as king. He would later provide sanctuary for David, when the jealous Saul first tried to have him killed. Death Samuel is described in the biblical narrative as being buried in Ramah. According to tradition, this burial place has been identified with Samuel's tomb in the West Bank village of Nabi Samwil. Some time after his death, Saul had the Witch of Endor conjure Samuel's spirit from Sheol in order to predict the result of an upcoming battle (1 Samuel 28:3–24). Samuel was angered by his recalling, and told Saul that the Lord had left him. Rabbinical literature While the Witch of Endor remains anonymous in the Biblical account, the rabbinical Midrash maintains that she was Zephaniah, the mother of Abner (Yalḳ, Sam. 140, from Pirḳe R. El.). That a supernatural appearance is here described is inferred from