6 The servant replied, ‘There is a servant of God who lives in this town. Everything that he says will happen really happens. So people respect him very much. We should go to meet him. Perhaps he will tell us which way we should go from here.’
7 Saul said to his servant, ‘That is good, but what will we give to him? We have eaten all the food that we brought with us in our bags. What else do we have? We must give him something.’
8 The servant answered, ‘I still have one small silver coin. I will give that to the servant of God. Then he will tell us which way we should go.’ 9 (That was the custom in Israel. If someone needed to hear a message from God, he would say, ‘We should go and talk with the seer.’ The man that we now call a prophet was called a ‘seer’ at that time.)
9:9A seer could see things that other people could not. God sometimes gave special dreams to a seer about things a long way away in time or in space.
10 Saul said to his servant, ‘That is a good idea. We should go now and see him.’ So they went to the town where the servant of God lived.
11 They went up the hill to the town. Some young women came out of the town to get some water at a well. Saul and his servant asked them, ‘Is the seer here?’
12 They said, ‘Yes, he is here. Go straight along this road. You must hurry. The seer came to the town today because the people will offer a sacrifice. He will go with them to the altar on the hill. 13 When you go into the town, you will find him before he goes up there. The people will not start to eat until he comes. First, he must bless the sacrifice. Then he will eat with the people who are there. Go up into the town now and you will find him.’
