1 Samuel 31

The death of Saul

Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before them, and many fell slain on Mount Gilboa. ²The Philistines followed hard after Saul and his sons, and they killed Saul’s sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua. ³When the battle intensified against Saul, the archers overtook him and wounded him critically.

⁴Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run it through me, or these uncircumcised men will come and run me through and torture me!” But his armor-bearer was terrified and refused to do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it. ⁵When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his own sword and died with him. ⁶So Saul, his three sons, his armor-bearer, and all his men died together that same day.

The Philistines occupy the towns

⁷When the Israelites along the valley and those on the other side of the Jordan saw that the army of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons had died, they abandoned their cities and ran away. So the Philistines came and occupied their cities. ⁸The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. ⁹They cut off Saul’s head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temples of their idols and among their people.

¹⁰They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and hung his body on the wall of Beth-shan.

The men of Jabesh honor Saul

¹¹When the people of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, ¹²all their men of valor set out, journeyed all night, and retrieved the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth-shan. When they arrived at Jabesh, they burned the bodies there. ¹³Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.