31:1 Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel. The men of Israel fled from the Philistines and many of them fell dead on Mount Gilboa. 

 

When Saul visited the witch of Endor, the resurrected Samuel predicted that Israel would lose this battle to the Philistines. Mount Gilboa was an excellent location for the Philistines to use their chariots and iron weapons.

 

2 The Philistines stayed right on the heels of Saul and his sons. They struck down Saul’s sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malki-Shua. 

 

Samuel also predicted that Jonathan would die in battle. Jonathan and two of his brothers were killed by the Philistines. Ish-Bosheth was not at the battle, so he would survive. Ish-bosheth means “man of shame." Jonathan was a very courageous man of God who had enough faith to attack an entire Philistine camp.

 

3 Saul himself was in the thick of the battle; the archers spotted him and wounded him severely. 

 

The archers spotted Saul and pierced him with many arrows.

 

4 Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword and stab me with it! Otherwise these uncircumcised people will come, stab me, and torture me.” But his armor bearer refused to do it, because he was very afraid. So Saul took his sword and fell on it. 

 

The Philistines had gouged out the eyes of Samson and humiliated him in front of the people. Saul did not want to become a public spectacle to the Philistines. Saul asked the armor bearer to kill him, but the armor bearer refused. Saul took his own life. Suicide was very rare in Israelite society. Suicide was not trusting in God’s sovereignty. 

 

5 When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his own sword and died with him. 

 

The armor bearer also committed suicide. He did not want to be tortured  and humiliated by the Philistines.

 

6 So Saul, his three sons, his armor bearer, and all his men died together that day. 

 

The monarchy of Saul was decimated in one day, just as Samuel predicted.

 

7 When the men of Israel who were in the valley and across the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled. The Philistines came and occupied them. 

 

There were no more soldiers left alive to protect the cities, so the people fled into the wilderness They did not want to be tortured, rape, plundered, and enslaved by the Philistines.

 

8 The next day, when the Philistines came to strip loot from the corpses, they discovered Saul and his three sons lying dead on Mount Gilboa. 

 

The Philistines found the three bodies of the Israelite royal family.

 

9 They cut off Saul’s head and stripped him of his armor. They sent messengers to announce the news in the temple of their idols and among their people throughout the surrounding land of the Philistines. 

 

The Philistines beheaded Saul and took his armor. They sent messengers all over Philistia to announce that the Philistine gods had defeated Jehovah. 

 

10 They placed Saul’s armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and hung his corpse on the city wall of Beth Shan. 

 

The Ahstoreths were the fertility goddesses of the Canaanites. Just as the sword of Goliath was placed in the house of Jehovah, the Philistines placed the armor and weapons of their defeated foes in the temples of Ashtoreth. Military victory was attributed to the gods, since the belief was that military encounters were battles between the deities of rival nations. Beth Shan was located in the Jordan Valley, which was about 16 miles south of the Sea of Galilee.

 

11 When the residents of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 12 all their warriors set out and traveled throughout the night. They took Saul’s corpse and the corpses of his sons from the city wall of Beth Shan and went to Jabesh, where they burned them.

 

Jabesh Gilead was a Benjaminite city. Saul had once saved this city from the wrath of the Philistines. They made a very dangerous journey at night and retrieved the bodies of the royal family. Cremation was not the normal Jewish burial procedure. Their bodies were most likely burned, because of the bodily desecration that their corpses received from the Philistines.

 

13 They took the bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh; then they fasted for seven days.   

 

The bones still went through the normal Jewish burial ceremony. Israel fasted and mourned the death of King Saul for seven days. Israel was now without a king.