1 Samuel Chapter 31

The Death of Saul

¹ The Philistines attacked Israel, and Israel fled and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. ² The Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malci-shua. ³ The battle pressed Saul hard, and the archers seriously wounded him. ⁴ He told his armor bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through so these uncircumcised Philistines won’t come and run me through and torture me.” But his armor bearer was afraid to do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it.  ⁵ When he saw that Saul was dead, he fell on his sword too and died with him. ⁶ Saul died with his three sons, his armor bearer, and all his men that day. ⁷ When the men of Israel on the other side of the valley and beyond the Jordan, saw that Israel had fled and Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their towns and fled. The Philistines came and lived in them.

1 Sam 31:1-7

⁸ The next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his sons on Mount Gilboa. ⁹ They cut off his head, stripped off his weapons, and sent them all over Philistine territory to carry the good news to the temple of their idols and to the people. ¹⁰ They put his weapons in the temple that held Ashtoreth’s images and fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan. ¹¹ When the people in Jabesh-gilead heard about it, ¹² brave men walked all night and took down the bodies of Saul and his sons. They went to Jabesh and burned them, ¹³ buried their bones under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and fasted a week.                                                             

1 Sam 31:8-13

Version by Virgil Warren: christir.org