There are two reasons for the repeated mention of Samuel’s death. In the first place, it confirms that there was no prophet ready and available to be contacted by Saul.1 Secondly, it connects Saul to Nabal (1 Samuel 2:1–36). Both chapters (1 Samuel 25:1–44 and 1 Samuel 28:1–25) begin with a reference to the death of Samuel. Both include a character who refuses to listen (cf. 1 Samuel 25:14–17; 1 Samuel 28:18).2 Nabal and Saul are both prominent and important men. They both had lots of servants, lots of wealth, and they were big names who refused to listen to others. In Nabal’s case it is his servants and his wife Abigail (1 Samuel 24:14–17) whom he ignored, while in Saul’s case it was the Word of the Lord as it came through Samuel (1 Samuel 13:1–23, 1 Samuel 15:1–35), Jonathan (1 Samuel 19:1–24), Abimelech (1 Samuel 22:1–23) and David (1 Samuel 24:1–22, 1 Samuel 26:1–25). He refused to listen, he ignored commandments, he cherished iniquity in his heart and as such the Lord has been and will remain silent (cf. Psalm 66:18).
3 Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land.